Good morning all
Just to keep this thread up to date before I move to a build, I've had a long think about LB's words concerning weight
. This has definitely sent me off in the right direction
, following further research it turns out that it’s all down to keeping the C of G as low as possible; the ship actually requires quite a bit of extra weight for ballast but as I say it must be LOW LOW DOWN.
Step one, the foggy unit I wanted was too high, not just for the CofG but also to get under the limited height to the deck, I did contact Mark at MMB to see if a custom built model might be possible but my 50mm high allowance was just too low, Mark kindly explained why – very helpful by the way. So change to smoke fluid unit from Oz, this unit is only 30mm high and smokes like a “gooden”, have a look here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5wJiYQcTFE, this is the unit I have chosen with the speed controller adapted to work in reverse – note, I’ll use plastic extension tube to keep weight low.
Next sound, I now many people don’t like them
but I do like the Graupner SoundSwitch version 2
, I have one here and I’ve been playing with the set up on the PC and a lot of fun it’s been, by the way it does come with full English instructions. It will need an amp, again the Graupner unit is designed for it so although not cheap it does what I want and I’ve just sold some R/C Tamiya trucks and cars on Ebygum to raise the necessary pennies. Also not all know this but the SoundSwitch also has 7 switching outputs to run lights, moving parts etc. The basic unit of course has the engine sounds plus up to 16 other sounds available – it’s 4 channels so you can have engine plus 3 more sounds running all at the same time.
I also wrote to JoTiKa about the weight issues as I wanted to use lead acid batteries and had a great response this morning
explaining that it’s not the weight of these that’s the problem but it does raise the CofG.
This from John Wright:
"The weight put into the Scharhorn is not critical however the centre of gravity is. You should put in the lead at keel level as per the instructions. Lead Acid batteries because of the size raise the CofG too high. NiMi or lipo batteries should be used to get the CofG as low as possible. Once the battery, motors and radio system are installed you can then add any necessary weight to make the model as stable as possible. Our model took an additional 2.5kg to take it to the waterline."Many thanks to John – I’m now looking for a 12V pack, either NiMh or Lipo – I’ve not used Lipo’s before so I’ll need to do some more research.
Cheers all
Clive