I Guess I Blew It - Looking For Some Guidance Please

[searay skipper]

Hello all....brand new here..first post.

I have absolutely NO experience with RC's of any sort.

A couple of us at my yacht club thought it might be fun to buy a couple of rc boats and have our own little races for beer while out boating with our real boats and anchored somewhere.

Well...it appears that we made the mistake of not buying decent quality hobby grade boats and bought some cheap rtr things from a hobby store online. Big mistake.....that cheap Chinese stuff obviously isn't the way to go. I've got $250 into mine and it's done already. At my age I guess I should have known better but......

A couple of people have suggested that I gut it and rebuild with decent quality components. Problem is I have virtually no idea where to start. Been reading forums and countless threads by all of you experienced folks but with no experience at all.....all of the technical jargon is kinda confusing and I have no idea at this point what to start buying....there are just too many choices and I don't want to start out buying the wrong components in hopes of making this boat work. It appears I already blew it by buying the wrong boat....I don't want to make things worse by throwing good money after bad and buying the wrong components in hopes of making this thing work. So I'm hoping someone here will be kind enough to steer me in the right direction.

I bought this 45" thing called a Darter King. Has 3 "550" motors running on a 12 volt battery.

Here's a link to it....hope it works:

http://www.bananahobby.com/1680.html

I'm not adverse to gutting this thing and trying to do something with it. But I'd like to apply the K.I.S.S. principal here and keep things VERY basic to begin with while I get my feet wet. Not terribly interested right now in huge speeds. I'd be satisfied for now if I could get the 35-40 mph out of it that they advertised it was supposed to do. Yeah right!!!!!!!!! Not even close.

Perhaps as I gain experience and knowledge I may experiment further down the road and upgrade it even more....IF....this hull is even worth keeping and experimenting with. But all in good time. I'm just trying to learn to walk right now before I try to start running.

Now....keeping in mind that I don't want to break the bank by trying to sink a ton of money into this thing......is there anyone here who would be kind enough to recommend things like a motor...or motors......esc...batteries...servos....radio gear etc....that I can start out slowly with to hopefully get this thing going....and who knows...maybe even start winning a few of those aforementioned beers off my buddy?

If you had this boat....what if anything would you do with it? Be gentle please.

I know there are an awful lot of choices out there when selecting components....therein lies a huge part of the confusion. This hobby looks like it could be fun but man....it's alot more complicated than I expected. I obviously have alot to learn.

Perhaps in time if the bug bites me hard enough I may want to go on to bigger and better things but for now....I just want to try to do something with this thing to get it working reliably.....keeping it simple...and relatively inexpensive.

Any help/guidance I can get here would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[ozzie-crawl]

Hi Skipper welcome to ose
First of i noticed its a submerged drive (prop runs under water). i have not had any experience with these as most performance orientated boats are surface drive (prop is half in the water) I dont know if you would get much out of it with out changing to a surface piercing setup.
Being plastic it should be fairly light but by the time you buy stinger (drive), flex shaft,prop,motor,esc,rudder you could buy something like this http://www.offshoreelectrics.com/pro...rod=dh-PRB4075
Fiberglass hull,brushless motor,esc. reliable and fast

[searay skipper]

Good morning Ozzie. Thanks for the reply and suggestion. That looks like a pretty cool boat and probably the way I shoulkd have gone to begin with but.....

I figured since I have so much $$$$ into this thing already.....perhaps there might be something I could do with it rather than just scrapping it and buying something else.

I'm retired and have the time....so I'm not adverse to "tinkering".....maybe get more involved in a new hobby. So if I could get this thing up and running for maybe a couple hundred bucks....I thought I'd give it a shot. Just need a bit of guidance to steer me in the right direction.

[ozzie-crawl]

To be honest with out being rude,run it as it is. I have seen people sink hundreds into similar boats to find there just not worth it.the hulll more than likely is limited on how fast it would go
to give a rough idea.
motor $100
Esc $100
rudder $30
strut/stinger$30-40
flex shaft $30
Prop $25
Motor mount $30

Thats the price of a decent rtr right there.
or you could drop all that into http://www.offshoreelectrics.com/pro...rod=df-delta29 and do 40-50mph

There all toy boats but there is a big difference between a toy boat and a hobby grade boat.

Cheers

[searay skipper]

"run it as it is."

Problem is....I can't.

The servo for the rudder is "pooched". I can't steer it.

Nothing in this thing has any plugs that I can just unplug and replace with a new one. There is a printed circuit board that I presume is some form of speed control and also has the radio receiver incorporated in it I guess.

The existing servo also has a small circuit board in it with 4 wires soldered to it. Very poor "cold" solder joints.....wires barely holding on with one strand of wire...and falling off when touched. I resoldered them on.....servo now goes nuts....flipping back and forth erratically.

Motors run but that's it. So suggestions to gut and rebuild started sounding better and better....and maybe kinda fun.

Prices you list are higher than things I've been looking at. So have I been looking at the wrong things? Perhaps. Hence my need for a little guidance.

[ejimbo4]

I just recently got into the boat side of RC and IMHO you should get yourself a good RTR to start. I started with a Proboat Impulse 31. I am now doing pretty much what you are wanting to do to your hull and it is taking......months and a lot of trial and error. The only way I would of even got as far as I have( I will be posting pics soon) is because I had a good reliable RTR to give me a understanding of the basics of how everything works. That and A LOT of reading and searching on this forum with a bunch of patient guys on here and I am finally getting somewhere. I would set aside what you have now(just for the moment)get a solid RTR now that you can enjoy for the summer and by the time fall and winter comes around you will have a better and more fun time "tinkering"! Good Luck!

[egneg]

Scrap it and start over ... folks here will help you put together a boat that will be enjoyable for quite some time.

[Chuck E Cheese]

just get something like the miss geico or impulse (proboat, available here on OSE) and call it a day. they are reliable. fast enough and will probive hours of fun for about $400

[LarrysDrifter]

I just posted this 33" mono for sale recently. It is a fast boat with the right prop, but it can slowed down using an X442 prop for low amp draw and "long" run times...Id guess around 5-8 minutes, more when running a 2p battery configuration. I priced it right and fair. Its a reliable, strong boat. If you build this yourself, you will invest more money in it as well as time. Not to mention, RTR boats always need initial tweeking and setting up. My boat does cost more, but it needs no tuning or upgrading. All the work is done. Let me know.
Thanks.

http://forums.offshoreelectrics.com/...-ARTR-For-Sale

[Visual Perfection]

Here is my take on it...Since you are set on keeping the boat and most are ignoring that...even though they are right that getting a new boat is the best route...but if you want to take the adventure then who is to stop you...anyways now I am no pro so keep that in mind, and who knows if it would work, but hey would be fun trying it out and if it doesnt work out just re-sell the items you bought.

The cheap route to get it up and running and make it usable without scraping it would be to simply slightly improve what you have. What I would do is get 2 brushless motors on the cheap..(simply get rid of the 3rd motor).like 2 of these: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s..._Inrunner.html

In that submerged drive setup I would run 2s lipos which would result in aprox 22000 rpm with that 3000kv motor. I would think you wouldn't want to get carried away with much higher rpm as with a submerged drive it will just shoot it out of the water if you go too crazy.

For an ESC I would get 2 of these to run each motor: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s..._Boat_ESC.html

Then you just need a reciever/tansmitter which I would get this:

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...arehouse_.html

And a Servo for steering which you can pick up for like $10

And a water jacket for each motor to cool it.

Then to make it handle better some turn fins from here on OSE, a couple water pick-ups to get the water into the esc/motor for cooling and maybe a few other misc. parts I am missing.

With all that I listed you would be able to do it all for under $200

Now would it work...who knows, will it reach 30+mph...unlikely...would it blow up eventually..again I don't know, I am only giving a suggestion, and I am probably gonna get slammed because I recommended cheap parts, or the wrong setup etc.. but if that's that case they can maybe recommend something better.

Again I am new to all this too, but I can see how you want to use what you already have and yes the best route to go would be to get a whole new boat, but if you want to stick with what you got that would be my suggestion.

Just my $.02


If you want to just run it as is, get a hold of the seller and tell them what happened and hope they might do something for you..being you can't just replace a servo you are going to need a whole new setup and that is the downside of a boat like that. I don't understand why they would do such a thing..I mean even my Marlin cruiser which is a "toy" boat has a dedicated ESC, Reciever, and Servo...I guess they figured, hey if something breaks, they will have to buy a new boat.

[searay skipper]

Visual Perfection........

Thank you....that was exactly the kind of response I was hoping for. Now if anyone else can add anything to it....or suggest anything else along the same lines...or anything else I might need......it would be much appreciated. Hope you don't get "slammed" VP......no reason for anyone to slam you for trying to help a rooky and providing exactly the kind of response I was hoping for.

I agree 100% with those who simply said scrap it and buy something else......sort of. I know now I should have bought something else in the first place....however....what's done is done....and I'd kinda like to see now if I can lick my wounds and salvage at least something out of all this. PLUS.....as I said....I'm not adverse to "tinkering". And in all likelihood....I wouldn't be surprised if I eventually moved up and started going bigger and better in the future. But all in good time....much to learn first.

I've seen a couple of discussions somewhere on the net where a guy has upgraded this exact boat...but they were from back around 2005 and 2009 so I can't contact him to ask what he did. Even had a youtube video with this thing going like stink after he did whatever he did to it.

So for now....I'm still wide open to any other suggestions.......other than simply scrap it and buy something else. As I said....I already have $250 into this thing. At this point in time I'm not inclined to just scrap it immediately and go and put out another $400.00 for basically nothing more than a toy to play with now and then and have a few laughs over a beer once in a while.


"get a hold of the seller and tell them what happened and hope they might do something for you"

I have been talking with the supplier....negotiations are ongoing. They offered to send me another boat....without the radio equipment. And I wouldn't even have to return this thing to them. Then they told me it's out of stock....pick something else. Spoke with them again and told them what I would accept.....they haven't gotten back to me yet to say if they would satisfy my request. But they only deal in "toys"...and nothing like what I've seen here. So if they do send me something else...it's still going to be a "toy". And since they don't want this thing back.....I just figured I'd see if I can do something with it....other than "scrap it".

Another e-mail going to them right after I'm done here.

Thanks again for the response VP.....hope I get some more similar ones......and then I'll go shopping....for some sort of components.

[rc2266]

What about something like this that they have in stock?
http://www.bananahobby.com/1689.html

[Visual Perfection]

No problem, glad I could share some insight.

Now with that said, don't buy anything until we can see from more expereienced boaters if any of the components I suggested are right or not...I'd hate to be the reason you go and spend several hundred dollars and it doesn't work worth crap.

I would recommend starting a thread in the boat building section, tell them about your boat and that you want to convert it to brushless. List the items I recommended and see whay they say. Tell them you want to do it cheap as and don't need name brand stuff, just want to make it better than it sits right now. This thread isn't the place, as it has more turned to be focused on getting you the best boat. If you start a new thread and make it apparent that you have a boat, you want to tinker with it, and leave it at that, you might be able to get the project up and going.

Good luck and if I can help anymore let me know. Doesn't hurt to ask, as I can always ask someone else more experienced to get you the best answer too lol.

[Visual Perfection]

What about something like this that they have in stock?
http://www.bananahobby.com/1689.html

This would be a great candidate for upgrading..much easier! If you could get them to give you that as a replacement you would have a better platform to start working with.

[searay skipper]

In thinking about this a bit more...a couple more questions come to mind.

Is there any reason I can't use two of the 3 motors that are in it....for as long as they last anyway? And I'd have one spare for if/when the time comes that I might have to replace one.

They already have the water cooling coils around them all.

Could I not put connectors on the wires....then get a suitable esc for them? No idea what size esc though. Unfortunately I don't have any specs or ratings for these motors....other than they're supposed to be "550's". Not really sure at this point if they're brushed or brushles...must find that out I guess.

I've seen a wiring diagram for 2 motors with 1 esc. Could I do that with two of these motors? Or would I need the 2 esc's as suggested by VP?

Then carry on with a servo....rx/tx...and whatever else?

Yes? No??