Micro R/C boat!!

[Softspike321]

Yesterday, I went to Wal-Mart and there were some mini cars on the shelf. I picked up one of the motorworks and behind it were some Micro R/C boats!!!! I bought one (they're $14.95, $16.03 with tax. US dollars.)and it is awesome!! Its full function with two motors and dual cells! Another advantage is that the charger charges dual cells, so you can use it on your dual cell cars! The boat is about 5 inches long and about 1 1/2 inches wide. I crusies at about 1 foot per second. Heres some pictures.

Please put this in a new forum!!!!

[Softspike321]

The Boat:

[Softspike321]

Inside:

[Softspike321]

Rear end:

[Softspike321]

The boat and remote:

[Softspike321]

The boat charging:

[Softspike321]

The charger:

[frizzen]

So it uses differential thrust?

Pretty cool find! Is it a motorworks, or was it just in that same area?

[Jtskty]

I have a boat just like that but mine is blue and my brothers is white. We got them in a two pack from sharper image with one charger. I wanted to open mine up and try to quad cell it but I couldn't figure an easy way to open it. How did you get yours open?

[Softspike321]

To take it apart, you have to really work at it. Grab the rear end(the part that sticks out on the top) and pull on it hard. WARNING: You will have to glue it back together!
A quad cell may not work because it might be too heavy. I tried to put 2 AA batteries in and it was too heavy and it sunk. Luckily it was in the sink. Try it out and see. After you do, blow on the circuit board to get all the water off.

[Softspike321]

yes it is a motorworks boat.

[theoneinventor]

anyone have any videos of a boat or a sub? i would really like some.

[NF08oldskool]

Is it possible to take the dual cells out of the boat and put it in a Bit, and will the motors fit in a Bit?

[frizzen]

After all this time, I picked one up over the weekend. Nice boat, deep V hull, decent speed stock, pretty stable at rest and at speed, comes on plane fast, doesn't swamp too easily. Walmart, "Motorworks" $14.88 + tax, 27 and 49 mhz available, TX uses a 9v, charger uses 4 AA.

Couple changes / concerns I'd like to mention:

First off, the charger now uses a standard power plug (think Wall Wart type male) rather than the 2 pin and a car base type thing which snaps on. Maybe a bit safer, less likely to break; but you can't slap on a dual cell car without mods.

My big concern is the differential thrust on mine is backwards. Left Forward on TX causes Right motor to spin Forward, and Right on TX is Left on boat. Not too horrible, or even to fix, it just annoies me. Mine might be a factory error, or it might be their current state, I don't know. Also, mine has no wheel on the helm.

Planned MODS: Variable resistor or pot for motor trim (though mine are balancing out now that I've put some more time on it), thinking about tossing in a 3rd battery cell, maybe some closed cell foam for additional bouyancy, some nice sharp planing chines / strakes to improve it's high-speed performance, custom graphics on top of hull, wax/polish lower hull...

I'm working on making a boat trailer (based off one found at a toy store many many years ago) to pull behind either a ZZ-M or a Dual-celled RC Semi found at a truckstop.

I'm vaguely considering the idea of upgrading to high performance motors (probably just ZipZap for availability issues) so that it'll be more capible of running hot laps on my koi pond than just poking around in the bathtub.

[giraffe]

nice find.. how do them things work(speed..turning...acceleration and so on) or are they just a pile, thinking about getting one. i dont know about turning in ur pic it didnt have the little piece that moves side to side(maybe rudder idont know).