Trying air injection to break up the water flow. The air pumps I ordered finally arrived a week late but are too small to be of much use. I need a much bigger and faster volume of air to achieve what I want, which is for the water to almost be sprayed out in a mist. Might need to mod the water outlet by fitting fine tubes or stoppers around the inner smoke tube to build up a bit of back pressure, which might be another alternative
Unfortunately, as I've said before, you can't scale water, due partly to surface tension etc (why it either drips or runs out of a small pipe), so to make it fine you have to pressurize/vaporise it at the point of exit (ie garden sprayer) which is the hard part on a small scale. Lots of fun trying to perfect it though, and it keeps me out of trouble, and keeps the brain working - (although it's just asked for a pay rise due to all the work it's been doing lately!😂)
Tip,- if you run both videos at once you can see the difference between this and the last vid. It also breaks the smoke up.
JB
If only I was that clever Martin! unfortunately he had terminal sickness in 2008😴 He did 40yrs+
of comedy so he didn't have a bad run and made a lot of people happy😊
some of his quotes-
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?
There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls.
Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.
Here's all you have to know about men and women: women are crazy, men are stupid. And the main reason women are crazy is that men are stupid.
The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.
Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.
Weather forecast for tonight: dark. Continued dark overnight, with widely scattered light by morning.
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.
Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn't mean the circus has left town.
JB
Hi Cash - pity we live so far apart looks like San Reno would give Darth Vader a run for her money - pretty impressive............nice sized lake too........
One question though - where's the Road Runner ?
Made a few changes to the pulsing frequency/timing, and to the plumbing where the smoke is mixed with the water. Video shows the pulsing speeding up with throttle setting. Happy with this now, I can adjust the volume of smoke once it is installed in the boat. Probably will need less, but it is difficult to be sure as conditions on the lake are different to those in my workshop!
Re: I was wondering if adding propylene glycol might make a difference.
Don’t know what effect this would have. I’ll be interested to hear what happens if you try it. I find I have plenty of smoke using plain vegetable glycerine and I can increase or decrease it by adjusting the power to the smoker coil.
Graham93
Re:Had a look on the Microchip site, basic kit not too expensive but, as so often, the stuff you need to make it work well ain't so cheap☹️
I just use the PICKit2, which was cheap, and the free development software. The software lets you run a simulator on the PC where you can monitor your code, single step, set a breakpoint, etc. You can also monitor and change variable values. Some of the more sophisticated PIC16f chips allow you to debug your code running in the target hardware using the PICKit2 as the debug interface to your PC.
Inspired by jbkiwi's experiments on a smoker, and interested in developing one for my Crash Tender I have built an experimental rig based on using an e-cig for the smoke generator and an air pump. The air pump is driven by an electronic lash-up which pulses the pump at a rate depending on the throttle setting. The video shows two tests, first with the water off, then with it on.
Re: Can you give me more info on the electronic lash up you have made for the pulse circuit working from the motor speed control and the electric circuits for the e cig and pump.
The attached drawing shows a block diagram of the electronics. The 'smoke pulse generator' is a PIC10f220 microchip programmed to measure the pulse width of the throttle channel from the receiver. This width is used within the PIC to generate an output signal which is in effect the on/off waveform for the air pump driving the smoker to produce smoke pulses. The higher the throttle setting, the shorter the off time of this output signal and hence the more frequent the smoke pulses. This signal is connected to the PWM speed controller to control the pump speed. In the first iteration of the circuit, the PWM speed control circuit was built with two 555 timer chips and a bunch of discrete components. The second iteration, put together today, replaces the 555 timers and all the discrete components with a second PIC10f220 chip.
I'm still working on the settings and timings for these circuits adjusting the pulse widths, pump minimum and maximum speeds, etc to try and get a more realistic effect.
Thanks for the info. Afraid the programming of the chip a bit much for me, the timers circuits not a problem have used them before with success. However enjoying the progress of the smokers you doing a good job
Hi Nerys, not sure if this is the correct place to post but here go`s ! - hope this helps.
Perhaps you can get some detail also from the videos. Hope you can see the photo files ?
Ken, it was your Wee Nip that started the chain of thought and I thought about building one, but it's one of those projects pushed to the back of the production line. Then I saw this Mickey Finn hull at a price worth considering on Ebay and bought it. Might resurrect with correct rig, might experiment. Too many barges come before that.!
Made a few mods to the cooling system and was hoping for a quiet day for a video ("yeah right") Too busy watching out for an erratic orange torpedo to have much close up fun! Tried out a few full speed turns with no dramas, sticks like glue with no hint of 'roll out', just a bit of cavitation.
Finally, had a decent day (if you can call calm but fully overcast decent) and managed a try-out of the ST. Unfortunately had the pleasure of some yappy kid asking a thousand stupid questions, then his grandfather started, while I was trying to set it up. Got so distracted I ended up breaking the mast while trying to grab the boat and answer rapid fire questions. Trying to do a video and the kid's yelling behind me, and the grandfather just let him carry on.??😠 Don't mind kids being interested at all, but some are just a pain in the 'transom'
Anyhow, enough grumpy old man stuff, -boat went pretty much perfectly and is plenty fast enough, and also very economical on the batteries, (Vid was twice as long before editing) and when I stopped they were still at 3.9v/ cell (they are only 2200MAh 2s ) and were only 4.1 at the start. All in all, distractions and a bit of mast damage aside, I'm quite happy with it, (did hit the jetty at a 20deg angle at 2/3 throttle while taking photos, - going for that last shot -😀 bounced off without a mark, - lucky the jetty piles are slimy and I build tanks !)
I get easily confused in my old age Doug😐 I've got 2 cars, an auto and a manual, - I've noticed lately, when I shift to P for pass there are funny noises, (noticed the same when shifting to R for race) and in the manual, why does it make funny noises when I pull the stick back to drive off?😮
Confused😐
Running 2 models at once with 2 TXs for a bit of fun for a video. No one else to steer so it was just me, (not particularly coordinated though!) Sorry about the video, YT seems to stuff some of them up even though they are the correct format, (sound almost disappears as well)
Re - Well what do you expect livin' on yer 'eads
Probably something to do with the space time continuum Doug, did you know the water runs the other way down the plughole down South (or up South if you want to be contrary) Mind you, the blood running to the top of the head makes us think differently (same with the Aussies, although they think slightly more left than us😊
JB
