Model Boat Mayhem
Mess Deck: General Section => Model Boating => Topic started by: regiment on July 21, 2016, 01:24:07 pm
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I had a bobs board given to me I want to put it in my new yacht how do I wire it up it has a red and black wire on the arm and a blue and brown on the metal plate thanks for any help
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Red and black to the battery, blue and brown to the motor, exactly as per a modern ESC. Doing it any the other way creates confusion. I've had a few ESCs to repair where the owner thought he was wiring a Bobs Board and destroyed the ESC output components.
Make sure that when the servo is at "off" the wipers are sitting on the dead bit of the plate. It isn't a metal plate, it is an insulated board with metal tracks on. The dead bit is where the wipers sit not touching the metal tracks.
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Not the way Regiment described the wiring. Motor came off of the arms & the battery was connected to the board..
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t checked the wiring again r and b on arm b and brn on plate
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Sure I've still got the instructions for one of these boards somewhere at home in the archives.
I'm guessing as it's a simple resistance device it wouldn't matter which way the current flows through it?
Pretty sure I wired mine with red and black to the battery though but can't remember now if the red and black wires go to the arms or to the board.
Craig.
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Whatever connects to the wipers is shorted out when centred. That's the motor, by the way.
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Oh yes, I can see it now. The wiper arms are connected together in the neutral position so probably best you don't connect the battery to the arms then. :embarrassed:
Craig.
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thanks for replies all working now
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Glad its working right.
I have to admit to never having had a real Bobs board and working on general principles- being a cheapskate and having an etching kit I built my own and used resistors rather than guesstimating the resistance of the etched tracks. That way I got the right values for my motor.
The principles for colour coding that are good now were just as valid back then - battery wiring should be red and black, motor (or whatever load) should be some other colours. Any manufacturer or designer using all red and black should be taken round the back of the bike shed and given a good kicking (just a theory to encourage good practice).
My home made one didn't short the motor, but that was a sound idea for the Bobs board - it gave something to line up on and at the same time ensured that the moor, at neutral, would STOP.
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What I used to like about Bobs Boards is that you could SEE how they worked.... :-)
And with the right setup they did work very well indeed.
Colin
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I gave mine back to Bob.
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Oh yes, I can see it now. The wiper arms are connected together in the neutral position so probably best you don't connect the battery to the arms then. :embarrassed:
Craig.
ERRRR - not exactly, you will notice that the wiper arm connections are not connected together - yes they sit on the servo arm on either side of the central spline - but the wires to the brass contacts are individual parts and isolated from each other, unless the servo arm is conductive and yes then it would short out but it would short out whether connected or not, as for circuit integrity - it doesn't matter whether the juice enters the system from the arms or the base - the distance from each connection is still the same - ideally the colours identify the circuit route red and black for the battery as the standard convention for battery terminals is to have a coloured patch with the + and - , and brown and blue to the motor or more correctly two reds/brown as the power will flow either direction to the motor and therefore both wires are considered live, but I could be wrong.
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ERRRR - not exactly, you will notice that the wiper arm connections are not connected together - yes they sit on the servo arm on either side of the central spline - but the wires to the brass contacts are individual parts and isolated from each other, unless the servo arm is conductive and yes then it would short out but it would short out whether connected or not, as for circuit integrity - it doesn't matter whether the juice enters the system from the arms or the base - the distance from each connection is still the same - ideally the colours identify the circuit route red and black for the battery as the standard convention for battery terminals is to have a coloured patch with the + and - , and brown and blue to the motor or more correctly two reds/brown as the power will flow either direction to the motor and therefore both wires are considered live, but I could be wrong.
You might want to take another look at the resistance board (the part that looks like a map view of a roundabout). The brass arms aren't connected but in the neutral position they will short out through the board..
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OOPs - my apologies, cannot understand why they would create that situation - the servo arm connections would only be usable for the driven service ie the motor as the feed would indeed short through the dual connection if this was connected to the battery, my first bobs board didn't have this - must have been created by a competitor who wanted to ensure an isolated safe zone, again my apologies.
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Without a shorting connection at neutral it doesn't matter which is regarded as battery in and motor out. With the link it does, but like I said earlier, this arrangement does ensure that the motor will STOP at neutral (braking if wanted) as well as providing a very visible marker for lining up the servo arm/wiper assembly.
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I'm still wondering why a Bob's board would be fitted in a Yacht?!
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the reason I am fitting a small motor not very good at sailing yet on our lake we have a small water fountain
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I'm still wondering why a Bob's board would be fitted in a Yacht?!
The wind can be a very fickle mistress, it can die out all of a sudden & leave a yacht stranded in the middle of a very big lake, having a small motor with which to maneuver it back to the bank, is good insurance where no other means of recovery exists.
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There might not be much motor control with a Bobs board if the motor is not matched to the board, but if it gives enough control for a "get out of gaol free card", then it is a good solution. Especially if it was free.
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I have the old tamiya one still in the box http://www.tamiyaclub.com/trades_model.asp?cid=105274&id=16134 (http://www.tamiyaclub.com/trades_model.asp?cid=105274&id=16134)
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The wind can be a very fickle mistress, it can die out all of a sudden & leave a yacht stranded in the middle of a very big lake, having a small motor with which to maneuver it back to the bank, is good insurance where no other means of recovery exists.
Which is exactly why I am glad to have one in my Atlantis. It also gets me out of the way of rowers and canoeists, one of whom wrecked my lovely Robbe Comtesse!