A very good customer recently commissioned me to do an all on board battery R/C + sound installation for his Accucraft Goose # 2. The first one I have actually handled. Initial impression was nicely made and not a bad runner. Had a bit of a wobble but not all that noticeable. Anyway, the cavernous rear body is easily removable for installing the equipment by taking out four small hex head screws. Once apart I firstly glued two 7.2 volt Sub C twin stick 2400 mah NiCd packs in place on the insides of the body shell. One on each side as low down and as far forward as possible so the Railbus did not become unbalanced. These were allowed to set up overnight before I started on mounting the ON-OFF switch, charge jack and Phoenix volume control / programming jack. I wanted to carry out this installation with as few holes as possible in the structures. There is already a 3/16" hole in the flat plate soldered in right at at the rear of the body. I reasoned that this would make the best location to site the external controls. The general idea was that the charge jack must be mounted on a styrene sheet to insulate the body of the jack , which has a negative potential, from the metal body. I was proposing to mark out the locations of the various components and then enlarge the charge jack hole in the metal plate to clear the actual jack which would be mounted on the styrene sheet. Not a smart move as it turned out.
I drilled another hole the same size just in front of the existing hole. Then I cut a piece of styrene the size of the marked lines which are where the chassis frame extensions are located. Both holes were used to mark the component locations before drilling the styrene sheet.
Then my problems started. The metal sheet soldered to the body broke away as soon as I started drilling larger holes. I fixed this by gluing in some styrene supports to the body to hold the plate in place. I would do this differently if I do another one. 1. Robustly re-inforce the solder joints with a good grippy silicone adhesive. OR: 2. Remove the plate completely and simply fabricate a wider styrene sheet which would be securely attached to the rear frame extensions on the chassis.
The #BIK-U3 installation kit was mounted on the styrene sheet.
I removed the nut and washer and glued the styrene sheet under the metal sheet with silicon adhesive. I used the switch shank as a location guide to ensure the charge jack cleared the metal bodywork.
Then I added the nut and washer to hold the styrene sheet securely in place whilst the adhesive set up. As I said earlier if I was doing it again I would remove the metal sheet and securely mount a wider styrene sheet to the chassis rail extensions. The various hardware components were mounted on the chassis floor. The Planet Twister 2.4 GHz RX was mounted end on so that the very short antenna poked down through an existing hole in the floor. (See next pic). I glued the speaker in the ready made hole with my trusty silicone adhesive. Then I glued a styrene sheet on the magnet. After that had set up I glued the OMEGA-3 ESC to the styrene sheet.
The antenna wire is virtually invisible under the floor.
Wiring up was a straightforward process. I traced out which wires were which for the 5 volt headlights and powered them from the ESC 5 volt supply. I have it set so that the light on the cab is on all the time and the other two follow direction change via the F & R terminals on the ESC. The servo leads were plugged into the correct terminals.
The wires folded under the chassis floor are actually plug and socket connections to the battery supply and sound system that is mounted up in the body. I set up th P5 + P5T sound so that it has four triggers. 1 x each for the Horn, Bell, Motor shut down & Door slam. There are other options available. The left and right sticks on the TX control the sound functions. As is now normal, the range with the 2.4 GHz R/C was very good without any extra motor “Noise” suppression. At least 200’ at my test track. I couldn’t get any further away. The Goose operates very smoothly across the speed range. The 14.4 batteries provide a good realistic top speed. It may be too slow for some, but is just right for my customer. If a higher top speed is needed you could simply increase the battery voltage. Next up is a Bachmann Thomas that has just been delivered.