Bancroft PT-596 Patrol Boat - RTR

[RSRN]

Hello pdansalvish,
Here's how I got to shapeway page through this link https://matthewsmodelmarine.wordpress.com They offer a wide variety of cumstom PT supplies in various scales. I have not worked with acrylics before, sounds as though they can be tricky, but do offer a very nice scale touch.

[patmat2350]

Direct link: https://www.shapeways.com/shops/patmat
and look for the PT item sections.

[Rascal76]

Has anyone received the replacement ESC yet? Can anyone confirm shipment?

[pdansalvish]

I have not received mine yet. According to the email I received they're supposed to be shipped via Air Mail. However, that was on Oct 8th. I guess they are using China Clipper aircraft to bring them from China. The other problem they could be stuck in customs.

[Alpha]

Motion RC's CS Team should be sending out notifications today to the five PT-596 tickets and other vessels. I can post here that in a nutshell, the factory has completed extensive testing over the past two weeks to weed through competing possibilities, identify the root cause, tested new ESC candidates, selected the best one, and ordered those new ESCs from Hobbywing. The PT-596's three motor configuration was tested originally with an air-cooled ESC setup that I approved, however when that ESC's supply ran short the factory made a last minute change based on the ESC supplier's recommendation, that ultimately as we see was not ideal. Needless to say, they now know to never do that without our consent again.

So, as of last week a new model of air-cooled Hobbywing ESC was identified and ordered, and is shipping this week. That's what you will receive. Please refer to your individual Service Tickets for further updates over the coming days as those are mailed from China to the US and distributed to each of you under free warranty coverage. These are drop in ESCs, no cutting or soldering required, and will take about a minute to swap in.

Many thanks

[pdansalvish]

Alpha,

Thanks for the update and explanation. Unfortunately, with the late arrival of the boats and the wrong ESC I am going to miss my opprotunity to run my PT boat except in my bathtub. After Halloween weekend, I lose access to the lake I were I was going to run my PT boat. I do have access to pond in my neighborhood however, it might not go over too well with association.

[RSRN]

Hello PT owners,
Good news that a fix is on the way, although as pdan pointed out for some of us the weather will preclude much future boating this season. Who would have thought RTR meant Ready to Repair.
Also just a question on what color green the hull is, has anyone tried to duplicate it. I know some have said there was a repaint in their boats future. Let me know when the ESC's start to arrive, I'll do the same.

[pdansalvish]

Received an email stating my replacement ESC will be on its way soon.

[RSRN]

I also received the same notice saying i would be getting a trcking number shortly.

[pdansalvish]

My only grip is MRC shipped it via DHL. In Southern Maryland, DHL can not find an address without a map, GPS and pointer dog and still they would not be able to find it. I had a friend who was waiting on a nose piece for his plane. After waiting a month (all in DHL hands) he had to drive 2 hours and pick it up at DHL's warehouse. DHL used the excuse they could not find his house. However, he receives FEDEX, UPS and USPS packages without a problem to the same address.

[RSRN]

Just received the new ESC and after some discusion with the tech rep installed it and it ran well on the bench, this was just to see throttle response and check steerage. Not sure I will get on the water again this season, maybe we'll see. The New ESC does come with two (2) sets of motor leads,I was advised just pick one and it worked. My winter project is putting together improved armorment just finished assemblying the shapeways 50 cal upgrade and fitting the Mk 17 cradles to the tub stations. Also have the improved Mk4 37mm gun and mount in the works. The 20mm gun is on the way. I've trimmed and primed my shapeway 9 pc PT crew and will get them underway shortly. Holding off on the 40mm for the moment as it is 165.00, there is talk the price may come down. Interested to hear how other make out with the new ESC.

[RSRN]

Here's my review,

I'm writing this review 2 months after recieving this boat. This model had a few concerns that needed to be rectified prior to an honest look at this boat. I will go over why I rated items the way I did.
Quality, the overall quality is good, the molded hull and superstructure are good, over all layout of the electronics is good. The original ESC supplied was water cooled with NO attempt to water cool it. This caused numerous problems including overheating, to complete failure while the boat was underway, leading to some tricky retrieval. This effected 4 other boat owners. After several attempts to contact tech reps the suggestions ranged from plumbing the boat for water cooling, which I purchased ,water pickups,tubing, and outlets. Fortunately prior to drilling holes in my model we were contacted that a new ESC was being tested. and eventually after 30 days a new ESC arrived, I installed it and it works well on the bench. Due to being late in te season, running on the water will wait till spring.
Value This is an expensive model and is advertised as RTR. Having to go in after the purchase and repair this boat was not what I expected with a 570.00 model
Ease of assembly/use/operate The first problem that we boat owners found was the ESC had the battery type jumper was in the wrong position( for Nicad,not LiPo , this cause overheating an d failure for some owner. I was not familiar with this and only after reading the PT blog provide on this page was I made aware of it. I'm very thankful that this blog exists and that we have some very experienced modelers who generally were the folks that pointed out defects,
Performance/Function As mentioned, at this point it would appear that the boat is functional and will work properly, again I need to run it on the water.
My number one concern is that the model is realiable and will go out and come back. I get the fact that stuff can happen, but as an RTR vessel it should be good to go out of the box. To anyone looking to purchase this model, make sure that it has been upgraded and the new ESC has been installed.
The model does have a great overall appeal and can be the base for some great after market scale upgrades ( weapons).

[pdansalvish]

RSRN,

Can you take a picture on how you hoooked up the replacement ESC? TIA

[RSRN]

Hey pdan,
I contacted the tech rep when the new ESC came and they said just hook up one set of the motor leads. Hook the yellow lead to the double red/sigle black, then hook blue to double black/single red. I also ask about the 3 exposed pins on top of the new ESC and Derek tech rep said he had no idea what the pins were for. The new ESC works on the bench, I did run a new set of wires to be able to use the on /off switch that is mounted in the boat already. I'll be curious if they print my review.

[pdansalvish]

RSRN,

Thanks for the info. As for review good luck. They never printed mine. As for the pins they are most likely for dip switch pins. They only work when a jumper connects two of them together.

[RSRN]

So pdan,
They didn't like your review. Whats a dip switch.

[pdansalvish]

So pdan,
They didn't like your review. Whats a dip switch.

I should not have answer you without my morning coffee. They should be jumper pins. They are useless without the jumper.

[Tom]

All - I noticed some of you are having ESC problems or problems with hot ESC or motors. After testing some of our test boats, we found the problem is absolutely not ESC or motor related. Rather, we found the red grease used on the prop shaft(s) is too heavy and will cause the motors to work too hard. We removed the red grease from the shafts on our test boats and replaced it with petroleum jelly. We ran an amp test before and after we replaced the grease and found the amp draw went down by 80% and the boat speed was now 4X faster with a cool ESC and cool motors. If any of you are feeling a hot motor or ESC, please replace the red grease on the prop shaft with petroleum jelly. If you need help, please call or email our support. Credit to Derek in Motion RC support for figuring this out.

[RSRN]

Good evening Tom,
I've not heard from you until now,thanks for the update. Were we going to be contacted on this through Motion RC channels or just find it here on the blog. When we got the new ESC's to replace the water cooled ESC's that were original to the boat, we were assured that was the problem and every thing was fixed.So we should replace the red grease just to be sure, with petrolatum. Thanks Derek I appreciate your discovery, hopefully this will end the saga of the RTR PT boat.

[pdansalvish]

I have a couple of speed boats and purchased boat grease for the prop shafts. This should work too.

https://www.horizonhobby.com/product/marine-grease-5-oz/DYNE4201.html