Hi HMS,

Glad you like it 😁 Not sure what I’m going to try next. Taking a break while I consider the options. Have a few ideas in mind, but none of them involve oars 🤔

Hi Rob,

Very nicely engineered and described, as we have come to expect from you 👍

Just a thought, did you not consider using a multi-output RC switch rather than 3 separate ones? You could drive the three sets of lights off one 3 output switch and would only need one channel on the receiver - hopefully that would avoid the need for an RX upgrade to 10 channels.

Graham93

Nerys,

I’ve just been watching a few videos on YouTube. That would be quite a challenge!

It would need two servos for the ‘figure of eight’ movement, plus a third servo for the blade rotation. Connecting all those to the oar in a way that made it look like the oar was simply positioned in a notch in the transom would be difficult. Then there is the software to control the servos. Producing the basic rowing stroke wouldn’t be too difficult but adapting the stroke to steer in response to ‘rudder’ commands?? 🤔

I could manage getting the oarsman to smoke a pipe at the same time 😂🤣

Graham93

Sculling over the Stern

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Thanks cj,

Happy to provide advice if you do decide to have a go.

Graham93

Rick,

It was a very tight squeeze in places. Some of the floorboards need a bit of pressure to get them seated properly😊

Thanks Martin. The feedback, encouragement, and suggestions from the members here, including your good self, helped me to get it finished.

Graham93

Scratch built model rowing boat. Built during Covid19 lockdown from salvaged Oak and Mahogany.

Propulsion by oars only. Two servos on each oar to provide the rowing action. Two channels used on the TX to control rowing - the equivalent of 'throttle' and 'rudder'. On board PIC microprocessor converts throttle and rudder commands into oar movements. Will row forwards and backwards as well as turning.

The two figures are 'bionic' upgrades to Action Man. Bionic Bill the rower has two servos installed, one to provide forward/backward rocking syncronised with the rowing action. The second servo provides head rotation, controlled from the TX. His younger brother Ben has three servos installed to provide twisting of the body, arm raising and head turning. These are controlled from a second on board PIC to provide either the fishing rod control sequence or the smoking sequence. Smoke is produced from a smoke generator built from an e-cig and air pump.

Accessories on board include fishing rod, landing net, bucket, lunch and radio. The radio plays a selection of sea shanties controlled from the TX.

Build time - 6 months.

Another YouTube video here: https://youtu.be/MReEIPmiZ1U

https://youtu.be/MReEIPmiZ1U

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https://model-boats.com/blogs/68795

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Fishing

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Thanks Ken, glad you like it.

Graham93

Congratulations to our new Commander - Joe. Another well deserved promotion.

Graham93

Thanks Cash, glad you like it

Graham93

Martin,

“You will have to have two modes for Ben, Smoking mode and Fishing mode.”

Ben does have those two modes when controlled by the TX. Ben is controlled from the vertical channel on the right stick on the TX. Switching the boat on with the stick at neutral selects ‘smoking mode’. Switching it on with the stick held at minimum selects ‘fishing mode’. Of course Ben has to put his pipe down and pick up the fishing rod for the appropriate mode - with some help!😆

In demo mode, with the TX switched off, there isn’t any way to choose which mode is to be active, so I think I’ll default it to smoke, as that is more entertaining.

Graham93

Thanks Doug,

Hadn’t realised I was so close to promotion 👍 I don’t really take much notice of the points.

Don’t know what I’m going to do next. I might take a break from modelling and get on with all the jobs which have been on hold for the past year while I’ve been building boats. There again, I do have a few thoughts.......

Graham93

Thanks Joe, really nice to know it brings back memories for you. I couldn’t ask for more 👍😀👍

Congratulations Philcaretaker. Well deserved for all those great videos 👍👍

Graham93

JB

Coming along nicely now. Really starting to look like a boat. At this rate she’ll be ready in time for the better weather over there.

Graham93

Doug,

“Such juicy 'feed lines' are simply irresistible 😁”

I’m glad it keeps you entertained..😂🤣

Thanks JB,

I was surprised this morning when I weighed it as I wasn’t expecting the addition of Ben to have increased it so much. Thinking back, the original weigh in was without Ben, the e-cig, air pump, sound system, speaker, lunch, and a few other bits and pieces, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.

It already has an autonomous demo mode, without the TX switched on, although it is only intended to operate ‘on the bench’. Goodness knows where it would end up on the lake as there isn’t any Nav system built in. I’ve just realised that the demo module doesn’t trigger Ben into action. I thought I’d finished! ... another software upgrade needed 🙄

Thanks Martin,

“I noticed Ben's brain on the floor perhaps that is why he smokes LOL!!”

You could be right 😆. There was no way I could fit it in his head, and it would have been constantly in the smoke stream there in any case. 😮 I wanted to fit it in his abdomen, as that would have made the connections tidier, but there wasn’t room for it there, so it ended up under the floor.

A couple of days ago, JBkiwi commented that the dinghy was "fully loaded" so I decided to weigh it again.

The original plan for a full size version of the dinghy quotes a fully loaded weight of 700kgs. At 1/6th scale that equates to a target of 3.24kgs. Last time I weighed it, it came in at less than 3Kgs. Now everything is installed, the total weight is 4.2Kgs.Somewhat over the target weight, but it looks fine on the water. (I knew Ben needed to loose some weight !😂)

Now that everything is installed, I've included a photo showing all the internal fittings. Access to everything is relatively straightforward as it is all spread out flat, under the floorboards. The maximum clearance under the floor is 30mm and much less than that under most of it.

Yes Rob, I well remember Thunderbirds. One of my favorites when I was a youngster.👍

I think if there was a discussion going on between Bill and Ben then there would need to be some sync with their movements, otherwise it would be confusing as to who was talking. I've been thinking about it all afternoon, while I was out and about 🤔. No need for strings though 😉

Graham93

Thanks Rick

There are currently 10 songs on the play list including ROW, ROW, ROW YOUR BOAT. It kicks in at around 3:00 in the video clip. Plenty of room for more.

Doug,

The development board I use is no longer available from Microchip. They have moved on over the past 15 years since I bought it.

The attached link is to what looks to be their current development offering for 8 bit processors. Somewhat more capable than the one I have 😉

Graham93

https://www.microchip.com/Developmenttools/ProductDetails/DM164137

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Rob,

Stop it ! 😁 Does your imagination have no bounds? LOL😂🤣

It would be relatively easy to do. Any sound recording can be loaded onto the memory card. Synchronising their movements to the voices would be tricky though - lip Sync?! Perhaps they could have an argument and start throwing things..... 🙄. 😂🤣

Hi Martin,

You could be right. I hadn’t noticed that, but I’ve just had another look.😆

No, not the RC gear, but Bill and Ben's on-board entertainment system. 😆

The original installation used an FM radio and 22mm speaker hidden below the floorboards of the dinghy. Control from a switched channel on the Transmitter allowed it to be turned on/off, tuned to different stations and the volume to be adjusted. It worked well in the workshop but was not effective out on the lake. It was difficult to hear and difficult to control. So, time for an upgrade.

The first issue to address was the speaker. There is no room under the floorboards for a larger speaker, but with a bit of thought I was able to fit a decent sized speaker under the foredeck. The speaker is mounted on a plywood panel which can be juggled into place past the forward frame. A block of foam rubber under the foredeck presses on the back of the speaker and holds the ply mount up against the frame. With this upgrade there was enough volume to hear the radio out on the lake.

However, many of the radio stations were barely audible owing to poor reception caused by the FM aerial also being below the floorboards. This meant that the aerial was at or below the water level. Not a good position for an aerial 🤔 There wasn't a simple solution to this one, as I didn't want anything sticking up in the air. I did consider adapting the fishing rod, but decided against it. Finally, the radio doesn't retain it's settings when switched off which compounded the difficulties by requiring the radio to be tuned in each time it was switched on.

Time for a rethink. RobBob suggested an MP3 player. I had been looking at these devices for a while, with a view to building a sound unit for the Crash Tender, so time to give it a try. These tiny units are widely available, at very modest cost. The part number is WTV020-16. Putting that into Google will bring up lots of vendors. They are often described as MP3 players, which they are not! What is meant by that description is that they have controls for on/off, next/previous track and volume up/down like an MP3 player (which they don't). They do not play MP3 audio files. They play audio files in an ADPCM format known as .AD4. Fortunately, it is easy to convert MP3 or WAV files into the AD4 format using a free downloaded application on the PC The audio files are stored on a micro SD card which can be loaded from the PC.

The documentation available for these players is very poor. That is compounded by having several different types of these players available which work in different ways and it isn't always clear which one is being offered for sale. They are specified to operate from a 3.3V supply, although mine needs 3.45V to get it going! After many hours of frustration, and one fried micro SD card, I finally got it to work. Having got it working, it has so far been very reliable and simple to operate.

It connects directly to the speaker and has an adequate volume level without the need for a separate amplifier. An RC switch with three outputs allows selection of next/previous track and on/off. The volume up/down inputs don't work as described in the documentation, but that hasn't been a problem.

The end result is that Bill and Ben now have a selection of Sea Shanties to listen to while out on the lake. 👍😊

Shanties

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Thanks Cash, Peter,

Glad you like it. It's been great fun to build. Not sure what I'm going to do now it's complete ...

😂🤣👍

Congratulations Rear Admiral Nerys👍😁👍

Graham93

Bionic Bill was out rowing on the lake again this morning. He had his 'radio' on 😀. Certainly drew a crowd.👍

Graham93

Shanties

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Doug,

Microchip, the company that make the PIC microcontrollers have lots of help and support available on their website. After all they want people to buy their products 😉

They offer free development software, and reasonably priced development/demo boards. I started with one of their development boards about 15 years ago. It's much easier that way. Starting from scratch with just a chip would be a significant challenge. These chips are very flexible in terms of what they can do, but with the flexibility comes complexity. The more options there are to configure, the easier it is to get something wrong. On occasion, it has taken me a couple of days to work out what was wrong, and why something wouldn't work like I wanted it to.

It's very rewarding when it does work, and very frustrating when it doesn't

Graham93

https://www.microchip.com/design-centers/8-bit/pic-mcus/get-started-now

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