Am I the idiot here? What's the fascination with electric?

[Pantomine Horse]

I've always liked  my Fairey Huntsman. A Modav kit from the 70s. 48 inches long.  Back in the day I had a Merco 61 in it. I'd turn-up at my local lake and run it for 20 mins flat-out until the tank was empty and do the same thing for the next two hours until I'd done 2-3 pints of fuel. Yup, stick it on the prop and leave it there. Then I got bored or cold and went home. It would go back in the cupboard and come back out again maybe a month later, maybe a year.

 

But my Merco was getting tired, so against my better judgement I followed advice. "Electric is the way to go" they said.

 

Maybe they were right. An IC is a bit knuckle-dragger?

 

I must be doing it wrong. You get 5-6 mins of flat-out power, and after that it's this sad pathetic  dribble.  For, at best 10 mins. Then you put another pack in there. Same again. Two packs equals 10 mins of  decent power.

 

Then you go home. Or buy heaps of packs.

 

Excuse the rant, but it gets worse. Get the thing out of the cupboard 6 months later and the packs are tired, but you don't know this.

 

Get to the lake-side, and get 5 mins of even more tragic running, and you go home. For another 10 mins running you have to buy more packs. The cycle repeats. So I need £200 of packs.

 

It get even wrose! The £200 in cells is scrap if left in the  cupboard, so my outings are £200 a go. Latest thing? My speed-controller has smoked.

 

Is it the "Electric is the way to go" crowd,"?

 

I had noticed that Tesla owners won't hear a word against Mr Mush.

 

have I joined a cult? Did I do this unknowingly?  Am I the duped idiot here?

 

Should I simply stop mincing about with electric or join the faith?

 

 

 

 

Edited October 17, 2018 by Pantomine Horse

[mond]

Sounds like you over discharged your packs. I've had lipos last for years. 

 

If you can make noise though, I'd always go petrol.

[tomzac66]

Sounds like the set up has incompatibilities if your only getting a poor show.

 

Tell us what you have installed from the battery esc motor right down to the props on the end.

 

Sounds like 1/12 scale

 

Try to include spec and size

 

A few pictures would help.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Fly In My Soup]

2 hours ago, Pantomine Horse said:

I've always liked  my Fairey Huntsman. A Modav kit from the 70s. 48 inches long.  Back in the day I had a Merco 61 in it. I'd turn-up at my local lake and run it for 20 mins flat-out until the tank was empty and do the same thing for the next two hours until I'd done 2-3 pints of fuel. Yup, stick it on the prop and leave it there. Then I got bored or cold and went home. It would go back in the cupboard and come back out again maybe a month later, maybe a year.

 

But my Merco was getting tired, so against my better judgement I followed advice. "Electric is the way to go" they said.

 

Maybe they were right. An IC is a bit knuckle-dragger?

 

I must be doing it wrong. You get 5-6 mins of flat-out power, and after that it's this sad pathetic  dribble.  For, at best 10 mins. Then you put another pack in there. Same again. Two packs equals 10 mins of  decent power.

 

Then you go home. Or buy heaps of packs.

 

Excuse the rant, but it gets worse. Get the thing out of the cupboard 6 months later and the packs are tired, but you don't know this.

 

Get to the lake-side, and get 5 mins of even more tragic running, and you go home. For another 10 mins running you have to buy more packs. The cycle repeats. So I need £200 of packs.

 

It get even wrose! The £200 in cells is scrap if left in the  cupboard, so my outings are £200 a go. Latest thing? My speed-controller has smoked.

 

Is it the "Electric is the way to go" crowd,"?

 

I had noticed that Tesla owners won't hear a word against Mr Mush.

 

have I joined a cult? Did I do this unknowingly?  Am I the duped idiot here?

 

Should I simply stop mincing about with electric or join the faith?

 

 

 

 

 

Electric is the future.... No doubting that.... But its not suited to every hobbyist

 

And what they don't tell you ......is the issues you're currently facing....

 

Lipo/electric has its pitfalls...namely the outlay for decent batteries /charger and the care that they demand from the user....

 

If you're storing lipos for a long time un used then they need to be stored at 'storage voltage' of around 3.8v per cell.....

 

Also you'll need to find a motor and ESC combo that suits you're needs, and once you buy these and install them you'll need to match a suitable battery to supply you're chosen setup.....think of it like trying to get a peewee cox engine to run a 2.5m wingspan sloap soarer...it will work...for ten minutes until it simply gives up from overheating/exhaustion....So you get a suitable sized engine to swing that big prop so it runs cooler and reliably...its no different for electric.

 

Whereas with nitro/glow engines....you just buy an engine/tank/fuel/ and you're away

 

I think most people moved to electric for two reasons....

 

the rates of usage has gone up...(if you're using your rc model every weekend then lipo/electric offers convenience of just plugging in a battery and boom you're off)......

 

And secondly people inability to tune /hold a tune with a nitro engine pushed them towards the more user/convenience friendly electric...

 

If you ask me...they both have their good points and bad points....you just have to way up what's suited to you as an individual

 

 

 

[PH001]

I came a similar route - nitro years ago, big gap until electric got good (or at least people said it was) then went HPI Trophy Truggy Flux running a couple of Turnigy Graphene 2S 5000mAh packs.

 

However my experience of this LIPO / brushless setup is radically different to yours. More then fast enough for any open space (45mph ish on std gearing) but gets there in under a second! Really brutal crazy acceleration compared to my old nitros, tons more punch and of course you get a reverse! I love how you can customise the power delivery / braking / drag brake / motor timing.  

 

I always get at least 40mins play per charge (sometime up to an hour if I stay away from full throttle a lot) and I'm usually pretty bored / cold within an hour anyway. If not, I can recharge both sets in around 20 minutes and go again. If I have two packs I can run all day without interruption (apart from a quick batt swap) if required.

 

As stated above - store them at the correct voltage and they should be good to go even after a prolonged period with a 10 minute charge again.

 

Electric does take a bit more research to get the best out of it if it's completely new to you but in terms of accessibility (including areas where you can run without upsetting people with noise etc) it's leagues above nitro / petrol imho. 

Edited October 17, 2018 by PH001

[Nitroholic]

The simple issue is the places you can run your vehicle will become severely limited if you don't go electric. There are a couple of small boating lakes in my area all of which have banned IC due to noise and pollution concerns from spilling fuel.

 

But...assuming you have batteries able to handle the load you are asking of them, and care for them properly, they will last for years.

 

Your power supply needs to start with the motor. Find the stats on it and check what it's max current draw is. If it draws a max steady 100A ..... then you look for an ESC with at least 120A continuous load. If you have an ESC able to pull 120A continuous...you need batteries that can do the same. Check the 'C' rating on the pack. Then multiply by the Amp/Hour rating of hte pack. It will show it in MaH ... so divide that by 1000 to get the amp/hour figure. So a 30c 5000Mah will be 30x(5000/1000 ) = 150A

 

At each step you build in a margin for error....so in my example setup 5000Mah 30c packs are OK, but don't go lower.

 

You also need to understand the voltage, and how voltage will affect gearing. Or prop size. As will the KV rating of a brushless motor. KV basically is the revs per volt. Higher spin speeds generally equate to less torque, and if you over work a motor you can draw far too much current.....and ruin a battery pack ...or burn out an ESC.

 

Another area for pitfalls is in setting up the ESC.

 

It is designed to slow you to a dribble when the pack has discharged and is down to a point where carrying on can over discharge the pack, Don;t keep using it when this happens. Make sure the low voltage cutout is correctly set on the ESC, and swap the packs when the thing slows to a dribble.....It's done it for a reason.

It can also slow itself down when the ESC overheats. Possibly from being over stressed ( prop too big ) or from being paired up with a motor that is askinbg for more than it can deliver. Or possibly your motor just isn't big enough for your boat.

 

Brushless can be fast and reliable...but the learning curve is just as steep as nitro ever was.

 

But..set it up right, charge them correctly and never store them fully charged or fully discharged....and you will be fine.

[Tug]

I met a boat racer once, couldn't believe how long our 1/10 and 1/8 trucks could go on 5 Amp packs, twenty minutes minimum. His boat is completely discharging the same size packs in a six minute race. That's the drag of the hull, when the chequered flag drops it's full throttle until the end of the race, no slowing for turns. 

 

In your case, it's either more packs and learn to care for them, or go back to burning oil. If noise isn't a problem, gasoline it is!