The "small receiver gadget" is a 40MHz crystal. If there was no radio with the model, it won't be much use.

To have a guess at the battery required, measure the tray, then have a look in Maplins battery section to see what fits. Probably an SLA, at a guess a 6 volt type.

Value? No idea.

Type/name? Looks like a ferry, to get a better idea as to its full identity, a couple of full model images would help, side or 3/4. Maybe with something to relate to to give an idea of size.

Forget the crystal, radio's have moved on now, the new 2.4ghz sets do not require crystals & can be bought for as little as £35.

Looking at the connector on the speed controller (the bit with 'MTroniks' on it), plus the elastic band, I would say the battery was most probably a 6v NiMH pack like this one ……………

**LINK**

(other suppliers are available)

Edited By Kip Woods on 16/07/2017 23:03:11

I see no evidence of ballast so a 6V sla may have been the original fitment as the weight is handy, however this is immaterial if you have no batteries. Buying a Nimh battery would be the way to go. Maplin's do them or a specialist supplier. The "normal" Nimh pack of 7.2V (as sold by Maplin) MAY be too long to fit in the battery space (if the boat was built to fit an SLA), but `compact` Nimh packs are readily available and these will fit easily. Kip has spotted a 6V pack and this is slightly smaller than the 7.2 pack. It should not make much difference…7.2V or 6V.

​The passengers I recognise as being ready painted types from china/e-bay wot are intended for model railway use! I have the same sets on my converted LCM/ferry.

​Ashley

Blimey John, eyes of an eagle you've got, I presume those are servo mounting blocks next to the linkage.

So Steve, you will need a 2.4 gig transmitter and receiver ( I.e normal) and a servo to steer the boat. Plus battery and charger as recommended by my esteemed colleagues. It's still worth checking to see if there is any access to the rudder post from inside, for maintenance.

Chas

Hmm… it sounds like you need a crash course in using a radio control. There are a few out on the net – but I can't find any boat-oriented ones. This one about aircraft might be helpful: **LINK**

Forum posts are not an ideal way to learn a new skill from scratch. You may have simple misconceptions, and if you don't tell us about them we can't help you correct them. If you go to the model pond and tell the modellers there that you are looking to get into the hobby, I am sure that one of them will explain how the controls work and what you need. Alternatively, a local model shop will certainly demonstrate the equipment they have on sale.

There really is no substitute for talking to an expert and seeing for yourself. We can answer specific questions, but It is much harder to run a complete course in model boating by question and answer…  

Edited By Dodgy Geezer on 17/07/2017 21:41:44

hi ya Steve – there is one way round of learning about our hobby and that is one of the oldest ways going long before computers. There are several excellent books on the market:

for beginners and everyone

one of them should be on every shelf of any modeller and that book is by a guy known as Vic Smeed, he has written a book called Boat Modelling

the other one is a book buy John Cundell, the ex-author of Model Boat Magazine and his book is called Radio Control in Model Boats

Dated books they may be – but the information they give you will give you a good grounding on all of basics of model boats construction & their internals.

cwAAOSw5cNYmerW”>http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-Radio-Control-in-Model-Boats-Paperback-1854862316-/132089211346?epid=86646326&hash=item1ec12169d2:gcwAAOSw5cNYmerW

**LINK**

john

Not tedious – we're happy to answer any point. It's just that it's very hard to learn about a whole new field by asking individual questions. All I meant to convey was that you need a thorough grounding in the topic, and if we depend on you asking questions it could be easy to miss something out….

Carpentry is, of course, a very noble profession, and one which is sadly becoming less common as people tend to buy 'Ready-to-Run' models nowadays. I try to encourage it with a few web sites intended for beginner modellers – this one, for instance **LINK**  . Your grandkids might be interested in making a boat from the plans on the site with your help. But I don't say much about radios there, and most introductions to R/C assume that you know something about the equipment already. Let's try a short beginners intro…

For model radio control you first need a Transmitter (Tx) and a Receiver (Rx). These are often sold together as a 'combo'. The Tx will usually have either sticks or a wheel on it, and when you move these controls a signal is sent to the Rx. Depending on the number of sticks/wheels/switches on the Tx, you can send a number of different 'signals' to the Rx. For boats and cars the minimum number of 'signals' (often called functions or channels) is 2 – to control steering and speed. Aircraft need a minimum of 4 channels for full control, and they usually get this by having two joysticks which can each be pushed to the left-right (one function) and up-down (the second function).

Technology changes! Once upon a time all modellers had Tx/Rx combos which used the 27Mhz radio frequency – as did many other users! If two people transmitted at the same time they would interfere with each other – and so would anyone else using 27Mhz. Gradually this improved, with modellers using 'spot' frequencies inside the 27Mhz band so that perhaps 6 people could use slightly different frequencies at once. These were indicated by colours – if you see a Tx box with a red pennant on the aerial you know it is transmitting on the red frequency, and you must use another one. Organising this is difficult at the poolside or flying ground – and people are not happy if you interfere with their controls and cause a crash!

After a while, modellers were given their own frequencies – 35Mhz for aircraft, and 40Mhz for boats. 27Mhz was still allowed. though there could be a lot of interference on that frequency. Then the development of computer Wi-Fi created a new frequency band – 2.5Ghz. This has a load of advantages – it's cheap, free of interference, and you don't need to worry about spot frequency allocation, which happens automatically. Unless there are overwhelming reasons for choosing another type, I strongly recommend that you go for a 2.4ghz Tx/Rx combo. 2-function will give you the minimum number of controls – if you want to include raising flags and other such features, go for more functions…

Right. Now we can send a signal to a remote model. But what will it do when it gets there? We need something to actually make the signal do something. These things, which could be called 'actuators' are little boxes which plug into the Rx and perform the function required. Let us think of an example boat, with a 4-function radio. Your TX is a box with 2 sticks on it, your Rx is a small box with 5 sockets in it, marked Ch1, Ch2, Ch3, Ch4 and Batt.

The first thing we will do is control the rudder. For this we use a 'servo' – a little box with a moving lever on top of it. Connect the lever to the rudder tiller, and plug the servo connector into Channel 1 on your Rx. Plug your small battery pack into the Batt socket. Turn on the Tx, and wiggle stick 1 left to right. The servo arm will move, and the rudder will turn.

Now we want to control the electric motor. For this we use an Electronic Speed Control (ESC). That's a little box with several wires coming out. Plug the control connector wire into the Rx, the Main Battery wire into the main battery, and the Motor wire into the motor. turn on the Tx and Rx as before, wiggle stick 2 up and down, and the motor will start, running fast and slow depending on how you move the stick. You have already got one of these.

That's enough to control a boat, but we have 2 more functions we can use, and our budget is not depleted yet! Perhaps we would like lights on our model boat? For this we use a Radio Control Switch – they're very cheap. It looks similar to an ESC – a small box with wires coming out. Plug its control wire into Rx Channel 3, and connect the output wire to the lights, then move stick 1 up and down. The lights go on and off!

Finally, perhaps we have a crane on the back of the boat, and we want to raise and lower the hook? For this we might use a Winch Servo? These are rather expensive, and are usually used for controlling the ropes on model yachts. It looks like a servo, but is usually bigger, and has a drum where the servo arm would be. We plug this into Rx Channel 4, and move stick 2 from side to side, which makes the drum turn…

From all this, you might gather that you have lots of options. Your basic need is a 2.4Ghz TX/Rx combo and a small servo to operate the rudder. You already have quite a nice ESC already wired to the motor. The further examples above should help you understand what people are talking about when things get a bit more complicated…

Edited By Dodgy Geezer