twins & dual receivers

[Don Ferrette]

Well I just talked to Tracy Dolphin last night & he told me he suffered a receiver or battery failure which resulted in the complete destruction of his new SGX twin. I asked him if he had set up dual receivers & he answered no but now wished he had. I personally will not build a twin without dual receivers & by that I mean 2 switches, 2 receivers & 2 battery packs. One set controls the steering & the other set controls the throttle, each independent of the other. The first twin I ever saw years ago belonged to my now race partner John Finch. I asked why it had dual receivers & he explained that the biggest enemy of twins is the extreme vibration they create, he said it's not twice as much, more like ten times with the harmonics that are created (of the twins I have built in recent years I can believe this as it seems I am always tightening things up WAY more on the twins than ANY other boats I own or have owned). John also went on to say back then how that with the size & weight of a twin they take far more a physical pounding when running so your odds of losing a radio component to these conditions are much greater. I never forgot those words & thankfully have not lost a twin. Tracy's now makes 2 crashed twins due to radio loss in a month with Mike Hughes being the first. So for all out there who run twins, who uses duals & who doesn't. And if you don't why not? :unsure:

 

[SColby]

Don,

I have just built a dual .21 OB and have a single reciever. Being someone that runs for fun and doesn't race I never thought about two. After everything was complete I saw a thread with something about running two receivers for duals. Will I change it and go to two? Maybe. So i guess to answer your question to as why I don't have two it would be because i didn't know. If I were to do it again I think i would go to two. It only makes sense after you think about it.

 

[Danny Bull]

There's some good food for thought there thanks Don. I've just finished my twin gas cat and ran it on Thursday for the first time. When building, I considered the vibration and harmonics that are amplified with twins and came up with the servos being rubber mounted to the servo tray and the servo tray rubber mounted inside the radio box. The radio box is also nestled onto its mounting rails with silicon adhesive. In testing I found that the servo tray had less vibration than the hull did but I like the 2 receiver idea.

I know it's gas, but if your interested some PICS and VIDEO are available, I've just got to get the camera setting right.

Cheers, Danny.

 

[Don Ferrette]

"I know it's gas, but if your interested some PICS and VIDEO are available, I've just got to get the camera setting right.

Cheers, Danny."

Who cares if it's gas, that looks like a bad a$$ boat @ 6 feet in length!

 

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As JJ Walker used to say "[SIZE=21pt]DYN-O-Mite[/SIZE]

Don,

Last year I ran a twin and raced it in three different races. I only ran it with one receiver and actually I hate to say it but it was an AM Futaba receievr with Magnum Senior radio I used. But it was in a big cat it wasn't something of a pond rocket like the Andy Brown riggers out there. The next twin I build will definitely have the double said up you referred to. Why, maybe because it's a safe way to protect a huge investment. I've owned 6 twins in my life and ran them all on AM receivers and never lost them.

 

[dsl_raven]

I plan on mounting my rcvr thus:

3M 5200 Radio box base. Servos rubber-mounted as normal to rails themselves mounted to the radio box inside via 5200.

I was going to mount the rcvr the way I normally would in a plane - just wrap it in 1/4" of foam and call it a day. Now I may 5200 some dowels in place, and sort-of suspend the rcvr in midair through the use of foam layers - the closed-cell pool-noodle variety (though you can buy it in sheets). It should be strong enough with the right thickness, and in the larger hulls it should be no sweat to install.

It'd be kind of like the old movies where the firemen would catch someone in a blanket - the dowels are the firefighters, the rcvr is the victim and you just put another layer over top of it.

This is for my B tunnel. Probably don't need to go 'this far' but I'm going to anyhow.

My last radio box survived an impact from a Balsa USA Stick 40 on floats going just about as fast as I've ever seen (vertical). My little fast electric didn't have a chance but it was honestly worse for the plane. I came back with 2" of water in the hull, motor already flooded (but still running), but the radio box was bone dry. Pretty good seeing how the prop hit it.

 

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Raven,

You can never take too much precaution!

 

[Mark Anderson]

Don

Not only are twin recievers a good idea in a twin, but I think they should be considered manditory. I have a dual radio system in my 90 boat. I don't even think about saving my equipment. I do it to protect my self from a law suit. Think about an 80-90 mph 12 pound boat hitting a person. No one has enough insurance to cover that kind of law suit. The bigger boats have plenty of room and the extra few ounces won't effect them. It is no more complex to set up or operate. I also put the mixture control on the steering reciever, so no matter which side has a failure I can stop the boat. I have never had a failure but the added security is worth the very small amount of effort it takes.

Mark

 

[Don Ferrette]

DonNot only are twin recievers a good idea in a twin, but I think they should be considered manditory. I have a dual radio system in my 90 boat. I don't even think about saving my equipment. I do it to protect my self from a law suit. Think about an 80-90 mph 12 pound boat hitting a person. No one has enough insurance to cover that kind of law suit. The bigger boats have plenty of room and the extra few ounces won't effect them. It is no more complex to set up or operate. I also put the mixture control on the steering reciever, so no matter which side has a failure I can stop the boat. I have never had a failure but the added security is worth the very small amount of effort it takes.

Mark

Yup, an out of control twin is a scary thought ................