I know of two ways of water cooling for our boats... And I was wondering which people have had the most success with? 1.) Pipe located forward of the prop & pointed directly towards the prop.. the other side of the tube is directly in the water. The idea is the prop will create a low pressure area directly forward of itself & will suck water through the ship 2.) Pipe located aft of the prop & pointed down. The pipe is cut slightly angled so it is better facing the prop. The other side of the tube is above the waterline. The idea is the prop will act like a pump & push water through the ship.
The only one I've seen was the first one, and while I have no specific numbers on temperature,e tc... the captain was happy with it, and said his motors never even got hot. The same captain also had a cooling coil around the pump motor, with the discharge from the pump going thru the coil before going overboard. Pretty slick.
If you have to even think about cooling on a scale model warship, then you've got something seriously out of whack! Severe mismatch between power, ESC, motors, & drive train. There should be no reason at all to water cool a scale ship's ESC if the components are anywhere close to being well matched. JM
I completely dissagree. I think the most ESC problems are people don't watercool. I don't know if I "have to" watercool, but why chance it?? The ESC is generating heat in a enclosed space, sounds like a receipe for disaster to me. Besides, It is not a complicated build, its not expensive, and it will not break... so why not? I don't know if this will make a difference in your opinion, but remember the NJ is fighting MWC as well... So there are much higher current requirement than what you are used to.
Believe me, I can make a ship go unrealistically fast without generating a bunch of excess heat. If you need water cooling, then your component choices are faulty, period, for any sort of scale ship. Now, if you were talking about racing boats, that would be a different matter. Incidentally, I used to do MWC. Neither I, nor anybody else in my area, needed water cooling. JM
OK I respect your opinion. However, the makers of the ESC say watercool when in watertight boxes, ESCs in general have been getting a bad rap for releasing their magic smoke, others in my area have seen performance & longevity gains using watercooling, I can't see how it would hurt, and I'm already finished with it... So the NJ is watercooled. Please NOTE: You might be right I may not NEED watercooling, the NJ has not even seen sea trials yet... That is scheduled for ~April 28th. I just want to prevent the worst case scenario... damaging those expensive lil ESCs.
Justin... I have often thought about water cooling (which is why my waterproof box for my esc is A. made out of aluminum, B. is press fit as well as bonded together, and C. sits in the water channel), I have thought about the external methods a bit but where I battle they would quickly be plugged. One bit of advice I have is to choose an overkill ESC, as that generally will preclude problems. The other thing I will answer at the end of this season is the usefulness and fit of brushless motors in the hobby (this relates to the topic because they will run cooler if chosen properly and play nicer with the available esc's when stalled, generally speaking). They ran very well last season but I want another season under my belt (anyone interested can start a new thread on them and I can chat your ear off).
With all the ESC overheating issues we had over the last year, I'm inclined to do anything I can to protect mine.
Greg... I'm interested in what you have to say about brushless motors, although I will retain my brushed ones. Go ahead and start a topic, I will join you. I think you are right about the muck. This is another reason why I chose option #1, I figure it will be less inclined to muck up. We will see! >overkill ESC 2 inner motor: http://www.modelcontrol.com/maxminicon.htm 50 amp continuous | 120 amp 5 second surge --> I consider this enough of an overkill; don't you? >With all the ESC overheating issues we had over the last year, I'm inclined to do anything I can to protect mine. Exactly what I was thinking Tuggy... Seize up a motor, who cares? Buy a new one. Burn an ESC --> Cry like a little baby.
a thought on the water cooling issue, why not utilize a similar system found in computers? use a small holding tank, a water pump and keep the system closed. no muck to worry about and no extra holes in your hull
And embed the holding tank in the bottom of the hull so's it has contact with the cooler pond water...
The smaller tank would heat up quickly, which would probably INCREASE the amount of heat in your case. Comments that I can think of off the top of my head: Water holds heat much better than anything else in your case, so after a while it would actually wind up heating your case. because water holds heat well, simply embedding it to the bottom wouldn't probably too much The less water sloshing around in a case, the better. Increased weight of water would increase the model weight dramatically To be effective, you would probably been somesort of radiator... which might not be waterproof, & will add more weight & complexity. Another solution to the much would simply be put some grating over the input port. >I will try to add photos to the photo section this week after I sheet & paint the NJ.
If you have en extra RC channel, you could do like the Navy does with every suction sea chest (grating for you landlubbers), and put in a valve that blows high pressure gas into the seachest to clear fouling...
there's always the option of "keel coolers". for those who don't know what those are, think of them as radiators that are on the outside bottom of the hull. the system is closed (no clogs from debris), and there is a constant heat exchange with the pond water keeping the cooling water cool.
