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[victorian]

Tiny Turbinia attempting to break through the ice sheet North of Northampton today. And testing a new receiver - Frsky D4FR - which sends back battery voltage and signal strength. Potentially very useful with this single Lipo setup, but not enough sea room to test it.

[bobk]

Lovely Turbina 'Victorian'.  Maybe not the best day for RX sea trials.  How did the new D4FR work out?
More pics please, and I gotta ask - how many props fitted ? 

[nhp651]

Blimey, was it that cold down there...........a balmy 6c up here in the sunny north west.

lovely model....looks superb.
neil.

[victorian]

There are three shafts and only one prop on each shaft. I could not work out how to replace the shaft with 3 props on it because tail shaft bracket is between the props on the real ship. Only the two outer shafts are driven. I tried it with the centre shaft but unfortunately the rolling movement caused by the centre prop overcame the very limited stability of the circular section hull and gave it a specactular list when operating! In addition I had to save weight due to the need for keel ballast for the same reason.

The D4FR operated as advertised in this very limited test. Generally this receiver is of limited use because it provides only an internal voltage measurement which is useless if you have BEC. Beware this Rx doesn't support external sensors (some suppliers are reluctant to tell you that). But in this application with power direct from a single cell it's ideal and the tiny size is a better fit than my original hacked Turborix radio.

I'm using a DHT-U transmitter (grafted on to a truly ancient Challenger radio) and I really think this telemetry R/C is the way forward despite it being designed around aircraft with little or no thought about boats. The RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indication) is the only other parameter provided by the D4FR and it's likely to be very interesting in the Turbinia model where the antenna is at the waterline if not below it!

Here's a pic of the setup: (The digits 3.9 are the battery voltage and the RSSI is a bar graph). The other picture shows the model about full size on a standard monitor - just over 12" long and weighs 56 gms.

[bobk]

At only 12 inches long you did amazingly well to somehow get three shafts with a prop on each, albeit using the outer two due to roll.  I like the idea of Rx feedback, but that must mean the Rx also acts as a transmitter as well?  Interesting.  Thank you.
Charles Parsons designed a truly incredible little ship in 1894 that changed the course of naval architecture.