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[Martin13]

Next job was to construct 3 long ply trays to hold motor batteries (2 x 10 cell packs per motor) including a smaller tray for the rudder servo battery pack. 4 larger rectangular trays were constructed to hold SLA's used for ballasting.

Note the small tray between the larger trays at stern for rudder servo pack. The trays were made from 3mm marine ply with resin applied both sides and installed forward of the motors. Supports installed and supply pack trays screwed into place whilst ballast trays were only attached with one screw in case these needed repositioning.

Photo's tell the story better...


Martin du

[DickyD]

Very neat Martin 

[Peter Fitness]

Wonderful job, Martin  . I was feeling quite smug about my Armidale, but the level of detail you've incorporated into BB leaves me speechless - (and that's quite rare, apparently) 

Peter.

[Martin13]

Wonderful job, Martin  . I was feeling quite smug about my Armidale, but the level of detail you've incorporated into BB leaves me speechless - (and that's quite rare, apparently) 

Peter.

Thanks Pete, but your Armidale turned out exceptionally well - wouldn't mind it in my stable

Martin du

[Martin13]

Time to bring this build up to date once more.

It was time to see if this model floats and how much ballast would be required. Some time ago I purchased a stainless steel trough of about 2 metres long and set this up inside the shed. One of my work benches is 5.4 metres long so there was plenty of room to mount the tank/trough at one end and fill with water. Its a lot warmer tank testing indoors with the wood heater going this time of the year.

In she goes - gosh, it floats, now add superstructure........hmmmm needs a bit of weight added

BB sat quite well in the tank and almost at waterline - maybe just a little more weight

One final test, is she watertight???

Martin du

[Martin13]

In the last photo, the black SLA's are there for ballast only. The six long sticks are the batteries for each motor with another smaller pack aft between 2 SLA's being for the rudder servo. The only pack not in picture is the Rx 5 cell pack which will be mounted on the Electronics board.

I left the model in the tank for about three hours to check for leaks and unfortunately, noticed water ingress near the transom. I then spent the next 4 weeks chasing and repairing leaks. The main problem area was where I drilled into the transom to mount the transom flap hinges. After the paint was scrapped away, it became apparent  of a small gap between the hinges and transom - it seemed to take forever fixing the problem.

The sequence of events: identify water ingress area - repair -  place in tank - still leaking - out of tank - look again - another repair - let dry - back in tank - nope, that didn't fix it - try again -and so on.

After the last repair, BB was left in the tank for 28 hours - no signs of water inside the hull

Martin du

Time to try it in a larger body of water - more updates tonight

[Peter Fitness]

I'm pleased to hear that you seem to have the leaking problem sorted, Martin. I had a leak in Armidale too, which only became apparent at the club sailing day when she was in the water for a couple of hours. It turned out to be a leak inside the bow thruster, and a poor motor to thruster-body seal. Hopefully it's now fixed.

I'm envious of your test tank, mine's the bath . If we were still living at the farm I'd have a swimming pool to test my models, but we have to put up with living at the beach   

Peter.

[RaaArtyGunner]

.

I'm envious of your test tank, mine's the bath . If we were still living at the farm I'd have a swimming pool to test my models, but we have to put up with living at the beach   

Peter.

Peter,
Don't be envious as i think Martins test tank is also a bath.
Water restrictions come to mind 
Nice build though.

[Martin13]

Peter,
Don't be envious as i think Martins test tank is also a bath.
Water restrictions come to mind 
Nice build though.

I tried to use the bath as a test tank but BB was too long - wouldn't quite fit. The water to fill the tank is coming from 2 x 5000 Gallon tanks behind the shed and when I'm finished testing, I'll pump the water back into the big tanks.

A better view of my Test Tank on the bench. As you can see, there is still plenty of room for my 1:72 scale Prince of Wales Battleship (3200mm LOA).

Martin du

[RaaArtyGunner]

Martin,
Nice set up. 
Envy 

[Martin13]

Okay, now that we have sorted out the water leaks and amount of ballast required, its time to think about electronics to make it go.

This bit is easy.

All I need to do is figure out how I want the boat to perform and any accessories that I wish to operate, then Phone Dave at ACTion

At this point I cannot thank Action Electronics enough for the work that was put into supplying all the goodies for this model. Also a BIG thanks to Pete Keirle aka PMK for that special MB Gizmo.
The customer service I received both from Dave at ACTion and Pete @ 'Almost All Stripboard Gadgets' was far beyond what you would expect, especially these days.
P98 ESC's, P40C Mixer, switches, batteries, chargers and all associated hardware etc including battery packs with made up leads. All I had to do was plug it all in.
Then there is the MB Gizmo. This special little device was designed and built by Pete at ASG. In a nutshell, when 50% throttle is reached or exceeded, the Transom Flap automatically relocates to a 3 degree down position.

I decided to mount the Electronic Shelf directly above the centre motor in order to keep all power leads as short as possible. I also wanted to be able to view the motors, plumbing etc . I mounted all the switches ESC's etc on a 6mm thick clear perspex board. All the switches were mounted along one edge  and all operated in the same direction. ie, Switches forward -  on, switches aft -  off

The Transom Flap Gizmo is mounted in the top left hand corner on the first pic. Note also the water cooling hardware fitted to the P98's.


Martin du

[FullLeatherJacket]

Martin
Make sure you have very tight connections between the flexible pipes and those brass tubes in the P98W cooling blocks. If any water drips into the ESC you'll get a cloud of steam as well as the Magic Smoke!
FLJ
(Looks impressive with all that kit in the one place, doesn't it?)

[Martin13]

Martin
Make sure you have very tight connections between the flexible pipes and those brass tubes in the P98W cooling blocks. If any water drips into the ESC you'll get a cloud of steam as well as the Magic Smoke!
FLJ
(Looks impressive with all that kit in the one place, doesn't it?)

Dave,
You have reminded me on several occasions about the water cooling tubes being tight or else. I'm starting to think that I should mount the P98's upside down - then the water can't drip in

Martin

[DickyD]

Being in Oz Martin I would have thought installing things upside down would come naturally. 

[Martin13]

Good one Dicky


With all the electronic bits installed, I made up a small shelf  on the hull sides with a screw mounted in the middle. The idea being the perspex shelf will sit here and be held on with a wing nut. To remove electronics, disconnect 5 leads and remove - easy for maintenance etc..

Okay everything installed, time to turn on power and see what happens.

Martin du

[Martin13]

Hmmm,

Applying power to three motors in a boat that barely fits in a test tank not a good idea. After I placed BB back in the tank (attempted to climb out when power applied) large amounts of bubble wrap placed at either end of tank to act as buffer. Second time power applied, tank now only half full  as I ended up drenched. Should leave this to a larger water supply.

Accidentally found a water hole close to home - actually had a whole lot more water in it since the last fire season. Council even erected a sign for locals not to remove water. Reasonable weather and wife in tow to take happy snaps at every angle with some not so welcomed

anyhow - a picture is better than words.....

Martin du

[Martin13]

more pics

[Martin13]

and a few more...

notice the sign warning not to take water or else.

Martin du

[DickyD]

Very nice Martin.

You seem to have a fairly low coaming, is it high enough to keep the water out ?

Also, what holds your superstructure on ?

[Martin13]

All the photo's taken with the port and Starboard motors running only. I had a glitch with my Tx  and was unable to have centre motor off with the outboard motors. It appeared that the centre motor was operating ahead of the outboard motors, ie when the Pt and Stb motors stationary, centre motor running in forward....will sort this out later..

I did find that even with only the outboard motors operating with the mixer,  the model was able to turn on its own axis....impressive and created a nice bow wave.

Water cooling was not connected but I can see that this will need to be attached in the future. I'm having my doubts whether the water will be picked up and sent through ESC's and motors given the long runs of tubing etc.

Do any modelers have experience with water pumps for cooling etc.???

Martin du

[Martin13]

Very nice Martin.

You seem to have a fairly low coaming, is it high enough to keep the water out ?

Also, what holds your superstructure on ?

Dicky,
In actual fact - there is no coaming, only a ledge for the superstructure to sit on. My original thoughts were to stick some very thin rubber down beneath the superstructure to act as a seal. Also to have some sort of locking mechanism to hold structure down.

With today's operation, no rubber seal and no locking mechanism. The structure was a tight fit and no water ingress. I had to give it a bit of a jerk to remove.

Martin....finally with a boat on the water

[DickyD]

The superstructure on my PT boat was a tight fit with a high coaming--------- it fell off on a turn, never to be seen again.

[John W E]

hi ya Martin

hey the model is super dooper - big question?  Did the model come up on the plane on full power?  Not take long to sort out the centre motor problem you have, now that I know you have a P40 inside.

aye
john

[Peter Fitness]

Very impressive Martin, she looks great on the water, and seems to track well going astern too. It's a great feeling when the model you've spent so much time on actually floats and, even better, goes where you want it to, when you want it to 

Nice pond  How did you "accidentally" find it?

Peter.

[Martin13]

hi ya Martin

hey the model is super dooper - big question?  Did the model come up on the plane on full power?  Not take long to sort out the centre motor problem you have, now that I know you have a P40 inside.

aye
john

In short John - No.

Not being able to run all 3 motors was a bu**er . My suspicions of a faulty Tx came to bear, as the centre motor cut out at full throttle and battery output fluctuated even though I had it on charge overnight.
After speaking with FLJ, the centre P98, switch No. 4 was activated to apply a small amount of lag to centre motor.  In conjunction with another Tx it appears that the problem may be fixed although I will know definitely after all batteries recharged.

The faulty Tx is a Hitec laser 4 on Mode 2. I have been using this radio for many years mainly with my gliders (see ribbons on antenna). I have another Hitec laser 4 but on Mode 1. I hope its an easy job to switch the configuration over to Mode 2 - have you had any experience

My you, I have no shortage of Tx and Rx's: besides the 2 x Hitec Laser 4's, I also have 2 x Hobbyking 2.4G, 4 channel Tx's including 8 x int/ext Rx's similar to Spektrum Rx's. I got these last year when the club (TF72) acquired a whole bunch at a very cheap price.
Having the need for extra channels for my F3B gliders, I purchased the complete setup, Spektrum DX7 - 2.4 G radio. Apparently the family was aware that I wanted a new radio so, a week later I was given another DX7 complete ie, Rx's, servos, batteries, charger etc.......hmmmm

I have radios coming out of my orifices 

Martin du