Couple of really basic questions...A really interesting Hobby!!

[dodiano]

Ok I don´t know a thing about RC submarines so I have a couple of questions:

1) How deep can they submerge??
2) What are the hulls made off?
3) How do they sink and surface ??
4) DO you flood part of the hull for it to go down??
5) What type of Transmitter and receivers you use??

And I want one but I´m poor :)

Thanks.

Roberto

[Nemo]

I've got a basic FAQ on my website at RC-Sub.com (http://www.rc-sub.com).

1.) How deep? A long way... whether or not they come back up is another matter altogether. Not many run deeper than they can be seen, say four or five feet, but there are stories about depths in excess of thirty safely reached.

2.) What are they made of? Blood, sweat, and tears (and lots of money). Acturally fibreglass mostly. Some brave souls use wood, but it never holds up well. Some smaller and cheaper kits are made from plastic.

3.) How do they submerge? Two methods: dynamic and static diving. Dynamic divers use the diving planes and foward speed to force the sub under the water. Once forward speed is lost, the sub rises. Static subs (real subs) use a floodable ballast tank to make the sub heavier and (obviously) sink. Benefit to this method is that a more scale speed can be used, and it is easier to dive.

4.) What gets flooded? The ballast tank only. There are 'wet' hull and 'dry' hulled subs. Dry hull subs are completely dry inside, while wet hull subs flood everything inside except the electronics compartments. Dry hulled subs are very heavy, as the empty area within needs to be offset with weight to get the model to sit at the correct waterline. Wet hulled subs are much lighter.

5.) Any surface frequency radio can be used. Don't use an airplane radio. The gov't doesn't like that. Remeber that a static diver will need at least four channels, and you'll probably like another two for extra features. I use an Airtronics VG600 (cheap and easy to use).

Hope this helps. My FAQ is a lot more in-depth. Be sure to check it out.

[dodiano]

Thanks man!! This explanation was really amazzing!! Thanks a lot.

Roberto

[BrittB]

Good reply Nemo! The other thing to mention about a dynamic diver is that it uses up your battery in no time flat. A sub with a ballast tank can run, with the right battery, up to 4 hours. My subs with the 12 volt 5 amp batteries could do this.

Britt