I had to take a trip back to the UK last week so have had little time to spare. I drove back and flew home a week later. Unfortunately I exported a Flu like virus which was a heavy chesty cold. A PCR test determined that it was not COVID.
I have spent every bit of spare time in drawing up the wiring diagram for the sixteen functions I am using for the Dusseldorf. I just cannot help myself. I just have to draw all of the parts to scale in as much detail as possible. I just cannot stop myself. Just one more pin, oh and that capacitor.
I will be updating this diagram in the near future as I would like to wire the anchor light to the anchor motor channel as soon as I can work out an easy way to ensure the light remains on when the anchor motor stops going down and extinguishes when the anchor is retrieved.
I have printed pdf files of the whole drawing and two halves for clarity.
I now have all the necessary electronics and parts to complete this boat so I hope to get moving soon.
Peter.

I can honestly say that I have finished a boat. OK, it`s only the row boat for Dusseldorf but from small Acorns and all that.
I did not like the rowlocks idea from the instructions using split pins, so I bent some brass wire and made my own.
My colour scheme is also off plan but I think the proper design looks so dull. I am going to jazz up a couple more items as well to add a bit of eye interest.
I have really ventured into the wiring of the 16 channels now so will post an update on that soon. I really hope to finish this project by early summer as I have so many more to get on with.
Peter.😀

I am now focusing on the wiring of the 16 channels. I thought that seeing that the hull is 48”, 1.20 metres long, there would be plenty of room. This has proved not to be that case and I think if I were starting from scratch, I would add a couple of accessible platforms to attach some of the circuits. The voltage regulators are larger than anticipated but I am getting there. I still have to add the two 3s batteries that just arrived, but I am sure this will not present too much of a problem.
I have made up a fuse and main switch assembly for the drive motor battery and added a fuse only for that ancillary battery. The cabin and hull cables are to be connected using a 25 pin plug and some wires added to the outside to carry a little more current for the search light and radar motors just in case.
I have chosen to use 11.1 volts, LiPo 3s, batteries for both the motor circuit and equipment circuits as I want the motors separate from everything else to give a reasonable run time. The main water pump works best on 12 volts especially as it has to feed three monitors which explains the need for the regulators as most of the other motors and equipment runs at six volts.
The sbus decoders have been fitted and the main receiver. The switch modules for the lighting and other equipment are in place but need to be connected. I am working through these one at a time. The voltage regulators are only capable of a constant 2 amp draw so I hope that the small geared motors do not stall as I really don’t have much space to add additional fuses to them all. The wiring diagrams I designed and posted earlier show all of the equipment needed to make this work. I am sure that there is an easier way to achieve this without the need for some of the regulators but that is beyond my knowledge of circuitry.
I will be continuing this work over the next couple of weeks and will update the blog then.
The pictures were taken at different stages of the installation.
Peter.😊

Hi guys.
A long time has passed since I have been able to consider modelling. I purchased two real boats during the year and my time has been spent mainly on these, along with completing my house here in Hungary.
I have attached a picture of where I am. I demonstrated all of the electronics during a Skype session earlier in the year with a few site members and although 11 channels worked well, two were not set up yet and three failed.
The failure was sorted as I found that one row on one of the 15 pin plugs had been wired back to front. I changed the wires around and I now have 16 working channels.
The picture shows where I am now, dust included. I hope to get on with this now as both of my boats are in the front garden and it is getting too cold to work on them.
I will try to update soon but must fight through all of that dust to see where I am.
Peter.😀

After a lot of cleaning to remove six months’ worth of dust, I was in a position to assess where I had got to. I could see that I had completed the wiring including the cabin to hull connection which I had not added to this blog. Pictures of the wiring and connectors are added here.
Another outstanding issue that I had worked on over the summer was to try to improve the fitting of the main V shaped wire form on the mast which I had knocked off three times before. I decided that the best way forward was to sandwich this wire between two pieces of formed plastic which I made from scraps. Although it might not look like the original, I am sure that none but the best of rivet counters would ever notice.
There has been a lot of fabricating and assembly during this build and finally I have reached the best part, adding all of these assemblies permanently. The first parts to fit were the fire hose connectors and taps in the recesses on each side of the cabin. I modified the connectors as shown earlier in the blog and also added positioning pins into the rear of them all for positioning and to add strength to the joints. These were made of 6.5mm long pieces of brass rod cut off using a pin chuck. Next was to start on the fire self-protection system all around the outside edge of the deck. They are painted and partially assembled ready for fitting later.
I have now started to prepare the Windlass for fitting. I have assembled the main gearbox and painted it but this will be the start for my next update.

Although I did do a little work on the windlass, my main focus turned to wiring the mast lights, navigation lights and a modification to the crane so that it was capable of lifting the small rowboat over the side railings. There is a major error with the design of the crane in that it was never going to be high enough to lift the boat over the side. Another site member, Len (Bombero) had just completed this model and kindly made me aware of the issue.
I had a plan in my mind how to modify the crane but could not find 7mm diameter brass tube or 12mm plastic tube. Eventually, by luck, I found a metre length of plastic tube in the local hardware store. I ordered the brass tube from the UK as I could not find it here. I needed to lift the crane body by 40mm which meant the operating brass tube also needed the same. I cut the plastic tube and straightened the ends on the lathe. I then carefully glued it to the original base to give the extra height. There was a small problem remaining. The inside diameter of the extending tube is 10mm which is the same as the main boom joint size so was jamming in the hole. I solved this problem by making a plastic washer to insert into the end of the extension to give the boom support. The completed base was now painted to match the rest of the boat. It looks better than the blue I chose earlier to be a rebel.
I added the lighting to the already completed mast pieces. The main problem here was to get the six wires down through the small inner slot I had machined in before assembly. I solved this problem by pushing one length of single wire down through the centre of the mast with a length of cotton tied to the end. I then cut a 1mm diameter rod to about 150mm long and bent a small hook on the end. I pushed this through the wiring holes under each lamp position and hooked up the thread, pulled it through and cut it with about 200mm in hand. I tied on the two wires and carefully pulled them through from underneath. This was repeated for the other lights. I then cut the LEDs short and soldered the connections and added shrink insulation. The assemblies were then glued to the mast. The same method was used for the red and green navigation lights.
Next, I will try to complete the windlass: again.
Peter.

As Christmas celebrations are held here in Hungary on 24th December, I have had a little time over the past two days to do a little work.
I have made all of the cranks and handles from brass tube and rod. I like the look of brass so I choose not to paint them when only small parts. I have assembled them and placed on the deck for a chain test. The instructions say, so I am told, to place a 4mm strip under one end of each of the chain stoppers to allow the anchor chain to pass through cleanly. I found, in the test, for this to be unnecessary. They look ok stuck straight onto the deck. I will not fix the Windlass down until other items have been completed to minimise the chance that I will knock parts off. Temporary safety I would think as I am bound to knock bits off anyway!😁
Next I found that I had some work to do on the anchor light. The cover supplied is a translucent moulding so I painted the top and bottom rims. I then prepared the pole and painted it. The LED was then soldered to its wires and the three parts assembled.
My next project, starting today, is to construct the three flag poles which will be made from wood rod and brass tube.😊
Peter.

There are three flag poles to make for Dusseldorf. The poles are from 3mm diameter wood and the bases are 4mm diameter brass tube. All of the parts were cut and trimmed to length. Next came 320 cloth and 600 wet and dry to form and finish the pole tapers. A 2mm nut was then screwed onto the top to form the cap. Two 1mm holes were the drilled through top and bottom for the cleats which will be made from 1mm split pins when they arrive.
The bow flagpole base also holds the bow light so the bracket was bent and soldered in place. When it warms up a bit I will paint and fit them.
Next job is to modify the operation of the monitor rise and fall due to an early error I made.
Peter.

Considering this model was transported to Hungary in many pieces, it is amazing that not too much has gone missing. The only things I have not found so far are both of the monitor raise and lower levers. Fortunately I still have the plate that they came from so all I had to do was trace the shape onto a fresh piece of waste and cut them out. I have now drilled the holes and prepared them for fitting to the servos. As I mentioned in the last entry, this is all part of repairing an error I made very early on in the build. I will explain exactly what I did wrong next time when I do the rest of the repair.
Dog walking time now. No, not quite right. Human walking with dogs in control.😁

As mentioned earlier, I made a mistake earlier on in the build which needed a repair solution. The error was to glue the main actuation brass tube into the monitor base without aligning it properly to the axis of the nozzle and its actuating arm below. All three monitors are different but I just didn’t see how important this was. Inside the main tube runs the water tube and beside that there is a very small 1mm tube which guides the filament which operates the rise and fall of the monitor. All of them are out of alignment by quite some way. I have overcome this by making some brass spacers and screwing a bearing filled pulley wheel onto the top which transfers the angle that the filament operates to the correct one. This seems to have solved the initial problem but I think that Krick may have made one of their own. As you can see on the drawing attached, the dotted line shows the end position for the actuator arm rotation. The edge of the mounting plate is the inside edge of the cabin so they have their arm going right through. I will overcome this, somehow.
An issue I have yet to solve, and cannot until the model is complete, is that when the monitors are rotated, due to how the rise and fall is actuated through the rotating main tube, the rise and fall will also move slightly. I am hoping to reduce this by mixing the two channels with the mixer so that when the monitor is rotated, a small compensation input is made to the rise and fall at the same time. I have never done this before but looking forward to giving it a go. I know that aeroplane flyers do this with their controls so I think it is only a case of trial and error.😊