The Shipyard ( Dry Dock ): Builds & Questions > Lifeboats
1/16 Trent Refurb
IKB:
Hi Guys,
So looking around eBay a few months ago, I came across a 1/16th scale Trent for sale, I really like this particular design of boat and have always quite fancied one, so took the plunge and bought it.
The model itself is in relatively good order, the seller was very honest about it being used weekly, but even so the it is still in quite good nick, it also came with an Mtroniks sound module, two 5000mah 3s Lipos, ESC and twin brushed 850s for drive... yes you read that correctly, twin 850s in a 1/16th scale boat, this thing shifts.
It also has working GOW navigation lights, a blue flashing LED and a motor for the radar, all of which kind of work, but the wiring is suspect and I will be replacing everything with new LEDs and other assorted hardware.
The problem with the big 850s is that they have very little fine control at low RPM, as the shaft jumps 1/3 of a revolution between magnets, it also only had the one esc, so no tank steering in harbour. Based on my recent exploits with my home built jetdrive, (http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,53340.0.html) I decided brushless was the way to go, so after a quick search through this section of the forum, I came across someone else who had also installed brushless motors in a Trent and just bought the same ones, they would spin at the same RPM as my current 850s, which I was very happy with, I also bought two water cooled Turnigy Marine Esc’s, which I will run on the original 5000mah 3s Lipo packs.
Installing the brushless motors was easy enough, removing the old motors and examining the mounts, I quickly figured that I could bolt the supplied brushless mounting plate to the original mount and it would practically be a straight swap over. I turned up an Aluminium plug at work to centre the two mounting brackets before drilling, in order to preserve the original motor’s centre line with the shaft coupling, as the attached photo shows, the size comparison between old and new is remarkable, with the new motors being just as powerful as the old ones.
For the first test run I quickly wired in the esc’s, but didn't have time to connect the water cooling system, but as the runs were going to be short, I was not really concerned, I did however setup he esc's using a Turnigy programming card, which makes the whole process a breeze compared to trying to decipher beep codes from the motor and esc.
Here is the onboard footage from the test run, the motors have plenty of get up and go and even without the aid of water cooling, the esc's didn't get that warm: https://youtu.be/hRX-lkXMdfE
Progressing from here I am planning the following changes:
* Proper installation of the internal electronics
* Removal & refitting of propshafts, which will allow for new grease packing to take place and hopefully stop water ingress
* Installation of esc water cooling system, this will be combined with a water vapour exhaust smoke effect, so the cooling water will constantly feed the vapour tank using a pump, which will overflow out of the exhausts, this will be based upon my Clyde Puffer smoke system: http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,52469.0.html
* 3D printed bolt on fans for the brushless outrunners, the Overlander motors are great, but they have no inbuilt fan on the rear
* Replacement of all lights with LEDs
* Conversion of all deck flood lights to working ones using LEDs
* Internal cabin instrument lighting
* New radar motor
* General clean and tidy of some of the paint work and fittings that have suffered during the many trips to the lake
* New multi-function high power LED rotating blue beacon
* Trim tab rebuild, as the current setup is unbalanced and boat tries to roll at high speed, may install a servo operated setup More updates as they happen.
Alex
derekwarner:
That's a very neat retrofit motor conversion Alex :-))....the concentric aluminium spacer plug certainly did the trick...
The vessel displays a good turn of speed O0.......were you using tank steering for the berthing in the last 15 seconds?
just one thing....the video picked up a semi interment intermittent noise at lower speeds that didn't sound drive line related ....more like a constant sharp rattle or electrical interference :o ...am sure you know & will resolve it....... Derek
IKB:
Hi Derek,
I am pretty sure that the intermittent noise is from the waterproof casing of the GoPro, resonating against the handrails of the flying bridge.
Yes, I believe I was tank steering at the end.
Alex
IKB:
Hi Guys,
The other week I got around to spending some time on my Trent refurb, so far the modifications have been to the power train, replacing the twin 850s with Overlander 3548/05 900KV Outrunners, paired with Turnigy Marine 60A ESCs.
This time the modifications were all about adding functionality:
* Water vapor smoke system routed through the exhaust ports
* Water cooling system for ESCs, which in turn feeds the water vapor tank
* Power distribution board
* 12v Pb power source
* Battery monitor
* Mtroniks sound system
* Expanded functionality relay boardUp in the bow a speaker is installed with the water pump hanging below, this is a diaphragm pump which sucks lake water through an inlet in the keel, passes it through both ESCs and then into the vapor tank.
As the tank fills, it over flows through two pipes connected to the exhaust ports, which gives the look of cooling water being ejected by the engines, an ultrasonic vaporiser, driven by a DC-DC converter produces water vapor in the tank, which in turn is pushed out of the exhaust ports by a fan along with the over flow water.
All of the extra functions of the boat are relay controlled via the expanded functionality unit, this is built into the my Robbe F14 Navy, which allows eight switches to control sixteen functions, the system I am using is not the original version, but a cheaper and more robust system made by an individual in Germany trading as CP-Elektronik, their website can be found here:
https://cp-elektronik.de/index.php/en/16-channel-decoder.html
This is the build thread I did about converting my handset to the new system: http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,52951.msg544729.html#msg544729
Eventually I will have all of the extra functions hooked up through this relay function.
Up until now I have been running the boat on twin Lipo batteries, but I wanted to see if lead acid could be a suitable candidate, the problem with the vapor system is that it is quite power intensive and I wanted to have the longest possible run time with the model. To get the model to handle better and to pull it down to the correct water line, with the Lipos, I had been adding in a foot length of inch square steel bar, this makes for great handling as it really lowers the centre of gravity of the model, lead however is much heavier than steel and comparing the two options on the scales showed a significant increase in the all up weight of the model,
but I thought I would give it ago.
Down at the lake I eagerly lowered the boat into the water and the first fail of the day, the pump doesn't want to prime for some reason, so after back filling the pipe work, water started to flow through the system and fill the tank, which lead to the second fail, the pump filled the tank too fast and water was only just about creeping it's way out of the exhaust overflows. So before the pump could overfill the tank and sink the boat it was quickly disconnected, which lead me onto the third fail, flicking the switch on the TX activated the appropriate relay in the boat, but the vaporiser was suspiciously dormant, at this point I gave up, drained the vapor tank and tried to set sail, or so I thought. Fourth fail, the underside of the superstructure is fouling on the power distribution board, I had earlier removed the broken radar motor as that was really getting in the way, so quickly onto fail number five, the Trent is one of my favourite models, it is fast, handles well in all conditions and looks simply stunning on the water, at least it used to, although it was only sitting slightly lower than usual, I have never seen a lifeboat do an impersonation of a tug boat at speed, not cutting gracefully through the water, but beating it into submission before pushing it to the side, it was a very short trip out for fear of sinking.
Suffice to say I have learnt a lot and have plans to redo what I have and many ways to improve, that can wait for a future post.
Alex
IKB:
Hi Guys,
Got some time this weekend to work on the Trent refurb and address some of the failures from last time, this is what I got up to:
* Fixed wiring for sound system, I can now operate the horn and turn the engine noise on and off remotely
* Added logic relay driven float switch to vapor tank fill system to prevent overfilling
* Moved exhaust vapor outlets to be higher up in tank to prevent clogging with water
* Worked on superstructure clearance issuesOn the bench the exhaust smoke system works just fine, got to the lake today, the fan packed in so never got to see it working, video from bench test: https://youtu.be/9M_OeXEXtaw
On a more positive note, I replicated the fill system I have in my Clyde Puffer, which uses a float switch to drive the logic input of a relay module using the 5V BEC feed from the power distribution board, this turns the pump on and off as need to top up the vapor tank. Another modification made was to swap back to Lipos as a power source, this makes the boat much lighter and sit much better on the water, but all of the extra kit is still weighing it down and the heaviest thing in there is the vapor tank, so my next line of action is to make the smallest tank I can get away with, which will use the smallest amount of water possible, as at the moment, the vapor tank is about the same size as a 9Ah 12v Pb battery.
Alex
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