I beseech thee, oh Brushless Gods....

I'm looking to pick up a Villain EX. So far, all my flying endeavors have ended with very frustrating (although gut-busting laughter material for the onlookers) mishaps. I really wouldn't mind flying, but it sure is getting expensive crashing.

So...I'm figuring I'd like to do some brushless high-speed water escapades.

I'm figuring I'll start off with a Traxxas Villain EX (fairly cheap and from what I've read it handles rough water, which I have plenty of out here). I'd like to find out how to make it a reliable driver with brushless power.

I've read of some people turning it into a single-prop set-up...that could possibly be something I'd like to do. Also, dual brushless doesn't seem to bad either. I just need to be steered in the right direction starting point. Has anyone here tried this before? Either a single prop or dual brushless?


Feedback would be most appreciative. I was also considering a ProBoat Shockwave 26, but after talking to some of the boat folks here, they recommended against it, as the hull was too small to handle the rollers we have out here. They mostly recommended the Villain.

I also spied a nice 45" boat on Hobbytron...the Darter King. I wouldn't mind taking that and converting it to brushless, but I'm not too sure about how to get it done.

Can anyone offer me any advice (besides to go jump in a lake) on how to go about doing this? I would be most appreciative.

[Unsullied_Spy]

The Villain is stable in rough water, but at speed it gets iffy. Turn fins will help a lot.

Here's my BL Villain:
http://www.rc-monster.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17578

[TexasSP]

For the flying why not sink 200 on a simulator. I have the great planes one and it is a blast. Best thing is that I can crash with no worries. You can also go online and find about any plane or heli model you can think of to fly.

Originally Posted by Unsullied_Spy

The Villain is stable in rough water, but at speed it gets iffy. Turn fins will help a lot.

Here's my BL Villain:
http://www.rc-monster.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17578

very nice! This is definitely something to add to the bookmarks...I've been looking at a BL Villain, but I'm also curious to attempt to convert it to a single surface drive.

The "two of everything" route seems like it could get expensive rather quickly.

But I like what you did...it looks like a crudload of fun.

Originally Posted by TexasSP

For the flying why not sink 200 on a simulator. I have the great planes one and it is a blast. Best thing is that I can crash with no worries. You can also go online and find about any plane or heli model you can think of to fly.

I've tried the sims, and I can always fly pretty decently on 'em.

It could also be the quality of the planes that I'm getting. I'm always hoping for the diamond in the rough.


So far all I've found is rough. Damn diamonds...

[Unsullied_Spy]

Originally Posted by BUSAFIED

very nice! This is definitely something to add to the bookmarks...I've been looking at a BL Villain, but I'm also curious to attempt to convert it to a single surface drive.

The "two of everything" route seems like it could get expensive rather quickly.

But I like what you did...it looks like a crudload of fun.

There were quite a few people telling me I should convert it to a single fixed outdrive with an independant rudder, but to me that's not a Villain. With my conversion I wanted to keep it a Villain, just trick it out so it's not so boring to drive.

Doubles sure does get pricey, that's why I started off with such cheap electronics in case it failed catastrophically. So far I've been quite impressed with the ESCs. They are very smooth, reliable, compact, run very cool, and are IMO the best ESCs for the money. I can't say the same about the motors, but I'm going to keep lubing up the bearings and get them some watercooling and run them until they literally fall apart then replace them with some Feigaos unless I can afford better.

[zeropointbug]

I have a Villain EX myself that I was thinking of converting to brushless... maybe some outrunner motors direct drive, no gear reduction?

It's pretty fast with a 5s A123 pack however and watercooling kit, maybe I'll get a video of it soon. I was going to try making a 6s pack for it, the EVX can barely handle the voltage though, when pack is fresh, it turns on and off for the first couple of trigger pulls... the voltage just has to come down a sprinkle.

Originally Posted by Unsullied_Spy

There were quite a few people telling me I should convert it to a single fixed outdrive with an independant rudder, but to me that's not a Villain. With my conversion I wanted to keep it a Villain, just trick it out so it's not so boring to drive.

Doubles sure does get pricey, that's why I started off with such cheap electronics in case it failed catastrophically. So far I've been quite impressed with the ESCs. They are very smooth, reliable, compact, run very cool, and are IMO the best ESCs for the money. I can't say the same about the motors, but I'm going to keep lubing up the bearings and get them some watercooling and run them until they literally fall apart then replace them with some Feigaos unless I can afford better.

Aah...I see. Perhaps I'll follow your lead on this one...and maybe I can squeeze a monster out of it.

[Unsullied_Spy]

The problem with an outrunner in a boat is cooling it. It'd amazingly powerful for a few minutes but the total lack of air cooling would overheat it in a few minutes.

Props (no pun intended) for pushing that EVX-2 that far, I've heard they can handle a fair bit more voltage than they're rated to but as many of those as I've seen melt down I'd rather not.

[Unsullied_Spy]

Originally Posted by BUSAFIED

Aah...I see. Perhaps I'll follow your lead on this one...and maybe I can squeeze a monster out of it.

My way of doing it is rather simple, a guy could probably do it all in a night if he had all the parts ready. If you wanted to strip it down and go single outdrive why not buy a SuperVee or something else with a better hull that's designed to be run that way? I'm still shocked at how well it runs, I was expecting quite a few issues in the testing phase but it's rock solid which isn't bad considering I am using the cheapest motors I know of with ESCs that could have ended up being really bad. Water cooling and 3s lipos are soon to come, and then I should be seeing ~30 MPH. My goal is 35 (even with my turn fins the hull will probably struggle to keep control) which I think can be achieved by simply gearing it taller. I intend to keep these ESCs, they are 100x better than I was expecting, but the motors may be swapped out for a pair of VXLs/Feigao 10s (same motor) for a little extra grunt.

So those ESC's are good, eh? Very nice. Looks like I might hafta pick up a couple too.


Right now I'm embarking on a modification endeavor. I stopped by the local Kmart the other night and picked up a Waverider. Cost me $37.

I ended up strapping my 4S SMC CMax lipo to it, and much to my dismay, the boat didn't move all that much quicker. Before the night was done, one of the motors ended up giving out.

So now I have a motor (from one of the many planes that I crashed) that I will try and smoosh into the rear of the hull. I have solder, a Mamba 25, receiver, servo, hot glue and plenty of determination.

The motor from the plane absolutley RIPS on 2S. I don't think I need to worry about heat too much...the motors were rated for 9.6v, so I think I should be fine.


I'm crossing my fingers that everything goes ok.

[Unsullied_Spy]

For the price, I'd say they're quite good.

Could be interesting to see a cheapie boat go like a stabbed rat!

oh yeah...I'm sure it'll be pretty good.

Well, at least I really hope it does. I'll try to get some clips for you.

[zeropointbug]

My Villain is actually the EVX, not the EVX-2... which I hear is of lesser quality, robustness? IIRC?

I have the watercooling kit for it which keeps the Titans cool when skippin over the water at 25mph (estimated), it's pretty darn quick. At full throttle for the entire run, the runtime is around 8 mins. I hooked the Eagletree up to it, and it draws around 350 - 400 watts, and thats continuous. The 5s1p pack can get up to around 150F when I take it out on a hot day. Motors are 125F.

I would like to be up at just over 30mph and run nice and cool with some brushless motors, longer runtime too I guess.

[steveo]

i had a old villian that had lying around the shed at least 12 years old, when i was getting into FE boats found this article and did the same thing only i used a single spec 700 motor 12 cells about 30mph, use good hardware makes for a fun project not much room for most hardware make sure you measure

look for p-offshore,http://www.lousfastrc.com/