Type 42 build
Installation of the main drive electrics
For the time being I have concentrated not on the build of the model but on the installation of the electrics for driving the model – the speed controller and so forth and I have also fitted the radio receiver. Now, for this particular model I have purchased the ACTion P94 dual ESC (electronic speed controller) mixer unit. To be honest I have been itching for a while now to get me hands on one of these. Its okay reading – oh aye they are great, they are the bees knees and they are fantastic, but, how good are they? Do they do the job?
Really, to gauge something we need a reference – one of the same kind or of a similar kind – and at this time there isn’t a ‘similar’ unit – i.e. 2 speed controllers and a mixer all on one board in one little case – well if there is I haven’t seen it yet
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So what are the alternatives? There are mixers on the market; of various makes; speed controllers on the market again of various makes. If your pockets are deep enough, there are computerised transmitters on the market with the mixer programme built in. This is what is on the market at the present time.
For those who are unfamiliar with mixers and wondering what they are all about; to give you a little insight their purpose is to aid the maneuverability of a ‘twin screw’ propelled vessel. These allow you to mimic the actual functions of a life sized vessel by as you turn to say port – as the rudder moves over to the port side the starboard propeller speeds up and the port propeller slows down. As the rudder moves further over towards the port, the starboard motor increases its speed and the port propeller decreases its speed until it comes to a standstill and then if you want it goes into reverse.
This tightens the turn of the vessel; it gives you the opportunity to actual spin/turn the vessel in its own length – once you have mastered the techniques – so, that is a rough idea of what a mixer does.
Now, how does this little unit stand up – well, if we look at first of all the 2 separate speed controllers and the mixer set up – the first thing that will become apparent to you is that you require the space for the 2 speed controllers and mixer and in some hulls, such as destroyers and liners which are sometimes long and narrow, this space isn’t always available. Don’t forget with a long narrow hull the majority of the time you must keep the centre of gravity or your weight as low as possible in the hull. So, there is one bonus point straight away for this small gadget, bearing in mind the mixer unit is only 74mm long x 50mm wide and 28mm high.
If you get the 20 amp version you must add another 30mm on the height, but, this is just for 2 cooling fins – which stick out of the top of the casing. If these fins were any problem, no doubt these could be bent carefully at right angles as long as they don’t touch one another. So what are the other bonus points on it, well compared to the 2 speed controllers and the mixers which are available on the market at the moment, you do not have any facility of altering the amount of ‘mix’ e.g. for the amount of movement of the rudder – to the speeds of the propellers. On this little unit you do have a little blue dial inside – and you can adjust this for your own benefit and your own model! Do we have this facility on the computerised transmitters – well – on my particular Futaba – although I do have the mixing facility it doesn’t have this facility for altering this percentage of mix. It is a case of ‘all or nothing’. So another bonus point for this little mixer.
Now for the
BIG BONUS – inside there are also 2 little switches – these 2 switches allowing you to set between one and four modes. The first mode this little box does is allow each speed controller to work independently, in other words you use 2 sticks (left and right stick on the transmitter) as in tank steering.
In mode 2, there is a dual thruster mode – in other words you can use this unit for your bow and stern thrusters – mode 3 is 0 – 100% mix which is what we have described already; where the propeller speeds are mixed with the rudder movement and then there is mode 4 which gives you a 50% mix; where the motors automatically come in at a set speed as the rudder is moved over. There is a lot more to these modes and their uses and these are plainly described in the instructions. The other function is that you can actually add a third speed controller for vessels which have a triple screw – this is just a straight plug-in into the circuit board.
The other connections from the board are well marked as well – there is a plastic band around each lead – with an identification letter on. This is an immense sight-aid for everyone and also, decreases the chances of mistakes. Alongside these leads there is 2nd socket on the board which is marked H1 and this is where your steering servo plugs in. Apart from these 2 leads and sockets there are also 4 wires which come from the circuit board which are your main power supply. The reason there are 4 – is that it gives you the option of wiring 2 independent batteries up. Although these wires are not marked with an identity tag, they are colour coded. Red-positive Black-negative.
Now next to these – there are 2 terminal blocks and these are where your motors are connected. The only problem I did have – these terminal blocks they are not the push in and clamp down type (where I was pushing the wire in and tightening the screw it wasn’t clamping the wire). When I had a close look the terminal blocks have a ‘vice-jaw’ arrangement inside them. As you open them up, the vice-jaws open and you must place the wires between the jaws, not as I was doing on the top of the jaws
then when you have the wire firmly between the jaws, tighten the screw and it clamps the wire TIGHT.
So this is all there is to the unit, all the wires and the connections.
How simple then is it to set up?
It took me about an hour, reading the instructions setting it up and then having a test of it.
As a side note; I showed the instructions to my son – and his knowledge of electronics is minimal – and my son had a read through and he said he would feel confident enough to attempt and install it into a model. So the instructions which come with this mixer are very, very good. They are not the standard photocopied instructions – they are printed and have 5 sides of clearly printed and coloured diagrams along with very explicit instructions in text. The instructions explain step-by-step how to set up, and, also what all of the modes actually do.
So, how does it stack up? Does it do the job YES IT CERTAINLY DOES.
The one thing I did find straight away – what they call a ‘ramp up speed’ of the speed controllers – in other words how fast they go from zero to full speed has been smoothed out – so you get no steps in the speed.
The other thing is when you use the mixer function, where the old mixer was very harsh, in other words it used to go from zero to flat out with very little movement on the rudder stick, and this has also been smoothed out. So the motors don’t try and rip themselves out of the motor beds – but it is nice and smooth running.
The only thing to be aware of is, although this mixer and speed controller unit work exceptionally well with modern-day /semi-modern day transmitters – with the very early day 40mghz transmitters we may have a bit of an issue. This is the channel separation inside the transmitters was prone to ‘bleed through’ and as I have found using the Sanwa Conquest Mark II transmitter, it lead to a little bit of a problem. As I had the throttle set on the left hand stick; controlling the speed controllers – and the rudder and mix on the right hand stick; what was happening was I was finding there was a very slight delay in one of the motors starting up. I therefore had a mis-match of speeds. The way I eventually fettled this mis-match was to move the rudder channel over to the left hand stick along with the throttle stick – so this gave me the movement of the throttles up and down and the rudder from left to right on the same stick. This cured the problem.
So all in all how does this new unit weigh up?
YES a little pricey, but don’t forget you are paying for 2 speed controllers and a mixer here. How much is a speed controller on its own? That is what you have to remember.
I have included a couple of photographs to show you the set up and what is inside, also I have included a photograph showing
DON’T LOOK NOW MR JACKET an Electronize speed controller alongside the unit and at the back of it is a tobacco tin. Now this will give you some idea of the size of this unit.