Hey folks. I bought a turnkey system from Flipsky. This one:
https://flipsky.net/products/flipsky-sup-motor-fin-thruster-2800-4200w-waterproof-underwater-thruster-electric-boat-thruster-for-rov-rc-boat-jet-boards-outboard-motor-drive-boat-jet
Except I asked them to send it with the VX5 remote instead of the VX3. I am hoping that some of you here are pretty familiar with the VX5 running the FT85CS ESC.
It is a turnkey setup and it basically worked right away. However, there are two things I noticed that aren’t ideal.
The main one is that I can’t get the motor to run in reverse. I believe I have been through all the VX5 related settings but no reverse. The brake trigger does operate a brake function stopping the motor quickly but I have not been able to get the motor to actually run in reverse. I am planning to use this thruster on a Kayak. I also have the Bixpy motor and it does both forward and reverse. Maybe I have to actually change settings in the ESC? I have some RC buggies and and the brake operate an actual brake on the first press but operates reverse if I release and press it again. So I guess that is what I was expecting (or hoping for).
The second thing has to do with the default “gear” setup. In the Default gear setup, there are three gears L, M, H and you can set throttle % for each. What I see when I run in this mode is that the throttle is basically on or off. Maybe that is intended but not what I intuitively expected. Once I get past some deadband, the motor runs but the speed doesn’t change with throttle position. If I change the gear setup to 8 gears, then the throttle does vary the motor speed as I would expect.
There were a couple of “gliches” with my order. They shipped me the wrong power cord for the battery charger. I am in California but the shipped the charge with the Euro 220V power cord.
The second glitch is they assembled the thruster backwards relative to how the slip-in fin-socket is mounted to my Kayak (Sea Eagle 300X). The fin-socket is attached so the fin slides in from front to back. As received, if I put the Flipsky in that way, the motor is pointing the wrong way. It’s not a huge deal because I opened the housing and flipped the ESC over. The only problem is that the ESC has mounting holes on its bottom and when flipped over there are no matching holes in the housing. The cover holds the ESC down pretty tight so it isn’t a big deal but just one of those little glitches. At least I was able to change it. Kind of made me wonder if there is a standard for the direction of the fin socket. My Bixpy motor came with its adapter pointed the right way.
