Haven’t been ignoring you deliberately, we are just back from a few days away visiting my family in London. Having grown up in the countryside, I can’t understand how my son can live in the east end of London. Each to his own I guess..
Just thinking about your stick operated smoker control. If you had room for another microswitch on that servo, and a relay, you could arrange for it to latch on with the stick in one direction, and off with it the other way.
Most radio sets here are now 2.4G, but that won’t work under water hence the interest in 27MHz for a sub. My 35 MHz set is FM with 8 channels, so converted to 27MHz will make it ideal. It is built from a design which was published in the RCM&E magazine in the late 70s. The initial design was for 27MHz. A subsequent article, a few years later provided the information to modify it for 35MHz. I built it as a 35MHz set, but I have the initial design details so it will be relatively easy to convert. Around 1980, Citizens Band radio was approved in the UK on 27MHz and it was very popular for a while. It made the frequency very risky for model control, especially for aircraft. Hence the move to 35MHz. Nowadays, there is not much CB radio about, and I guess the risk for a submarine is small. I’d want to fit it with a failsafe to force it to surface in any case. That’s for the future, I finished the yacht today so I’m hoping to try it out later this week. The weather will have to improve though. It has been snowing here today.
My electronics ability comes from more than 50 years as a hobby and a job - ( I did start very young 😉) My Dad used to repair valve TVs on the kitchen table when I was just a toddler. I remember he built a transistor radio in the mid 60s from a kit. The ‘circuit boards’ were cardboard with the circuit layout printed on them. Bare copper wire was used to connect the components together. I guess my interest just started there. I built a valve based public address amplifier in the late 60s and used to use it for discos in the local scout hut. When I started work, my first job was writing software for a CNC lathe. Looking back, the processor I was programming then had less power, and storage, than one of the PIC chips I now use for models. I have six PICs built in the Crash Tender (rudder/throttle mixer, lighting, searchlight movement, searchlight on/off, monitor pump and smoke generator).
The modern TXs are amazing. I have the FlySky i6 which has 10 channels with lots of programming options. I still have my home built 35MHz set I used for slope soaring, the only adjustments on that are the mechanical trims on the sticks. I’m considering modifying it to work on 27MHz if I decide to build a submarine. 35MHz is restricted to flying models over here. 27MHz is OK for surface vehicles.
If you would like a centre off RC switch for your ST just let me know. Could set it up to operate with on in one direction, and off in the other. Or two outputs, one in each direction. Or whatever......
It is important that the fluid tank is sealed so that there is nowhere for the forced air to flow into it. I don’t know if my tank extension has helped with this, I hadn’t considered that. The extension ensures that the original fluid tank is always full of fluid, with no air space. Thinking about it, that set up, in the Crash Tender, doesn’t seem to have as much of an issue with flooding as the other, non extended tank I was using for gunfire trials. I can probably get back to some more trials soon, as painting the yacht is finished, just waiting for it to harden properly before completing the final fit out. Could take a while, really need you 30 degrees for a few days - that would do the trick. Forecast for today is rain and 7C. Snow a little further north.
I’ve built quite a few electronic remote switches for the Crash Tender. Being able to build bits of electronics is one reason for the interest in the hobby. Indeed the original build of the Crash Tender was driven by the desire to build my own radio gear. One of the switches for the nav lights has three outputs driven from one channel. It works on a centering stick, with one direction for on, and the other for off. It also counts ‘on’ and ‘off’ pulses to decide decide which output to activate. I just updated the software in it yesterday as there was a problem if I gave it 4 ‘on’ pulses by mistake. It didn’t know what to do in that situation and got confused. Took it about 15 minutes to figure out something was wrong before it started working again! Now it resets instantly.
Regards Graham
That looks better. It was difficult to see the smoke in yesterday’s video. The sputtering water looks effective. I have the smoke power turned up a bit to make it more obvious on the lake. Probably too much, but at least you can see it. Does attract comments though about the boat being on fire 🔥 Maybe I should turn it down. The air goes through the mouthpiece as it was designed to, I.e. flows from the battery connector and out through the mouthpiece. Not had any problem with leaks, but I do get a bit of flooding with the glycerine. Meant to mention, I have almost 5L of glycerine so I won’t run out anytime soon! It is quite cheap if you buy it in bulk. I had it left over from another, non boat, related application.
Wow, you must have thin fingers to get in there 🤣 - I thought my Crash Tender was tight, but it has lots of room in comparison.
I was expecting ice on the lake on Sunday morning, but it was clear. Hoping CaretakerPhil will post a video soon. Today it is above freezing, but thick mist/fog. Can’t see to the end of the garden. Not a breath of wind. Need to go and light the stove in the workshop. More painting to do.
Yes the pdf downloaded without a problem. We used to have Maplin stores in the UK, originally just electronic components, but then moved in to modules and anything that had a wire on it, or batteries in it. So similar to Jaycar. They went bust a year ago. It is tough for retail shops now. Lots of stores are closing due to falling sales. It isn’t difficult to understand, why would I go in to town to buy something, maybe having to try several stores to find it in stock when I can order on line and get it delivered to the door in a couple of days ( unless it is from China when I have to wait).
Envy you your weather right now. It has hardly got above 0C here for the past few days. I’m having to light the stove in the workshop each day and wait for it to warm up before I can paint the yacht. Took the Crash Tender sailing yesterday, it was -3C when I left home! No ice on the lake, no wind, and clear blue sky, so it was great provided you could keep warm. I’m hoping there will be some video posted on the site in the next few days.
Good that you have the car finished. I’m glad I don’t fix my own now. Spent far too much time in the past crawling round under cars trying to release stubborn bolts.
I have come across the Jaycar name here as they seem to be involved with many of the construction projects in the hobby electronics mag that I occasionally buy. I’ve just looked them up on Google and they have a UK website with prices in GB£. They also have their catalog available for download, but it is too big and just errors when I try it. They look to have a good range of bits and pieces. The downside is everything is shipped from Australia and there shipping fees start at a minimum of GB£20. Would need to buy a lot to make that economic when I can buy many items from China for pence, including shipping.
For future reference my email is graham@highfieldbees.co.uk
I have a similar solution. I tried using two switches, one for 'full' and one for 'empty'. It worked, but works better just using one for the full position and topping up the tank after each shot. I used magnetic reed switches operated by a magnet on the hinged plasticard flap in the tank. Much less pressure needed to operate them. The switches are cheap chinese junk and not very reliable, but it works well when the switch works. There are semiconductor 'Hall effect' switches available that would be very reliable but they won't switch much current. They would work OK with my controller though. I think I have one somewhere from a previous project so I'll see if I can find it sometime. I don't have a model I could use this on, and no plans to build one right now so I'm going to put it on the shelf for now.
Assembly of the yacht is almost finished, just needs painting and rigging so I'm going to see if I can finish that over the next couple of weeks. Then there's the rowing boat to build, and I recently saw a submarine built from three glass jam jars that looks like a challenge...... Addictive this hobby isn't it!!!
I've got the gunfire software working now. The video clip shows it driven by my RC gear. A single switched channel triggers the gunfire by operating the solenoid valve for a fixed (preset) pulse. After each shot, the air pump starts up to refill the air capacitor. Once full a reed switch on the capacitor turns the pump off. You can just see that happening in the video.
My pensioner travel card only gives me free bus travel after 9:30, not the trains, which is a bit limiting. Especially as my wife isn't eligible for a pass until later this year. Not much point in me going on the bus and her driving along behind 🤣.
