So, Seeing as I have several different Ships to build(see Sig) I am going over to the 10 minutes to victory plan! I have been doing some work toward getting the Baden on the water. Got my solenoids ready to go. My duals are set. Firing boards need waterproofing still Motors are capped and have leads on them, Have 4 like this so I have back ups. Couple of BC pumps ready to go to work when needed. Got 8 new cells to power these rascals when on the water. I most likely screwed all the above up in one way or another. but couple of questions. Has anyone used E6000 to waterproof their firing boards? Battery Tops? if yes what did you thin it with? MEK? or west epoxy sys? how much MEK should I use to thin epoxy so I can brush it on. All thoughts, opinions, ideas, comments, criticisms, rhetoric, Moans, Groans and complaints welcome.
Correct. No thinning required. Spread the E6000 over one side of the board. Use a magnifying glass to make sure you have complete coverage. Let it set level overnight. Repeat for the other side.
To further confuse you, a few captains at Nats that are much more experienced than myself suggested abandoning e-6000 and scotchkote for Corrosion-X Spray applied annually. I personally like this idea better anyways.
you can also use acrylic conformal coating on the boards. For your solenoid wiring, you will want to put in test switches so you can fire the dual guns one at a time to tweak. If you need assistance figuring that outlet me know
West Systems should be thin enough to brush on without thinning. But if you want to thin it further, mix in denatured alcohol.
Call me crazy but I like tweaking cannons (even multiple) using the radio. It is further assurance that my entire system works as intended plus it eliminates some additional points of failure/added components.
Still works, just requires more reloading. Plus it has the added benefit of simulating the consumption of air by the other guns. Makes it so you don't tweak a gun only to realize that with the whole mount firing your tweak is now off. It also gives you an immediate reference to know that they are all firing uniformly (in power and rate of fire).
I like to have each cannon on a different channel and mix them to fire together. Then I can tweak them from the radio, but individually. I don't like the rat's nest of wires that comes with individual test switches in the boat.
The guys whose boats work the best all use test switches for any dual/triple guns. I generally trust their insight a lot more than info from forums. If you have test switches, you can still shoot them together via radio (kind of the point of the guns). General practice is tweak each on individually, then test how they fire together. The end result is much better than only testing together. Use check valves on the tanks for the dual guns so they don't steal air from one another, otherwise the one that fires first will impair the other gun. Mixing channels can work, but it puts the complicated part of the system into the black box, so if there is an issue it is way harder to troubleshoot (i.e. spring regionals Beaver). Also that requires more boards and channels, that make it impractical for anything above class 3. Test switches can fail, if you are so worried about that add a connector on either side to jumper them out if they fail mid-day, or take 5 minutes to solder in a new one. Switches can result in more wires, but I've seen boats with incredibly clean set ups where the only small wires visible are the direct leads to the solenoids. Are test switches 100% necessary? No, but they are widely seen as a strong plus by those that battle.
Regarding that, the mixes were fine I just failed to set the radio into tweak mode (required turning a knob). But like you said, the way I do it is unpractical for anything with more than 2-3 cannons.
I struggle with CRS (Can't Remember Sh*t) syndrome even as a relatively young 31yr old. The last thing I need is more things to remember to do. Remembering to replace the BBs I just shot while tweaking is easy. As always my personal factors influence my preference.
I have gone Modular! I have made my connectors for the VDT and the Badenough the same so I can just drop in the elec, and air systems in either and go! wahoo! now I just need to make a complete back up so if one fries I can keep on keepin on.
I have had CRS my whole life, so bad in fact that I had to be self Employed! I used to put my phone number on my shirts so I could call someone to tell me where to go! The really difficult part was not telling the guy on the other end of the line off cuz what a Berk!
So more progress of late, Ill post the good here. I received the Hobbywing ESC from The Battlers Connection crew and it works exactly as its supposed to, had it under water and general abuse and it kept right on running. Easy to program as well. I just added my connecters and programmed it and its ready to go. I took the time to get my dual sterns solenoids mounted And the Badenough is Battle ready! (I think) I even used my handy dandy compressor adaptor to tweek the cannons. That was fun.
Thought you might be interested in seeing the test rig I built for my air compressor. I use an old Western reg from BC because my air compressor runs at 175psi. PTC fitting on the regulator makes it easy to switch to different testing rigs. This one is for testing individual guns.
Now the bad, I have spent a lot of time trying to get both of these HK XCAR 45a ESC's to function correctly. it probably is operator error, but I can only get them to run in one direction, they do all the beeps and boops(I think) and than they only run in one direction. I have spent probably over 4-5 hours with these easily in the last 3 days(yes I'm a little obstinate, I know) So, ill back burner them and get with the GLAS Technical Crew(Kas, Will and Mark) and have them fix me. Not all successes happen right away. Craig
