Jeff, I think its user error. Perhaps you should check your manual or consult a qualified individual to assist you with it.
ESC ratings in general are BS, most are inflated and quoted at non real conditions. Helps with marketing and bragging.
If space is tight you can try a Wasp or two. I have one Wasp driving two 555's in my Atlanta just fine but that's at 24v. If your driving dual 550's at under 10v's I'd consider two Wasp's (great redundancy btw). http://www.robotpower.com/products/wasp_info.html
Mid-month update in preparation for the July battle: I tested my plain-Jane bilge pump and was seeing about 1.3 GPM. I wanted a little more out of it so I ordered a pair of stinger motors. I did some research on the forums here and it seems a little split on whether the 6v 12aH SLA can handle it. Like I mentioned, I have a battery for every sortie so we'll see how it goes. Once SCRAP goes into the weedy off-season I think I'm going to try those 3.2 v LiFePo prismatic bricks (x2) . Anyways, after putting the pump back together it was doing just a little over 1.5 GPM so I was happy to see a marked improvement. At the advice of a veteran at the last event I also did some modifying to the pump housing. Because of how I designed my water channeling the pump could really only pull water from forward and aft, and not so much from the sides once the water got higher than the channel itself. This way, if a large obstruction gets in the channel and blocks either the front or back of the pump, water can be easily drawn in from the sides. Don't worry, I hadn't yet attached the secondary fish tank filter sponge which seems to be doing well at keeping out the pond scum and most of my bow section. Due to the extensive damage to my port bow during the moss (plastic bag) event it was recommended that I re-sheet that section which I've begun to do. Also, I used some JB waterweld to fill in the big gouge in the fiberglass bow area. One last thing that I forgot to mention in my post battle report is that the float failed to deploy after my sink. I suspect that by the 5th sortie of the day either the smoke stack (float) or the wooden dowel pins holding the stack had swollen and prevented the stack from floating off the deck. To fix this I drilled out larger holes in the stack and lined them with brass tubing. Then I 3D printed the support pins so there should be no more swelling. My Invincible likes to sink by the stern so typically she has to settle on the bottom before the float is upright enough to deploy. Once I get the bow re-sheeted I should be ready for the next battle!
Got a $12 voltage sensor from amazon that plugs right into my Rx. Now I can keep a closer eye on my voltage as the sortie progresses. Needed a coat of E6000 of course. Might try playing with the low voltage warnings for extra power consumption awareness. Then again, maybe I don’t want enemy Captain’s hearing my “come chase me down alarm”...
do you have a link for that? I have the same radio but havent picked up any of the telemetry items for it yet.
Although HMS Invincible sat out the August SCRAP battle she had participated in the July battle. We were able to do Axis vs. Allies with Invincible teamed with Pola and the Kongo class Haruna teamed with the Attilio Regolo (not pictured). Invincible held her own but I was outgunned by the more experienced skipper of the Haruna. No mechanical discrepancies to report and I was able to empty all magazines every sortie (although not as many on target as I would have liked). Invincible made it to home port after every sortie. One of the big things I took away from this battle was to pay more attention to where my guns were hitting the water. In many cases I think I got too close and hit superstructure or casemate areas instead of at or below the waterline. To date Invincible has participated in 20 sorties with a total of 405 holes (337/32/36) and two sinks. So far no drivetrain, steering, or damage control casualties. I did notice a hairline crack forming along the gunwale just forward of where the weather deck steps down on the port side. I'm not sure if this is just the top coat of resin cracking or if the epoxy bonding the hull to the deck is actually separating so I'll keep an eye on it. Overall I have been very happy with how she came out and glad I've been able to get on the water every time I've attended an event. The only other modification I've made since re-doing the float and upgrading the pump is to add some tubing to the pump outlet to give it the glug-glug effect (seen above). It seemed to work although I don't know if I got any flow efficiency increase. If anything it did cut down on the 20' pump stream. I did discover one anomaly with my throttle curve and ESC. I was noticing that she seemed very sluggish to come to a stop and when I had her out of the water I was able to hear a noticeable difference in motor RPM between forward and reverse. At the time my throttle curve was symmetrical for forward and reverse on the Tx setting. To confirm my suspicion I tested the voltage to the motors in forward and then in reverse. They were very different. To get the same voltage to the motors going forward and in reverse I had to adjust the throttle curve accordingly (it was no longer symmetrical). So those who use the Hobbywing 1060 ESC lookout for this.
I noticed that my originally designed gun hold downs weren't really keeping the barrel in the same spot after I removed the turret for tweaking. So I soldered together some barrel hold downs. This is something I should have done a long time ago but was stalling on because I hadn't really thought of a way that I liked to solve the problem. I also got some splinter shield 3d printed for some of the superstructure. After I get everything where I want it I'll pull the plastic tubing back over the barrel but I'll have to make a cut down the tube and wrap it over. This seemed to work fine on the Phoenix. I used to have a stainless steel barrel on the above wing mount but I discovered it started to hit my aft turret. I took it off to inspect and found that the barrel was bent. So when I went to tweak the gun one time the barrel didn't end up in the same exact place as before the and the bb would curve into the stern turret. I put the old copper back on which was nice and straight.
Ahoy Litch, I just got a good look at your float and have a few tips. Any float that doesn't deploy until the boat hits the bottom is prone to failure depending on bottom conditions. You could land in 2 feet of weeds, you could land sideways, the float could get tangled in masts, the float could get stuck at a funky angle, etc. You want your float to stay on the surface as the boat drops down. The best floats I have seen fall under two designs. The first is a large foam superstructure, that floats off due to large buoyant forces. The other option is a forced-air float: a small portion of the bow deck is sectioned off with foam underneath, and when the ship sinks, air escaping the wreck forces the float to deploy as it sinks. Since your superstructure is mostly large foam blocks, you probably want the first option. Consider making the entire forward superstructure, masts and funnels included, into your float. The sheer buoyant forces will improve reliability and make it more resistant to jamming. If I haven't mentioned already, this is a wonderful thread. Tons of inspiration to build that Invincible sitting on my shelf...
