What is it they do?

Often forgot about but boats are a great way for the youngsters to get into radio control or even the oldies!
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Stew
Posts: 495
Joined: 02 Mar 2018, 10:21
Location: Staindrop, Darlington.

What is it they do?

Post by Stew »

Hi all.
Rather curious about what 'they' do at a model boating pond? I must admit I have never seen RC model boats being sailed, and just wondered what goes on. I'm not talking sailing yachts, but the motor cruiser, or scale types. Do they just pootle around the pond at scale speed and making turns etc? Nothing wrong with that, I should think it is very relaxing and quiet. Chance for a good chinwag I would have thought. Seems like a very cheap entry threshold for an RC hobby, 2 channel radio etc.

Care to enlighten me?
Spike S
Posts: 181
Joined: 16 Feb 2018, 14:59
Location: Salisbury UK

Re: What is it they do?

Post by Spike S »

Limited only by your imagination.
Just goto utube and search "rc model boats"
Spike S
(Tune for maximum smoke)
afb
Posts: 1
Joined: 10 Jun 2018, 19:22

Re: What is it they do?

Post by afb »

As there are only two dimensions to cope with instead of three and the speeds can be much lower it's a much less stressful and safer way to learn to steer a model that's coming towards you until it becomes instinctive - as indeed it was with me before I started learning to fly RC.

Note that some fast electrics can top 60mph so there's opportunity for white-knuckle fun as well.
Dodgy Geezer
Posts: 62
Joined: 17 Jun 2018, 09:54

Re: What is it they do?

Post by Dodgy Geezer »

Rather curious about what 'they' do at a model boating pond? I must admit I have never seen RC model boats being sailed, and just wondered what goes on. ......... Seems like a very cheap entry threshold for an RC hobby, 2 channel radio etc.

Hmm. At a model airfield, sports flyers just circle around, occasionally practising manoeuvres such as loops, scale enthusiasts try to make their flight as 'scale-like' as possible and racers practice tight turns and tune their airframe/engine for the best performance. Gliders practice getting the most out of thermals or slope lift..

At a model boat lake, sports boaters just circle around, occasionally practising manoeuvres such as docking, scale enthusiasts try to make their voyage as 'scale-like' as possible and racers practice tight turns and tune their hull/engine for the best performance. Yachts practice getting the most out of the wind..

Boats are able to carry a lot of ancillary equipment, so working anchors, fire pumps, guns and cranes are possible. The mechanics for doing this with Single Channel are particularly complex and interesting. Specialist aspects of the hobby include tugboat competitions where you are required to manoeuvre a heavy load through difficult obstacles, battleship fighting (at least in the US!) involves firing real projectiles at your opponent while maintaining your own damage control through internal pumping systems, and seeing who sinks first, while submarines and ROVs may carry undersea cameras or working torpedoes. Some model boats are used for fishing - distributing bait and towing 'troll-lines', which must be perilously close to radio-controlled whaling..

One advantage of model boats is that there is room for vintage equipment, and the results of loss of control are likely to be less severe than for aircraft. So if you want to operate real original vintage equipment as opposed to the more reliable 2.4Ghz emulators, a boat may be a better platform than an aircraft for safety reasons...
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RON
Site Admin
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Joined: 12 Jun 2017, 15:09
Location: Stokesley North Yorkshire

Re: What is it they do?

Post by RON »

Hi Dodgy,

Welcome to the forum.
I must admit, there is something about model boats that I like,
Me and my son Oliver built an aeronaut Diva a few years back and we’ve had lots of pleasure from it.
He likes it because he can do anything he likes and can’t get into trouble with it.
It’s a very relaxing atmosphere at the boating lake and really nice just looking at all the gadgets and gizmos all the other models have.
Ours has raised a few eyebrows though, not because it’s anything special but because I’m still using a Digimac 2 to control it !

Ron.
G0MBV Class A Radio Amateur, North Yorkshire
Dodgy Geezer
Posts: 62
Joined: 17 Jun 2018, 09:54

Re: What is it they do?

Post by Dodgy Geezer »

I was on the original forum - so it's more like 'welcome back' - with an early McGregor mend (before the blue case). That mend is on RC Groups here: https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthr ... nnel-radio

I have the radio going into an old Marinecraft 'Silver Dawn' with a Kinematic and a Taycol....

One of the good things about boats is that they usually float, and can be recovered at the end of the day, unlike early aircraft made by beginners, which may be lucky to get one flight before turning into a balsa bag. So boats are quite a good way to introduce young kids to the hobby.

There used to be a range of Keil Kraft starter boats called 'EeZeBilt', intended for youngsters. I have a few web sites up, including one that covers the old EeZeBilts, providing free plans and build logs, so that parents can start their kids off the old-fashioned way - see http://eezebilt.tk You can also find data on Taycol motors there...
Mosfets
Posts: 60
Joined: 18 Feb 2018, 20:14

Re: What is it they do?

Post by Mosfets »

Welcome back Dodgy.

Very good comparison you gave there of the different areas of RC hobbies.

Was it yourself who was getting a speed controller working with the Taycol motor? If yes, how did you get on, did you manage to get it working the way you wanted it to?

Ade
Dodgy Geezer
Posts: 62
Joined: 17 Jun 2018, 09:54

Re: What is it they do?

Post by Dodgy Geezer »

Was it yourself who was getting a speed controller working with the Taycol motor? If yes, how did you get on, did you manage to get it working the way you wanted it to?

Well, I run the Taycol web site, and so I have put up various circuits for operating a field-wound motor from an ESC - here for instance http://eezebilt.tk/Rectifier.html . These are not my circuits - they are just well-known methods of keeping the armature coils at one polarity while switching the field coil, using the diodes in a rectifier. That will work fine with a modern speed controller.

The only problem with this approach is that you lose some voltage as current flows through the diodes. I was trying to produce a more sophisticated circuit, using a relay to switch the coils, and detecting the polarity change with an op-amp. But though the theory seemed sound, I could never get that circuit to work, so it's still 'work in progress'! To be honest, nothing will happen until I can find someone willing to look at the issue and tell me what I'm doing wrong... :cry:
belli
Posts: 39
Joined: 19 Feb 2018, 19:19

Re: What is it they do?

Post by belli »

Hey Dodge,

Is this one of your's?
Eezebilt
Eezebilt
Then you will need one of these:
OS-Guppy
OS-Guppy
Cheers,
Dodgy Geezer
Posts: 62
Joined: 17 Jun 2018, 09:54

Re: What is it they do?

Post by Dodgy Geezer »

That's a Neptune - one of the original designs, and not one I really went for...

I've added to the original range with some of my own designs which are a bit bigger and more suitable for R/C - here is the latest:

Image

Warsaw pact Missile boat - an OSA-1 - means you can fly a North Korean flag at the boating lake...

Of course, the earliest radio controlled models were boats - here is Tesla's:

Image
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