Saturday, August 22, 2009
blown resistor
the receiver smells like it blew a resistor and isn't responding to battery (i.e. not turning on). so no more boat this summer. good news is thats currently a $60 fix for the new version, 40 for the old version and like will the be the second old version by the time i get back to the project next summer. so hopefully something around $30? hopefully. just so i remember, the one i currently have (and is broken) is the spektrum dx 7 dual receiver (actual model name: AR7000 DSM2 7-channel receiver). and actually, having just looked it up, i'm already twice removed from the the new version. so maybe i'll be even more so by next summer. i'm going to pretend like its likely so i don't feel as bad having broken this ultra important part.
reflection
may or may not be my last post. for those of you who've been following (even just a little bit), thanks for the support.
i've changed my mind. yesterday wasn't a failure. it was a hiccup, but not a failure. i decided to spend the summer with the aim of building a remote control battleship that shot water 20 to 30 feet. i did that yesterday. the fact that it wasn't perfect isn't important. so i misgauged a couple of things. thats why I'm not in the business of making battleships. i built a functional version of exactly what i set out to build. so i'm happy with that.
furthermore, i grew imensely over the course of the project. both in terms of my building skills and my persistence skills. I've always considered myself a 'never give up' sort of person, but I certainly would've given up on the project many different times had I tried building this thing any previous summer - or school year for that matter. I put in maybe 500 hours on this guy. at minimum wage even I wouldve raked it in! but I was working for something else. or, someone else. while this project started about building a fun toy to play with, (particularly cause i had been so starved of building things while at school) the moment daniel went to work, the moment where it was all me and no one else to blame, the project turned into a prove myself project. prove myself to myself i suppose. ya i've done really cool stuff in the past, but i had help to some degree on those. this one, i wanted the project to be so me dominated that you couldn't possibly say, oh, he only could do that because his dad helped him, or oh, he didn't really contribute that much to the final product. and certainly no one was saying any of those things to me, about anything, but maybe i was saying that to myself. maybe because i didn't get a summer job and despite the fact everyone was saying this was a terrible summer to do that, i still felt that i shouldve been deserving. i don't really know, but prolly it was a mixture of all of the above. regardless, this battleship turned into a build that was for me to prove to me.
anyways, the things i learned on this build are numerous. i learned to solder, a lot in fact! i learned about low budget mockups prior to actual prototyping. i got burned 2 or three times by part flow - probably the number one lesson of the summer. nothing hurts more than going to work on a saturday morning only to find the part you need more than any other isn't there and ships from new jersey. i learned that part flow isn't just what do you need today to get under way, it is what do you need today, tomorrow, and in five days from now. you take care of that before you go out to build. i learned about motors and i got real non-physics-lab experience with the voltmeter - something that none of my prior projects gave me much of. i experienced and learned to recognize a blown fuse. i got uber frustrated with connectors and learned that often times in a big project one person's entire job is making sure all connectors are consistent. i experienced failure multiple times and got a bit better at rebounding. i learned about stress releif, but it took me a couple of tries. i got burned by center of gravity despite the fact that both others and myself had mentioned the issue many times. Instead of banking on being able to compensate, i should have run a physics model to check it out (I tried but gave up when i had trouble finding water related models. i should have tried harder). I certainly will run more models on more criteria on future projects. I learned that thats the sort of engineer i am - the do the math then the build type as opposed to the build it and figure out the issue then build it again. i learned how hard the last 10% is. I learned to stay consistent with my blog. I learned to love epoxy and hate lacquer. i decided to give up on too ambitious of plans and be realistic about both my talent and my resources. i practiced calling for help a lot. and i guess i learned to be proud of something even though i know its not as good as it could be. so i'm fighting my perfectionism. and in fact, thats something i learned, take it to the good enough not the perfection point. that was a hard lesson for me to grasp.
thats just a couple of the lessons i've learned from this project. and, i had a ton of fun along the way. it was a good summer project.
i've changed my mind. yesterday wasn't a failure. it was a hiccup, but not a failure. i decided to spend the summer with the aim of building a remote control battleship that shot water 20 to 30 feet. i did that yesterday. the fact that it wasn't perfect isn't important. so i misgauged a couple of things. thats why I'm not in the business of making battleships. i built a functional version of exactly what i set out to build. so i'm happy with that.
furthermore, i grew imensely over the course of the project. both in terms of my building skills and my persistence skills. I've always considered myself a 'never give up' sort of person, but I certainly would've given up on the project many different times had I tried building this thing any previous summer - or school year for that matter. I put in maybe 500 hours on this guy. at minimum wage even I wouldve raked it in! but I was working for something else. or, someone else. while this project started about building a fun toy to play with, (particularly cause i had been so starved of building things while at school) the moment daniel went to work, the moment where it was all me and no one else to blame, the project turned into a prove myself project. prove myself to myself i suppose. ya i've done really cool stuff in the past, but i had help to some degree on those. this one, i wanted the project to be so me dominated that you couldn't possibly say, oh, he only could do that because his dad helped him, or oh, he didn't really contribute that much to the final product. and certainly no one was saying any of those things to me, about anything, but maybe i was saying that to myself. maybe because i didn't get a summer job and despite the fact everyone was saying this was a terrible summer to do that, i still felt that i shouldve been deserving. i don't really know, but prolly it was a mixture of all of the above. regardless, this battleship turned into a build that was for me to prove to me.
anyways, the things i learned on this build are numerous. i learned to solder, a lot in fact! i learned about low budget mockups prior to actual prototyping. i got burned 2 or three times by part flow - probably the number one lesson of the summer. nothing hurts more than going to work on a saturday morning only to find the part you need more than any other isn't there and ships from new jersey. i learned that part flow isn't just what do you need today to get under way, it is what do you need today, tomorrow, and in five days from now. you take care of that before you go out to build. i learned about motors and i got real non-physics-lab experience with the voltmeter - something that none of my prior projects gave me much of. i experienced and learned to recognize a blown fuse. i got uber frustrated with connectors and learned that often times in a big project one person's entire job is making sure all connectors are consistent. i experienced failure multiple times and got a bit better at rebounding. i learned about stress releif, but it took me a couple of tries. i got burned by center of gravity despite the fact that both others and myself had mentioned the issue many times. Instead of banking on being able to compensate, i should have run a physics model to check it out (I tried but gave up when i had trouble finding water related models. i should have tried harder). I certainly will run more models on more criteria on future projects. I learned that thats the sort of engineer i am - the do the math then the build type as opposed to the build it and figure out the issue then build it again. i learned how hard the last 10% is. I learned to stay consistent with my blog. I learned to love epoxy and hate lacquer. i decided to give up on too ambitious of plans and be realistic about both my talent and my resources. i practiced calling for help a lot. and i guess i learned to be proud of something even though i know its not as good as it could be. so i'm fighting my perfectionism. and in fact, thats something i learned, take it to the good enough not the perfection point. that was a hard lesson for me to grasp.
thats just a couple of the lessons i've learned from this project. and, i had a ton of fun along the way. it was a good summer project.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Launch of the Battleship!
hi guys. ( Daniel, i didn't involve you in the christening for two reasons. sounded like you were doing stuff and it wouldn't be very exciting over the phone. and two, having thought about it, a Christening might not be up your alley. we'll run it when you get back)
i installed the decks today. Worked it out so that the turret sits above deck while the servo body lies below the deck with just the servo gear poking through. then, by drilling a hole for the servo line and moving the exit point of the water gun tube, the rotation problem of the turret was solved. i cut some of the elbowing to sit on the back deck and close the between deck opening. i outfitted the electrical deck with all the appropriate holes and installed the switches (with the drive line now sporting a 10A fuse instead of the original 3A one). taped up all the way around the edges to try and keep out any water that might come over the side of the deck. then, i threw on an American flag kinda at the last minute to give it some flavor. as hard as i worked and as much as the boat does, its not exactly all that reminiscent of a battleship. the flag didn't really help that (considering the fact it would be would be a 70' x 50' flag... not quite realistic) but it gave the boat some flavor. anyways, i finished building, so i was stoked and ready to go to war.
greg, our friend and the tahoe tennis pro, came over to see the launch.
we gave him the ready-to-run boat i bought earlier in the summer to give the battleship a target. heres a shot of the little boat driving around.
before i took him down, we had to christen the boat.
once that was done, the hunt was on. basically, greg's strategy was just to out run my boat and stay out of range of the water gun. my plan was obviously to keep him in range and then just down him in water. by this time, a crowd had amassed for the match. without any further stalling, check out some of the action.
so, the strategies set, the battle got underway. greg did a good job keeping away from me but once in a while i'd land a bit of water on him. then, the lake got a little bit choppy. waves started crashing over our boats, slowing both of us down. this was my shot. then, all of a sudden, the battleship tipped over and was under. the photographer (cough cough) missed the moment, but i'll do my best to describe the moment. greg is running away from me. he wasn't at all in danger being that I am standing in between the battleship and his boat. i'm looking at my ship and trying to come around and make an approach on him. in fact, its really similar to the video from above. i'm making about the same loop as that shot above. unfortunately, about 3/4 through the loop, the boat tips to the left. i'm maybe 10 feet away from the sinking ship so i go running (more of a frantic hopping action) to save it. i make it and grab the bottom to pull it out of the lake. i'm holding the controller in one hand and the boat in the other (now maybe 15 pounds with the additional water weight, so i can't hold it for too long). i have nowhere to put the controller and i don't happen to be using the neck lanyard i made out of shoelaces. so i'm in a pickle. being that he already missed the shot, my dad came over to help me. I really needed the help. so, we get the boat drained of water (via flipping it upside and letting water leak out through the (supposed to be waterproof) taping around the edges of the decks. then i put the boat back in the water. eager for revenge i went for blood.
actually, to be honest, as you might be able to percieve from the video, i jumped back from the boat because i didn't expect it to start up yet. so i didn't try and hit greg, i did so accidentally. the ramming wasn't part of my gameplan but hey, whatever works! and yet, i spent the summer building this thing, most of the time working to make the gun function, so i wasn't interested in just ramming. i came to shoot some water around. so i go set to do so. unfortunately, i wasn't going to be able to fix the top heavyness of the boat during the battle. i had to just hope it would hold up until i sunk greg's boat.
however, following the the successfull ramming, thins went down hill - or maybe down water?
so things looked grim. and actually, they were grim. the controller got wet just after this shot and that ended the fight. (greg's boat was near out of battery - next time, i just wait for his boat to run out of battery cause i have maybe 2 or 3 times the battery life he does). so, that was it. thats what i worked all summer for.
but no, thats not true. i got a lot more out this than the essential failure that transpired out on the lake today. but i've been writing this blog for too long, i'll get to the lessons i learned tomorrow or maybe later today.
i installed the decks today. Worked it out so that the turret sits above deck while the servo body lies below the deck with just the servo gear poking through. then, by drilling a hole for the servo line and moving the exit point of the water gun tube, the rotation problem of the turret was solved. i cut some of the elbowing to sit on the back deck and close the between deck opening. i outfitted the electrical deck with all the appropriate holes and installed the switches (with the drive line now sporting a 10A fuse instead of the original 3A one). taped up all the way around the edges to try and keep out any water that might come over the side of the deck. then, i threw on an American flag kinda at the last minute to give it some flavor. as hard as i worked and as much as the boat does, its not exactly all that reminiscent of a battleship. the flag didn't really help that (considering the fact it would be would be a 70' x 50' flag... not quite realistic) but it gave the boat some flavor. anyways, i finished building, so i was stoked and ready to go to war.
greg, our friend and the tahoe tennis pro, came over to see the launch.
we gave him the ready-to-run boat i bought earlier in the summer to give the battleship a target. heres a shot of the little boat driving around.
before i took him down, we had to christen the boat.
once that was done, the hunt was on. basically, greg's strategy was just to out run my boat and stay out of range of the water gun. my plan was obviously to keep him in range and then just down him in water. by this time, a crowd had amassed for the match. without any further stalling, check out some of the action.
so, the strategies set, the battle got underway. greg did a good job keeping away from me but once in a while i'd land a bit of water on him. then, the lake got a little bit choppy. waves started crashing over our boats, slowing both of us down. this was my shot. then, all of a sudden, the battleship tipped over and was under. the photographer (cough cough) missed the moment, but i'll do my best to describe the moment. greg is running away from me. he wasn't at all in danger being that I am standing in between the battleship and his boat. i'm looking at my ship and trying to come around and make an approach on him. in fact, its really similar to the video from above. i'm making about the same loop as that shot above. unfortunately, about 3/4 through the loop, the boat tips to the left. i'm maybe 10 feet away from the sinking ship so i go running (more of a frantic hopping action) to save it. i make it and grab the bottom to pull it out of the lake. i'm holding the controller in one hand and the boat in the other (now maybe 15 pounds with the additional water weight, so i can't hold it for too long). i have nowhere to put the controller and i don't happen to be using the neck lanyard i made out of shoelaces. so i'm in a pickle. being that he already missed the shot, my dad came over to help me. I really needed the help. so, we get the boat drained of water (via flipping it upside and letting water leak out through the (supposed to be waterproof) taping around the edges of the decks. then i put the boat back in the water. eager for revenge i went for blood.
actually, to be honest, as you might be able to percieve from the video, i jumped back from the boat because i didn't expect it to start up yet. so i didn't try and hit greg, i did so accidentally. the ramming wasn't part of my gameplan but hey, whatever works! and yet, i spent the summer building this thing, most of the time working to make the gun function, so i wasn't interested in just ramming. i came to shoot some water around. so i go set to do so. unfortunately, i wasn't going to be able to fix the top heavyness of the boat during the battle. i had to just hope it would hold up until i sunk greg's boat.
however, following the the successfull ramming, thins went down hill - or maybe down water?
so things looked grim. and actually, they were grim. the controller got wet just after this shot and that ended the fight. (greg's boat was near out of battery - next time, i just wait for his boat to run out of battery cause i have maybe 2 or 3 times the battery life he does). so, that was it. thats what i worked all summer for.
but no, thats not true. i got a lot more out this than the essential failure that transpired out on the lake today. but i've been writing this blog for too long, i'll get to the lessons i learned tomorrow or maybe later today.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
final tune-up
woo doggie!!!
so after yesterdays disaster, i was looking for today to be big. not halfway thru the day, its delivered. like i said before, the issue with the switch line was a blown fuse. i had my dad go get some 5A fuses. out on the water, one of those broke too. but i'll get to that later.
so we took the boat out for a final tune up test today. and it performed beautifully after figuring out the fuse blew again. i connected the ESC directly to the battery and it worked just fine. I had the boat pumping, shooting and driving. check it out!
i taped up the back deck so water couldn't sneak in and it works beautifully! hardly any water got in the hull at all. so that was excelent. and then the boat moves pretty quick, which is good. the only downer is that the boat leans pretty heavily to the right. its scary sometimes cause it looks almost like its tipping. so i gotta make sure the deck up front is as waterproof as the back. a novel idea to fix that is to add some weight to the end of a servo arm and in route adjust where it sits to counteract the leaning. i'm mostly sure the leaning is due to the slightly off centering of the water tank.
anyways. the boat works pretty well and theres only one left thing left to do. put on some decking!
so after yesterdays disaster, i was looking for today to be big. not halfway thru the day, its delivered. like i said before, the issue with the switch line was a blown fuse. i had my dad go get some 5A fuses. out on the water, one of those broke too. but i'll get to that later.
so we took the boat out for a final tune up test today. and it performed beautifully after figuring out the fuse blew again. i connected the ESC directly to the battery and it worked just fine. I had the boat pumping, shooting and driving. check it out!
i taped up the back deck so water couldn't sneak in and it works beautifully! hardly any water got in the hull at all. so that was excelent. and then the boat moves pretty quick, which is good. the only downer is that the boat leans pretty heavily to the right. its scary sometimes cause it looks almost like its tipping. so i gotta make sure the deck up front is as waterproof as the back. a novel idea to fix that is to add some weight to the end of a servo arm and in route adjust where it sits to counteract the leaning. i'm mostly sure the leaning is due to the slightly off centering of the water tank.
anyways. the boat works pretty well and theres only one left thing left to do. put on some decking!
switch problem
so the problem with the switch was that the fuse just barely blew. i've never worked with switches before and so when i opened it to check on it, i saw the wire was still connected, just with a minor bend in it. well, evidently thats enough to not flow anymore. i shouldve checked continuity with the voltmeter, i didn't think to do that til this morning.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
PHEW! Dodged a bullet
hey guys. i was planning to have it all glueing tonight and ready for christening tomorrow but I ran into a bit of a problem. in fact, it was a 'holy crap i'm not, not the battleship, the whole project is over' type problem. ya, pretty frightening. heres what happened.
so, like i said, i zip tied all the wires to the sides and to the various components such that there was minimal stress on the leads and also to keep as organized as possible. i showed you a picture yesterday of that. well, sometime yesterday and then also today, the speed controller started acting up. i went and read the instructions for the ESC (a piece of junk manual) and learned of a possible issue that i then internet researched and learned i should do something about it. i needed to remove the positive battery wire so that the bec (which i just learned about today and is basically like an internal battery) wouldn't interfere with the actual battery. so i did. then things stopped working. by things i mean the speed controller wasn't passing on voltage. 7.4 V in, .1 V out. essentially, BAD. so i put back the wire. still nothing. i started disconnecting things left and right. BY THE WAY. this was right before i was about to go out and do a last pre-deck test before assemblying the deck. i had already put on the back deck
and taped it up to keep out the water as best as possible. so i was super excited to go and test both the drive and the pump. (if you notice the water gun video, the boat is not moving. thats because the problem was on and off that day too. thats why i went looking at the manual, thats why i did the research and pulled the positive battery wire. thats where our story started) however, it was not to be. like i said the ESC wasn't working and i was flipping out. i removed all sorts of things and nothing was helping. i broke out the voltmeter and worked back from the motors. .1V at the motors. .1 at the parallel split point. .1 after the ESC. 7.4 before the ESC. obviously, something was wrong with the ESC. what? Spent all afternoon debugging. nothing.
i called my contact, looking for help, right around dinner time. that wasn't really very considerate, but i was getting desperate. this isn't a part i can replace in lest than a week or so. and i go to vassar in exactly a week (HOLY MOLY THATs EXCiTING!). so this kills the project.
like last time, i described stuff to him, he suggested some things i had already tried, so i threw out some possible keyterms that might help him remember a solution. but this time, didn't help.
i went and had dinner, after which stephen called back with a new suggestion. didn't help. we agreed to talk again tomorrow before giving up. after the call, i was upset and so i started over again. this time i took EVERYTHING out. no servos connected, no pump system, just the battery to the ESC to the voltmeter. and it worked! so i started putting things back in, hoping it would stop working at some point so i would know what the problem was. if i got all the way to the end, i'd be nervous that it was just being spotty again and i hadn't fixed anything.
however, i put in the rudder servo and it stopped working. it turns out, the rudder servo fits in right-side-up and upside-down. upside-down screws up the reciever and also the ESC. so, flipping over the rudder servo kept things working. i kept adding things on. the next thing that disrupted the system was the switch+fuse that i installed. i didn't figure out why tonight, but i'll look into it tomorrow. i was just happy to have figured out what happened. and rather, i was just happy to have a working ESC.
so, while i didn't get much done today - though i installed the back deck - i still have a project. that is, i'm not hosed. which is good. :)
so, like i said, i zip tied all the wires to the sides and to the various components such that there was minimal stress on the leads and also to keep as organized as possible. i showed you a picture yesterday of that. well, sometime yesterday and then also today, the speed controller started acting up. i went and read the instructions for the ESC (a piece of junk manual) and learned of a possible issue that i then internet researched and learned i should do something about it. i needed to remove the positive battery wire so that the bec (which i just learned about today and is basically like an internal battery) wouldn't interfere with the actual battery. so i did. then things stopped working. by things i mean the speed controller wasn't passing on voltage. 7.4 V in, .1 V out. essentially, BAD. so i put back the wire. still nothing. i started disconnecting things left and right. BY THE WAY. this was right before i was about to go out and do a last pre-deck test before assemblying the deck. i had already put on the back deck
and taped it up to keep out the water as best as possible. so i was super excited to go and test both the drive and the pump. (if you notice the water gun video, the boat is not moving. thats because the problem was on and off that day too. thats why i went looking at the manual, thats why i did the research and pulled the positive battery wire. thats where our story started) however, it was not to be. like i said the ESC wasn't working and i was flipping out. i removed all sorts of things and nothing was helping. i broke out the voltmeter and worked back from the motors. .1V at the motors. .1 at the parallel split point. .1 after the ESC. 7.4 before the ESC. obviously, something was wrong with the ESC. what? Spent all afternoon debugging. nothing.
i called my contact, looking for help, right around dinner time. that wasn't really very considerate, but i was getting desperate. this isn't a part i can replace in lest than a week or so. and i go to vassar in exactly a week (HOLY MOLY THATs EXCiTING!). so this kills the project.
like last time, i described stuff to him, he suggested some things i had already tried, so i threw out some possible keyterms that might help him remember a solution. but this time, didn't help.
i went and had dinner, after which stephen called back with a new suggestion. didn't help. we agreed to talk again tomorrow before giving up. after the call, i was upset and so i started over again. this time i took EVERYTHING out. no servos connected, no pump system, just the battery to the ESC to the voltmeter. and it worked! so i started putting things back in, hoping it would stop working at some point so i would know what the problem was. if i got all the way to the end, i'd be nervous that it was just being spotty again and i hadn't fixed anything.
however, i put in the rudder servo and it stopped working. it turns out, the rudder servo fits in right-side-up and upside-down. upside-down screws up the reciever and also the ESC. so, flipping over the rudder servo kept things working. i kept adding things on. the next thing that disrupted the system was the switch+fuse that i installed. i didn't figure out why tonight, but i'll look into it tomorrow. i was just happy to have figured out what happened. and rather, i was just happy to have a working ESC.
so, while i didn't get much done today - though i installed the back deck - i still have a project. that is, i'm not hosed. which is good. :)
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
system check 2 (minus the sinking)
the waves couldn't sink me this time. well, they could've, but i didn't let them!
i patched up the broken leads and resoldered everything, and ziptied all the wires to make it slightly less chaotic. take a look.
and, if you're not familiar with electronics projects, thats fairly clean. go back and check it out before, on the blog maybe like 4 or 5 days back.
k, so we got everything working and then we headed out to the lake. the first time we didn't get any photos. plus, another lead snapped off so i took it back, fixed it, then we headed back out. take a look.
woOOOooo! it works!! i'm so stoked!! i took it back in and this afternoon i've gotten to work on how the deck will connect. i'm going to epoxy these guys to the side of the hull then screw the deck into them.
i'll put rubber underneath so that it'll be mostly water tight. then the only way for water to get in is the place where the deck portions meet.
might be real launch tomorrow, might be thursday.
P.S. check out my dad's project.
so the story is, when i was little, we went fishing and we sat on the bank for hours, never even getting a bite! at the end, i asked him, in with my youthful innoncence, "why do they call it fishing? theres no fish involved." so, this time instead of randomly throwing in the line, he's taking an engineer's approach. he went out and got an underwater camera, and some camera (cyclops) glasses
so he's going to spot the fishes, then catch them. or thats the plan. today's update is that you can't really tell what you're looking at. its just blue in all directions. EXCEPT when you hit the camera on the bottom of the lake. then you see the sandy bottom. hehe. he'll get it working. and so will i!
i patched up the broken leads and resoldered everything, and ziptied all the wires to make it slightly less chaotic. take a look.
and, if you're not familiar with electronics projects, thats fairly clean. go back and check it out before, on the blog maybe like 4 or 5 days back.
k, so we got everything working and then we headed out to the lake. the first time we didn't get any photos. plus, another lead snapped off so i took it back, fixed it, then we headed back out. take a look.
woOOOooo! it works!! i'm so stoked!! i took it back in and this afternoon i've gotten to work on how the deck will connect. i'm going to epoxy these guys to the side of the hull then screw the deck into them.
i'll put rubber underneath so that it'll be mostly water tight. then the only way for water to get in is the place where the deck portions meet.
might be real launch tomorrow, might be thursday.
P.S. check out my dad's project.
so the story is, when i was little, we went fishing and we sat on the bank for hours, never even getting a bite! at the end, i asked him, in with my youthful innoncence, "why do they call it fishing? theres no fish involved." so, this time instead of randomly throwing in the line, he's taking an engineer's approach. he went out and got an underwater camera, and some camera (cyclops) glasses
so he's going to spot the fishes, then catch them. or thats the plan. today's update is that you can't really tell what you're looking at. its just blue in all directions. EXCEPT when you hit the camera on the bottom of the lake. then you see the sandy bottom. hehe. he'll get it working. and so will i!
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