ProBoat's new 29" Mystic Brushless catamaran

[desmobob]

The prop looks like a Prather 215, in fact it may be, cant read the writing on the end of the hub..........kinda scratched up from the nut.

I just put on my cheaters and took a look at mine. It says "PRB4019"

One thing I forgot to comment on... The ESC's battery leads are kind of skinny, aren't they? My 40C LiPos came with 8 or 10AWG wires, and the ESC has 14AWG. I thought the typical max amperage for 14AWG wire was 40A.

Take it easy,
desmobob

[Make-a-Wake]

I just put on my cheaters and took a look at mine. It says "PRB4019"

One thing I forgot to comment on... The ESC's battery leads are kind of skinny, aren't they? My 40C LiPos came with 8 or 10AWG wires, and the ESC has 14AWG. I thought the typical max amperage for 14AWG wire was 40A.

Take it easy,
desmobob

LOL............yep. i'm not used to working with such small wires............motor wires are painfully thin as well. The wires fit into the bullets with lots of room to spare when soldering them on...............i'm used to having to cram 8 gauge wires into bullets.

[Darin Jordan]

The prop looks like a Prather 215, in fact it may be, cant read the writing on the end of the hub..........kinda scratched up from the nut.

The prop is essentially a copy of the Prather 215, and is not new. The Elam/MG/BJ26 etc. plastic prop is the same, just plastic... These stainless props really should be prepped if you want to get the full performance out of them. It looks to me like they took a raw Prather 215 casting and made a casting of that... Not ideal.

I measured them, and the stock MG prop actually has more pitch (2.49 vs 2.57, or something like that)... However, flex likely flattens out the MG prop under load, which is why the STLO/Mystic prop appears to outperform the plastic version.

[Derrick Davis]

Hi Darin,

When you say "prep", I'm assuming that your referring to balancing and sharpening the stock stainless steel prop, correct? Any special handling with this process since its stainless steel? I'm still learning....
Thanks.
D

[Derrick Davis]

By the way....Thanks to those of you that suggested doing an inspection of the motor alignment, tightening screws, etc.. Should have been a no brainer for me. I found that the motor was slighly angled on mine. Surely this put unnecessary stress on the drive system with those first couple of runs out of the box. Since I straightened the motor I have not heard the whinning noise. I hope that was the issue. Lesson learned.....I think.

[Darin Jordan]

By the way....Thanks to those of you that suggested doing an inspection of the motor alignment, tightening screws, etc.. Should have been a no brainer for me. I found that the motor was slighly angled on mine. Surely this put unnecessary stress on the drive system with those first couple of runs out of the box. Since I straightened the motor I have not heard the whinning noise. I hope that was the issue. Lesson learned.....I think.

Like I said before, you never know who might have assembled this things overseas... They just bolt everything together, and often don't worry much about alignment... ALWAYS give them a good once-over!

As far as "prepping" the stainless props... I haven't really done that many, but the ones I have done, I've done using my Dremel tool and one of the reinforced cut-off wheels. I use the face of the wheel like a sanding surface, and just work my way up and down the forward side of the blade, thinning and sharpening. Once I get it to a certain point, I start playing with balance, and then switch to finer, rubberized rotary abrasives... Once I'm happy with the balance and sharpening, I buff everything in my bench-grinder-converted-to-buffing-wheel, and then usually go over them with a final wet-sanding with 400-600 grit wet/dry.

You have to be patient... takes about 1 to 1.5 hours per prop for me, depending on how rough the original casting was.

Ultimately, you'll find that you'll have better luck using an Octura, ABC, or Grim prop, because you can work them easier, adding pitch and cup and back-cutting, etc., to tailor the prop to your boat. I honestly wouldn't spend that much effort on the stock prop, though it CAN be made to work well. Start off with a good sharpening and get it balanced decently and you might be surprised. The Prather 215 is a REALLY good prop when setup on the right application...

[desmobob]

I put my Mystic 29 in the water today! It was my first time on the water with an R/C boat.

Here's what I found:

* I used too much industrial-strength Velcro on the battery trays... I pulled one of the trays loose trying to adjust my battery to change the CG. It ended my outing part-way into the second pair of batteries. I'll epoxy them both in place and reduce the amount of Velcro I used on them.

* The boat goes like stink! It's fast! I started with the batteries on the middle/rear of the trays and had some porpoising. I moved them up a bit and it just about disappeared. I moved them up some more and it came back, worse than before.

* On the second pair of batteries, I started to hear some howling. I had carefully aligned my motor to the drive shaft and had the recommended amount of extra length at the strut (~1mm). I also checked and greased the drive shaft before I ran the boat for the first time. I noticed that the Teflon liner had moved up the shaft and was up against the collet. Any ideas?

*The motor and ESC stayed plenty cool, but my Zippy 2s 5000mah 40-50C LiPos got pretty warm. I also ran the first set down to LVC and it came sooner than I thought, but I wasn't keeping track of time and was having a lot of fun.... I'll add a LiPo cell voltage alarm next time. I'll also invest in a nicer Tx that has a timer.

* The Zippy LiPos have the battery leads exiting 90 deg. out the side of the end of the battery. It makes for a tough fit when trying to run the leads off the trays on the inboard sides. I'll see if they have enough length to try laying the batteries in place with the leads outboard next time.

* I lost speed at one point and brought the boat in to find some weeds hanging off the rudder. I don't recall seeing the boat look like it hit anything, but I noticed the rudder was bent back a few degrees when I packed up to leave. Could hitting the weeds (a few strands of milfoil) have done that?

I can't wait to get her set up and running well. A buddy of mine bought one too, and he's coming up to the lake this weekend. I think we're going to have a good time.

Take it easy,
desmobob

[ron1950]

my geigo did the same thing on the battery trays,,,just glue em back in ,,,no sweat.....

[Derrick Davis]

desmobob. Thanks for providing some feed back on your knew Mystic.
Interesting...
The howling you have described sounds similar to my experience after the 2nd or 3rd set of batteries. Coincidence? Stay tuned. I'm going to run mine tonight while my son trys to keep up with his stock Blackjack! Fun stuff!!
Two Mystics on the water should make for a fun weekend. Make sure your buddy greases the flex shaft before his first run.

[desmobob]

desmobob. Thanks for providing some feed back on your knew Mystic.
Interesting...
The howling you have described sounds similar to my experience after the 2nd or 3rd set of batteries. Coincidence? Stay tuned. I'm going to run mine tonight while my son trys to keep up with his stock Blackjack! Fun stuff!!
Two Mystics on the water should make for a fun weekend. Make sure your buddy greases the flex shaft before his first run.

Thanks for the welcome, Double D.

I just came up from the workshop. I epoxied both my battery trays in place and replaced the full-length strip of industrial-strength Velcro with several small strips of regular Velcro. That should prevent me from ripping out a battery tray again!

As for the howl, I checked my flex shaft and it looked fine. Of course, I'm a total newbie when it comes to boats and had no idea what I was looking for. The grease was tan in some areas, so I guess some water gets in there. Is that normal? ...seems like it would be.

Now that I have it back together, I realize I should have checked the motor bearings. I can't imagine that would be a problem after one run, but SOMETHING'S causing the howl.... On a positive note, the boat didn't seem to slow down at all when the noise started, so it doesn't seem to be too big of a problem. (So far.)

I can see that this boat probably has me hooked.


Take it easy,
desmobob

[tiqueman]

Hey all. The howl you hear is indeed probably the shaft screaming in the bushings inside the strut. One thing id also like to comment on and I hope dr j will key in, many of us, includinmg myself had issues with the stock bushings in the geico. They would scream and eventually because of the cheap metal they are made from would seiz the shaft which in some cases lead to very bad things. Darin if I remember correctly wasn't sure if pb resolved that issue. A bushing swap may be beneficial. Even if they did put something diferent inside, a couple dollars for an octura, aeromarine or the bushing kintec has is worth every penny.

And to all the newbs, congrats on your new boat. In my opinion it and the geico are two of the best rtrs available. A few tweaks and such and you'll be right out front.

[desmobob]

Hey all. The howl you hear is indeed probably the shaft screaming in the bushings inside the strut. One thing id also like to comment on and I hope dr j will key in, many of us, includinmg myself had issues with the stock bushings in the geico. They would scream and eventually because of the cheap metal they are made from would seiz the shaft which in some cases lead to very bad things. Darin if I remember correctly wasn't sure if pb resolved that issue. A bushing swap may be beneficial. Even if they did put something diferent inside, a couple dollars for an octura, aeromarine or the bushing kintec has is worth every penny.

And to all the newbs, congrats on your new boat. In my opinion it and the geico are two of the best rtrs available. A few tweaks and such and you'll be right out front.

Thanks, tiqueman.

If someone could point me to the correct strut bushing, I'll order one up immediately. Better safe than sorry. Besides, I need to get some other goodies, so I'm ready to make an order.

Thanks again for the help; I appreciate it.

Take it easy,
desmobob

[tiqueman]

I'm on my phone so linking takes a bit, but if you go in the ose store, I think its in hardware, octura 3/16 bushings. Part no. Is oc6ltsb(5). Being 5 in a pack, you will need two. Or kintec has them, on their site, click miss geico upgrades and scroll down hhe has a custom one piece bushing he makes. Real nice piece, I just installed one for someone. I've been running the octuras forever and their great.

[desmobob]

I'm on my phone so linking takes a bit, but if you go in the ose store, I think its in hardware, octura 3/16 bushings. Part no. Is oc6ltsb(5). Being 5 in a pack, you will need two. Or kintec has them, on their site, click miss geico upgrades and scroll down hhe has a custom one piece bushing he makes. Real nice piece, I just installed one for someone. I've been running the octuras forever and their great.

Thanks, tiqueman... I found them.

Do you mean I'll need two bushings or two packages of five? The strut is long and those bushings look short, so I'm wondering if I need one bushing at each end, or if I need to fill the length of the strut with them. Bear with me... I'm a clueless newb when it comes to boat stuff. I'm a quick learner and it seems like there are a lot of experienced gentlemen to learn from around here, so I'm looking forward to getting an education. :-)

Thanks again for your help,
desmobob

[tiqueman]

Sorry, yes one package. You will only use 2 of the 5. One in front, one in back. And the bushings have to slide out from the end they are in... unless they changed the strut but I doubt it. Thoers probably a lip inside between the two.