Ray
You're a man after my own heart. How many times I've seen a beautifully-made model with wiring like a rat's entrails; the wrong size battery for the motor used, wire which is too thin (or thick) for the job, choc-block connectors for high-current circuits, wires joined by twisting them together, PVC insulation tape wrapped around such joints - the list goes on. Whenever any observation is made about it the owner trots out some remark like "O, I don't understand electronics" as if that's a sort of badge of honour.
Operating electrically-powered model boats and not having a clue (or a care) about the basics of DC electricity is not cool - it's just lazy, or worse.
There's a link here to the Model Boats website where you'll find an article which covers just about everything you need to know - and there's no 'electronics' involved
http://www.modelboats.co.uk/news/article/but-i-don-t-understand-electronics/18054With suppliers like Component Shop who can sell you practically everything you need in the way of cables, connectors, batteries, chargers, switches and a whole range of model boat electronics then there really is no excuse for those horrible installations Ray mentions.
In my experience as a manufacturer of model electronics most of the problems which arise are the result of poor wiring or flat batteries. Less than half the units sent back for repair actually have anything wrong with them, and of those which do most of the faults are caused by incorrect connection or other abuse by the owner.
Like Ray says, if it looks right then it generally is, and it's much easier to trace a fault if you're not being attacked from all directions by loose wires!
My regime for wiring a boat is straightforward:
- Plan the job and get the right materials together before you start. Don't make do with something which isn't right for the job just because you have it to hand.
- Charge up all batteries before starting any installation.
- Start the job with the main battery and cable it up to the main switch - then test it.
- Fit any fuse and retest.
- Continue adding one unit at a time and testing it, then disconnect the battery and add the next unit. Don't wire everything up all at once and leave testing to the end. If you do the job in stages then if anything does go wrong you'll know that it was the the last step which caused it.
If it
was rocket-science then I'd have taken up basket-weaving long ago!
Dave M