Blog

Final Entry!

Captain's Log: Final Entry! Tug Brooklyn is totally completed. Along with and Running Lights! I'm looking forward to a Maiden Voyage in the spring! On to the next project!!! Well, anyway some where out there is my next Project! In the Spring I will Post her Maiden Voyage! End Last Entry........👍 PS. Next Build a 1/25 scale Tug Douglas Greg!

5 years ago by figtree7nts

Forum

Fairmile D 1/24 Scale Build

Sakibian, My friend Graham built his E-boat with a fibreglass hull but scratch-built everything else. He does magnificent detail work. For you to build this hull you first need to get the plans to the scale you want to build. 1/24 is good for these models. The cross sections are essential. You need to determine how many bulkhead frames you will require. You won't require as many as shown on their plan and photos - maybe less than half - as many as will enable you to support the stringers to give you a shape of the hull on to which you can fix the planking or skin. The frames you choose need to be at or very close to cross sections, so you can use them to mark and cut your frames. I use 5mm plywood. There is a photo of my Fairmile D frame earlier in this series of posts. One of my earliest posts on this website was a Youtube video with the E-boat and my Fairmile D in action with s.

5 years ago by reilly4

Forum

Smoke generator

Have just made a prototype of a fan forced smoker which seems to be working well (despite breaking the heater coil by moving it while hot, - had it apart, broke wire, screw and washer repair, not quite as hot) I bought a couple of Heng Long smokers (for R/C tanks or cars) to play with, for $10 NZ each(or 5.3 Euros to you Northerners give or take a yen) from Bangood and just bought another from Ebay. There seem to be 2 different models, as one has a long coil with a lamp wick draped over it, which is sitting in the oil reservoir, the other has a small coil inside a piece of heat resistant woven tubing (as you might find insulating toaster/heater wiring etc) which acts as a wick and that also sits in cotton wool in the reservoir, (this seems to be the better of the two) Tip - don't fill the tank right up, only enough to soak the cotton, element should be just out of the oil. The wick loads the element. The better model seems to have a black top to the tank (also maybe either brown or black tank) and the other has a brown top and dirty brown tank. As with most of this stuff you won't know till you get it what it's going to be. What I did was remove the tank and cut off the pump tube just in front of the screw lugs (see black line in photo) then fitted the tank, and a 40x40x10 5v ESC fan (voltage controlled by a UBEC set to 5v on the jumpers) into a plastic electronics utility box from Jaycar (our local electronics and hobby store). I made up a double JST lead for the 2s 1800Mah Lipo and fired it up (using baby oil). it's pretty much silent and smokes well once it gets warmed up, ( starts smoking in about 5 seconds) You could control it (on/off volume) by either a remote on/off switch or perhaps a small cheap 10A brushed ESC. I would leave the fan running and control the element to avoid burning the element. The original pump tank inlet hole seems ok as is (approx 1.5mm) but you could enlarge it very slightly to get a better flow if you could find a better oil. At the electronics store they have proper smoke machine oil for $20 NZ per litre so I may have a look at that. The reason I went for the fan idea was that I found in std pump form, if I immersed a tube from the tank in water, it sucked water back into the tank. I was hoping it would pump smoke out of my HSL exhausts at water level alongside the cooling water but it would need a very light non return valve to do this. The fan seems to pump the smoke through 2mm ID silicone tube ok, so tubing of similar ID to the OD of the tank outlets should work well. These pumps in original form work pretty well for the price, and are cheap enough to keep a few for spare elements, the only thing is they are a bit noisy but in an 'engine sounding' way, (might add to the effect on a tug or work-boat though) What you have left after this mod is a very handy little geared motor with an eccentric output wheel which could be used for winches, radar and whirly bits of any description (see pic of motor leftover and original) To avoid burnout, these should be run on no more than a 2s (around 7.5v-(suggest 8v max with fan running) The other tank is going to work a lot better than this one but I'm not making a tug, just want a bit of exhaust smoke on start-up etc to go with the 2 sound units. Very cheap to make (around $25 NZ with pump, box, fan and UBEC all through Ebay, Aliexpress and Bangood (and local electronics store) if you wanted to run an ESC to control the smoke and you have no channels left to control it proportionally, you can always try using a second receiver bound to your TX, (if your TX will allow it,) power it and a brushed ESC (wired to the element) as normal and use the throttle channel to plug in your smoke control. This should work if you want more smoke as you accelerate or if you are using only 1 stick on a 2 stick TX you could use your 'elevator' stick pushed up (or a toggle switch if available) to start/stop the smoke (through the brushed ESC setup) . This setup weighs 100g (10g more than std) The quest for lots of smoke continues Will try to upload vid later and update progress.

5 years ago by jbkiwi

Forum

Veron Vosper F.P.B. 52''

Hi Jon. I wouldn't be surprised if it would make £300. I have looked around for about six years and never seen such an origional and unmade FPB kit. I have put a sound system in mine supplied by action electronics. The sound is of a turbo cat diesel and is very effective. Regards Kevin

6 years ago by kevinsharpe

Forum

Charging NiMhs, one for Doug?...

Mornin' Martin, You don't need to cycle LiPos !!! Play 'silly buggers' with it and you might bugger it! 😡 Just use it normally and charge it when the red lamp appears on the TX front indicating low voltage. Keep an eye on it and unplug the USB charger lead as soon as the LED turns to green. You could also use your Capacity Tester to check the LiPo status, IF it will connect to it. Sounds like it has a very non-standard plug? Pic? The cycling is for NiMH batts to minimise the memory effect. Cheers, Doug 😎 PS Just checked the manual and saw the battery connector! You can forget connecting the battery to any other charger or the Tester 🤔

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Response

H.M.S BRAVE BORDERER

Evenin' Rowen, So far so good, nice job👍 Let me go through your comments one by one😉 1) "Moved the battery towards the stern and, at speed, the forefoot lifts slightly clear of the water. The plane is now almost flat. The battery is not well positioned when near the bow." Battery in the bow is almost always bad news🤔 too much weight forward of the CoG or natural balance point when planing. 2) "The 2S battery used was a 4000mAh 30C; suspect this battery does not have the capacity to operate the model. Every motor will run up smoothly until a second one is operated. The first motor then “stutters” and a fuse might blow, this could be indicative of a power surge. Any comments from the electronic experts among the group would be appreciated." First the battery: you may be right. Especially with 3 x4500 kV motors Since you are using 3 ESCs how about feeding each one from a slightly smaller (lower weight) battery? Precondition of course is that all three are equally charged to the same voltage and capacity AND have the same (or very very similar) internal resistance! Complicates the issue of course and motors with a lower kV rating and one power source may well be the better solution😉 Second the 'stutter': How and when did you switch in the second motor? If the first was still at 'Full Ahead', i.e. 'Pedal to the metal!, I might expect the battery voltage to dip and then recover with the sudden additional load and a sharp rise in total current drawn. But no particular excuse for a sudden current rise in the first motor ! Where was the fuse that blew? I suspect in the primary supply lead from the single battery🤓 since with brushless motors you can't fit individual fuse in their supply leads like you can with a brushed motor. BUT you can to the ESCs feeding them!!! You can't get a power surge from a battery, not like a surge on the mains network due to lightning etc! But you can get a voltage dip and recovery if you suddenly present it with an additional load😲 3) "The 3S battery was 10,500mAh and 40C; with this battery all three motors can be run at full speed together and fuses do not blow. it was also very heavy at 1700g, holding the model down." All run up together to full speed or 'switched in' as described above? There's a big difference between a gradual increasing of load on a power source and a sudden step increase! 4) "The motors are 4500 kV. On refection, think a slower motor around, perhaps 2000 kV would have been a better choice." I did think at the outset that 3 x 4500kV was perhaps a little ambitious😲 2000 - 2500 sounds much better, and more controllable👍 Then you could also get good performance results with a single battery of capacity lower and weight 👍 The function of the third (centre) motor for 'action speed' would also be more pronounced👍 5) "Would concur with comments by others that a simple single or two bladed propeller layout for this model is probably best - that is unless you want to capture the true scale layout. The centre propeller seems to have little effect on overall performance, (see above re 4500kV motors- Doug😉) although it will power the model quite nicely when operating by itself. Have had several suggestions about how best to use the centre propeller. Will think about them and decide later how to do this when I start to finish the model." As a 'Scale Purist' (as far as my skills and tools allow!) personally I would frown on the use of 2 blade props, much less only a single prop. Do that in a fictitious power boat if you will, but for 'Brave Borderer' ? 😡 Do her justice please😉 Many three screw (😲) boats (including the full size originals of this era) only used the third motor for additional manoeuvring speed in action situations. My personal experience of FACs (Fast Attack Craft) and FPBs (Fast Patrol Boats) over the last three decades shows me that the three screw configuration has been largely dropped, especially since the introduction of much more powerful engines such as improved diesels and gas turbines. Many use a combination of diesel, for cruising, and gas turbine for 'action speed', so called CODAG, COmbined Diesel And Gas turbine. 6) "The 2 blade Hi – speed propellers both increased performance and current draw. The model is more than fast enough with the original scale layout." As I believe the 2 blade props were of larger diameter (and perhaps also of larger pitch) than the 3 bladers the higher current draw is a logical conclusion! Stick with the scale config! 👍👍👍 7) "Will purchase a lighter, 3 S battery as that seems the best choice for performance and weight." 👍 but don't overdo it to the other extreme by reducing weight and therefore capacity too much😲 You want a decent sailing time don't you? 8) "Testing using the bare hull with a minimum of detail worked well. For a models with a complex power train, this is a good approach as access to the internals can be gained easily. Nothing worse that finishing a boat carefully just to find the performance disappointing. Then having to to rip it apart to make major modifications or adjustments!" Heartily agree 👍👍👍 Bon chance mon ami😊

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Response

WSP 9

A very tidy build, I am building a styrene model 60cm long for fun racing as it is a police boat what about a siren / s too!

6 years ago by CB90

Forum

HMS HOOD by Trumpeter

Hi Steve, Chris, No Chris yours wasn't the thread I was thinking of but this https://model-boats.com/search/Hobby-Engine-Richardson-Upgrade Same model just a different name. The transducer idea was sparked off I think by a video of 'Noisy Thing' in an RAF launch - by PMDEVLIN I think. If we'd seen your thread we might have said that fitting the transducer horizontally under the deck is not the best idea. That also directs the sound upwards and the deck is too stiff, due to coamings and superstructure etc, to resonate with the transducer. Recommendation is to fit to the hull on either side, wired in series so that two 4Ohm transducers give the 8Ohm load impedance needed by most amps. The idea is to bring the hull sides to vibrate thus acting as a 'speaker cone' and project the sound sideways across the water and not straight up. They should be fitted to the largest flattish area available for maximum effect. I like the 'sound-palettes' idea 👍 Let us know how it goes, Doug 😎

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Response

Removing The Deck

Hi Neil, I heartily second all of what Dave has written ESPECIALLY NOT CHARGING IN THE HULL! 😡 I also considered fitting the battery across the hull but came to the conclusions that it was too high and impossible to remove for charging, so I settled for between the shafts as Jarvo did. I have also dumped the smoke idea, my older version Southampton does not have this. instead I will concentrate more on sound, lighting and possibly a working winch. As Dave says slow down! Get the basics working and the ship sailing first. THEN you will know how much freeboard, and space(!) you have left for the special effects. Cheers Doug 😎

7 years ago by RNinMunich

Forum

Hobby Engine Richardson Upgrade

I have an old Southampton , off E.Bay a couple of years ago. I fitted the Components shop mixer, 2x 3400mAH NiMh packs(one for each motor)2 Mtroniks 15A Marine vipers, Technobots diesel sound system and also a Technobots 16 channel sound system. There is not a lot of spare space! I had a problem with the mixer eventually. it worked very well, as I did not think the turning circle in the original form was very good. I took it out eventually and went over to tank steering, which is OK but seems to be more effective in turning one way rather than the other, it's fine in a straight line. I found out after I had removed the mixer that the supposed problem was of my own making. So many wires inside that I was not in fact charging one of the battery packs so it ended up flat. Nothing wrong with the mixer at all! I mounted the engine sound speaker in the lower half of the cabin,where there was just enough room, where the window openings are not glazed(at least on my boat they aren't). Sound was OK but it was a bit lacking in volume, but I may need a higher power speaker, not sure as audio is a non area to me. The 16 channel unit is good in that a micro SD card is supplied with pre- recorded sounds, and instructions are given on how to record your own. The difficulty with this particular sound system is finding somewhere to put the second speaker as the 2 systems cannot be fed into the same speaker. it was a bit faint to say the least,possibly due to the tiny speaker I used. I tried to fit a transducer glued to the underside of the deck but there was no improvement so that is a work in progress. The inside of the hull resembled a very untidy birds nest! CHris

7 years ago by octman

Response

Secure the hatches and raise the flags !

Hi Paul. I will certainly video the maiden voyage, I'm just waiting for the lake conditions to improve. Thanks for the good advice as always. BTW. I like your 'noisy fireboat', sounds really good, those transducers are very effective 👍 Best. Rob.

7 years ago by robbob

Media

Schnellboot & Fairmile D

Both boats are 1/24 scale The E boat belongs to a good friend. it has just had a new camouflage pattern added. The Fairmile D is scratch-built, it took nearly 4 years to build, launched in 2011. The s were added for fun. The location is Albert Park lake in Melbourne, Australia

7 years ago by reilly4

Forum

Engine s

Whoops - my e-mail address is on my website and I will PM it to you !

8 years ago by alan bond

Forum

Engine s

I am currently building a 49 inch Perkasa and looking for a realistic gas turbine . Drspock has suggested I try www.modelsoundsinc.com. The company has sent me two sound bites, which are superb and they have recommended their ShockWave2-1x4x4 sound system kit. At a cost of £118 plus £45 shipping this is not a cheap bit of kit. It comes with a pre loaded micro SD. To add more sounds, the purchase of software at a further cost of £26.75 is required, but it will only work with windows. I am a Mac user! Whilst the equipment is no doubt of the best quality and certainly the sound bites are excellent, I am wondering if an outlay of £165 for one engine sound is worth it. Anyone any thoughts? Steve

8 years ago by cormorant

Forum

Engine s

Cormorant - Just spotted this thread - haven't received an e-mail yet - if you went via Technobots, maybe they haven't yet forwarded it to me - otherwise (Email Removed - PM Only) gets me direct. Check out my website www.forge-electronics.co.uk - if you have a gas turbine sound file to send me I can pop it into one of my FE101 units and post a video of the result. The sound is embedded in the program memory of the chip so cannot be altered by the user. I have one or two of these prototypes left for £25. You'd need to supply an amplifier for this version (unlike the FE100 - but no more of those left!) I've done further work on using sounds stored on a microSD card so users can customise units themselves - however this is still work in progress and I've been busy this last year with gizmos for model aircraft, so it's on the back burner. For lots of discrete S see my 16 channel unit which has a built in 3W amplifier

8 years ago by alan bond

Forum

Engine s

audacity is a cross platform sound editor so I should think there is a version for mac computers. Bluetooth speakers are cheap enough and come with amps built in sounds can be recorded and used as a playlist on a smart phone you can get a Bluetooth extender to increase range this is all off the shelf tech and you probably have a smartphone already

8 years ago by Haverlock

Forum

Engine s

for info, I wanted a very specific sound unit for my Jaws boat Orca. Rather than just playing engine sounds etc, I wanted to be able to select specific tracks, music, dialogue etc from the film. I got all I needed from the internet, and saved on an sd card. Using a free download to convert music files, (google "lame for audacity")I then found an engine noise that I was able to have on a continuous loop behind the dialogue etc. I then got a soundcard from technobots, and Alan devised a trigger unit, meaning I can select the tracks from a vacant channel on my transmitter sticks. eg, if I want the Jaws theme music, I have to move the stick 3 times up, if I want some dialogue from one of the characters, its 4 moves down, and so on, with something like 8 each direction, so 16 choices in all I am not tech savvy, and I found it pretty easy to do. The system is now several years old, so things have moved on, Alan will no doubt be able to help Paul

8 years ago by pmdevlin

Forum

Engine s

Thank you. I have just sent him an email. Steve.

8 years ago by cormorant

Forum

Engine s

Alan Bond pretty much designed all of these, he did some work for me a bit ago, its first class, and being a fellow model boater he knows what we need, might be worth a call to discuss? http://www.technobotsonline.com/model-engine-sound-effects.html

8 years ago by pmdevlin

Forum

Engine s

Hi Steve Sure is a lot of money for s, I have a Diesel engine sound affects in my tug serenity. and when the tug is far out I can't here it! so is it really worth an investment of £165 is it! That's practically half the value of another model. for that kind of purchase I hope it comes with Auto Pilot, LOL 😊 I would keep on searching the web, to see if you can find something more economical. unless this is really what you want. Ed

8 years ago by figtree7nts

Forum

Engine s

Next time they have a ground running event at Bruntingthorpe or Wellesbourne take your recorder and make your own. Should get a reasonable approximation I would have thought. Should be able to achieve something from Lightning, Victor,Buccaneer and Vulcan.( I think these are at these locations, certainly the Vulcan is at Wellesbourne) Chris

8 years ago by octman

Forum

receiver voltage output

I have just ordered one of Alan Bond's 16 channel units for my tug. In the instruction PDF on the Forge Electronics site it states IN RED!!! - Maximum supply voltage is 5.2v ' systems with 6v BECs or 6v battery packs must NOT be used. As I can only get battery packs that produce 4.8 or 6 volts how do achieve 5.2 volts. Some sort of electricory with resistors? Do I take it that 6v into a receiver will produce 6v at the pins? Permanently confused!!! Chris

8 years ago by octman

Forum

Precedent Perkasa

Hi Steve Spoke with my friend today and was advised he purchased a cheap MP3 player form ebay and serched on-line for s. Downloaded a sample clip and made it into a full length sound using Audacity (free) or similar. As it's a gas turbine you do not need to have rising and falling sound so it sounds OK. He also loaded some gunfire sounds just to add to the realism. Sorry he dosen't have the link but there are plenty I found on the web. I do have some video with sound of his Al Muzzia and will load to U-tube and send you the link. Dave

8 years ago by Dave M

Forum

fitting sound module to a tug that has 2 motors and a mixer

If the sound module is connected to the throttle before the mixer then the sound you get would be a full throttle sound in the situation you outline since the throttle is at full but the rudder input is causing the one forwards one back outputs to the motors. With little or no throttle input using the rudder input will have little effect on motor speed.

8 years ago by Haverlock

Forum

fitting sound module to a tug that has 2 motors and a mixer

Hi Octman - a bit late now (and I've only just discovered this forum!) but if you'd used my mixer it has a "throttle out" signal which is the faster (fwd or rev) of the two outputs that drive the ESCs. in your case the best option is to connect between the RX and mixer throttle input otherwise you'd get different s when turning in each direction. However this is still a compromise and you will find the paradox that when spinning on the spot the props will be full ahead and full astern, the water will be boiling but the engine sound will be a gentle tickover! My processed "throttle out" signal avoids this problem. (Incidently, I'm the designer of the Technobots sound units and prior to designing the mixer I addressed this problem in their programmable sound unit by providing two throttle inputs which you connect to the two ESC inputs - another way to skin the same cat!) Those of you for whom it is not too late can check out my rudder mixer on my website:- http://www.forge-electronics.co.uk/index.php/boats/rudder-mixer where you can download the instructions. in addition to the (true) "throttle out" feature, the mix is continuously variable from 0 to 100% and there is a unique "dynamic mixing" option. They are available from www.scalewarship.com

8 years ago by alan bond

Response

Tugboat Serenity

Hi Mark, the coil of red and black wires are used for her s. and the switches you see are for the ESC and radio batteries! should I move the switches further aft?

8 years ago by figtree7nts

Forum

s

http://www.webplaces.com/html/sounds.htm http://www.wavsource.com/ http://www.audiomicro.com/free-sound-effects/ all free and royalty free to use Should give you some ideas

8 years ago by Haverlock

Forum

s

An off the wall idea occurred to me. I bought a cheap Bluetooth battery powered speaker. Sound files can be copied to a smartphone. If the phone is linked to the speaker you can have an almost infinite set of sound files you can remotely play on your model.

8 years ago by Haverlock

Forum

s

So long as you don't sail too far..... Could even play " a life on the ocean waves" and We are sailing. Possibilities are endless.

8 years ago by Derek

Media

M.F.A Tracker

This is my M.F.A Tracker . When originally purchased it had the large and heavy 850 motors in it and old electronics , after a close call with a fire on board I decided to refit her out with modern Brushless motors and over rated Escs powered by Lipo's . Works out a 1/3 rd the weight 3 times the speed and run time over an hour . So a great result Oh yes , s donated by nearby Tug 😊

9 years ago by CraigRobotham

Response

Mersey 12-26 Moira Barrie

The size of speaker all depends on available space. if you fit the biggest possible speaker Im a cramped position, its never going to give out maximum output, as objects in front of it will disperse the sound waves, so in this instance, its far better tio fit a smaller speaker and be able to allow free space for the sound waves to exit properly. Obviously, if you can fit the bigger version, its gives more bass and sounds far better. remember to install the speaker on a firm base plate and ensure this fits neatly to wherever you have decided to install. now to create the "speaker sound box". if you think of an ordinary speaker at home on your stereo or surround sound system, it is in a sealed box [or cabinet], well same applies to get optimum performance out of a speaker in your boat too. I fitted mine in the bows of the Mersey, facing the stern, and used the "not used" bow section as the sound box, you also have the deadening effect of the water, which aids the sound output out of the speaker. remember to make an "air port" in the speaker plate, to allow air "in/out" too, not too big or small a hole mind. the better you create the sound box and make sure the space in front of the speaker is clear, the better the sound output. best of luck. Incidentally, I have now purchased an m troniks version, I WAS going to install in another "smaller" boat, but after listening to it, I dont think I'll bother and save up for another action system and stick the mtroniks one on ebay!

12 years ago by Gregg

Response

The Scout

Just working on some other projects and fitting some s to the Scout, will take some photos on the water next time at the pool John

13 years ago by jfstoker

Forum

RC Floating Musical Fountain

Really different. When are you having the maiden voyage? I bet this looks fantastic after dark. The water jets together with the sound and lights really work well. I assume you have some sort of PIC controlling everything. I am interested in how you powered all the LEDs as I have a project in hand that uses many LEDs and will need a good power supply. Well done and great to see innovation and model building skills shown to such good effect. Have you had any contact yet? Dave

13 years ago by Dave M