Nice work Dustin, and very neat. I can't believe that you don't think you will have the Alsace and your battlestation ship ready by July. It sounds like you need to stop wasting your time on frivolous things - like sleep.
Very nice looking indeed. Well done. You could always quit your current job. You could get all sorts of stuff done then. Mikey
Looking at the pics again... are you using the battery trays as part of the circuit, or does it just look that way in the pics?
Got some shop time today. The rear building and smokestacks are 90% done--I still need to do the rear rangefinders and funnels tops. I've got two of the three catapults ready for placement. I also notched the subdeck and a cross base to allow for B turret to go to port some more. As it stands The following is left to do. Secondary turrets (4) Tertiary turrets (8) AAA (8) Cranes (3) Rear rangefinders Funnel tops Details! Internal Armor Sheet with balsa Program the gear channel for the punp ESC Setup Drive ESC Program rudder throw Wire the firing board (should get here by Tuesday) Program firing travel for channels one and two Dremel out turret covers if thay arrive Paint Gun angle adjustment device. (3) [1/8" collar and 1/8" rod] The silver solder idea didn't work for the canon mounts, just breathing on the tubes made them move, I used Aves Apoxie-Sculpt, a super-kick-### two part putty, to hold the cannon mounts together. I have decided against adding sea-planes to this model. A bit too pricey at $10 each for all three. (I've got $1600+ into this model as it stands) The next battle is near Cleveland in a week...can he make it?
Just complete 9-12 and bring it next weekend for some sea trials. I think the list is great - I make similar lists, especially when I only have a few days to get a ship completed. Funny thing though - everday something else ends up being added to the list. It's never as simple as you first think it to be.
Well Mark, 9-12 are almost done. I just need to silkspan the balsa. I finished gun hookup today and realized I needed to move my rear solenoids because they were in the way of my rear guns, so a little plumbing work and: Looking forward at A & B turrets: Recovery Float: And overall view:
In case anyone was wondering: The Pump output 1.5GPM @12V. 1.25/1.5=.83 and 12V/13.2V=.9 so .83*.9=.75 that is where the pump ESC is set.
The guns seem pretty far apart, is that to scale or is there a minimum distance in treaty, or is that just how it worked best for you?
Nick, that is to scale for the outer two barrels for the quad 15" turrets. I also prefer coil mags to straight mags for reloading ease and this setup just fits. The cannons were custom made for this setup by BC.
The firing board came in today, and I must say it is a thing of beauty. All the wiring was already done on the board and it included JST connectors. Installation was a snap and I had it dropped in the watertight box and tested/tweaked all of my cannons in less than an hour. Most of that was soldering the Ultra plugs to the ends of the JSTs after I ran them through the WT box. Here it is installed: Going with a WT box with all waterproofed components should make for trouble-free battling as long as my wiring outside the box is up to par. Some various shots of the outside of the box: All components for this boat are modular in nature and can be swapped out pondside if necessary. The only things permantly attached (except for motor mounts, stuffing tubes, and rudder post) are the rudder servo bracket and some small strips of spruce to keep the bottom of the tank elevated out of the water channel and two "slots" for the velcro strap holding down the forward solenoid assembly. The drive ESC output wires are glued into the WT box, but I have not yet seen an Mtronics Marine Viper fail when ran at 5% of rated current draw. I am going to submerge the box for a few minutes to test. More later tonight, after I get some food in me.
I see you have you ESC in your WT box, not worried about heat at all? I also see a on/off switch, if you are going to use that for you ESC that's a lot of work to button up your ship before placing it in the water. Skippy
A valid point. My drive train draws .77A with no load. With me squeezing the shafts until they flex 1/16" each, drive draw is 2.1A. I did that to simulate draw under load; I figure that much flex in the shafts will give me a good guesstimate since I can't hookup an ammeter running on the pond. I am running at 27.72W (or joules assuming all that goes to heat) full load / full throttle before I've dialed down speed to 28 seconds. That works out to just over 0.026 BTUs. Granted, I am rusty enough in my electrical theory (as in haven't touched it since the early 90's) that I don't know how much heat is given off by the motors and how much by the ESC or even the inherient efficency for that matter, but I am still pretty good with metric unit conversions. The ESC is rated at 40A so I am running at about 5% of rated capacity, so I think I should be ok. All that said, I am running sea trials later this week, and I will check the ESC for heat after running it with the box wide open and the deck off at regular intervals. If heat is an issue I have a Plan B that should take 30 minutes to impliment. I like to try things different on every boat, and this may not work The ESC slider switch will always stay in the ON position as the large rocker switch on the side turns on power for the drive ESC, Pump ESC (0.6A under load, BTW), and Firing Board. I really don't need it amymore, but I didn't remove it in case I ever want to pull that ESC for something else. It is at its current position for general tidiness. To power on the boat, I just hit that rocker switch, drop the middle deck section onto the rare earth magnents, and I am ready to take her to the pond. I submerged the box for two hours and I had about three mL of water inside, so I do have a small leak somewhere. I sprayed the bare metal parts down with some WD-40 and am letting it air our until tomorrow night. I won't worry about tracking down that leak until after this weekend's battle. Why did I leave the box submerged for two hours you ask? So I could add some fun details to the super structure! Check out my hatches, ladders and stairs: It is supposed to be a lot cooler this week with highs in the 80's vs. the 100's so I should be able to get some shop time in every day after work.
I was only able to get a little shop time last night. Here is my updated punchlist: Seconday turrets Terteriay Turrets AAA Rear rangefinders Cranes Funnel tops Internal armor Silkspan the balsa Details Paint The turret covers will not arrive in time, so they will not be ready. I will probably just shim the cannon mounts for now.
Looks like I can take 1 2 and 5 off the list I'll let the mold setup over night and I should be able to cast them while silkspanning.
Well, I didn't quite have enough silicone for the mold. I will see how it sets up and try plan B tomorrow.
