Model Boater Goes 98.8 MPH in full size electric Hydro

[Doug Smock]

Thanks Doug. I really appreciate everything your doing. Do you have any Smock racing decals if not I can get my graphics guy to put something together Let me know how many signed photo's. I have some excellent high speed pictures that Eric Bourlet took.

Mike

You're welcome Mike.

I have Smock Racing decals but I would rather ask you to have your graphics guy make up some "Atlanta Model Boaters" decals, as these guys are my club mates.

Doug

 

[lohring]

Some videos of the run can be found at



Lohring Miller

 

[Darin Jordan]

Mike and Lohring... I'll have my two charges in the mail by this weekend...

What sized cells and what settings are you going to be using? I was going to program a channel on each for you to use...

Thanks,

Good Luck!

 

[Mike Bontoft]

Hi Daren

We set them at 6s/4500mah/ 4.5 amps on channel 0.

Thanks we really appreciate it and will give it our best shot.

Mike

 

[Darin Jordan]

Hi DarenWe set them at 6s/4500mah/ 4.5 amps on channel 0.

Thanks we really appreciate it and will give it our best shot.

Mike

OK Mike... I'll take care of doing that for you...

Just so you guys know... I THINK that these chargers are capable of charging those cells at 2C... and I KNOW that the cells are rated to be charged at 2C... You could charge them at 8-9 amps and still be safe... I'll have to go look again at the charger specs to see if they can charge a 6S pack at this rate... (or TWO 6S packs, as the case may be...)

 

[Mike Bontoft]

Hi Daren

We may do that, the batteries have been coming out of the boat a little hot now we have upped the ratio and we don't have any spares so we have just been taking it easy on them. I need to do a test to find the charge time 1C vs 2C.

Mike

 

[Jim Caldwell]

Mike, we have found in the Model boats if you pre warm the batterys to 100 degrees F they come out cooler at the end of the run due to the high resistance at lower temps at the beginning of the run. Try testing it. The Eagletree will show you.

 

[lohring]

We have six hair dryers, one to warm each battery box. The limitation is generator capacity. With 2000 and 7000 watt generators we still don't have enough power to run all six dryers on high. We got the batteries up to 110 degrees F, not easy when it's 38 degrees at 6:00 in the morning, before closing up the insulated battery boxes. I hope they were still over 90 degrees by the start of the run. It would have been nice to get them warmer, but the goal was to have them warm enough to prevent damage. We aren't being very hard on the batteries since we usually pulled less than 90 amps continuously from each battery.

Lohring Miller

 

[Ron Olson]

Lohring, Steve Reesor uses one of those 12 volt powered food warmer/refrigerator boxes for his packs. They might be worth taking a look at.

Just did some looking for some examples and found this one: http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/ItemBro...ID:100000183584 . It warms up to 125 degrees.

 

[lohring]

We looked at cooler/warmers like that as well as Kapton heaters in the battery boxes. We have a lot of batteries to heat and the hair dryers were a great, low cost solution. They can also be used to cool the batteries. We didn't really understand how much power everything takes before we started using the hair dryers and charging the batteries. The charging system is another example of the same issue. We are working on solutions. Custom designed battery warmers and a custom charging system that would leave the batteries in place would be best, but both are beyond our engineering expertise. Having someone else build them is beyond our budget.

Lohring Miller

 

[Darin Jordan]

Mike and Lohring,

I put my two chargers in the Mail to Mike's address this morning. They should be there in a day or so.

Hopefully this helps!

Have FUN!

 

[lohring]

Thanks. I hope we can halve our turn around time in December. We really want to go 100.

Lohring Miller

 

[AndyBrown]

Lohring,

What diameter prop is the boat running? What RPM are you guys turning it?

 

[Mike Bontoft]

Hi Andy

7.7" / 8200rpm /102mph

Mike

 

[PakMan]

bump. I want to thanks everyone that has offered to lend me chargers. I now have 7, just 3 to go.Cheers

Mike

Hi Mike,

How are you doing on finding 11-more chargers? How many more do you need?

The first week of December will be here before you know it.... Maybe an update will get you the last few you need.

Best of luck at Salton Sea, CA!!!!

David

 

[Mike Bontoft]

Electric boat update:

First of all I would like to thank everyone for offering to help out with chargers, it was very much appreciated. After talking with Jack Burnside from Empire Hobbies they offered us sponsorship and came through with the required chargers. Thank you Jack!

We decided not to compete in the Salton Sea event after all, with no spare batteries and my trepidation of running such high voltage in salt water, it just didn't seem like a good idea. We have decided to go to the Orville CA Kilo event on the 21st and 22nd of February. We will be going for the 72 volt class speed record instead which stands at somewhere around 45 mph. We will be using 3 of our 6 battery boxes and hoping for speeds of around 70mph, the motor we are using only has so many runs in it at 144 volts so we are thinking of grabbing the other class records before we blow the top off it.

Maybe some model boaters can drop by, we can always use the extra help. I have put together a more comprehensive video on Youtube showing our record run at Devils Lake,

feature=related. Turn up the sound. I will posted on how it goes.

Cheers Mike

 

[Grimracer]

go get em Mike...

Good luck and wish i could be there.

Grimracer

 

[Philip Laverty]

Hi Mike, any updates ?

 

[Eric Bourlet]

Check out the post from yesterday. Mike has moved on to full size vintage offshore racing in England.

http://www.intlwater...showtopic=41858

After him and Lohring get back home from the UK and heal the broken bones, he may get back on the electric stuff . I guess we will just have to wait and see.