Proboat Blackjack 26" Brushless

[greenman407]

In goes the new marine receiver and Lipo guard. Notice the batterys. They fit perfect laying them right down in the sponson recesses and tuck them under the floatation foam. I also increased the throw on the rudder so it should corner tighter. With the batterys weight slightly forward and low in the hull, it should hang in there for the tight turns. Ill have to ring it out to see what kind of improvement we have. The blue thing is the ESC and the receiver goes right underneath it. Youll notice that the Marine receiver is 2.4 Ghz. It has two antenna leads, one that lays down in the radio box and one a little longer that you stick upwards thru a antenna wire tube.

[greenman407]

So far, only one problem with the Spektrum receivers. Each time you go to use it, you have to "Bind" the receiver to the radio. Its supposed to "remember" your radio, but my experience with some of them is that they dont. So your faced with binding everytime you use it. That requires sticking the bind plug into the port and going thru the bind procedure. In a boat, I always put the receiver in a balloon wrapped in foam. So, that means that you got to unwrap it and then bind it and then wrap it back up again.
So, what about taking a receiver on/off switch and shorting out the two output wires and move one of the wires in the input plug. That way ,you leave the switch plugged in at all times into the bind port of the receiver, when you need to bind, you turn the switch on. As soon as the bind is complete, you turn the switch off before proceeding with operations.

[greenman407]

Took it to the pond today and ran it to check out all the goodies that I installed and the adjustments that I had made. Batterys started to lay down after 6 mins. The Lipo guard did its job. The batterys are old and I didnt treat and charge them properly, so its time to replace them. Im looking for (2) 35c rated batterys 2s 5000+ Mah. The new receiver, 2.4 Ghz worked well. It even remembered my radio, so I didnt have to bind it.

[greenman407]

I ordered four new LIPO batterys. (2) from Onyx at 35C and (2) from Venom at 40C. Both at 5000 Mah. Also, I got a propeller upgrade. Its a stainless prop of the same diameter as the old one but more pitch. And the new one is SS while the old one is plastic. Plastic flexes under load. So, its going on the water on Friday also. The old Lipos were cheap and 5 years old. They swelled up after the last run. I guess from 5 years of being stored at full charge didnt help at all.

[greenman407]

On to the water we went with the Blackjack 26, along with the new 29" Blackjack. I installed a new S.S. propeller, thats supposed to be an upgrade. I dont think so, too big. It slowed it down somewhat. Ill either go back to the stock prop or cut this one down some. The new receiver worked perfectly. Motor temp was also low 120s as were the new 40c batterys. A few mods for the near future will be to modify the battery holders and to remove both turn fins, and watch the results. We are "Firing for Effect".

[greenman407]

Oh..................I forgot. I .......kinda ran into a tree stump. Well ...it just jumped right out there and.......... I was being distracted by a spectators questions and.................. Well a little CA and some kicker, and you wont be able to tell. And the turn fins to be removed. Im sure that it will affect the handling, so we will give you a full report.

[greenman407]

The factory battery holders, have always been in the way. They limit where you can put your batterys. Positioning the batterys are an important tool in trimming your boat. Besides, they hold them up too high in the boat. If you can lower them in the hull, its an advantage in getting the CG down as low as we can. So, using Dremel and multimax I was able to get them out of the hull. Then, taking a sheet of 1" styrofoam, I marked out some blocks and cut them out and siliconed them in to hold the batterys where I sumised that they should go. If I find that an adjustment needs to be made.....no problem.

[greenman407]

When I purchased the Blackjack 29, it came with a ESC programming module. It was critical to use it to get the most out of the boat. Then I recall that when I purchased the Blackjack 26 that a programming module was available but that had to be purchased seperately. I didnt give it much thought. Then I realized that without that module, the boat would never be all that it could be. Proboat and Horizon Hobbies, their distributor, said that it was no longer available.
Well, I didnt like that ,so I checked on Ebay. At first the auto-search turned up nothing.................then BINGO! I bought a brand new, never used one for $9.00. Just got it today.

[greenman407]

Notice the throttle curve selector. If its set for Logarithm instead of Linear, youll only have 80% power. Also, you can adjust the timing for even more output, not to mention the multiple options concerning Lipos and cutoff and various other sundrys. HAPPY DAY.

[greenman407]

Programing complete. We will try it out tomorrow.

[greenman407]

WOW! in a word................FASTER! But..............running without the turn fins WILL result in a spin out and eventually you will DUMP it.
How do I know? (DUH!) So im going to bolt the one on the right side back on and try that.

[greenman407]

Also, an unintended consequence of changing the prop. I installed a Octura X438 Berylium copper prop in place of the new S.S. prop that I just got from Proboat. The S.S. prop didnt work so well. Well, you will recall how I spoke of a bad case of prop walk(boat constantly trying to go to the left). Thats because of the race type prop running half in and half out of the water, causes a paddlewheel effect, pulling the boat while its hull is on plane, and has less resistance to being pulled offcourse. Well, with the Octura prop there is NO propwalk. Im amazed. The Octura prop is smaller but has more pitch.

[sd2649]

I just picked up one of these exactly! I have flipped it quite a few times, how did moving the steering fin go for you? I am currently awaiting a new u-joint as I destroyed it on a tight turn my last time out... thinking about removing the battery trays also, worth it?

[greenman407]

Removing the turn fins caused the flipping problem to get worse. So back on they went. Getting the batterys down lower in the boat has to be a plus. How much I dont know yet. I need to get it back in the water.

[greenman407]

Saturday I threw it in the water , and sure enough, the turn fins help keep it in the water but they slow it down a bit and because of the lift that they generate the prop walk is back a little bit. I noticed that now shes riding a little too flat. So , Ill move the batterys back a little bit to see if I can get the nose up a little bit. The drive on this boat is not adjustable, so we will work with what weve got...................for now.