Revell Type VII Build advice

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

LHS is full of ****. (insert hobby-store rant here) You did it right. Those things can sit for years -- very low internal discharge. You did fine. Unless you charged them wrong. Any possibility there? Any way, I got a CARE package going your way. Buy that single 2000mAh Li-po if it will fit. Run time will be about a half-hour if you don't drive crazy-fast.

[H2Ohaze]

Wife picked up turkey while I was at LHS. The 2000 mah battery does give a lot more room above and below and saves over an ounce. It is almost too long. The end cap pushes back out about 0.030" in one spot where wires exit end of Lipo. I think it will work, possibly with switch in place.

[Avera]

Finally got the sub into a large pool for its first sea trial. Worked out fairly well. Here are the noted observations:

1) Need to have the TX with a lanyard as I nearly dropped it into the pool while managing the controls!
2) Need to work out the rhythm with the controls as I kept trying to use the left stick for the rudder and emptied the ballast tank (habit from RC helicopters)
3) Need to add a bit more foam to get the sub a little higher on the water when using the snorkel to empty the ballast
4) The sub needs a large area to turn about twenty feet, although it seems to turn tighter underwater than on the surface
5) CRITICAL: Got a leak in both battery and engine compartments, with the battery side taking in more water. Not sure where it is coming from, but I suspect the ballast bulkheads and perhaps the cross tubing for the battery wire. Was surprised that it did not short out anything. I should point out the sub may have gone below 3 feet in depth. I was near the 5 foot area of the pool and got the sub down a ways; never touched bottom.

Any suggestions for the leak? I was thinking of silicone the inside of the battery and engine compartments.

[trout]

Before you slap some goo around where you think it is leaking, test to make sure. You have a schrader valve on that wtc right? Remove the stem and attach a vinyl tube over it. It should fit tight. Then while holding the wtc under water blow air in, not so much that the end caps come off, but enough to see bubbles. It may take some searching. If that does not work, suck air out create a vacuum and see if any water gets in and from where. Then slap goo on.

[Avera]

I presume you are referring to the valve for the motor compartment as there is a second valve for the ballast tank. Thanks for tht tip, I will try it this weekend.

[trout]

Great clarification, blowing into the ballast tank would not help. Avera, sorry I should have been clearer. At the bottom of this page shows me testing the Gato sub-driver and finding some leaks. http://forum.sub-driver.com/showthre...art-duex/page3

[Avera]

One other note I forgot to mention.

Regarding the placement of the ballast tank in the WTC, the ballast fill valve is too close to where the snorkel intake hose needs to be in order to align with the periscope. The ballast tank should be located 3/16" towards the bow.

When I originally glued the 90 degree resin snorkel tube connector to the Lexan case, I placed it too close to the valve and as a result could not fill the ballast tank (the air can adapter is too large in diameter). The only solution was to reglue the resin connector 3/16" further away from the valve.

Unfortunately, it now does not align with periscope deck hole requiring cutting the deck to accommodate the resin connector and air intake tube. To further complicate the issue, the vinyl air tube has a diagonal bend in order to slide the air intake tube into the periscope. It seems to work for now, but not sure if the bend will cause air resistance and lead to a failure of the air pump.

Andrew

POST NOTE: While writing this reply, I realized that if the dog bone connector (bought it here) were a little longer, the alignment problem would go away, although it may change the sub's balance requiring another adjustment.