Im currently running a venom fireball 19 turn motor with a Futaba mc210CB speed control. I dont know squat about electric boats. Problem im having i believe is in the battery's. Im running 7.2 volt nicads and NIMH. My newest one is about 5 years old, maybe more. The boat runs fast for about 3 seconds before dying off and then will re-plane at about 3/4 speed the initial power. The speed control is equipped with reverse, but will only work with one of my batteries with a full charge. does this sound like shot batteries? or possibly a bad speed control?. What are the best budget batteries to get, if i were to buy new ones? By the way the boat is an ABC Baltek. Thanks guys,
Steve

you need new batteries.
And do not run Nimh with Nicd.
do not buy venom batteries. Venom batteries are the worst ever

Can i go lithium or no i dont know much about them but have to start somewhere. The boat runs one battery at a time so theyre not running NIMH and NICADs at the same time. Any suggestions on battery's?

stick with nimh.
go get any battery ( nimh ) but not venom

What charger are you using? It could be that the charger is not peaking them properly. Also how about some pics of that boat, I never heard of it

gladly: i have 2 chargers a Dynamite Dual-E as well as a PRO TECH Super Charger. Dont get me wrong the battery's have seen better days. Some are as much as 12 years old.

Cool, thanks. Any idea what the gear ratio is in that gear drive.

no idea whatsoever. i run i think a 17 tooth into this stuff, which is the standard for the boat. Weird setup.

http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products...rodID=ABC55013

Im a little bit on a budget- im just looking to have fun with realitivly long run times. Ran across these on EBAY i know i said the dreaded word, ebay, but can you really beat the price?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...9963&rd=1&rd=1

its a toss of the coin. It might be a good deal and they might be duds.

Is it just me or is that boat missing a motor? Beside battery problem it cannot help to driving a gear box meant for two motor with one car motor. [sm=confused.gif]

edit: nevermind, researched that boat, what a weird setup, never seen an offset motor like that. Learn something new everyday.

yea, ABC hobby used the same setup on several boats. The Super Hawaii was 36" long and required two motors. This boat however does not. Wierd thing is, it didnt come with trim tabs-had to add them myself.

When you say duds, do you mean dead cells? 30 day return policy.

I've got a feeling that the ESC can't handle the motor. Most of the Futaba ESC's are only made for stock motors.
More than likely the batteries are shot also.

I know the esc has a 30 amp fuse on itif that is any help- im no electric guy- im just trying to get the boat running. The batterys run in my cars and last a long time but have very little power for a long time. It's hard to explain. It's like they will go fast for about a minute then wil ldrop to half or under power. Maybe it's a combination- and in that case the boat may become a shelf queen. What would an ESC run me?

are you sure Ron, back when I knew nothing about esc's or anything else for that matter(I was 14). I had recently lit my villain IV on fire after installling my trinity midnight motors. I decided to put a fuse in, along with heavy gauge wire. Now mind you were talking twin modified car motors, on a single esc and I used a 30amp fuse. I never blew the fuse. I'm surprised actually, in fact I just dug that fuse out of one of my toolboxes, yep 30amp. I had the fuse hooked up to the y-harness on the battery packs. Am I calculating this wrong, anyways just questioning the 30amp thing.

Also, it has to be the batteries, if they dont work in your cars and they dont work in the boat then.......
I mean ok it could be the charger, but dont you have one of those cheap wall plug chargers laying around you could try, to make sure. I've got like 5 of them from various rc vehicles. Also if you dont have a multimeter go out and buy one, you dont need to spend a lot on it, just get a decent one. I'm betting you have a bad cell or cells. Just check the voltages like someone else said. In the mean time get a new pack. An esc wont set you too far back, heck you can get BL esc's for like 50$ now.

The chargers are without a doubt not the problem- theres no question in my mind there. I have many wall chargers to try from radioshack which will charge the batterys. I also have a voltimeter if that is what you are referring to, here are the voltages on all of my batteries:

7.77
8.12
7.69
7.35
7.68
7.82
6.38
so i have 1 pack with either a dead cell or a broken connection. All batterys are 6 cell stick packs.

No broken connections so i should ditch that battery right?

Actually I meant each cell. in the packs, not as easy to test. I did not realize you owned so many packs hmmm. These are charged packs?

So this happens with all the packs? the same burst of power then craps out.

basically all but one- now let me state this again 4 or 5 of them are nicads ranging from about 7 years old to about 15 years old. i didnt realize how old they are. The other one or 2 i have unmarked are about 7 years old. time flies.

Again both of my main chargers are not low quality and both give the same result. I have Probably over 100 charges on each battery.

Based on that, I ditch em at least all but the top two voltages you listed. Besides being 15 yrs old they may be holding memory, being nicad. If anything besides being shot, it sounds like that. Burst of energy and then nothing. Being theyre that old I wouldnt mess with them. Some cheapo packs would be better. Not saying go cheap, but anything would be better. You could see if radioshack still is selling the GP3300's for 25$ a pack, that was a real good deal, check their site. If it doesnt say gp3300 on the cells though dont buy them. I got lied to by my local radioshack. But they had them online.

Thanks for that. I should get paid on Wed so will make a trip to the local radio Shack(s) to see if i can get one. If it solves my problem ill probably buy some cheepo's just to get me running again. Will let you know on the outcome.