Topic: My 12 foot Gato class submarine! (Read 264093 times)

salmon · « **Reply #550 on:** January 02, 2018, 05:00:10 pm »

Happy New Year John, what sub plans do you have this year?
Peace,
Tom

sub john · « **Reply #551 on:** January 04, 2018, 08:11:37 pm »

HI Salmon Can you remember seeing the bosc monitor i posted a picture on hear some where sorry to say we lost him a few months ago, it was very sad put me off doing any thing for quite a while. In answer to your question would like to try to take the Engal to some shows but ever time i say I'm going some thing all ways goes wrong. I have brought a Phantom 4 drone and the idea was to do some filming of the subs and all i will say is it has been back and exchanged 3 times and back for repair 2 times and have only just got it back so hopefully will get some filming in this year. Must say I'm not very impressed with it, i think it likes going on it's holidays back to DJI in the Netherlands to be repaired All the best John

salmon · « **Reply #552 on:** January 06, 2018, 01:22:45 am »

Very sorry to hear of your monitor passing. It was part of your life and a part of the family.
With subs it always seems to be one thing or another. Your creations take it to a new level, but I am sure you will get control of it.
I have several friends and they have not had a trouble with their DJI. Third time is a charm!
Take care and look forward to hearing more from you in 2018.
Peace,
Tom

sub john · « **Reply #553 on:** October 14, 2018, 05:38:38 pm »

HI Guys I see there has been alot of interest in 458mhz or round abouts for using in model subs but this frequency the higher you go in frequency the less range you will get under water, with out going into technical stuff so what i am just starting to work on now is sonic link for controlling the sub under water, so you wont be using RF at all. Plus when you go down into sonic link you will be even be able to control the sub in salt water i have been working on different bits so it will all work together and it looks like it will work, all you will do is plug lead into buddy box lead output and it will work. This is why you need to go down to low frequency to get it to work in salt water other wise it will not work, LF will work to a extent but antenna's be come to long will have to see how it goes All the best Sub John

Subculture · « **Reply #554 on:** October 15, 2018, 08:49:34 pm »

Sounds interesting, John (no pun intended).

Could also be integrated into a module for use in modern radios with a module port, perhaps?

What became of the proportional piston tank board you developed? Did you plan to go commercial with that, or was it just for personal use. Looked promising in the video you posted some time back.

sub john · « **Reply #555 on:** October 15, 2018, 10:51:04 pm »

HI Andy

The sonic link could be used for quite a few things, idea of having buddy box lead so it plug's into any TX weather it is on 35MHz 40MHz or 2.4ghz as long as it sees the code coming out it would transmit the code to the sub. Been looking at some high powered sonic heads to use for TX i have seen some 50watt units but that is quite high powered for what we need, for sailing in the local lake have also been looking at sonic radar for going in the sub. I have been playing around with arduino mega to display screen for radar and have got that to work found the software for that on somebody Else's website no body could get it to work but i have and it does look very impressive the guy had made a very good job of it, but the guy did show it on his website working but he would not come back and tell anyone how to get it to work i suppose he did not won't to make it to easy for them.

The proportional piston tank board i did think about going commercial with it but didn't think there was a big enough market in model subs but i could be wrong.The circuit boards for the piston tanks has been in the small Gato for 3 years now and i have not touched them in that time so i think it is safe to say they are a re lieable unit, but what i must say i did think one of the boards had thrown a wobbly in the sub but what it was ended up being a micro switch sticking on the piston tank. Andy i hate micro switches and relays give me power mosfets any time i can work with them and i do like some of the big ig-fet drivers loads of volts and amps. Thanks for coming back Andy and showing interest somebody like your self will see where it is going
All the best Sub John

Subculture · « **Reply #556 on:** October 16, 2018, 11:28:47 am »

Don't think the market is particularly large for anything when it comes to model submarines- it's all a bit niche.

Having said that, a fair few out there with Engel subs that would benefit from a rugged solid state alternative.

Engel had a dabble with this on their early 212 kits, but appear to have reverted to relays on subsequent models.

How many would you want to shift to make it worthwhile? Have you considered offering the design as a schematic and PCB legend, with a pre-programmed microcontroller. That way you wouldn't have to stock up on components, and it would offer modellers an alternative to what else is out there.

JimG · « **Reply #557 on:** October 16, 2018, 12:50:42 pm »

Would sonic signals not give a problem with low bandwidth, data transfer would be rather slow giving slow response to the control signal.
Jim

sub john · « **Reply #558 on:** October 16, 2018, 11:22:25 pm »

HI Andy
If you was to make the boards you would need to make 20 at a time to make it worth while doing, i could have the boards made and have them built with all the smd components on and all i would do is program the pic.

The problem i cold see for people trying to make it for them self's because it is smd components i don't think alot of people would be able to make it, the size of the board is quite small power fets just soldered to the pcb the fets don't even need heatsinks on them. I did speak to Engel on the phone and told him i was scrapping the tmax board and i had made my own he did say they had a go at fet switching but had problems with it, he did say that he would like to see what i have done with my board.

There is alsorts of bits i can do but if there is not enough of a market for it there is not much point in making it.
All the best John

sub john · « **Reply #559 on:** October 16, 2018, 11:38:36 pm »

HI Jim
You asked about low bandwidth if you was sending out a low frequency carrier and you was trying to amplitude modulate it or phase shift it then it would get slow at sending data and response time on servos would be slow but saying that it wouldn't matter so much if the response time of a servo in a sub slowed down because a sub travels slow if we was flying a model plane then yes it would matter.

But i will not be using AM or FM when using the sonic link this might not work yet but i am just doing this for myself to see if it can be done, if you look at some of the new fish finders they are using 120kHz or so and they get quite a bit of information on the screen as i have got one in my big sub, you can even see the bushes on the bottom of the lake and fish under the sub and the contour of the lake bed and it was 90ft deep where i used to sail. Thanks for coming back Jim
All the best Sub John

salmon · « **Reply #560 on:** October 17, 2018, 12:49:35 am »

John,
Sent a pm.
Peace,
Tom

C-3PO · « **Reply #561 on:** October 17, 2018, 07:15:22 am »

Hi Sub John,

This site has some interesting info but looks like the max range for their sensors is 10m

https://www.maxbotix.com/Ultrasonic_Sensors.htm

Using an I2C‑MaxSonar with an Arduino - https://www.maxbotix.com/articles/095.htm

This also looks interesting ( Fish Hunter 3D ) 3D floating sensor which sends data back to you via WiFi - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8SzrqgIteU

C-3PO

Subculture · « **Reply #562 on:** October 17, 2018, 10:15:37 am »

1206 smd components are workable with a small iron, below that things get rather tricky for smaller components like resistors. Twenty boards wouldn’t be too hard to shift, any idea what sort of figure would we be looking at. One board per tank rather than a twin tank board would be easier to pitch I think, as that can include owners of boats with a single tank. Ron Perrott expressed an interest in a transistorised board for his twin tank module set-up. At present owners use wither micro switches to Action relay switchers to work the tanks. Ron switches the low side only, I believe to avoid plating up the micro switch located in the wet.

TomHugill · « **Reply #563 on:** October 17, 2018, 04:15:29 pm »

I'd be very intrest in such a control board. Does it require the linear potentiometer the tmax tanks from engel have?

sub john · « **Reply #564 on:** October 17, 2018, 08:24:29 pm »

HI C-3PO

Thanks for links for sensors the range of 10m is not alot, with the arduino mega that i have been playing around with for the radar i have been looking at some of the 10ghz motion detectors which are of course proper radar how good are you with arduino code hint hint thanks again
All the best Sub John

Subculture · « **Reply #565 on:** October 18, 2018, 09:05:17 am »

How much do you reckon you would want for twenty boards?

C-3PO · « **Reply #566 on:** October 18, 2018, 09:07:11 am »

Hi Sub John,

Not sure about 10ghz - although I did make some 10ghz transceivers years ago - I seem to remember it using Coleman's Mustard tins as waveguides.

I believe that the US Navy uses 76hz for their underwater comms

Maybe hitting eBay for some used kit might be a good place - something like this

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SEAFARER-3-DEPTH-ECHO-SOUNDER-FISH-FINDER-boxed-with-leaflet/113307266000?hash=item1a61a3abd0:g:l0gAAOSwdrhbwEpj:rk:4:pf:0

C-3PO

sub john · « **Reply #567 on:** October 18, 2018, 07:01:56 pm »

HI Tom

Thanks for interest in piston control board, yes it does have a linear potentiometer the ones that are on mine are the engel pots but you do not have to use them you can use anything. There is a company out there that can make i think it's up to a meter long and any size in between if you wonted to you could make the hole length of the piston tank fully proportional if that is won't to do but to be honest it's not worth it, mine just works on the last 20 percent of the fill of the tank and i mean it's proportional and works very very fast which it has to work fast for it to be-able to put the sub in to a hover, working off the software
All the best John

sub john · « **Reply #568 on:** October 18, 2018, 07:19:05 pm »

HI Andy
Fine on thinking 20 boards wound be to hard to shift trouble is one off boards will get to expensive as you wound need to buy power mosfets in large amounts to keep the cost down and the same for the PCB'S.

Each piston tank has it's own board the circuit for this would work on any piston tank as long as it's got a normal brushed motor i stopped away from brushless, one of the main reasons is you have to stop it before you can go the other way so it was easier to use normal motor which was already on the engel tank, so no point in reworking the wheel.

Fine on Ron Perrot using relays and micro switches don't like the idea of micro switches stuck in the water what ever you do it will corride surprised he didn't go for hall effect switches but then again they like to keep it simple so it is easy to change a micro switch. But saying that Andy I'm still using the micro switches on the engel tanks but they are only taking a few ma because they are only seeing logic from the pic but they are not in the water. Was going to fit hall effect switches but it didn't seem worth while
John

Subculture · « **Reply #569 on:** October 18, 2018, 10:44:13 pm »

Must have misread my post- I said wouldn't be hard to shift. However it does depend on price, if you can give a rough estimate I can pitch it at a few people and see if they show interest- nothing ventured, nothing gained.

sub john · « **Reply #570 on:** October 19, 2018, 07:55:45 pm »

HI Andy
Sorry about misreading post, haven't even thought about pricing it up will have to work it out and get back to you
All the best John

sub john · « **Reply #571 on:** October 19, 2018, 08:14:34 pm »

HI C-3PO
Fine on not sure about 10 ghz if you look on the net and look for HB100 think it's radar motion detector which is on 10ghz you could easily mode this to transmit video the unit is not very big, what the plan is for this HB100 unit instead of using sonic heads on 40khz use this instead HB100 unit has a IF out put i know some sneaky way to get this to transmit a 40khz burst. The software for the radar screen would have to see in the software the speed of radio waves instead of the speed of sound. You could fit this HB100 unit in the conning tower of this big sub of mine have it scanning from left to right and transmitting back real radar using RF instead of light or sonic link that way the RF would even work transmitting through the conning tower and sending images back, in side of the HB100 is a puck resonator which is the sole job of keeping it locked on to 10.5ghz but if you know what you are doing you can get it to do other things. Because i have worked in micro wave electronics it helps
All the best Sub John

sub john · « **Reply #572 on:** December 25, 2018, 05:23:06 pm »

I would like to wish every one Merry Christmas and a Happy new year

all the best sub john

salmon · « **Reply #573 on:** December 26, 2018, 03:17:15 am »

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you!

sub john · « **Reply #574 on:** December 31, 2018, 05:10:54 pm »

HI Guys
Just thought i would give a up date on what I'm up to at the moment, the radar that i have been playing around with to go in the big sub i have got the transmitting side working for sending the data back to the bank side so you can see it on the PC or laptop it is transmitting back on 915mhz but from what i can make out you are only allowed 25mw-erp which is not allot but on 918mhz it is 100mw-erp, which is quite good but of course it will only work on top of the water when the sub is surfaced but the plan is to send the data back on low frequency for the sonar to work when submerged. Im all so playing around with some software called mission planner used for drones and so on of course way points can be set because i am using transceivers on 915mhz i can send data to the sub or back from it. I have got to finish off the radar 10ghz head but hopefully will get it finished soon , the sub is fitted with a fish finder which is sending back data at the moment there is so many different bands on the sub now for radio it is all getting quite complicated

All the best Sub John

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Author Topic: My 12 foot Gato class submarine! (Read 264093 times)