The Original Ace nautical Commander 7 Ch transmitter did not function properly. My frustration reached its limit when I finally got it to work, but the Starboard throttle did not respond. I was then forced to re arrange the 3 motors controllers to work together as a single unit to a single throttle stick on my Spektrum 2.4 ghz transmitter which functioned fine.

however,,,,

I started taking a closer look at the Ace Transmitter and found the problem. The soldering contact to that throttle lever was completely separated.

I will have that connection re soldered and separate all motors back to their original 3 motor control configuration.

I will keep the single battery to all 3 controllers system.

Details soon.

Isaac

p.s. some of my reporting have been on other threads on our forum here.

Good news! The broken connection to the starboard throttle lever in the Ace nautical Commander transmitter was soldered today.

The connectors from the ESC / BEC were modified to be plugged each directly to its own channel in the receiver.

Servo wire extenders were used for each controller with two of the extenders having their red wires cut and insulated.

Now we are back to original configuration with fresh connectors. Each motor can be controlled individually.

I had to adjust the trim position for each ESC so at neutral, none of the motors turn. Not difficult! Small screwdriver turn on the two internal knobs.

Next I have to reattach the long antenna wire.

All fun 😎😎😎

Isaac

The good news is that I got the Ace transmitter working all the channels.

I put the boat in the water and it functioned nicely.

Then after about 15 minutes of running, she stopped dead in the water.

A few seconds later the transmitter felt hot. I turned it off. And removed the back housing. Smoke came out. I disconnected the 9.6 v battery pack.

I did not notice any fire damage?

I then rescued it with my tug boat.

I am done with this radio.

I will post on my other blog regarding this Torpedo boat

Isaac

Here are two videos of the boat running using the old Ace transmitter. The transmitter failed after 15 minutes of running. 👎👎🤕🤕😭😭

Boat motors running on 2S LiPo battery ( 7.4V )

The back story soon.

Anyhow, it was a fun run

Isaac

I finally got the original Ace radio to work with the boat.

After running the boat for close to 15 minutes, the boat stopped dead. The transmitter external battery was hot and I disconnected it from the transmitter.

Root cause was multiple internal locations where the insulation was frayed, but it was really mostly my fault.

A bit of background information:
I replaced the original dead battery ( which was not original since it looked like it was replaced and rewired internally with different connectors ). But, I wanted the battery pack to be outside the transmitter case so I can easily charge it. That was a good idea. However, I should have made a cut out for the wires leading out of the metal transmitter case.☹️ The wires got pinched when I closed the back of the transmitter, cut thru the insulation and shorted the battery. Oy...😮

See photos.

It is all repairable though.👍

to be continued.................

Isaac

So now that we know that the torpedo boat died in the water due to transmitter issues, it was still stranded in the middle of the pond. I had to retrieve it.

not a problem, I have multiple boats to rescue it.

So my wife said, 👍 "use the tug boat" to push it to shore. I said, let me use the large shrimp fishing boat and drag a long rope behind it and then snag the old torpedo boat to bring it in. 🤞

so....

After a couple of turns around the torpedo boat, the fishing boat died and would not move. The rope snagged the fishing boat propeller and now I had two dead boats in the water. 😠😠😠

frustrating.

My wife was right, I got the tug boat ready.

Sure enough, I ran it to the torpedo boat and within a few minutes, I pushed it to the shore. Yey....rescue number one👍😎

Now it was time to rescue the fishing boat.

So I head the tug to the fishing boat and started to push it. However, within a few seconds it to stopped and somehow got snagged by the rope from the fishing boat. Oops, I now had a third boat dead in the water. Not good.

I was thinking of sending another boat out there to rescue the two tangled boats, but decided against it for fear of losing it as well.

As it turned out the winds and waves cooperated and the tangled mess of the boats made it to shore after 30 minutes or so😔😁🙄🙄🙄.

When I pulled one boat out of the water, the other one pulled as well. Both props were a tangled to each other.

Moral of the story : listen to your wife!!!!!!!!!!👍😎😍

and that is no fish story!

Isaac

The old torpedo boat is finally ready. All the wiring and controls are working and I’m using my aircraft Spektrum radio.

All three motors are are joined and operate via a single throttle.

Currently I coupled two LiPo 2S 7.4 volts at 5200 mAh each running in parallel. Not bad, but I ordered 3S batteries and see if the old boat can handle it.

Attached are two videos I took today 😎😎😎

Isaac

I just got two new batteries; 👍LiPo 3S that’s 11.1 volts at 5,200 mAh each. Coupled in parallel to keep the voltage. At 11.1 nominal. Ran the boat at medium speed for 15 minutes. Batteries check at 74 percent still available. That means I can comfortably run for 30 minutes with reserve. That’s more than enough for me.

This boat lives this amount of power.

Check out the video 👍

Isaac

I just took the old torpedo boat out to play with the local sail boat regatta.

Stayed out of their way, but still cruised around.

All fun.

Pics including the other sail boats here

Isaac

My main problem with this big and heavy boat is to lower it to the water.

I could not do it from the dock because there is a drop to the water. So I had to find a shallow area at the pond that I can lower the boat. That was a pain in the butt.

One of the fellows showed me his sail boat cradle. I liked it, but had to make an engineering modification to lift the big boat.

Here is my solution made out of 1 inch diameter PVC plastic pipes o got at the local hardware store.

I’ll test it soon

Isaac