Has anyone any experience of running some items on a boat by Wi Fi/Bluetooth in parallel to the boat been operated by normal Rx/Tx equipment.
Using ESP8266
Hi NickD
Good info from RNinMunich and probably not generally known.
I would switch on the Bluetooth before your Tx and all should be ok as the Tx (certainly those of recent manufacture) should avoid using the channels selected by your Bluetooth device.
All devices use Frequency Hopping and use a shared map of hop times and frequencies between devices to identify heavily used channels and avoid. This is the binding process.
The info is constantly monitored and regularly updated to allow for new transmissions.
That being the case both should work without issue but as ToraDog says I would not wish to use the Bluetooth device on a critical control.
dave976
Hi Nick, I use BT music players in a couple of my boats, as well as a remote key fob (433mhz) operated engine sound start relay, and have no problems with either. BT Doesn't have a great range (around 40ft on the water) but if you are just using it for an effect which for close up it should be fine. Bench testing will tell if it will affect your set-up (range test outside etc).
I've used it from my watch to the boat, the small Ruizu player to the boat, the Ruizu player in the boat to the BT board/player, for music and radio - aerial on the boat is functional for the radio, (aerial to Ruizu player to board via BT) all BT board functions (including music from an SD card ) controlled by an ifrared remote- pic 4), from the Ruizu player to a BT speaker in the boat and from Ruizu player in the boat to the BT speaker. No problems so far.
I know this is not one of my boats, but belongs to one of our club members. It is a 1/48 scale model of a "whaleback" freighter. The real George Washburn was built in 1885 had a length of 320 feet. What is unique about this is it had a almost tubular cross-section hull. Many times I heard visitors call it a submarine.
Jim's model includes horn sound, lights, homemade smoke generator and a ballast fill/empty system to reduce transportation weight. Video Link (this is not on YouTube, you have to copy this link to your browser to see the video): http://ssmbc-fl.org/Videos/Video-03-30-2014-01.mp4 (😮The link icon below WILL NOT WORK!😮)
I though some of you might enjoy this wonderful scratch built model!
Ron, I will not go into too much detail on Jim. He is retired, in his early 70's, and has building models since before I met him about 12 years ago. He doesn't bother with computers too much but enjoys his Canon digital cameras.
The story of building the model of the "Whaleback" seems to stem from where is lived many years ago up in the great lakes area of the U.S.
Jim is a laid-back person and deeply interested in building his models. Most of them are 1/48 scale, but in recent years he took a turn and started going after some complicated kits, some out of production for many years, like Sterling kits he found on Ebay. Other recent builds include some WWII battleships, plastic models that are motorized for RC.
One unique thing about Jim is all (I believe) of his models involve gear reduction between the motor(s) and shaft(s). He hand makes small parts where many people will avoid the small details. Here is a video of one of his other models, the City Of Buffalo:
My Vic Smeed Thornycroft MTB has been sitting in dry dock over the summer, due to holidays but also procrastination due to my fear that when I finally launched her she'd go straight to the bottom...
Anyway, this morning I plucked up courage, took her down to Black Park lake near Slough and chucked her in. She appeared to sit well in the water. I gently engaged the throttle and waved a tearful farewell as she moved off 20 yards or so towards the middle of the lake. I took her round in a wide arc and back to port. I repeated this a couple of times and did some straight runs until the tiller mechanism jammed, fortunately she was within grabbing distance.
I was so relieved and pleased that she worked. She had a good turn of speed (nothing too dramatic) and seemed to steer well, keeping fairly upright.
There appeared to be little if any water ingress. The water cooling system for the ESC didn't work (I suspect kinks in the tube) but it didn't appear to be overheating. I'll attend to that and also the tiller mechanism before I take her out again.
Must be pretty solid Nick, mine weighs 2.8kg with a 3s 3000mAh LiPo. Ply from memory was only about 1.5mm. Nothing wrong with a bit of weight, makes them run a bit more realistically. The originals looked like they were sinking with the weight of the fuel and 4 big heavy Thornycroft v12s in the back.
yes i was a bit taken aback when i weighed her, but to my untrained eye she seemed to sit ok in the water and i didn't really want her skipping over the ripples 😂
MODEL BOAT SAILING - AT BUGSWORTH BASIN
Bugsworth Canal Basin, the head of navigation of the Peak Forest Canal, was the largest and busiest inland port on Britain’s narrow canal system and the only one to survive intact. Famous canal and tramway engineer, Benjamin Outram, built the 14 mile long Peak Forest Canal from Dukinfield to Bugsworth, although plans to extend to Chapel Milton via Whitehough were never realised. Construction of the six mile Peak Forest Tramway in 1795 linked Bugsworth Basin to the limestone and gritstone quarries in Derbyshire, and the canal linked Bugsworth to Manchester and the trans-Pennine canal network.
Fitted a new bottom skin fitting for the water pump pickup(air/water/exhaust smoke system) - removing the pickup from the jet, as flow stopped when the jet stopped. Fitted a new transom skin fitting (RH side transom) for the ESC cooler exit, and took the water from the jet pickup for the ESC cooler. Everything seems to work well now, with the ESC water flow increasing with throttle. Now for a test on a decent day, (has to start with the rain and wind now, doesn't it?☹️)
HARTLEY FLARELINE, NEW PROJECT - STARTUP SMOKE TEST
A bit more refinement on the timing but getting there. Finally got the voltage regs from China to complete the system. A bit noisy, as the water pump is dry,- quietens down with water. Switches in stages using Grahams magic timer, - 1. smoke on, 2. water and air on. There is actually smoke running constantly at a reduced level once everything is running, but very hard to film. I could turn it up but I don't want it to look like it's on fire😂
Hi. This is my 2nd scratch built boat since lock down began. The first was the H S L 103 finished 6/7 weeks ago. Still waiting to be tested outside of workshop. This one is built on a fibre glass hull,and has a length of 44 inches and a beam of 16. My power plant is twin out runner motors purple power. 600kv, running through twin 70 amp ESC and with 4 cell 5000 amp lipos feeding them. All accommodation is made using 6 mm three ply. And every fitting you see on the boat was scratch built by me. Lighting system is 12 v grain of wheat .props are three bladed brass 45 mm by prop shop
As a follow-on to Grahams' comment on our latest collaboration on a smoke pulsing 'capacitor driven' device, we thought it was time to 'chuck it out there' and see what you think. I saw the vid on the guys warship with the very fancy gun smoke system a while ago and thought there must be a simpler way than the sophisticated and technical way he did it.
Having done press setting in my early days, I remembered that a big press we used to set had a hydraulic capacitor which helped get the ram moving (pretty much what electrical capacitors do for motors etc) I started with a common party balloon with no container and knew Graham would be interested, and it progressed from there. As usual, Graham has done a fancy bit of electronic control on his, with solenoid and timing and has it working nicely.
(just received my new solenoid which I will be adding in due course)
Balloon is stopped from filling by a micro switch to the air pump and air is released by solenoid at whatever timing you need (depending on how well your smoker can keep up). If the system has no leaks, the 'capacitor' can hold air indefinitely, ready for use, and will re-fill automatically, (pump only runs to re-fill) This idea can be modified to suit anything (guns, exhaust startup and run, steam to simulate steam whistle etc) Balloons of all shapes can be used eg -(long thin sausage balloons could be fitted inside a tube if space is an issue).
With a good air pump, the 'capacitor' will fill quite quickly and some good pressure can be achieved.
JB
Always thinking of improvements and new gadgets Martin, which might be useful for new model builds. At least Graham and I have got it pretty much sorted, so people can do modifications to suit their particular models. Main thing is that these devices are cheap and simple to make (in basic form) which is the whole idea, and can give your model that little bit extra. Most bits can be easily sourced from Ali Express/ Ebay etc.
JB
In case you have a smoke device using these or any smoker you can fill remotely by this method. Just used a reservoir and (for the purpose of the test) a 6v water pump running as slowly as possible. Pump sucks fluid through the smoke tank from the reservoir and recirculates it back to same. Reservoir fluid level needs to be level with, or below the smoke tank inlets to avoid siphoning to the tank and flooding the wick. With this system it only takes a few seconds to fill. You could also use the same idea manually with a deck filler and overflow. Either system must be sealed (airtight) to avoid fluid draining from tank when not in use, ( Manual system - both tubes plugged after filling) This idea does away with disassembling E-pen to fill .
JB
Ref:- "liquid duck poop is pretty corrosive"
That did make me smile.
I used to always take a large bottle of fresh water with me for washing down my boats lake side and other members used to laugh at me but at least i knew that my boat was nice and clean ready to be put away ready for next time.
Hi Martin, certainly necessary if using small brass or copper cooling pipes etc as they tend to get a bit of corrosion after a few years. Always wsh my boats down with mild detergent in a spray bottle and paper towels after running them (surprising how pond water stains if you don't). I wish I'd just wrapped the HSL inrunners with copper coils instead of fitting the fancy cooling jackets, as you are never sure what's happening to the painted steel motor casings inside, (hence the penetrating oil)! The motor end cap screws are probably welded in by now😀.
JB
Think I've finally sorted the mixing smoke and water for exhausts problem. Graham has already done his using the same pen / e-cig unit but with some nice electronic controls for the on off system, but not having the electronic abilities I've just gone with a more basic method. Wired up the pen and installed a filler tube (2 tubes are better - one for a breather) these are capped after filling to prevent air getting back from the pump. This system has a water pump, an air pump and the smoke unit, (all adjustable with their own voltage buck) Thanks to Martin for his pen suggestion. I was previously using large capacity elements fitted in various containers for my experiments (truckloads of smoke available) but these pens are great for tight spaces and don't draw much current.
Air, and a small amount of the cooling water are mixed by venturis just short of the exits (the air pushing the smoke and blowing the water clear of the smoke tubes). I've fitted the same system into my ST but am still waiting for the air pump from China (postal system problem there, then Chinese new year holidays with new rules apparently) Get the odd bubble at rest but with the low exhaust you can't have everything.
Latest vid with boat in the tank.
Thanks Peter, took a while to get there, should see the pile of stuff I've collected while doing all this experimenting! Have a smoker for every occasion😁!
JB
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 managed to get water and smoke coming out an exhaust suitable for a model. Basic test but it works. Bit hard to see in the vid, but doing it over the sink is not ideal. Needs a few mods but I know how to do it now without the smoke pump sucking the water back. Next is a fan powered forced air system to do away with the noisy and pulsing pump. Using a Heng Long smoker pump on 8v. Might cut the water down to get more smoke, as the smoker does't like back pressure of any sort.
The search continues😀
More smoke and less water and you've cracked it!
How you will manage to get the water to just spit out in bits/pulses will be the biggest challenge I think.
As you said you can blow more smoke in.
Good info from RNinMunich and probably not generally known.
I would switch on the Bluetooth before your Tx and all should be ok as the Tx (certainly those of recent manufacture) should avoid using the channels selected by your Bluetooth device.
All devices use Frequency Hopping and use a shared map of hop times and frequencies between devices to identify heavily used channels and avoid. This is the binding process.
The info is constantly monitored and regularly updated to allow for new transmissions.
That being the case both should work without issue but as ToraDog says I would not wish to use the Bluetooth device on a critical control.
dave976
I've used it from my watch to the boat, the small Ruizu player to the boat, the Ruizu player in the boat to the BT board/player, for music and radio - aerial on the boat is functional for the radio, (aerial to Ruizu player to board via BT) all BT board functions (including music from an SD card ) controlled by an ifrared remote- pic 4), from the Ruizu player to a BT speaker in the boat and from Ruizu player in the boat to the BT speaker. No problems so far.
JB