Finally got the Circus Circus conversion done!

I thought some of you might like to see the nitro to electric conversion I did on the Dumas Miss Circus Circus. I built the boat about 25 years ago and put a Picco 80 in it, I was never able to get it to run right, so it went on the shelf. I recently pulled it down and converted it to electric. .
TP Power 4070/1090KV, 2-4S 70C Graphene pacs, Castle Mamaba XLX that I converted to water cooling. It was a tight fit getting everything in and keep it balanced...hopefully it runs good...we'll see
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Nice!

Thanks, turned out to be a much larger project than I thought it would be...

Question. The last two pictures... is that the speed controller and it's heat exchanger?

Yes, It started off as a Castle Mamba XLX...which is an ESC designed for rc cars. It comes packaged with an aluminum heat sink and cooling fan attached. I gutted it down to the the
circuit boards and removed all the factory thermal compound. I then fabricated the 4 copper heat sinks with cooling tubes. They are also tin plate to stop any corrosion. The heat sinks are clamped to the four high current
busses on the power circuit board with silicone based thermal compound between them. I also coated the circuit boards in Glyptal to water proof them. All this adds up to increasing it's current rating by almost a factor of two.
approx.300 amps peak (stock form it is rated at 160amps). The Castle controllers, along with other mfg's have data logging capability. You can plot rpm, temp, voltage, ripple voltage, current along with a host of other settings.
This has been a tremendous learning experience...the brushless motor technology has really evolved.
Sorry for the long winded explanation....I guess "yes" would have sufficed:cheers:

That sucker should rip! Looks very nice

I have a Miss Budweiser 1/8 I was thinking of doing the same retrofit to. It was set up with a .67 picco but now days electric or gas for me is the way to go

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Originally Posted by 4Speed

I have a Miss Budweiser 1/8 I was thinking of doing the same retrofit to. It was set up with a .67 picco but now days electric or gas for me is the way to go

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I still haven't had a chance to run it, but I'm sure that will be a learning curve also. Should be interesting to see if it will run similar to nitro power.
These older boats are pretty tight in the engine compartment, it took some doing to get everything installed and still balanced correctly. Mine is still a little tale heavy, may have to add some more weight up in the nose.
Offshore Electric forum is a good place to go if you need help.They also have an online store that has been invaluable....real brick and mortar hobby shops are a thing of the past

Very nice conversion. Clean.

That is nice. What is the weight diff. between fuel and ele.?

I don't know for sure, but the hull with running gear and no motor weighed 9 lbs.
I would guess the brushless motor is about the same weight as the Picco 80, maybe a little heavier. So the only additional weight is batteries and ESC. Batteries are about 1.3 pounds each... times two, and the ESC maybe weighs .25 pound

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Originally Posted by CDave

That is nice. What is the weight diff. between fuel and ele.?

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Very nice! What did you use for the color of the boat, paint or vinyl ? Everything looks straight , all the outlines of the colors and cowling lines.

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Originally Posted by KURYOU

Very nice! What did you use for the color of the boat, paint or vinyl ? Everything looks straight , all the outlines of the colors and cowling lines.

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Sorry, for the late reply.
I painted the hull with two part epoxy paint. It needed to hold up to nitro fuel.