R/C Naval Combat

What would you recommend 6 volt motors/ system or 12 volt system that is the question?

6V is "simpler", less dangerous.

12V lasts longer during battle. ---> I know this will cause a discussion.... So think of a power drill. Have you ever used a 6V drill then a 12V drill? Ever notice that the 12V just lasts longer?

12V will result in less heat losses for the same work load done, so for the same Watt-hour rating, the 12V will do more work. Just make sure your equipment is rated for it :)

I like 12V myself, if you couldn't tell, but many many more people use 6V. Personal preference, I guess.

7.2V, get a little extra out of everything and just about anything we use rated for 6V will work at 7.2 also. if you have the space for 12V batteries and you can find stuff that you can run of 12V or want to step stuff down in voltage then i might be tempted to go with that. personally i think 6 V is the simplest since it is the most common and its pretty easy to find stuff that runs on 6V.

Electric motors and solenoids love 12V :) The Clippard Maximatics are 12V and cheaper than the equivalent Kip.

I agree that 7.2V is safe for most 6V applications, as long as you run a separate receiver battery.

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Originally posted by Tugboat

Electric motors and solenoids love 12V :) The Clippard Maximatics are 12V and cheaper than the equivalent Kip.

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Now that's a very good point... but maximatics aren't waterproof.

With 6 volt you can use the very common RC car motors.

With 12 volt you will have to experment with motors a bit.

Also 6 volt batterys are more realible than 12 volt, as they have less cells.
On the other hand 12 volt chargers are easer to find.

Different battery dimensions are avaible for different voltage.
There may be a certain battery that fits well in your boat for 6 volt, but not for 12.

You can run the reciver off the main battery on 6 volts. With 12 you need some sort of voltage regulator, or an extra battery.

A lot of the 550 size motors you see online are capable of handling 12, 18, or even 24 volts, as they are also used in the cordless drills.

I always use a separate receiver battery, just me being weird :)

I ran 12V in the Scharnhorst with MTroniks ECO Marine 20. I run 7.2V in Spahkreuzer with MTroniks Viper Marine 15, though the ship was originally run on 6V. I have to turn down the ESC to get to speed, but that's fine with me. I tried 7.2V in Cadorna, but she didn't get up to speed so I changed to 9.6V another MTroniks Viper Marine 15. I plan on sticking with 7.2V packs and 12V SLA batteries as much as possible with some sort of ESC. I like the Viper Marine 15, but may look into some antweight robot combat ESCs from Robot Marketplace. The antweight ESCs would need to be protected with Skotch-kote, but could be used for differential steering, turret rotation, or for solenoids.

6V for me, it seems to be less prone to "magic smoke" incidents.
There also seem to be issues with corrosion by electrolysis with sunken 12V ships....I'm no electrical engineer, however.

I expect a higher voltage would drive more electrolytic action. I haven't seen any, but I'm psychotic about getting my ship close to shore when it's getting close to sinking, so I usually get them out quickly.

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Originally posted by Tugboat

I'm psychotic about getting my ship close to shore when it's getting close to sinking, so I usually get them out quickly.

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What, you don't let them take a nice long bath? Ships like to soak in the tub, and scrub all the saw dust off their guts. And some nice Herbal Essence Pond Scum helps keep their skin healthy, too. Just getting them wet isn't enough. Cadorna likes to help other ships into the tub, though it's been a while since she's had a good bath. Good thing the next event has the Last Man Standing.

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Originally posted by Gascan

What, you don't let them take a nice long bath? Ships like to soak in the tub, and scrub all the saw dust off their guts.

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I do, part of my ship testing is to make sure it can sit underwater for at least 5 min and still work without any glitches when pulled out. it may not be 5 feet of water but its still a great feeling. and yes it does clean off the saw dust and stuff nicely.

I put my rudder servo in a little WT box at the stern. Not foolproof, but good enough for 5 feet.

The receiver gets encased in carbonite, or maybe epoxy :)

question to all, tug can that be done? encasing the receiver in epoxy. the speed controls I have look just like that; they made a heat sink, put electronics on it and added the epoxy (all those with mtronics ESC's know what I mean). if that would work all one would need to would put 3" servo leads into all the "ports" on the receiver and seal the sucker. only thing is you would never be able to switch crystals. plus side no more worries about wtc's

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Originally posted by Mark

question to all, tug can that be done? encasing the receiver in epoxy. the speed controls I have look just like that; they made a heat sink, put electronics on it and added the epoxy (all those with mtronics ESC's know what I mean). if that would work all one would need to would put 3" servo leads into all the "ports" on the receiver and seal the sucker. only thing is you would never be able to switch crystals. plus side no more worries about wtc's

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Thats exactly how I ran all of MWCI NATS this year, zero problems and since I use 2.4 ghz no crystals to change so having a receiver encased in epoxy is no big deal.

how did you go about doing it, did you open the receiver case so there would be no pockets of air? curious, if this really works it will solve many problems

Im using a spektrum receiver, the case just comes off easily so just filled it with encapsulating epoxy (however I would bet just about any quality epoxy would work) then put the case back on and smothered it in epoxy some more. Use servo extensions so you can change out your servos and such. its really a simple process. Ive done it twice now, the first i actually did without the case but the second I kept the case cause it looks better and I don't have to memorize which channel is which, so that will probably become the primary and the original will be the spare. the less air pockets the better but as long as the water cant get to the components or board itself it doesn't really matter.

edited for grammar/spelling

Couldnt you use servos mounted in a small box that is epoxied with a removeable lid with a gasket on it then take and get a cheap throttle cable linkage you can slide through a hole in the box epoxy it to the box then run it to the rudder or throttle or what ever you want to control then hook it up. Thats the setup I plan on using with the New York class battleship. Will really help out with the limited spaces I will have and will save space to use cable that I can run on the bottom of the hull and put under the flooring for everything to sit atop.

Now I dont mind if anyone wants to use the cable setup like I planned on but I know it will work that cable with the sleeve fits so good water wouldnt run down the inside.

When we epoxied Brian K's Spektrum, we pulled the case, and plugged in 6" pigtails then cast the whole mess in a block of epoxy. We labelled the pigtails with the channel numbers.