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[tweety777]

Hi Martin,


Thanks for the kind words!


Hi C3PO,


That sounds like a good idea, it's a pity I didn't learn of this option sooner. Right now I only need to wire the up the select pins and re attach a few wires and then all I need to do is finish the programming.


Greetings Josse

[tweety777]

Hi C3PO,

Hi C3PO,


That sounds like a good idea, it's a pity I didn't learn of this option sooner. Right now I only need to wire the up the select pins and re attach a few wires and then all I need to do is finish the programming.


Greetings Josse

This has got me thinking and searching around and I found an I2C analogue to digital converter and have started rewiring the transmitter. The new ADC's now only need to be connected to power for which I used a new PCB which I designed myself but ordered abroad for a good enough price.


Greetings Josse

[tweety777]

Hey guys,


It's been quite a busy time for me, been working on the house and garden for quite some time, with good result fortunately. The back garden got a metal frame pool, large enough for some test floating and testing systems for Well Enhancer. This gave me new motivation to try and get the hull fully painted into the water. There is still a bit of filling and sanding left to do however but it should be a quite realistic goal to achieve before the pool is going into the shed for the winter season.


Photo 1 shows the PCB's that I designed for the transmitter first and foremost but the orders go in multiples of 5 so I'll use a few in the boat as well.


Photo 2 shows the cooling water outlets, designed in 3D before my PC died, and printed with my new resin 3D printer which I got this week. The shaft is 3cm long, but I'm not sure whether or not there will be enough water coming out of these but I can test that shortly.


Then I couldn't hold my horses anymore while taking the boat back inside while walking right next to the pool and decided to put her in the pool to see how she floats. Suprisingly, considering the water inlets haven't been glued in place yet, she remained fully dry inside at this depth, however, when I pushed the bow down to the waterline a small bit of water started coming in from the water inlet for the fire pump and when I pushed the stern to the waterline a bit of water came in past the schottels. The inlets will simply be glued tight to fix the issue. For the schottels I will design a through hull like provided with the schottels but of course modified for my boat with a closing ring on the outside so it will be as easy as possible to make it watertight.


Greetings Josse

[tweety777]

Hello guys,

Since my last update I have been filling and sanding like it was going out of fashion. The result is there now!

This was after the 3rd time applying primer since the first 2 times only revealed yet more bumps and dents.

Now the first side of the hull has been fully painted, though I do need to straighten the waterline since some paint got under the tape.



The section of hull above the maindeck besides the dive-area will be cut off and replaced by a 3D printed part which will be designed with both the hull and deck and all the detailing and placed afterwards. I made this decision because this section is not strong enough without the deck to be above in place to be properly filled and sanded.

Greetings Josse

[hama]

Wow!
I've been following your endeavors since the beginning and this is a huge improvement! Your patience paid out in the end, keep up the good work. Will follow with interest!
Hama

[tweety777]

Hello Hama,


Thanks for the kind words! Though I must admit that it was very tempting to stop being patiend and just get some paint on. Fortunately I managed to keep my patience and finish what I started.


Greetings Josse

[tweety777]

Hey guys,


I set out trying to get the boat painted before I need to empty the pool for the winter. Still had to fix the leaking bilges though but since that was a simple matter of applying epoxy I didn't think I could ruin it. Boy was I wrong... Off course I made to much which I decided to put to good use and since turning the boat upright with the bilges in a fresh layer of epoxy was out of the question I decided that the entire hull would get a new layer for good measure. When the epoxy had dried I saw in dismay how the epoxy had created a very unsmooth result. Some sanding later I managed to sand through the entire layer of epoxy in a few places and decided that I needed a good epoxy basis so I had no other choice then to apply an all new layer of epoxy with glass fibre to make sure the whole boat would be watertight. Then my wife got involved in a road accident while waiting in her car for the car before her to turn off of the road she was on. Someone 2 cars behind didn't pay attention and in his negligence ended the life of the driver of the car behind my wifes car. With this accident om my mind I didn't get to modelling at all but now I'm starting to pick things up again.



After having applied the epoxy and glass I started filling and tried to improve on that as well. Unfortunately I made too much and realized a little too late that it was already hardening to be able to create a smooth result like I tried to achieve.

What is that black stuff I hear you asking, well that is another learning moment. After having applied the epoxy and glass I decided that an additional layer of epoxy would be a good idea but I wanted to focus 1 side of the hull over the other since that side hade been a bit out of reach in the earlier stages. So I flipped her on 1 side laying straight on the newspapers I put there to protect the table. The idea wasn't really bad but I did not think about the epoxy would want to lay flat like water. So all exces epoxy moved over the bottom to where the boat touched the newspapers and thereby glued the newspapers to the hull. Won't be doing that anymore...

After a good while sanding she starts to look a lot better. Still, I only got as far as just past de bow.

I haven't yet gotten around sanding here.

Thought it would be a good idea to check if the boat is watertight now and the verdict is that she now is watertight!!.

This side clearly needs a lot more attention, work in progress.

Looks huge from this angle! I'd better start rowing out of here!!



Greetings Josse

[MartinC]

Sorry to hear about your wife, that must have been a very bad experience for her and of course yourself.  Love your openness and honesty with this build.  A really interesting and complex subject.


Will keep an eye for your build notes.


All the best Martin

[tweety777]

Hello Martin,


Thanks, it sure was quite a shock. I wans't in the car myself, I was driving our other car not far from the accident though I did see the aftermath. That alone was quite shocking. Fortunately my wife and son walked away scarred free.


I sure am not making this build easy on myself. I do learn a lot through this proces though, that also means a lot. I decided to show a bit more of the proces because it could have made my learning curve easier if others would have been this open too. Not that I want to blame anyone just to be clear on that. It's just that I like to learn from my mistakes and findings.


Greetings Josse

[MartinC]

Hi Jose,


Experience is such a wonderful tutor.  Do not worry about learning opportunities, I create them by the bucket load.  I've been building a hull from scratch for about nine months now, maybe more and I am still at the frame stage.  I must have rebuilt it four or five times already, and its likely I will still have to rebuild parts of it.


I could say we are having similar training in some way.  I am certainly creating similar learning opportunities for myself.


Good to hear your wife and son are okay after such an ordeal.  Cannot wait until you start with the electrics.


All the best Martin

[tweety777]

Hi Martin,


Learning makes life interesting to me, so there's no bad feelings in that regard. Though I must admit a start to get frustrated about the fact that each time I get really close to a properly painted hull (let's not forget I started building this hull 8 years ago, that being the second attempt because of lack of patience making the project last a total of 14 years now) something gets in the way, either be new experience or bad luck. All the while the weather is putting up a huge middle finger to me with temperatures this late in the season still close to 20 degrees Celsius. Normally painting would be out of the question several weeks ago but the coming week only the rain can spoil the fun.


Electrics you say? Don't get me started! For myself I devided this project into 4 subprojects. Let's be honest, each subproject is large and demanding enough to be project itself. These are: building the boat, the electronics (PWM modules, port expanders etc, also build into PCB's that I design myself), building the transmitter and the programming. The programming can also best be devided into 2 subprojects: programming for the boat and for the transmitter. The programming does need to be somewhat parallel from the point I get connection through the transceivers so I can keep track of how the changes react on the other part. If you want to learn patience, I can't think of a better way to learn!


Greetings Josse

[tweety777]

Hey guys,


I DID IT!! Well, almost that is. After removing the masking tape from the regions where the new bulwark will be placed I found some crumbling filler at deck level. That will need to be fixed before I can install the new bulwark. Since I need new supplies for that and the temperatures are finally dropping towards normal I decided to call it a day and first attend what needs to be fixed and continue in the spring next year. Since I had so much bad luck the last 6 months the result still feels like a great victory to me!

Tried my new airbrush which has immidiately proven itself to be a worthy addition to my toolbox. I did need to buy an extra airbrush gun though since I broke a nozzle on the first 1. The new gun proved much more capable for the large surface that is the hull without having tried the largest needle yet so a very worthy addition as well, even though I managed to save the first gun with help from the manufacturer.

Took the crew out as well for the occasion.






Now that the hull is painted I will shift focus to the transmitter and the programming. The main superstructure and the main crane will most likely start to take shape behind the scenes as well.


Greetings Josse

[derekwarner]

That splash of uniform red paint certainly defines the hull design and is a game changer in our view   ...... Derek

[tweety777]

Hi Derek,


Thanks for the kind words!


Greetings Josse

[MartinC]

Looking good Jose,


The weather here (Ireland) is proving to be very unusual, lots of storms and strangely warm for this time of year.


All the best


Martin

[tweety777]

Thanks Martin!


The weather here is also still strangely warm for the time of the year though not nearly summer warm again. The entire month octobre the heat records have been broken here, but now the temperature dropped to around 10 degrees C so to cold for painting.


Greetings Josse

[tweety777]

Happy new year!!!


Unfortunately sickness appeared to find me way to well last couple of months, keeping me from modelling for far too long a time.



The transmitter extension is now fully wired. This was not all to easy because I insist that the wiring and electronics inside the extension make sure things work as intended instead of controlling this using the Pi in the transmitter.



The last 2 types of PCB I designed arrived. I placed the stern PCB more forward then I originally intended due to the room in the stern needed for other components.



The stern will be quite cramped with the propulsion and crane components. Since especially the bowthruster engines give no room whatsoever to connect any means for registring the revs I decided to try Hall effect sensors to the side of the engine housing, hoping that will enable me to register the revs of the engine.



Because of the room needed for the pumps and interior in the bow I decided to place the bow electronics right next to the centre electronics.



This also fits a lot better.



The PCB's for the superstructure have also arrived though I need to order modified versions of these since there is not enough room to safely mount the LED's here, let alone the shortage of room for connecting the glass fibres for distributing the light.


Greetings Josse

[Capt Podge]

Happy New year Josse!
It's good to see you're making some progress despite your recent illness holding you back.
Hope things improve for you soon.


Ray.

[tweety777]

Thanks Ray, I sure hope I'm now done with all the flues. I hope everyone will have a healthy year!


For now I still have 1 week of christmas holiday left so I think I can get things going. On wednesday I'll be programming with my father, hoping to see if the Adafruit Motorhats are powerful enough for the main propulsion. I also intend to replace my FDM 3D printer in a month and a half since my current printer hasn't worked properly for well over a year now. I plan to have the 3D model for the new transmitter fully finished before the printer arrives so I can get it to work right away.


Greetings Josse

[tweety777]

Hey guys,


Recently I discovered that my newest PCB's have some design faults. First of all, both have the chip connected to the ground through 2 ways, one of those ways should have been connected to the + so now the chips wil not work. To make things work, I apparantly found the correct + on the chip when I worked on the superstructure PCB design and thus connected a 3,3V voltage regulator to the + of the chip and therefor also to the ground on the I2C. The result when powering up was some smoke and a tiny flame from the voltage regulator. The design has been modified to correct the mistake.
While connecting more and more I2C devices (everything is connected now) I found that the power this draws from the Pi makes the voltage drop too low so the Pi won't start. This still applies when powering the Pi from a USB power socket from the wall. This issue has now been resolved by using the 3,3V regulator on the hull PCB's.



Since the superstructure PCB's all have there own onboard 3,3V regulator I don't need a + cable attached for the I2C. However, the voltage must be within a range of 0,7V difference for this to work, so if the lowest voltage is 3V, the highest cannot exceed 3,7V.




Next wednesday I plan on testing the main engines controlled by an Adafruit motorhat. Is that test fails, I need 2 new ESC's. The first 9-DOF sensor has been placed all the way back, hoping to have as little interference as possible.

I might make a nicely 3D printed support here but this is way better already.

This PCB as intended to be placed further back, but there was no room there. This is the next best thing.

The final version of the transmitter is starting to take shape as well. Unfortunately I run out of black PLA filament, but since there were quite some bumps which need to be filled and sanded I also need to paint the entire transmitter anyways, so it doesn't matter anymore what colour PLA I use.


Greetings Josse

[MartinC]

Hi Josse,


Sounds like you have been really busy and are making great progress, inspiring in fact.  Do you have  a schematic of all your arduino, Pi workings that I could look at.  I'm always interested to see how experts do things.


All the best


Martin

[derekwarner]

Josse.......not an electronic question, but would the STDB side belt tensioner toothed pulley not be better placed externally pressing on the belt on then, therefore providing a greater arc of contact to the motor and the bladed drive unit? ....


Or, does the STDB side motor box need a little tension in the FWD direction?


Derek

[tweety777]

Josse.......not an electronic question, but would the STDB side belt tensioner toothed pulley not be better placed externally pressing on the belt on then, therefore providing a greater arc of contact to the motor and the bladed drive unit? ....


Or, does the STDB side motor box need a little tension in the FWD direction?


Derek

Hi Derek,


That is a good question. Currently, I'm looking into what component could best be placed where. Though I do prefer on the inside since the pulley is first of all intended for driving a wheel for measuring the RPM from the engine rather then tensioning it. Though I do intend to use the pulley for both at the same time. I'll most likely end up 3D printing an adjustable carriage for tensioning the belt.


Greetings Josse

[tweety777]

Hi Josse,


Sounds like you have been really busy and are making great progress, inspiring in fact.  Do you have  a schematic of all your arduino, Pi workings that I could look at.  I'm always interested to see how experts do things.


All the best


Martin

Hi Martin,


Please find attached the schematics for both Well Enhancer and the transmitter. These schematics are not up to date anymore but the general idea remains the same.


Greetings Josse

[MartinC]

Thanks Jose,


Very interesting.  I look forward to seeing it more detail when the information becomes available.  I'm using Arduino for stabilisation, step motor and servo drivers, your work is very interesting.


All the best


Martin