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[Colin Bishop]

No need for brushless in a model like this I would have thought. A conventional setup is quite adequate.

Colin

[Tafelspitz]

Derek, good to see you around!
As Colin said, brushless would probably be overkill for a small sized, slow sailing vessel like Calypso.
Although when you look at the market offerings regarding brushed vs. brushless ESCs, the trend seems to be leaning heavily in the brushless direction. At least in the shops I was roaming.
Anyway. The other thing you correctly identified as cut and die for M1 - M2.5 threads. To be honest, I don't know exactly what I'm gonna use it for, but I'm pretty sure its time will come eventually, e.g. for the rudder linkage. When I bought it I was under the impression (or rather delusion) that it went up to M3 but apparently that is not the case. I guess I can always complement it with larger pieces when and if the need arises.

[derekwarner]

Hullo Dom.......I only watch & read electrics as an overview, however it does appear that the cost of ball raced 3 phase motors & controllers is ever decreasing and to the point where equivalent Watts power to Watt power is toward the brushless fraternity

The old addage, however does apply.......pay for $$$ quality cutting tools & you achieve what you expect  .......

I am comfortable tapping M2 x 0.4P.....which is the nominal bolt size on my steam line flanges......but nothing smaller

You can easily purchase individual elements for M3 x 0.5P


Derek

[Tafelspitz]

The new shafts and propellers compared to the respective kit version. This should do the trick.I was very impressed by the quality of the three Hitec servos I'm using for the Imara, so I went for another servo by that company for the rudder in this build. I went for a small (i.e. light) digital one.
The receiver for my Graupner Hott set is also ready. The set has ten or so memory slots for different models, so every model can have its dedicated settings.
Imara uses a rather intricate mixer setup for the two steam engines and rudder servos, so I will make double sure to back theses settings up to a memory card before touching anything for the Calypso model settings 

[Tafelspitz]

Slowly getting the build started.I made a compartment box for the battery. The bottom's edge follows the angle of the battery pack, so that it will sit as low as possible down at the keel.
I also started building the observation chamber. I'm not particularly fond of vacuum formed parts, but the job needs to be done 
I have added a small polystyrene strip and I will also give the interior a coat of component resin to reinforce the seam since I will have to bore a couple of holes into the bulb where the observation windows will sit eventually.But first it will need some filling and sanding once the glue and resin cures.
I have ordered some electronic parts from China for a water based ultrasonic smoker as per this thread. That's going to be interesting and I will report on that later. Still some experimenting due.

[Tafelspitz]

Although it may still a bit early for a smoke generator, I like tinkering about with electronics parts. Toys for boys  Back in the Paleozoic when I built a Graupner Seabex One, I fitted her with two small oil based Seuthe smoke units. Since I wasn't very impressed with oil splatters fouling the boat, I prefer something water based.
I was roaming the forum for ideas on water based smoke generators when I stumbled upon this idea in the black arts forum that uses an ultrasonic vaporizer. Now there is an intriguing idea 
After getting the parts from China I put together a conceptual test prototype (I love pleonasms  ).I had to slightly modify the board that came with the vaporizer module since it features a toggle switch which will be of no use when installed in the boat.
I designed a simple test housing to test drive the vaporizer and the miniature fan. This looks very promising. The vaporizer and the fan start operating at approx. 2.5V and can handle up to 5V. This unit (which I  just denominated "Pandora's Box  ) draws approx. 0.34A at 4.8V. The test tank holds approx. 60mL of water and this lasted for over an hour. I think I can work with that.Here's a short movie of the unit in action.
 I have a dedicated miniature ESC that I can run parallel to the main ESC that I intend to use for the Pandora smoker unit.

[Tafelspitz]

I have a question for you seasoned builders out there. How do you prevent those small, nasty dimples from forming when sanding down filler?  See pictures. Q-tip and coin for size reference. The dimples are rather tiny and the picture exaggerates them quite a bit due to the macro lens, but they're still bothersome.What am I doing wrong? 

[Stan]

Use a fine surface car filler works for me.


Stan

[ballastanksian]

What type of filler is it? If a cellulose or styrene solvent filler a'la Green stuff, Tamiya or other tubed type, as it cures, it shrinks because the solvent makes up a proportion of the whole when plastic. Therefore, you will need to apply a little more each time to fill the dimples. It might be worth trying to find average shrinkage rates and overfill the gaps and sand back. Be mindful that the more you add initially, the longer it will take to cure especially as the solvent in the lower region of the mass will have to get through to the outside world.


For epoxy based fillers, the usual issue is poor mixing, old filler that has 'skinned' or contaminants that basically stay put in the mix until it cures and you get sanding when the contaminants pull out as the abrasive passes over. If you over fill with epoxy putty or solvent putty, be mindful that you overfill enough!

[Colin Bishop]

As Stan says, car filler such as P38 is usually the best bet. Abrade the surface before application.

Colin

[Tafelspitz]

Thank you guys.I'm actually using a fine car body filler, the same type I already had for the Imara build. But it's a brand new can.
You may be on to something that it probably wasn't mixed properly and hadn't cured enough when I was sanding. It's supposed to be sandable after 30 minutes and I let it cure over night, but I only prepared a tiny bit and probably didn't have the mixture proportion right.Be it as it may, I was able to amend it and now everything is fine (pun intended).
Observation chamber coming along. I will have to test the windowed portholes for watertightness before glueing them in place, though 

[Tafelspitz]

Test fitting the observation chamber I noticed that the bow has a couple of nasty dents. While this may add a touch of realism, I'd rather try and smoothen things out in a later step.
Also test fitting prop shafts and propellers. I replaced the provided plastic propellers 1:1 with brass ones but just realized that they are too big 
I did some research and have now a smaller pair on order.The motor supports are just a couple of prototypes I made.

[Xristoskaiti]

Hello, I want to write that the ship had propellers with 4 wings from the beginning.
When the conversion took place in 1981, they made new propellers again with 4 wings

[Tafelspitz]

Thank you! You're quite right, that's also what I figured when I was looking into the issue.

I have now a couple of Raboesch four bladed, 30mm propellers on order (147 4Bl-30-R-M4 and 147 4Bl-30-L-M4). I should get them after the Easter holiday.

[Tafelspitz]

Some minor progress. I'm a bit all over the place with the build since I can't decide what to do next. Everything I want to do seems to require something else being done first.
Preparing the mini bowthruster. Will glue it in at a later stage, though, after the "false nose" is in place and the front porthole is securely sealed.
The mini motor wasn't turning freely when I was testing it. I'm not sure whether it's a technical problem or just a matter of running the G-seals in. Some more testing required. I have a backup motor on order, just in case.
The general layout of the baseplate looks something like this. I used my laser engraver to cut the battery opening and two access holes to the keel.
And while I had the laser out, I made some deck planking using 0.6mm plywood. Line spacing is 3,0mm. Looks quite nice methinks. Although it will be a while until I'm gonna need it.

[Tafelspitz]

The new propellers just arrived from the Netherlandes 
Prototyping the motor mount to get it in the correct angle using dummy couplers to connect the motors to the drive shafts. Took me 2 attempts  . If everything sits OK I intend to print the motor mount from glass fiber enforced nylon. That's probably overkill, statics wise, but why not? 
After the base plate is properly sealed, I will glue it in place.

[Tafelspitz]

Base plate securely glued in place. Weighing it down with whatever I could get my hands on 
Motor mount is now printed from glass fiber reenforced Nylon and not very neatly glued together with Fusion glue  After adding a small wooden support I glued the drive shafts in place. The dummy couplers are now dismissed and can make way for the real thing.

[Tworrs]

Very nice Tafelspitz, you are making great progress.
I am picking up some useful tips from you, thanks.

[Tafelspitz]

Thank you Tworrs!It's a fun project so far but I'm glad that I have some experience gained from the Imara build.
I'm also always glad to pick up tips and tricks from other builds     

Dom

[derekwarner]

Dom....is the mini bulbous bow a laydown viewing station    for humans ?...... or just a multi-camera/video positioning setup?..... Derek

[tsenecal]

Dom....is the mini bulbous bow a laydown viewing station    for humans ?...... or just a multi-camera/video positioning setup?..... Derek

[ballastanksian]

He looks very serious!


Great progress on the build Dom!

[derekwarner]

Thanks tsenecal .....
Clearly the space must be accessible for some function, however I certainly would not volunteer to do the 'layflat' role 

So even adjusting a camera would be fraught with underwater claustrophobia    or enough to make that Bloke look serious 

Derek 

[RST]

Thanks tsenecal .....
Clearly the space must be accessible for some function, however I certainly would not volunteer to do the 'layflat' role 

So even adjusting a camera would be fraught with underwater claustrophobia    or enough to make that Bloke look serious 

Derek 

...That pic is a caricature off the websites.  That said, what I found interesting was the steel bow was extended and the bulb on the bottom was pretty much separate i.e. added to the original wooden minesweeper hull.  No wonder the manhole on the deck at the very front of the bow, no doubt leading to the ladder to the observation bulb down below?

I like this build, I've been finding so many Jacques Cousteau and Calypso films since it started (and re-watching the movies).  "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" is also one of my most favourite movies of all time.

Rich

[Tafelspitz]

Hey guys,
Yes, the bulb is an extension Cousteau had built for his purposes and yes, it would have been manned by way of the hatch at the bow. I found some pics of it.
There were at least two different iterations of the bow extension during the history of the boat.
From what I have seen, there was probably only a wooden palette down there to lie on. Not very comfy but then you wouldn't probably want to stay there for extended amounts of time anyway, I guess 
I'm still considering installing a mini camera with a Raspberry Pi somewhere in the underwater hull, but then there's already going to be a lot of stuff crowded into the small hull as it is so I'm probably going to skip on that.
I hope the windowed portholes I got are watertight. I did a test with one of them and it did seem to be OK, but just to be sure I added a drop of two-component adhesive to the one that goes into the bow over the bulb since that one is critical. Downside is that adding glue degrades the nice clear window, so I'm going to skip on that in the bulb portholes, if possible. I could use canopy glue but that stuff isn't water resistant, unfortunately.
Once the portholes are installed, I'll be sure to give the bulb a thorough test in a bowl of water before attaching it to the hull, though.
Dom