Model Boat Mayhem

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length.
Pages: 1 2 3 4 [5] 6 7 8 9 10   Go Down

Author Topic: Re: Diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75 - v2  (Read 73348 times)

ballastanksian

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6,447
  • Model Boat Mayhem inspires me!
  • Location: Crewkerne
Re: Diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75 - v2
« Reply #100 on: April 21, 2016, 08:37:29 pm »

No worries Josse. I saw something similar years ago on a TV series called Robot wars. They also had a backpack frame like thing the operator wore that had folding arms that held their console.
Logged
Pond weed is your enemy

tweety777

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 475
  • Very passionate about ships
  • Location: De Klomp, The Netherlands
Re: Diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75 - v2
« Reply #101 on: May 02, 2016, 07:28:59 pm »

Update:

Started building my new radio because the first self build radio was waaay to big.
This is A4 size (29,5cm wide, 21cm deep) and will weigh about a kilo, a quarter of that weight is for the touchscreen, another quarter by a total of 4 3,7V 4A LiPo batteries which we be wired up such that they will give 7,4V 8A total.
This will give a running time of about 6-7 hours.

Here the 7" touchscreen can clearly be seen along with the first 2 out of 13 joysticks.
The is now also a fuse box which will house a 1,5A fuse.

Started work on the gearbox for the first bowthruster, it already starts to look like something.
Here I'm determining where the horizontal gear should be positioned.

The full assembly line except for the engine.

Greetings Josse
Logged
Under construction: diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75, a very big and very ambitious project that keeps on going and going till I finally solve all ambitious things about it and have it working.
A day without learning is a lost day

ballastanksian

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6,447
  • Model Boat Mayhem inspires me!
  • Location: Crewkerne
Re: Diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75 - v2
« Reply #102 on: May 02, 2016, 07:42:21 pm »

Your developments are bvery interesting and hark back to the earliest days when it was often up to the clever and handy person to make their own equipment though far more basic than what you are acheiving with digital and micro electronic gizmology. Here is a link showing some really old gear, some home made including a modern attempt at home building a system. http://www.mccrash-racing.co.uk/sc/early.htm

The use of a copper T piece is elegant especially if the solder joins are water tight :-))
Logged
Pond weed is your enemy

tweety777

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 475
  • Very passionate about ships
  • Location: De Klomp, The Netherlands
Re: Diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75 - v2
« Reply #103 on: May 02, 2016, 07:45:25 pm »

Hi Ballast,

Thanks for the kind words!!

That sure is old stuff, very nice to see where we got from only some 40 years ago.

Greetings Josse
Logged
Under construction: diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75, a very big and very ambitious project that keeps on going and going till I finally solve all ambitious things about it and have it working.
A day without learning is a lost day

tweety777

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 475
  • Very passionate about ships
  • Location: De Klomp, The Netherlands
Re: Diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75 - v2
« Reply #104 on: June 04, 2016, 11:44:50 am »

Here's an update again.

After having sanded the ends of the bowthruster tunnels down to the hull plating and some more sanding on the hull I decided it was very much time for a fresh layer of primer to make the remaining imperfections more visible.

Here it is clearly visible that the bowthruster tunnels are not positioned at the same height as is true for the real ship as well.
The shape has came out way better then the previous version, so I'm very happy about it.
Still lots of sanding to do though.



Greetings Josse
Logged
Under construction: diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75, a very big and very ambitious project that keeps on going and going till I finally solve all ambitious things about it and have it working.
A day without learning is a lost day

Brian60

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3,315
  • Location: Hull,UK-but currently residing in Los Martinez, Spain.
Re: Diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75 - v2
« Reply #105 on: June 04, 2016, 02:11:02 pm »

Coming along slowly Josse. How are you doing with the electronics side of things? I saw a post by you on another forum dating back to 2012 asking about arduino. I saw it this week but I can't remember which site it was now.

tweety777

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 475
  • Very passionate about ships
  • Location: De Klomp, The Netherlands
Re: Diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75 - v2
« Reply #106 on: June 04, 2016, 02:21:38 pm »

Hi Brian,

Recently I started working on a new, much smaller transmitter with Raspberry Pi as controller, still lots of work on the electronics.

Greetings Josse
Logged
Under construction: diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75, a very big and very ambitious project that keeps on going and going till I finally solve all ambitious things about it and have it working.
A day without learning is a lost day

ballastanksian

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6,447
  • Model Boat Mayhem inspires me!
  • Location: Crewkerne
Re: Diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75 - v2
« Reply #107 on: June 04, 2016, 04:34:19 pm »

Wow, there is a lot happening in the bow! She should spin like a ballerina once finished with those thrusters.
Logged
Pond weed is your enemy

tweety777

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 475
  • Very passionate about ships
  • Location: De Klomp, The Netherlands
Re: Diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75 - v2
« Reply #108 on: June 05, 2016, 07:50:36 am »

Hi Ballast,

Sheen sure will spin and turn Like a ballarina, also because of the rotating azimuth trusters I also need to make for stern propulsion.
She won't be fast though, the real ship isn't quite fast either.

Greetings Josse 
Logged
Under construction: diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75, a very big and very ambitious project that keeps on going and going till I finally solve all ambitious things about it and have it working.
A day without learning is a lost day

tweety777

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 475
  • Very passionate about ships
  • Location: De Klomp, The Netherlands
Re: Diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75 - v2
« Reply #109 on: June 07, 2016, 06:53:46 pm »

Coming along slowly Josse. How are you doing with the electronics side of things? I saw a post by you on another forum dating back to 2012 asking about arduino. I saw it this week but I can't remember which site it was now.

Hi Brian,

I wasn't home, therefore my short respons from my phone...
here is the new transmitter:

There will be quite some more joysticks with which I will control the cranes and derricks.
The 7" touchscreen will be used to control all the other functions, being the on/off functions mostly.

I will use 2 microcontrollers, using the best of both, the 2 being:
-Raspberry Pi which will handle the heavy calculations and video feeds as well as the internet connection back to the shore (should 1 Pi not be capable of doing this I will buy another Pi to handle the video and internet)
-Arduino Mega, 4 of them which will control the moving part of the controls as the Arduino is pretty much made for accurate timing for servo control.
Using a normal USB cable the Pi can talk to the Arduino's without any modifications or complicated programming making this set-up hardly more difficult then when using only Arduino but getting video feed through an Arduino will make quite a challenge since that's not quite what the Arduino was made for.
The extra Arduino's also give room for extra input options about the status of various mechanical components like propulsion and cranes.

Greetings Josse
Logged
Under construction: diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75, a very big and very ambitious project that keeps on going and going till I finally solve all ambitious things about it and have it working.
A day without learning is a lost day

tweety777

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 475
  • Very passionate about ships
  • Location: De Klomp, The Netherlands
Re: Diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75 - v2
« Reply #110 on: September 19, 2016, 11:14:02 am »

Hey guys,

Had quite a few busy months including 3 weeks holiday in Italy with my fiance now, I asked here to marry me in Italy at Lake Como.
In between all activities I did find some time here and there to work on Well Enhancer though not enough to place an update here, but here finally is an update again.
For my birthday I got a new Dremel (the corded Dremel 3000) from my parents, which is funny because 8 years ago I also got a Dremel (the cordless Stylus) for my birthday, also from my parents, but the battery of that Dremel has died about a year ago.
Any how, here is the update:

Here the first Tee for the bowthruster is getting more shape, I used my fathers Dremel (this was about a week or so ago) to remove any unneeded material for a nice and smooth transition.

This is the bowthruster assembly.
The captain gives an indication of the sheer size of the bowthruster propeller, it's the size of an adult...

Close up of the bowthruster assembly.



Some thoughts on the electronics and the deck.
The forward bulwark is a little low so I decided to make the deck as thin as possible so I don't need to raise the bulwark as much anymore.
Off course that will influence the thickness of the other decks as well because otherwise heights between the different  decks get's out of perspective but that won't be a problem.

The main computer with all Arduino's hooked up.
After giving some more thoughts to ballast placement, the location of the central computer and the pumps I decided it would be best to devide the weight of the middle ballast pack among the other 2 packs to make room for the fire water pumps.

The transmitter, now with a 10400mAh powerbank and 3 analogue to digital converters to translate the analogue signals from the joysticks to a digital signal which the Raspberry Pi will understand.
There now also is a power button with light in it.

The arrangement of all drive parts in the stern.


Greetings Josse
Logged
Under construction: diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75, a very big and very ambitious project that keeps on going and going till I finally solve all ambitious things about it and have it working.
A day without learning is a lost day

Brian60

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3,315
  • Location: Hull,UK-but currently residing in Los Martinez, Spain.
Re: Diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75 - v2
« Reply #111 on: September 19, 2016, 03:59:30 pm »

I see you are using mini stepper motors in the stern Josse, as drives for azimuth thrusters? Do you envisage problems with aligning them both with the same signal?

Also why are you mxing Raspberry Pi and Arduino together? why not srick to one system or the other?

tweety777

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 475
  • Very passionate about ships
  • Location: De Klomp, The Netherlands
Re: Diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75 - v2
« Reply #112 on: September 20, 2016, 01:20:14 pm »

Hi Brian,

I won't be using the same signal for both thrusters so that won't be a problem.
Controlling the propulsion will be such that when the stick is moved forward the throttle will be increased until the stick is returned to the centre position.
Moving the stick back will decrease speed until zero is reached and then reverse is engaged.
This means a little slower response time, but more realistic but also less demanding.
It means I can control the bow thrusters whilst the main propulsion remains as is.

I'm mixing the Pi with Arduino because both are good for different things, a Pi can't really control servo's which is the Arduino's main strength.
On the other hand, heavy calculations are more the Pi's strength whilst it's more of a weakness for the Arduino.
Therefore I will use the Pi to interpret the controls in the transmitter and to receive them in the boat, keeping track of what command should result in what action.
The transmitter will only generate commands like "move forward", the Pi in the boat will translate that command to "servo A to 234" for example (that is close to full throttle by the way).
The reason for this is that I can then use the transmitter for any boat without having to wire and program in a certain fashion.

There is 1 more reason for the Pi to be added: it handles screens and video which the Arduino can't at all and also audio is better controlled by the Pi (at least stereo versus mono on the Arduino).

Greetings Josse
Logged
Under construction: diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75, a very big and very ambitious project that keeps on going and going till I finally solve all ambitious things about it and have it working.
A day without learning is a lost day

tweety777

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 475
  • Very passionate about ships
  • Location: De Klomp, The Netherlands
Re: Diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75 - v2
« Reply #113 on: October 04, 2016, 06:53:14 pm »

Update:





I screwed the central computer in place, added 2 panels to make it a box and screwed the Pi and Arduino in place.

Gave the ESC, rear Arduino and stepper motor drivers a proper place.

Looking top down.
I also added some cable management.

Greetings Josse
Logged
Under construction: diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75, a very big and very ambitious project that keeps on going and going till I finally solve all ambitious things about it and have it working.
A day without learning is a lost day

ballastanksian

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6,447
  • Model Boat Mayhem inspires me!
  • Location: Crewkerne
Re: Diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75 - v2
« Reply #114 on: October 04, 2016, 07:57:54 pm »

I am impressed with your proficiency in computing as the whole thing flies over my fluffy head. I can see that it will be a wonderful system when running.

The hull is coming together well Josse, very smooth.

Congratulations on your Engagement  :-))
Logged
Pond weed is your enemy

tweety777

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 475
  • Very passionate about ships
  • Location: De Klomp, The Netherlands
Re: Diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75 - v2
« Reply #115 on: October 04, 2016, 08:30:03 pm »

Hi Ballast,

For the time being programming is also above my head, I start to understand the very basics but still need my father (who works with programming) to get things really going.
Because I know it can work and because this is pretty much the only way to achieve what I have in mind with this model I'll build the electronics in anyway.

Thanks for the compliment, it takes so much time but is certainly worth the effort, especially when finished the way I want her to be finished.

Thanks a lot, now I need to plan myself a wedding and find myself a house...

Greetings Josse
Logged
Under construction: diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75, a very big and very ambitious project that keeps on going and going till I finally solve all ambitious things about it and have it working.
A day without learning is a lost day

tweety777

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 475
  • Very passionate about ships
  • Location: De Klomp, The Netherlands
Re: Diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75 - v2
« Reply #116 on: October 05, 2016, 10:31:52 am »

Had myself a nice bit of engineering going on which I'd like to share with you guys:

I started to realise that the stepper motors I bought for the thrusters are pretty slow.
Since there will be 62mm diameter gear on the steering part of the thruster and there is a 28mm gear on the stepper motor I'll get stuck with very slow turning thrusters, making planning ahead a necessity, and any unforeseen events close to my boat can't be dealt with...
Therefore I started looking for other stepper motors, but they are all much bigger.
The bigger motor in the same place will not work at all, so I decided to check where I do have room close by.
You can see in the photo I found myself a nice place.
The paper box was made in AutoCAD to the exact dimensions of the thing.
The white cap shows where the steering gear will be positioned, it has roughly the same dimensions.
Nice bit of trial and error engineering, but it works.
Using the same components I'll have myself a nicely fast stepper motor though in a nicely controlled manor.
Here is a video of the turning Stepper motor of the new choice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UJgDtGRXDM

Greetings Josse
Logged
Under construction: diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75, a very big and very ambitious project that keeps on going and going till I finally solve all ambitious things about it and have it working.
A day without learning is a lost day

Brian60

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3,315
  • Location: Hull,UK-but currently residing in Los Martinez, Spain.
Re: Diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75 - v2
« Reply #117 on: October 05, 2016, 01:14:54 pm »

I've watched the video Josse, I think the NEMA 17 might be too big for your space even though you have made a card shape of its size.

This is what I am using to raise and lower my retractable thruster, its a NEMA 14, but you can also get 11 and 8 sizes. As you can see they can be fitted with belt drives so maybe a belt drive would be better for your setup?

tweety777

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 475
  • Very passionate about ships
  • Location: De Klomp, The Netherlands
Re: Diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75 - v2
« Reply #118 on: October 05, 2016, 05:06:13 pm »

Hi Brian,

That is some very useful information!
I didn't know NEMA had several sizes.
I just looked it up and the NEMA 11 seems to be properly powered but a little awkard in size, the NEMA 14 is clearly overpowered but is so low I can stick with my original idea with gears for the steering and drive belt for the drive shaft.
The reason for the gear steering is that I did find a proper gearwheel in a size that fits through the outer tube on which the thruster unit will be hung up whilst not taking up all the room in the rear and be somewhat reasonably priced (not over €40,- per gear).

Now I only need to figure out what the speed of the NEMA 14 is.

Greetings Josse
Logged
Under construction: diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75, a very big and very ambitious project that keeps on going and going till I finally solve all ambitious things about it and have it working.
A day without learning is a lost day

bfgstew

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 502
  • Comfortably Numb
  • Location: Retford (Robin Hood Country)
Re: Diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75 - v2
« Reply #119 on: October 05, 2016, 06:15:21 pm »

The speed of a stepper is determined by how you drive it? Dedicated stepper driver or through a PIC. Dedicated driver will be faster but at a greater cost, PIC can handle it but much slower.

Logged
"Give me a ping Vasili. One ping only, please"

bfgstew

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 502
  • Comfortably Numb
  • Location: Retford (Robin Hood Country)
Re: Diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75 - v2
« Reply #120 on: October 05, 2016, 06:30:52 pm »

Further thinking, to drive a stepper motor quickly most are driven through a PC's printer port to the driver board, the Pi may be able to handle this but unsure,  the other way is through a darlington driver driven via a PIC. AsI said the trade off is speed over price.
Logged
"Give me a ping Vasili. One ping only, please"

bfgstew

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 502
  • Comfortably Numb
  • Location: Retford (Robin Hood Country)
Re: Diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75 - v2
« Reply #121 on: October 05, 2016, 06:54:53 pm »

Just noticed the video so I apologise if teaching granny to suck eggs!!
If its not fast enough just change the size of sprockets to give faster ratio.
Watch out though for missing steps, it could throw your positioning out. You may want to put in some sort of reference point to make sure it always goes back to zero or can be tuned back to zero if it gets lost through missing steps.
The noise is normal in the video, you can get steppers to sing if you run them fast enough and are nifty at programming them, my ones on my cnc can scream fairly loudly but they are going as fast as i can push them.......lol

Logged
"Give me a ping Vasili. One ping only, please"

bfgstew

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 502
  • Comfortably Numb
  • Location: Retford (Robin Hood Country)
Re: Diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75 - v2
« Reply #122 on: October 05, 2016, 07:20:17 pm »

Further thinking Josse, how many steps per rev are these steppers? (normally 1.8 deg) if you know this you can work out the steps needed to give you finite positioning for the drives without the need for speed, simply put you can have near enough a 1:1 drive - 1 step = 1.8deg. If you can half step the motors that would be even better - 1/2 step = 0.9 deg.
Food for thought?
Logged
"Give me a ping Vasili. One ping only, please"

tweety777

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 475
  • Very passionate about ships
  • Location: De Klomp, The Netherlands
Re: Diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75 - v2
« Reply #123 on: October 05, 2016, 07:42:47 pm »

Hi Stew,

Thanks for the information.

Speed certainly can be regulated by means of programming but it won't run faster then it's maximum speed.
The NEMA 17 seems to be reasonably fast, I don't want servo speed, that's way to fast, but slower can give trouble in responding to an unforeseen event like an upcoming collision.
The real thrusters take about 8 seconds to turn 180 degrees, I don't want my thrusters to turn that slow but it gives an idea of what I'm going for.

Greetings Josse
Logged
Under construction: diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75, a very big and very ambitious project that keeps on going and going till I finally solve all ambitious things about it and have it working.
A day without learning is a lost day

bfgstew

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 502
  • Comfortably Numb
  • Location: Retford (Robin Hood Country)
Re: Diving support vessel Well Enhancer scale 1:75 - v2
« Reply #124 on: October 05, 2016, 07:57:21 pm »

Hi Josse,
                 I see what you want to do. What i would try and do is programme the motor to only turn 180 deg (half a turn), put a bit of insulation tape round the shaft to act a flag, start position is 0 deg then have it step 90 deg one way then 180 deg the other way then back 90 deg to your start point 0 deg, see how long it takes, should reckon about 3 seconds, with a 1:1 drive to speed up or slow simply edit programme, a lot cheaper and easier than messing with gears etc.
Hope it helps and happy to help further if needed.


Stewart
Logged
"Give me a ping Vasili. One ping only, please"
Pages: 1 2 3 4 [5] 6 7 8 9 10   Go Up
 

Page created in 0.126 seconds with 22 queries.