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Author Topic: 1/5 Riva Aquarama...  (Read 27738 times)

DJW

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Re: 1/5 Riva Aquarama...
« Reply #75 on: August 03, 2022, 10:19:04 pm »

Cooling plate now brazed, and a couple of pinholes tracked down and sealed so it's watertight. 5mm id pipe for in and outlet.







Best regards to all
David.

DJW

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Re: 1/5 Riva Aquarama...
« Reply #76 on: August 06, 2022, 05:39:02 pm »

Another couple of hours today. The case for the ESCs is now ready to test. The two ESCs are equipped with heatsinks that are in contact with the case. The case will be constantly cooled by the water cooled base plate. If more cooling is needed the fans spool up at a set temperature and increase in speed as required. Connections are all in place through the case. I'm mainly using multiplex connections for control and telemetry.  Nice and positive physical connection and carry 6 wires.









And the hull frames and keel will be modified to place the case lower in this kind of position, right behind the motors. White blocks indicate approximate LiPo positions.





Again... This is all because I chose to use the aircraft oriented FrSky Neuron ESCs to control the 1600w motors. They would just cook in a sealed boat hull without sufficient cooling.


Very best regards to all.
David.

Martin (Admin)

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Re: 1/5 Riva Aquarama...
« Reply #77 on: August 06, 2022, 06:55:21 pm »


   Again ....  :o
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Stuw

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Re: 1/5 Riva Aquarama...
« Reply #78 on: August 08, 2022, 08:45:41 am »

 %%  Serious heat dissipation being planned! It’ll work a treat I reckon. Wow....
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DJW

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Re: 1/5 Riva Aquarama...
« Reply #79 on: August 12, 2022, 10:28:51 am »

Morning Stuw


Hope so..!  Moved on to the electronics, I've had the individual systems working on the bench when building and testing, now getting the components mounted for integration with the boat.  In the Aquarama its tricky to use space forward of the motors for equipment that may need access, and not ideal to add weight forward anyway given that the boat builds bow heavy.  So I'm making up two 6mm boards that are 200x120mm and will become boxes that will fit either side of the batteries (seen in the above picture as white blocks).  The hull frames will be adapted to accept the boxes before the frames are bonded in place.  This is the first board (port side) that will be taking the sound system and a couple of related Arduinos and relays.  I'll be adding 40mm 12v fans to keep an air flow across the electronics.  Lower left are the two 15W amplifiers, one for each V8. These are TPA3110 Amps (£5.20 each on Amazon...) as they seem to give a better sound than the original PAM8610 units, I've also switched to conventional relays as the RC switches as I was having problems with the Mosfet type switches leaking current resulting in and on state, and an almost off state... Not ideal as it produced all sorts of whines and strange noises. The relays are larger, but are 100% on, or off...





Larger components mounted using stand offs, small components will be added to the grey DIN rails using 3D printed mounts, cable routing on the back of the board.


Power coming in from a 4S liPo using an XT60 connector, though switch, a fuse (5A at the moment) and then a 12v step down for the Amps and fans and so on.


The second board (to be starboard mounted) will accommodate the Receiver, SBEC, water pump relay, fan temp control and bilge water sensor.




Best regards to all.
David.



Martin (Admin)

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Re: 1/5 Riva Aquarama...
« Reply #80 on: August 12, 2022, 06:25:17 pm »


Hi David,
Fantastic build!
Have you done / got a 'block diagram' of the all the electrics... I'd love to see one!   :-)
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DJW

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Re: 1/5 Riva Aquarama...
« Reply #81 on: August 13, 2022, 05:04:38 pm »

Hi Martyn
Thanks for that..!  And I don't have a diagram at the moment. But I think I could do with drawing one out, it would help with the work in progress.





Best regards
David.

DJW

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Re: 1/5 Riva Aquarama...
« Reply #82 on: August 16, 2022, 11:24:10 am »

Hi Martyn, and All...

It did help to try putting thoughts re the build hardware on paper, here's my attempt to summarise what's being done, lots more space to play with in this build. This is a guide to the systems and their layout, bow being up...



At the moment I'm building up the 'Port Electronics Package', but have some spare mounting space in it so may move over some of the systems from Stbd side, issue there is I then need to 'bridge' over more connections from stbd side which has the Rx... Not the end of the world...

This is the current state of the 'Port package', sounds systems and Vibration (cranking) motor are working with no blue smoke, yet...



And this is a schematic of channel usage:


The 5 / 12V regulators are a mix of types depending on current need.

The sound systems are using Aquarama V8 samples, bow speakers are selected for bass...   The Exciters, I'm thinking of placing them inside port and stbd hull sides.

Exhaust smoke.  After scouring YouTube for options, I'm going to try a glycerine based system using some nichrome wire and fibreglass cord to generate white smoke, then fans to drive it through the exhausts. And an Arduino / Mosfet arrangement to vary the volume of smoke and speed it gets expelled depending on the throttle setting....  But not started that yet.

Some of the channel usage doesn't really need to be on separate channels, I could use Y leads, but as the channels are available it makes everything a little more flexible down the line.

As always, the challenge is getting it all working in the real world...   :-))

Best regards to all.
David.

Martin (Admin)

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Re: 1/5 Riva Aquarama...
« Reply #83 on: August 16, 2022, 04:47:48 pm »


    Astonishing!  :o :o :o
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DJW

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Re: 1/5 Riva Aquarama...
« Reply #84 on: August 20, 2022, 07:51:36 pm »

Evening All
Some progress with one of the electronics packages. Now have it in a custom case, 3mm ply and 2mm perspex cover and a 40mm fan above the amps. This will be powered up when the amps are active. Some trimming to do and some more ports to cut out for connectors. I've made up two sets of parts for the case, so I have same for the other side, all the RC gear.

Not shown well in that pic but the lid is removable, as is the electronics board.


And the smoke generator...  is coming along. 3D printed in the main. Will show it working and the inside layout in a couple of days.

This is intended to produce a very modest amount of smoke, just a trace blown out of the exhausts.


Very best regards to all.
David.

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Re: 1/5 Riva Aquarama...
« Reply #85 on: August 20, 2022, 10:04:33 pm »

All cased up like that gives a very real professional looking job - fantastic work David  :-))


Aye,
Ray.
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DJW

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Re: 1/5 Riva Aquarama...
« Reply #86 on: August 23, 2022, 05:32:28 pm »

Hi Ray

Thanks for that, it's my attempt to keep the cabling under control.  I'm also using braided cable sleeves to keep wires together as they run through the hull.



A bit more progress made.  I've moved the Pump relay over as it needs a 12v supply, and added the ports for the MPX connectors.




 
First test of the 'smoke generator' is successful, in that it didn't do any damage to anything and did generate smoke.



Heavily plagiarised from YouTube examples...  At the moment the output can be varied using a DC motor controller, and that works nicely.  Aim is to have the on/off on an RC channel, then have the output slaved to throttle.  I think the fan can run whenever the sound system is active as the smoke won't be required if the sound system is not 'on', that will maintain an airflow and keep the unit cool. I'd like to 'pulse' the output too, maybe a butterfly arrangement nearer to the exhaust stubs, not sure yet.  Top cover is a tight fit, no smoke coming out where it shouldn't.  When installed M3 screws keep the fan and lid in place.  Unit has a flange to be bulkhead mounted.

This is a low output...



And a bit more...



I'm thinking that a very low output when pulsed, might just look like a V8...

The insides, a length of 4mm fibreglass cord sitting in vegetable glycerine, the glycerine wicks up the cord to the heating element (nichrome wire).  The two bolts holding the wire are isolated from the case by silicone tube.  Put a voltage across the nichrome an it gets hot enough to vaporise the glycerine producing white smoke.  Fan forces air through the unit picking up the smoke on the way.






This seems a lot more controllable than the ultrasonic disc approach...  I just couldn't make that reliable or controllable and usually ended up with a puddle of water...

This will have an Arduino controlling the unit and its output, as safety measures I could add a temperature sensor, then shut the unit down if it gets too hot, or limit the time the element is 'on'.  Testing it earlier for 5 mins or so on a low setting the case just didn't get hot.  More testing required, anyone tried this approach...?

Very best regards to all.
David.

DJW

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Re: 1/5 Riva Aquarama...
« Reply #87 on: August 30, 2022, 05:03:28 pm »

Afternoon All


A few hours here and there on the electronics housings, and the wiring loom.





This has a 4S 14.4V input for the various needs, same supply will feed to similar box on the other side of the hull.  'Speaker Grill' is actually a 40mm fan to keep an airflow though the box. There's a grill covered slot to allow the air to vent out, below.





And the connectors are now labelled up.  The 'Bridge' connector is to the opposite electronics box that holds the Rx, so it's the on/off signals for the relays.





UPS arrived earlier with a shiny new 4,000mAh 4S Turnigy Graphene LiPo.  This will provide the ancillary power for the boat.  The main 6S units are on back order.





And it will sit between the main LiPos, somewhere here, but lower once I've taken a saw to the frames...





Hoping to take the 1/10th Aquarama for an outing to the Black Park MBC Open Day on Sunday, and hoping the weather remains OK...


Very best regards to all.
David.

DJW

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Re: 1/5 Riva Aquarama...
« Reply #88 on: September 07, 2022, 07:19:54 pm »

Work continues on a few bits of hardware.

3D printed a couple of fan ducts. These will act as extractor fans for the interior of the hull. Pipes will connect to the exhaust stubs.



Fans will be mounted high to avoid any water coming into the hull.





Also been working on the port electronics case. The fan is over the SBEC Heatsinks in this case. There is a cutout in the mounting panel and then a vent so the flow is past the SBEC and then out. There will be another vent as some of the components will benefit from small heatsinks and so ideally need an airflow too.






Will be adding the various components over the coming days.

Very best regards to all.
David.

DJW

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Re: 1/5 Riva Aquarama...
« Reply #89 on: September 09, 2022, 05:58:44 pm »

Friday update.  Fedex arrived earlier with 4 x 4,000mAh 6S Turnigy Graphene LiPos for this build, planning to use them as 2 x parallel pairs, so 8,000mAh available to each motor.  I also added a couple of 3,000mAh 3S LiPo spares for the 1/10 build, quite a size and weight difference:








And have been busy building up the port electronics package, it's very much a work in progress...  Currently Rx at top left with expansion board below it. SBEC at lower left. 12V PSU at top right with 2 x RC switches for Dock lights and Nav lights at top centre. Fuse board at lower right an in the middle an arduino and Mosfet that drives the fans in the ESC case based on their temperature. Lower centre is a small step down board that will supply 5V to the (LED) lights.  Just building up the board so I can figure out what connectors need accommodating and where on the case....





Best regards to all.
David.

DJW

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Re: 1/5 Riva Aquarama...
« Reply #90 on: September 21, 2022, 01:31:15 pm »

Afternoon All


An update on the smoke generator, still a work in progress...


I now have the unit producing smoke and pulsing that smoke, like a V8 on start up, and that pulse rate is linked to the throttle setting on the Tx.


Still needs refining, but the basics are now there.  To get the pulsing action I've placed a rotating disc under the smoke exit pipes, this rotor has cutouts so the exit pipe alternate between open and closed.  This is rotated by a 300rpm 12V motor.  This motor and the fan that drives the smoke out are under proportional control slaved to the throttle.  The 'smoke' is created by vaporising glycerine...  I've realised that's not the best idea as it can create sugar, and then burn it, not good...  So I've a bottle of commercial water based smoke fluid on its way.  Should be similar effect, but lower risks...  A bit more testing then optimising the electronics to fit inside one of the electronics boxes.  Plan is to have the smoke unit on a momentary switch on the transmitter, so it will then run for say 30 seconds, then switch itself off and have to be manually reactivated, primarily a protection against overheating due to a forgetful operator...


Here's a pic, and a link to a video file.





https://vimeo.com/752084275/68d3eeba2b


Best regards to all.
David.

DJW

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Re: 1/5 Riva Aquarama...
« Reply #91 on: September 28, 2022, 05:07:31 pm »

Afternoon All

Still busy with the electronics boards, second board is coming along:



I had to swap out the 'Tarot' 8 Channel SBUS extender as it was demonstrating some very strange behaviour, mixed up channel outputs, and no output on some channels.  I did see some corrosion on the underside of the board, looked like excess flux to me that had started breaking down the board.  Anyway confidence in it (and the Tarot QA team...) lost, it's in the bin.  Replaced with two FrSky 4 Channel SBUS extenders, I should have just used the FrSky units in the first place...  A bit more work on that board and it should be good to go.

Also been playing with the 3D printer.  Designing and printing an 'exhaust manifold'...  Plan is to use 25mm od brass tube for the exhaust stubs, these will be chromed.  Then I need to feed the coolant water outlet, the airflow outlet from the hulls interior and the 'smoke' output through the 'exhaust', so this manifold is to bring them together.  A couple of mounting flanges, the unit is a push fit into the brass tube, seal improved with the grooves for O rings.

The Tinkercad design:



The printed result, needs a little cleaning up, 4 hours to print:



The 3D printer approach makes the fabrication of quite a tricky component a lot more straightforward.



The main fan will force air through the exhaust from the 'back', the second inlet is for the smoke to be introduced:



I'm enjoying the build up of the various bits of hardware, but am looking forward to getting back to the woodwork..!

Best regards to all.
David.


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Re: 1/5 Riva Aquarama...
« Reply #92 on: September 28, 2022, 06:54:24 pm »

Owing to a scant knowledge of electrical wizardry I'm unable to submit any useful comments on your work David however, still finding it all fascinating  O0 .


Aye,
Ray.
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Stuw

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Re: 1/5 Riva Aquarama...
« Reply #93 on: October 01, 2022, 08:06:38 pm »

Wot he said!  :-))
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Re: 1/5 Riva Aquarama...
« Reply #94 on: October 02, 2022, 12:20:27 pm »

What they both said  {-)   Honestly your work is incredible  :-))

DJW

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Re: 1/5 Riva Aquarama...
« Reply #95 on: October 05, 2022, 06:08:57 pm »

Very kind comments, not sure fully deserved...  My approach is 'how difficult can it be..?'  and so I try.  Sometimes it works out, sometimes it takes a few attempts, and sometimes...  Well it just doesn't.

Electronics is a bit of an issue at the moment, parts all worked fine testing individually, but put them all together, and its a different story.  Waiting on a few new components, so thought I'd get back to some metalwork in the meantime.

The rudders, will be shaped from 4mm brass plate on 5mm stainless shafts and custom tubes.  Bearings from an engineering plastic and a good quality seal at the top.  I'll lube them up before use, but they shouldn't really need it.





All still work in progress.  Rudders bolted together to allow some machining and keep them symmetrical.



Also working on the P brackets:









Making the bearings out of this stuff: [size=78%]https://www.igus.co.uk/product/539?artNr=SFRX-1000[/size]

Bit of a leap of faith, but it machines really well and I can make it any length / design  so above is a flanged bearing that is an interference fit with the P bracket (pushed in once silver soldered), plus a 'thrust washer' of same material.  I spoke to the manufacturer, they seem to think it will work well in this use case.

Best regards to all.
David.

DJW

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Re: 1/5 Riva Aquarama...
« Reply #96 on: October 13, 2022, 11:07:59 am »

An update after a bit of time on the milling machine.

Rudder blades and P bracket skegs bolted together and machined together to ensure they're same size and shape.



This is the full size rudder for the Aquarama, so I'm going for a similar shape (also as per the 1/10 build which is working well on that boat).  I'm convinced that keeping the rudder blades not so deep helps stop the Aquarama rolling so much in turns by reducing the amount of lift.  I'm also putting the shaft about 30% from the front of the blade, more conventional for balance I think, the Riva item is unusually far forward...



And the set of blades / Skegs at the moment:



And the blades dry fitted on their shafts / stocks (shafts are an interference fit to the blades, not fully seated yet til I'm ready to solder):



I think I'll do some shaping of the blades next before silver soldering to the shafts...  But might be easier to hold if the silver soldering is done first...

We'll see.
Best regards
David.

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Re: 1/5 Riva Aquarama...
« Reply #97 on: October 13, 2022, 02:10:51 pm »

Well they certainly look the business and as for the soldering I'd definitely go with the shafts attached first - less chance of damage to your hands that way!


Aye,
Ray.
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Mark T

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Re: 1/5 Riva Aquarama...
« Reply #98 on: October 14, 2022, 04:19:00 pm »

Reading the specs of what you are making the bearings out of it looks like a very good material. I've never heard of it before but its not like models are run for hundreds of hours and they are often over engineered.  Its great to see something new being added to our hobby - having said that I bet others have heard of it before  {-)


As for the rudders - lovely job I reckon people could dig their gardens with them no problem!!  Great job!!!

DJW

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Re: 1/5 Riva Aquarama...
« Reply #99 on: October 15, 2022, 10:55:54 pm »

Well I'm certainly putting plenty of faith in that plastic bearing material. We'll see how it performs...
Some progress with the rudders today. Some shaping then some soldering and some more shaping. Still some polishing but pleased with results so far.












Once these are polished up it will be on to same work on the P brackets.


Happy weekend to all.
David.
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