Hi
I bought the board to prevent battery cross charge and discharge as I saw it advertised on the companies website. In all honesty I had not thought about it before. I remember my brother telling me that on the vessel he was chief engineer on that precautions had to be taken by a distribution panel which managed the power produced by two generators to prevent one pushing power into the other via the distribution board when they were both running i.e. One generator producing more power than the other.

Regards
Kevi

I'm very sorry to have missed the safety warning, but my mind was on another point entirely. I did include the fuse...However I would like to say that back charging between batteries is a norm. Every E bike does so. And I have never seen mention of extra boards between parallel cells for those. The 18650 cell is most common, with a minimum of 6 cells in common, parallel. The only real essential is to start with balanced voltages. There are YouTube videos of how this is done, with the real aim of getting the viewer to buy the kit.
I did exactly the same and suggested buying a pack ready made, which will parallel 2 cells as I mention, and have three in series, with a balance connector for charging. Most people lack the skills and confidence to start building their own battery packs. And carelessness with lithium cells will cause fires, if not explosions.
Don't mess with them unless you know what you are doing.

Hi Kevin,
Very pleased to see that you installed the protection board to block possible 'Back charging' between the batteries👍👍👍 A very sensible precaution.
Was very disappointed and dismayed to note that SC did not mention this when he wrote of using Lithium cells in series/parallel connection🤔
Well worth the money to prevent possible loss of the boat - or much worse if the brown stuff hits the fan on bench testing!💥🔥🤕😭
Cheers, Doug 😎

I quite agree Rick. I'm sure that's the case.
Even some of us experienced in electronics are somewhat bemused by SC'c unstructured and disjointed style. And irritated by some of his sweeping generalisations.🤔
He still seems to be low on this particular learning curve himself and reporting more failure than success at the moment.
Although there is also much to be learned from "Don't try this because ..." reports.
I also believe that many are disappointed cos they thought they were going to learn how to build a simple ESC. They're not! ☹️
This rather complex circuitry is intended to provide a rudder/motor mixer function for twin screw RTR models (such as the HobbyKing Southampton/Richardson tugs) which use a single proprietary combination RX/ESC/rudder control circuit board.
(Later models now also include some electronic switches for lights and smoker on the same board. My oldie doesn't😭 Not to worry I'm upgrading it from 40MHz to 2.4 Gigs anyway.)

As far as I can decipher, in essence what SC is trying to do is to tap the control outputs to the motors and rudder, and use them to recreate the input signals from the RX which created those outputs in the first place!!🤕
Then apply those to his own circuit which splits the original single ESC control output into two. These he will then apply to the two motors in a mix ratio governed by the rudder commands.
Probably a rather limited market so to speak

SC:
I think you'd be better off continuing your experiments in private, documenting everything as you go. In a Word document and with close up photographs of each construction step and simple explanations of the functions of each new circuit stage and new components as introduced and why it is there.
Then when you have it up and running you can edit and tidy up your Word doc and post it chapter-wise as a cohesive structured 'How to' that will be easier for novices to follow.
This would also give you time to tidy up the breadboard experimental layouts to make a more compact easily reproducible layout.
Word documents can be posted on this site no problem. Converting to pdf is even better.
Here endeth the 999th Epistle to the Wise!
Cheers all, Doug 😎

I think as Martin posted you're above most of us with the subject line. Make it easier for me to get what your trying say.
For me when I read the post and have to look up what your talking about I stop reading.
Maybe others are the same way.
Rick

Hi Seamancook,

Your knowledge on electronics is way above a lot of us who were hoping to learn a little about how to make a few things work using some electrical components.

Electronics theory only tends to make things confusing when a simple “add this to that and it will do this” is what I and many others need to know as the majority of the time it will be a one-off thing to just get something to work and will probably not be used to make another one for years.

Perhaps the subject you have chosen on your log is too complicated for us beginners.
Maybe we need to start with some simple circuits that can be easily understood and used on our model boats.

Martin555.

Hi,
Been busy doing necessary chores. Also been replacing power distribution system for a HMAFV Halifax. Was running on a 12v gel cell, now converted to two 12v sticks of NiMh. I have removed a hunter systems distribution panel and replaced with an Action Electronics power distribution for two buhler motors via two Electronize ESCs. Also using BEC on system as well as power to the loud horn! As I am using two battery packs I have taken the precaution of installing a voltage protection unit to stop one battery charging/discharging into the other, again Action Electronics. Now all working just needs sea trial.
Now the electronize unit which started the debate. I decided to connect it up before removing the mossfet. Low and behold discovered that there's was a loose connection to a blade fuse unit. Removed and ran well on the bench. I still had a secondary fuse to the battery.
Got to the lake last Sunday. And while conducting a test before launch discovered that the relays worked but I only had full ahead or full astern available to me, with no neutral. Will replacing the mossfets cure this or is this a symptom of something else. In the meantime I have purchased a soldering pump and an Electronize esc in kit form as New from e bay.

Regards
Kevin

The build blog is up and going but comments, replies and likes are absent. I'm wondering if there is any real interest.

The more you write here or in a blog I will be reading to see if I can learn more on electronics .Rick

This forum started with a specific problem on Electronize controllers and kind of got diverted. Kevin, did you fix it??
Julio, just keep an eye on Build blogs where I will be recording and sharing the Southampton tug upgrade and maybe extend it to more general electronics on a How it works basis. I want to photograph the install process and maybe some of the test waveforms as well. This is the first time I've done this so its a case of learn as I go. I'm watching the Arduino thread with interest as this is processor equivalent of what I do.