Why can't I ever keep it simple?

March 16, 2019, 07:05 PM

Playing with the putt-putt boat and adding RC control for a rudder.

Plan A was to buy a $10 WalMart RC truck and scavenge the parts from it.

Well, by golly, there's a reason it's only $10 and just too crude for my taste. The steering I hoped to use to control the rudder is an all-or-nothing deal. A rack and pinion that's run by a reversable motor that just goes SLAM, left or right to the limit of travel. No in between. Centered, hard a-port or hard a-starboard.

So, noooooooooooooo, can't do that. Just dropped a Grant on Amazon for a transmitter, servo control receiver and a battery pack.

Of course that'll be too heavy for the motive power available and the next thing will be a brushless motor and a bigger battery pack...

Saaayyyy, is that a rabbit I see down there?

Sigh.

March 16, 2019, 08:32 PM

Black Pepper

I think your going to need a bigger boat

Hope you post pics or a vid of it working once you get it sorted out

March 17, 2019, 08:23 AM

erj_pilot

Well you've kept it slightly simpler than one of my best friends and what he's doing with his kids...he bought a 3-D printer to build his own replacement/repair parts for their RC cars. Don't even ask...

"If you’re a leader, you lead the way. Not just on the easy ones; you take the tough ones too…” – MAJ Richard D. Winters (1918-2011), E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne

"Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil... Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel." - Isaiah 5:20,24

March 17, 2019, 09:15 AM

PHPaul

quote:
Originally posted by erj_pilot:
Well you've kept it slightly simpler than one of my best friends and what he's doing with his kids...he bought a 3-D printer to build his own replacement/repair parts for their RC cars. Don't even ask...

Wonder how long it'll take to amortize that!

March 17, 2019, 02:10 PM

bendable

would you happen to be a Gemini?

March 17, 2019, 02:32 PM

.38supersig

Shop for RC parts at Goodwill. There is usually a few to choose from and then you can get the engine out of the weed eater to make your boat faster.

March 17, 2019, 03:18 PM

PHPaul

quote:
Originally posted by .38supersig:
Shop for RC parts at Goodwill. There is usually a few to choose from and then you can get the engine out of the weed eater to make your boat faster.

I just happen to have a couple of weedeater engines laying around too. That used to be a regular thing in the Metal Shop when I worked at the High School. At least one kid every year would build one.

Never did see one actually run tho.

March 17, 2019, 03:31 PM

PHPaul

quote:
Originally posted by bendable:
would you happen to be a Gemini?

I'm a Libra:

LIBRA (Sept 23 - Oct 22)
You are the artistic type and have a difficult time with reality. If you are a man, you are more than likely gay. Chances for employment and monetary gains are excellent. Most Libra women are prostitutes. All Libra people die of Venereal disease.

March 17, 2019, 09:13 PM

Jager

That is just great.

March 17, 2019, 09:58 PM

jimmy123x

quote:
Originally posted by PHPaul:
quote:
Originally posted by .38supersig:
Shop for RC parts at Goodwill. There is usually a few to choose from and then you can get the engine out of the weed eater to make your boat faster.

I just happen to have a couple of weedeater engines laying around too. That used to be a regular thing in the Metal Shop when I worked at the High School. At least one kid every year would build one.

Never did see one actually run tho.

I bought a used 60" RC boat that had a weedeater motor (homelite). It ran at least 30 mph and was fun but always a pain in the rear......I used it twice, one time water got in it and ate up the servo's. Another time it stalled in the middle of the lake and I had to wait half an hour till it floated to shore. It was a blessing that someone stole it from my storage garage!

March 18, 2019, 08:46 AM

Perception

This problem is nothing a couple hundred grand can't fix.

"The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford, "it is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them. They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards."
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard, then the wrong lizard might get in."