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[abreese]

i recently whent to the darkside and purchased a u-boat,can anyone explain how it works?.
the rear compartment consists of a rx failsafe,auto leveler,sevos for vanes;rudder, 2 drive motors,esc for these,7.2volt battery and rx battery.
the forward compartment consists of compressor with gauge,servo for surface and dive switches,a valve powered by a 9v nicad to blow air to surface,ballast tank sensor control unit,a 7.2 battery to power this compartment.
not to sure how to dive the sub but when put in water (the pond at home just fits but cant drive it along?) iswitched on the comp and the ballast started to fill with water and the sub settled and the comp cut out but it did not submerge?i pressed the surface button and air went in to the ballast and took out the water it did not seem to fill the tank,another two goes and the batts flattened i was told to keep the water sensor in the tank dry on placing in water this i did not 100% sure how all this works and the correct way to dive it all i can say batts were not fully charged at time of try out.
nb the compressor goes to aroun 20 psi.   help

[Martin (Admin)]

Can you post photos please? 

[Subculture]

It's difficult to diagnose this sort of thing via correpondence, but can give a few pointers as to the issues in question.

If the tank is filled but the boat is still above the surface, it may be becuase of a couple of factors. The builder designed it to remain that way, or the boat is trimmed for warmer waters. Regardless, the solution is to add some more lead in the keel until the boat reaches the desired trim, however this may also affect the surface trim of the boat substantially.

Regarding the second problem of the stored air not blowing ballast sufficiently- you may have a leak- can you spot any bubbles when the system is cycled?

The issue with the batteries may be the batteries are knackered, or the compressor is pulling an awful lot of current. If you have an ammeter, you can check the current being used, or try a known good battery pack.

[abreese]

batts now fully charged off the boat,also noticed this looks like the model maybach posted about,regarding trim she sits with main hull nearly submerged,will have to chage charging wiring as it is wired to charge both batts in parallel,not agood plan?.
dont think we have any leaks will try with full batts.

[Subculture]

Need some better pictures than that, mate. If the batteries are lead acid, and have been sitting for a while, they could well be past there best.

Tank size maybe too small for the boat.

[Klunk]

it would handy to know where your location is. you could be next door to a sub expert!

[abreese]

seem to be on the right track now,tried a little extra ballast and sat the main hull deeper in water(pond in garden)with a little more detailed trimming she should be ok,next job is to split the batterys for the correct way of charging,my location is sunny macclesfield,many thanks for the replies and ideas 

[Desi]

Hi,
Sorry my new post got added on to yours in error...
Lloyd