Model boat wiring

If I am to go Slingshot racing in Sunday, I need to re-wire the boat. Either that or have yet another day looking at the thing floating pathetically in the lake while everyone else gets to charge around clocking up the laps.

This time I've decided to dispense with most of the electrical bits that came with this model boat and put something reliable in. To this end I've ordered a new receiver and Viper speed controller from Howes

Taking all the gubbins out of the hull, it occurred to me that I could wire everything up and test it on the bench. Which is how I came by this photo which handily shows everything you need to make a radio control model boat go.

Top left you have a receiver. Into this is plugged a crystal (the orange bit indicating the frequency) and the speed control and servo. The aerial is the black wire heading off stage left. This must stay the same length as supplied, so if you attach a whip aerial, the wire must be shortened by the length of this.

Bottom left, the yellow box is the servo. This handles the steering. It's the one that came with the Slingshot - it still works and fits the mountings already.

In the middle is the speed control which (surprise, surprise) controls the speed of the motor (top right). Into this is plugged the battery (green thing bottom right). The switch handles on/off duties. The speed control cleverly incorporates a BEC (Battery Eliminator Circuit) and feeds the receiver with power down the same wires it gets it's control information from.

All I have to do now is connect the motor to the prop shaft and the servo to the rudder, stuff the rest of this lot into the boat and I can go racing.