My 1/35th, 66" long Disney Nautilus

[Subculture]

There are so many variables with this type of thing it can be very difficult to track down, even with the kit in front of you.

I once had an intermittent fault where the boat's ballast system would become unresponsive, it turned out to be a bad solder connection for receiver feed to the esc, but it took a lot of digging to find the fault.

The issues you're experiencing could be down to power supply, wiring connector issues, or faults on receiver or transmitter. Reasonable fault finding skills are useful in this hobby, being able to use a voltmeter and ammeter are useful (I think a watt meter is an essential tool, but many hobbyists operate without one). Beyond that usually it's a case of substitution, for bench testing one could use 2.4ghz or 72mhz TX/RX kit if you're light on 75mhz, also a servo tester is useful to test functions independent of the TX/RX, again another useful device an R/C modeller should own.

[SubDude]

How do you run the receiver antenna, in or out of the watertight space? Remove the receiver case. Is the board wet and/or corroded -- look for white oxides at the chip solder pads of the PCB.

David
Master Easter-Egg Hider

Board is dry. No white oxides. Antenna runs outside the box through a tube the length of the hull. It is routed away from any power leads.

[SubDude]

This thing keeps giving me fits... It quit working again but even with a Castle Creations 20A BEC it wouldn't power up. The remote on/off is working fine. The only thing I knew to try was to swap the receiver and it worked for a short while. The watertight box seemed to have the tiniest amount of moisture in it but after it was working fine, I put it in the pool and it stopped working again. It is not initializing for some reason. Has anyone else ever experienced anything like this? My only thought is that humidity inside the box may have affected the receiver but it sure doesn't seem like there was enough water in the box to cause such a problem. Very puzzled again.

[SubDude]

Ok, happy to report that with the new 8A BEC she hasn't had one issue. Powers up every time. Thank you David! As a result I was able to work on the static dive trim and it is close. I was also able to paint the base and I added a couple of nifty plaques that Bob printed out for me. They turned out really good. Looks great!

[SubDude]

So... you're using the ESC's BEC? If so, that's likely your problem. The idle load of the receiver, servos, and other devices likely exceeds 2A's, swamping the BEC.

Put a dedicated BEC, rated for at least 5A's, in that beast.

(yokes are on their way, Steve).

David

That may just be the ticket. I did a quick test with an 8A BEC I had and it powered right up. I will install it proper tomorrow. Thank you for reminding me that the ESC's BEC may not be big enough and thank you for the yokes.

[SubDude]

Pretty frustrated with her right now... one moment she will power up and the next she won't. Thought it might be a lower voltage on the batteries but they are both showing 12.5 volts. Can't find anything out of order with the wiring but it is not trustworthy. Both watertight boxes are dry. Voltage is getting to the ESC and it is putting out the necessary 5V even when it won't come on. Very puzzled...

[SubDude]

Tanks are dry. Fair amount of foam to get the waterline trim established. Working on submerged trim now. The water tight enclosures, motor and two batteries are fairly heavy. With this boat there isn't much space above the waterline to add foam.

[Subculture]

I estimate your twin sphere tanks are around 2 litre volume. Do you need all that volume to get that trim, or are you running with part flooded tanks?

[SteveNeill]

Great Steve!!

[SubDude]

Pool trials have begun. She floats and trims out at the waterline. So far so good.

[SubDude]

The clay on it...

[SubDude]

Working on a giant squid for static display. This is the aluminum armature that will be covered with Sculpey clay.

[SubDude]

Nicely done. It was nice to see you and hear you. You have the it. I know what is the it? This is an expression that my old actor friend Gary Lockwood told me about when he was first discovered. His agent told him he has the "it". He then went on from there to the successful career we know him for today. Well you have "it"! ;)

Thank you sir. "It" is nice to know.

[SteveNeill]

Nicely done. It was nice to see you and hear you. You have the it. I know what is the it? This is an expression that my old actor friend Gary Lockwood told me about when he was first discovered. His agent told him he has the "it". He then went on from there to the successful career we know him for today. Well you have "it"! ;)

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Well done, Steve. And your care to site attribution as to sources and assistance is much appreciated. An excellent presentation, sir.

David