Voltage boost power supply in FE boats

[Dan_Cousin]

Is it legal to make your own ESC with a voltage booster on the input. You can boost the battery voltage to some level above their terminal voltage. for more RPM from the motor. This will make a 8 cell class boat run like a 12 cell or higher. The run time will be reduced but for SAW records that shouldn't matter much.

Kind of sounds like cheating to me but I'm wondering if there is a rule against it.

 

[Old Sloppy]

Is it legal to make your own ESC with a voltage booster on the input.

I'm wondering if there is a rule against it.

Nobody has made one that actually beat any SAW records yet.

I have heard many claims it could work.

I dought those claims, due to the added weight needed.

I have not seen any rule against it however.

Go ahead & build one, I am willing to learn...

 

[jayt]

This would increase the voltage, but usually with a corresponding decrease in the amperage. It is wattage which develops horsepower, volts or amps alone won't do it. W = V x A

It would still be an interesting avenue to explore...... B)

 

[Dan_Cousin]

A boost converter can be made to take say 10 volts in and turn it into 15 volts.

In turn, if you pull 80 amps from the 15volts you'll need to draw 120 amps from the 8 cell battery pack. Actually a little more bacause of finite converter efficiency.

It is not trivial but it can be done.

At what maximum current does the battery efficiency rapidly fall off. Is there some level of current that cannot be exceded without the batteries either getting damaged or not being able to deliver full power?

This would be for record trial runs where the batteries don't need to last very long.

The car audio guys are doing something similar. They compete in classes based on amplifier wattage. Amplifier wattage is rated with a supply volage of 12-14 volts from the car battery. Some company designed a boost converter to turn 12 volts into 18 volts so the amps can create more power than their rated power. Some amps can take it, some amps smoke. When the amp manufacturers got wind of this, they made "competition series" amps that can tolerate high supply voltage and translate the additional input voltage into additional power to the speakers.

This seems like cheating to me too.

 

[Jeff Shriver]

The circuit needed to process this amount of power would be substantial - in weight, complexity, and cost. The weight alone would kill any performance gains.