Response

Re: NON SMOKING EXHAUST WITH AIR INJECTION

Thanks for the info Martin, looks interesting. Might have a look on Ali Express and see what's available. I did manage to get the 'model Y' working in the HSL with the twin pump set-up but the problem was the same as before, with the exhausts on the waterline. If the boat was dead still and level it worked fine, but the moment either exhaust went under water it stopped working and the smoke just came out the opposite side. I hadn't fitted it properly and had wires and bits everywhere and all the stuff necessary would not have fitted anyhow. You need an air pump, voltage reg, smoker and water pump, plus all the hoses, so it's a lot of bits to fit into a space that's 2"W x 4"L x 2"H. Basically, to make it work as it is, I'd need the twin (to keep the tubes clear (as in this vid), plus the water pump, plus a smoker, plus a smoker air pump, plus all the plumbing ( see drawing) It might not be a problem if it didn't have twin sound units and all the other bits and pieces, plus the drop floor in the wheel house which takes up heaps of space (not to mention 2x 2s LiPos, 1 3s LiPo and a 3v dry cell pack for lights/small air . I might just leave well enough alone for now and have a look at your suggestion for the ST, which although not having much room under the cockpit floor, might have space for a small unit like that. Had another idea along similar lines, using ready wound coils on a base, packed with cotton and slid into a small alloy tube with end caps. They would be small and very basic and you can buy coil selections with various ohm ratings. I found the new coils I bought (50-85w are way too grunty and suck 3,7A at 2.46V - 41w (good smoke), but the first one I tried in the alloy box (40-80w) was only1.6A at 2.46v - 18.9w (good smoke) so there is a lot of experimenting that could be done for the best coil type. We have now (1 DEC) have had 15% GST (grab and snatch tax) put on all online O/Seas purchases, - incl freight (this labour govt is giving money away flat out so they have to steal it off us somewhere else) so this is going to add a big cost to R/C modelers here. Prices round the country are going to go up on every NZ online store as well. All because of entitled shop owners whining because they can't rip as many people off as before, - seem to think it's their right not to have any competition, - supposed to be a free market economy!?? (funny the govt is not targeting their online purchases, - only private sales ) If these useless t..ts get back in next time I might consider becoming Australian!!😠😠😠😠 My favourite $2 shops will probably be $3 shops now!. All that means I'll be buying less online now (batteries will now be an arm and 2 legs now) so I'm glad I bought all my expensive bits (TXs etc) years ago! JB

4 years ago by jbkiwi

Response

Re: Water system for fire monitors and ECS

Hi Graham 93, These are great - they will self prime. I have slowed them down until the motor is about to stall and they still pump/prime with water source 1 meter vertically below pump https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sharplace-Water-Aquarium-Motor-Diaphragm/dp/B076PM94PX/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=370+Mini+Water+Aquarium+Pump&qid=1575304138&s=pet-supplies&sr=1-4 _._

4 years ago by G6SWJ

Response

Re: Water system for fire monitors and ECS

These 12v are pretty good Graham, just tried my one (ex cooling pump from the ST) and it will squirt water 3ft plus from a 3mm pipe. Quite cheap on Ali Express so 1 per monitor would be all you need (or 1 for 2 with say 2mm pipe. Feeds in and out need to be 3mm+ to reduce friction. I ran it on a 3s to try it with a 5mm inlet pipe. If you run it at 12v and you reduce the outlet to 2mm you will probably double the distance. If you decide to try one of these, make sure it is this model with the ribbed front plate shown, as they have a higher output than some others (1.5-2L/min. Found these work quite well as air also, just a bit noisier (some advertise them as air and others as water - same thing. JB

4 years ago by jbkiwi

Media

MORE SMOKE USING 2 AIR ON THE ALLOY SMOKE BOX

Still waiting for a better air pump so thought I'd try whacking 2 on and upping the voltage from 2 to 2.5V Works a lot better but smoke still a bit slow. If I blow gently into the air tube I get massive clouds of smoke (hence the need for a better pump) Sorry about the crappy vid,- camera lens has a cloudy spot and not so good inside. JB

5 years ago by jbkiwi

Response

Re: Exhaust Smoker

Hi Michael, Thanks, glad you like it.👍 Re: Is the electronic controller based on PIC microchips a commercially available item? The controller is my design based on three baseline PIC microchips. Not the most elegant of designs, as this could all be implemented in one mid range PIC with a bit more effort, but it was quick to do this way, and I have a stock of the baseline parts. PIC1 acts as a simple RCswitch monitoring the throttle channel to turn the smoker on/off. PIC2 provides the smoke pulses by turning the air pump on/off at a rate determined by the throttle channel. PIC3 implements two motor speed controllers, one for the water pump, and one for the air pump. This latter speed controller is modulated by the on/off pulses from PIC2. The circuit board shows the three PICs. On the underside of the board there are three surface mount power FETs to drive the smoker coil and the two . I'm happy to share more details on my current implementation of this, but it is not very configurable/transferrable unless you have experience with PICs and the necessary tools. For example, following the trial on the lake yesterday, I think it would work better if the water pump was running a bit faster. To make that happen I have to change some values in the software, and then reprogram the appropriate PIC. It was just easier to put together this way, but its not very practical on the lake.🙄 I have it in mind to redevelop the software on a better PIC and to add some buttons on the circuit board so that various parameters could be adjusted without having to reprogram the PICs. It will be an interesting challenge, but will take a little while as I'll have to fit it in around everything else 😉. Graham93

5 years ago by Graham93

Blog

Exhaust Smoker

Following several weeks experimenting, and lots of discussion with jbkiwi, the exhaust smoker is now installed in the Crash Tender. The heart of the device is an e-cig tank and coil. This was adapted with an acrylic end piece to allow connection of power and air. The 2ml capacity of the e-cig is a bit limiting so an expansion tank made from acrylic tube was added to give a fluid capacity of around 10ml. The smoker fluid is 75% vegetable glycerine. The coil in the e-cig is designed to work from a single cell LiPo battery. A power converter drops the voltage from the boat's 2S battery down to 3.5V with a claimed efficiency of 98%. This voltage is adjustable which allows control of the amount of smoke produced. Forced air is provided by a small diaphragm pump salvaged from a defunct blood pressure monitor. This pushes air through the e-cig. The resulting smoke is fed into the cooling water line between the ESC and the exhaust ports. As the smoker is most effective simulating the engine 'ticking over' a water pump is used to create some water flow when the main propulsion motor isn't running. This adds more realism to the effect. An electronic controller based on PIC microchips connects to the throttle channel and pulses the air pump at a rate determined by the throttle setting. It also runs the water pump at a slow speed, and controls the power to the smoke generator coil. If the throttle is held at maximum for a couple of seconds, the smoker and coil are switched off to save on battery consumption. With the throttle at idle, a quick blip forward on the throttle will start the smoker again. Power consumption is around 0.7A on a 2S LiPo. The two are mounted below the footwell floor and the smoke generator is fixed to the bulkhead at the rear of the engine room. My thanks go to jbkiwi for his encouragement and suggestions during the development of this feature. Graham93

5 years ago by Graham93

Response

Re: YET ANOTHER SMOKER VERSION

You are right about the frustration Graham, still waiting for these which arrived in the country 6 days ago and are supposed to be in transit (probably on a tour of the country😠) As I mentioned, it's only a 40 min drive to the airport from my place, so what's the hold up???😠⚡⚡😠. They should start sending texts to people to give them the option of picking the goods up. Problem is there are too many couriers doing their own thing in their own areas and transferring goods multiple times before they get to the customer. They seem to get to the airport, go through customs, get picked up and taken to a central airport sorting area, bulk courier picks up whatever his company delivers, takes them to their sorting area, another smaller courier picks up and takes them to your local area sorting place, then to another courier (or postie for small packages) to your house. Appears totally inefficient to me, just making work and quad handling everything. Used to take a day to get a letter from o/seas once it arrived in the country. We hardly have a post box now except outside post offices, and they have closed most of them as well, and just have 'agents' (ie service stations/ shops etc) Don't know how they expect older or immobile people to travel miles to post a letter if they don't drive?? Used to be a post box on nearly every corner years ago. I have to drive 2km to the PO to post a letter, (used to just walk 100m till they removed that box a year or so ago.) They want to close our local PO which covers a huge number of people in our area (around 10,000) which is just ridiculous. Banks have also closed all their smaller branches round the country and even removed money machines in some cases, and left people having to travel for hours to the nearest machine or branch. Companies, (like Telcos/power companies) hide in offices and won't talk to you except through a call center in the Philipines or India (even though the company may be 1km away- had that with my new crap Samsung washing machine recently, until I found the local service center number and 'targeted' them,- refused to talk to some Filipino girl who knew nothing, and would ring NZ for info and call you back in 1 or 2 days, - beyond ridiculous!!!😠😠😠 ) You have to get angry to get results these days with large companies, (got results with my washer when I told them I'd put it on the side of the main road with a big sign saying "don't buy this crap")😊😂 JB

5 years ago by jbkiwi

Response

Re: SEAPLANE TENDER TANK TEST 2

Re - that's what I expected would happen, and when that overflows I had already thought of a bilge pump for just those occasions Doug, (have enough 'in stock') but it would be too silly, (I'd have to tow the dinghy with all the xtras!😁) I'd even thought of a co2 cyl (soda siphon type) with a valve setup, (but again the dinghy). Just found some 30mm CF tube (ex helicopter tail boom) which might be good to fit a fan into to bolt to the side of the smoker box. I'll have a look at the range of on Ebay etc and see if there are any high output linear ones. Pic is off Youtube, guys done the same as me, just more compact with a 25mm fan glued to the side, - only about 1"x 1.5" (I made my fan box with a 30mm fan). Could probably make a custom smoker to suit, as it's only a tiny resistor sitting on the oily wick. JB

5 years ago by jbkiwi

Forum

Motor reversing

Hi All potential submariners! Please consider this before you happily launch your latest creation! You're down at the lake on a nice warm sunny day for a bit of 'messing about in boats'. So far so good. BUT ... before you launch your sub into the deep consider that the water temperature will be considerably less than the air temperature. So what? you might say. This what! To help keep the wet stuff out of the sub and away from your sensitive electronics you need a little over-pressure within the pressure hull (WTC), to keep it WT! Outside in the warm air this will occur naturally. BUT .. as soon as you dunk your sub in the cool wet the air in the hull will also start to cool and reduce the pressure within the hull. This is often enough to create an 'under-pressure' within the hull which can cause ingress of water by literally sucking it in through the drive shaft and control rod glands. Glug glug glug glug😭😭 Time to wish you'd worn your swimming trunks and brought some goggles with you! Solution? 1 Acclimatise your boat on the surface before you sail away and start diving; i.e. let the water cool the hull and contained air before final sealing of the pressure hull and sailing off. 2 Fit a cycle tyre valve and take a cycle pump with you so you can pressurise the hull slightly before sailing. Don't overdo it, one or two should do, or you might blow the sealing glands from the inside 😮😭 3 A rubber (or similar material) membrane fixed into the pressure hull is a useful indicator of over or under pressure within the hull (WTC). 4 Fit a Pressure switch and a Fail-safe device which will automatically surface the boat on loss of radio signal (some RXs can be programmed to do this; i.e. all servos and ESCs go to programmed settings) or on exceeding a preset depth; e.g. 1 metre. Happy sailing / diving / surfacing🤞. Cheers, Doug 😎

5 years ago by RNinMunich

Response

Re: Fitting shafts and motors

I agree Peter, I get a lot of stuff from Krick as well. Prices are acceptable and delivery prompt. I have a few of those (also used in car windscreen washers). Found that they do tend to clog in murky waters but otherwise no problem. Funny, I'd forgotten the 'acrylate' part of Cyanoacrylate!! Got too used to calling it CA or Gluper Sue 😁 Cheers, Doug 😎

5 years ago by RNinMunich

Response

Re: Fitting shafts and motors

Thanks to you both. The are Krick. I have found this company to supply quality items. Time will tell if this goes for their as well. I will show you my nails Doug. Soon. In the mean time, this glue is recommended by Krick for the water tight areas. I used it on the Pilot Boat and it has performed well so far. Well, the boat has not sunk yet.🤓

5 years ago by MouldBuilder