Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Top speed


fairey speed
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.
Wiring a model boat seems to scare people silly but it's not that hard. Plug the speed control and servo into the receiver and wire the control to the motor. It didn't take me long and I even made a reasonably neat job.

The plan was to test the boat on the lake tomorrow but according to the weather forecaster on telly to do that we'll have to stand in the rain. So as the evening was nice a quick trip saw the boat afloat.

First problem is the superstructure won't sit down properly. My neat wiring was in the way at a couple of points. A but of a shove and it went on and wasn't going to fall off easily. I need to look at this.

That's the easy bit though. Once on the water I made a couple of slow turns just to test everything worked OK. Then I pushed the stick up for full speed.

And the progress was what might be politely termed "stately". Not in any way fast or exciting. I don't care what the sticker on the motor says, there is no way that prop is rotating at 6000rpm. It's not digging into the water much either.

A faster motor and four, or at least 3, blade prop are called for I think.

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