(as reference to the song kinda)
(and he actually didn't, its figurative).
i was planning on finishing the watertight box today but then i didn't and instead hung out with jack. i'll do it tomorrow.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
video and ordering parts
here's footage from the pool trial yesterday
pretty awesome!!!
today's update:
I built a watertight radio box today. pretty much a boring task, but it is vital to keeping all the components dry so that next test run we can go a little bit faster than what you see in the movie. cause seeing the movie makes me groan for how slow we actually went. we could go way way faster than that.
also i've ordered parts from 2 different companies. 1 is for electronics: wires, servo mounts, switches, etc. the other is all RC boat specific: a real rudder assembly, a motor mount, thrust bearings + washers, etc.
pretty awesome!!!
today's update:
I built a watertight radio box today. pretty much a boring task, but it is vital to keeping all the components dry so that next test run we can go a little bit faster than what you see in the movie. cause seeing the movie makes me groan for how slow we actually went. we could go way way faster than that.
also i've ordered parts from 2 different companies. 1 is for electronics: wires, servo mounts, switches, etc. the other is all RC boat specific: a real rudder assembly, a motor mount, thrust bearings + washers, etc.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
put putting along
well, it works. a little bit. after more of the same issue we had yesterday (that the tubing got twisted and misaligned - SEE BELOW), we managed to make things work in the kiddy pool. Daniel would sit holding the boat in the kiddy pool and i would give it just a tiny bit of motor and it would have a tiny bit of forward thrust. i'd bring up the motor and the boat would have more thrust. then a bit more and the tubing would flap around so much it would dislodge and we'd have to stop and reset things. that was ok though cause it worked at low speeds. so we moved to the big boy pool. i called jack (just back from south africa last night) and i put on a bathing suit and went over to test the boat in the real water.
this was very very scary. electronics essentially open to the splashing of the waves of the pool is a BAD idea. both for safety reasons (though it wasn't going to kill me, i still would not have liked to test that it wouldnt kill me) and for fiscal reasons. the cheap motor and esc were not super vital, but the reciever, battery for reciever, battery for motor and servos are not really things i want to lose. anyways, this great fear meant i wanted to keep things low speeds and not take risks.
thats what we did. take it slow and avoided doing something really stupid.
(more to come when i get the pictures and video from shaffer)
this was very very scary. electronics essentially open to the splashing of the waves of the pool is a BAD idea. both for safety reasons (though it wasn't going to kill me, i still would not have liked to test that it wouldnt kill me) and for fiscal reasons. the cheap motor and esc were not super vital, but the reciever, battery for reciever, battery for motor and servos are not really things i want to lose. anyways, this great fear meant i wanted to keep things low speeds and not take risks.
thats what we did. take it slow and avoided doing something really stupid.
(more to come when i get the pictures and video from shaffer)
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Huge progress
Major major progress today. first daniel and i went to toy and sport and got a "subskate" basically a kickboard but make to be like a skateboard. thats going to be the hull of the boat. mounting wood on top, we had a place to put stuff and hopefully a way to keep it above water. so we mounted all the stuff onto the board.
a note before we get in to it: I've been telling you the fan-like thing that pushes a boat is supposed to be called a screw. actually, i've been corrected. it can actually be called a propeller as well. turns out old school guys call it a screw but its technically a propeller as well, so the both terms work. i feel bad for teaching you guys (all one of you) wrong.
on to today's events! we set up the motor to run the prop (through the foam board we bought). this was a bit of a task because we needed a long drill bit to get through the foam. the hole for the prop shaft had to be at a fairly shallow angle so the screw didn't point downward and drive the nose of the boat under. however, small diameter drill bits are quite short. heres how we solved the problem.
I'm not sure you noticed. look at whats attached to the yellow drill. a FOOT long drill bit. this thing was MONSTROCIOUS! (insert twss joke) anyways, that took care of the motor assembly (at least at that point) heres the prop shaft and screw sticking out of the back of the hull
the rudder assembly was a bit more troublesome. we epoxied the rudder together but had trouble because of the quickness it dried. it turned out ugggggglY! its sort of hard to be proud of what it looks like but i if it works i'll get over that right away. with that premise, heres a photo of the rudder we made.
dang, it is pretty scrappy. oh well. prototype.
when we had all that taken care of,we filled up the pool to see how she flew... er... glided? whatever. you can see the pool wasn't ideal
that was ok though, we were just testing that all pieces worked. turns out they didn't. two problems surfaced.
firstly, the force of the screw driving forward wasn't actually pushing the ship, only the prop shaft. if you're having trouble imagining this, pretty much that means the boat stayed still while the screw and shaft moved forward. very bad. forturnately we were testing at low speeds and caught it very early on. it actually turned out to be an easy fix: we put a spacer in between the screw and the prop sheath and we think the problem got solved. don't know for sure though because a new problem came to light
the second issue (here comes a crappy pun) sunk us. figuratively of course, but it was still frustrating. the issue is the golden colored surgical tubing that you see coming off the prop shaft (at the intersection of the black lines).
the servo is blocking most of it. now you know where you're looking, find it in this pic and you can see it a little better
the problem is that this tubing acts as a universal joint connecting the motor to the prop shaft (ultimately translating the motor's motion to the screw), hence it turns at the speed of the motor. when you get what is basically a string (and here come the physics!) rotating at that rpm, it starts vibrating and seems to be acting like a wave. the vibration/pandaemonium actually dislodges the tubing from the prop shaft. so, even at the lowest of speeds, the motor gets disconnected from the prop shaft.
this can be solved a couple of ways. first, slowing the rpm of the motor will likely fix the problem. this is what the hobby shop guy told me to do for a different reason and is the ideal fix. it would give the boat way more torque and protect the motor and electronic speed controller (ESC). however, this is a bunch a bunch of work, would take gearing calculation/ordering/prep and all sorts of time, and being that its a $10 motor and cheap ESC, i think we're going to skip this possible fix
the second way to fix the issue is to cut down the length of the tubing. the tube experiences harmonic motion because there is maybe 3 inches of tubing between the two nodes (physics again, bear with me again briefly). to eliminate the extent of the amplitude of the wave, physics tells us to shorten the wavelength, shorten the length of tube! easy right? well, yes, and sadly no. shortening the tube is easy. remounting everything on the boat will take about an hour. still way way better than the fix mentioned above, but unfortunately we didn't have enough time left today. SO, we do it tomorrow.
tomorrow we cut the u-joint (tubing), remount the hardware, use the kiddy pool to make sure the boat propels itself forward and then go in search of a big pool to test it for real. hopefully we get our hands on a video camera for that. you'd think 2 infocus guys could, but i don't know, we'll see. certainly i'll take still shots. hopefully it won't do the boat justice though ;)
a note before we get in to it: I've been telling you the fan-like thing that pushes a boat is supposed to be called a screw. actually, i've been corrected. it can actually be called a propeller as well. turns out old school guys call it a screw but its technically a propeller as well, so the both terms work. i feel bad for teaching you guys (all one of you) wrong.
on to today's events! we set up the motor to run the prop (through the foam board we bought). this was a bit of a task because we needed a long drill bit to get through the foam. the hole for the prop shaft had to be at a fairly shallow angle so the screw didn't point downward and drive the nose of the boat under. however, small diameter drill bits are quite short. heres how we solved the problem.
I'm not sure you noticed. look at whats attached to the yellow drill. a FOOT long drill bit. this thing was MONSTROCIOUS! (insert twss joke) anyways, that took care of the motor assembly (at least at that point) heres the prop shaft and screw sticking out of the back of the hull
the rudder assembly was a bit more troublesome. we epoxied the rudder together but had trouble because of the quickness it dried. it turned out ugggggglY! its sort of hard to be proud of what it looks like but i if it works i'll get over that right away. with that premise, heres a photo of the rudder we made.
dang, it is pretty scrappy. oh well. prototype.
when we had all that taken care of,we filled up the pool to see how she flew... er... glided? whatever. you can see the pool wasn't ideal
that was ok though, we were just testing that all pieces worked. turns out they didn't. two problems surfaced.
firstly, the force of the screw driving forward wasn't actually pushing the ship, only the prop shaft. if you're having trouble imagining this, pretty much that means the boat stayed still while the screw and shaft moved forward. very bad. forturnately we were testing at low speeds and caught it very early on. it actually turned out to be an easy fix: we put a spacer in between the screw and the prop sheath and we think the problem got solved. don't know for sure though because a new problem came to light
the second issue (here comes a crappy pun) sunk us. figuratively of course, but it was still frustrating. the issue is the golden colored surgical tubing that you see coming off the prop shaft (at the intersection of the black lines).
the servo is blocking most of it. now you know where you're looking, find it in this pic and you can see it a little better
the problem is that this tubing acts as a universal joint connecting the motor to the prop shaft (ultimately translating the motor's motion to the screw), hence it turns at the speed of the motor. when you get what is basically a string (and here come the physics!) rotating at that rpm, it starts vibrating and seems to be acting like a wave. the vibration/pandaemonium actually dislodges the tubing from the prop shaft. so, even at the lowest of speeds, the motor gets disconnected from the prop shaft.
this can be solved a couple of ways. first, slowing the rpm of the motor will likely fix the problem. this is what the hobby shop guy told me to do for a different reason and is the ideal fix. it would give the boat way more torque and protect the motor and electronic speed controller (ESC). however, this is a bunch a bunch of work, would take gearing calculation/ordering/prep and all sorts of time, and being that its a $10 motor and cheap ESC, i think we're going to skip this possible fix
the second way to fix the issue is to cut down the length of the tubing. the tube experiences harmonic motion because there is maybe 3 inches of tubing between the two nodes (physics again, bear with me again briefly). to eliminate the extent of the amplitude of the wave, physics tells us to shorten the wavelength, shorten the length of tube! easy right? well, yes, and sadly no. shortening the tube is easy. remounting everything on the boat will take about an hour. still way way better than the fix mentioned above, but unfortunately we didn't have enough time left today. SO, we do it tomorrow.
tomorrow we cut the u-joint (tubing), remount the hardware, use the kiddy pool to make sure the boat propels itself forward and then go in search of a big pool to test it for real. hopefully we get our hands on a video camera for that. you'd think 2 infocus guys could, but i don't know, we'll see. certainly i'll take still shots. hopefully it won't do the boat justice though ;)
Friday, June 26, 2009
drivers on your mark
WazOOOo! went and got a deans connector and had my dad salter it and now the system runs! may or may not wait to go do work until tomorrow so i save the fun stuff for daniel. haven't decided. while i deliberate, i'm gonna go learn solidworks
Thursday, June 25, 2009
back in the driver seat
almost!
so i went and got everything i needed: rudder parts, the speed controller, all of it. I went to the place i went to yesterday and then the sister shop as well. got the esc, was all pumped to get going and the damn connecters from esc and from batter are different. called 6 different places and no one has the appropriate adapter (when i went to my dad he got all mr. safety on me and said he wasn't going to salter the appropriate connector on because this is heavy duty amperage and its dangerous). i can order one but it will get in monday. or maybe tuesday. i'm gonna call one of the places that i'd be ordering from and see if they could ship on saturday. we'll see. LAME!!!
i also got the nolan's old pc and installed solidworks on that and will likely be learning that mostly tomorrow. see how fast i can get good at that.
goodness gracious theres a shit load of prepwork in projects. i had forgotten. you get the fun job mr. shaffer, just show up and build the shit. i'm going to have spent almost all week running around the bay assembling the stuff for use to build on either saturday or sunday. which reminds me, when do you wanna build?
talk tomorrow
so i went and got everything i needed: rudder parts, the speed controller, all of it. I went to the place i went to yesterday and then the sister shop as well. got the esc, was all pumped to get going and the damn connecters from esc and from batter are different. called 6 different places and no one has the appropriate adapter (when i went to my dad he got all mr. safety on me and said he wasn't going to salter the appropriate connector on because this is heavy duty amperage and its dangerous). i can order one but it will get in monday. or maybe tuesday. i'm gonna call one of the places that i'd be ordering from and see if they could ship on saturday. we'll see. LAME!!!
i also got the nolan's old pc and installed solidworks on that and will likely be learning that mostly tomorrow. see how fast i can get good at that.
goodness gracious theres a shit load of prepwork in projects. i had forgotten. you get the fun job mr. shaffer, just show up and build the shit. i'm going to have spent almost all week running around the bay assembling the stuff for use to build on either saturday or sunday. which reminds me, when do you wanna build?
talk tomorrow
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
road block
Ha, turns out, after all the parts i got, i didn't get a speed controller so i couldn't do any motor work (with it running at least). back to the hobby shop tomorrow. actually i'm gonna try a new shop in a addition to that one.
did some work on setting up the rigging for the rudder. check it out!
as the servo turns, the ball/socket link translates that movement to the tiller which in turn rotates the rudder. you see none of that here except the servo. thats because its all rubbish parts for the moment. but thats a mock mechanism for controlling the rudder. not to scale either - the shaft is going to be way longer obviously.
in case you wanna see the motor and screw + shaft, heres a shot of that. it'll run tomorrow hopefully (as in if i don't buy the wrong stuff again)
on a final note, i think i'm only talking to you daniel. That is if you're even still here.
ECHO!
did some work on setting up the rigging for the rudder. check it out!
as the servo turns, the ball/socket link translates that movement to the tiller which in turn rotates the rudder. you see none of that here except the servo. thats because its all rubbish parts for the moment. but thats a mock mechanism for controlling the rudder. not to scale either - the shaft is going to be way longer obviously.
in case you wanna see the motor and screw + shaft, heres a shot of that. it'll run tomorrow hopefully (as in if i don't buy the wrong stuff again)
on a final note, i think i'm only talking to you daniel. That is if you're even still here.
ECHO!
driving forward
nice little pun there!
so, last night i was all discouraged cause i had wasted another day without making progress. but my dad helped me turn around the view and realize i had found 4 or 5 new hobby shops and had a couple of new leads. that gave me a good state of mind coming into today so much so that i got up early and drove off to the new hobby shops. without my key navigation team (shaffer and unnamed female voice), i promptly got totally lost. I quickly learned both that a garmin isn't something to deal with while driving, and even when you're stopped its a sonofa bitch. (it wasn't updating my position. turns out to pick up gps satelite you had to have the kickstand open. figured that out when i read the manual ON MY COMPUTER CAUSE SOMEONE THOUGHT HAVING A MANUAL FOR THE CAR WAS A DUMB IDEA!) anyways. i did eventually make it to 2 of the 4 hobby shops (in the amount of time i should have made all 4 if i had any sort of nav team). one was a bust, but the other was a substantial success.
it was 10 in the morning, so i was literally the only one there. i learned abunch from the guys working there about boat motors and propulsion (btw daniel, this was a different one from d&J). they have a huge selection of most everything RC (which is the best part of the success, having a place to go for stuff is crucial!) and even some boat parts. i ended up deciding i should get a bunch of low end boat parts so i can start to get a feel for how it all works. I bought all the parts of the propulsion except the speed controller (cause there was no low end ESC) so in the next couple days i'll be putting together a boat motor, shaft, prop, and rudder
all very good news because i was definitely in a post-shaffer rut there for a while.
talk to you tomorrow!
so, last night i was all discouraged cause i had wasted another day without making progress. but my dad helped me turn around the view and realize i had found 4 or 5 new hobby shops and had a couple of new leads. that gave me a good state of mind coming into today so much so that i got up early and drove off to the new hobby shops. without my key navigation team (shaffer and unnamed female voice), i promptly got totally lost. I quickly learned both that a garmin isn't something to deal with while driving, and even when you're stopped its a sonofa bitch. (it wasn't updating my position. turns out to pick up gps satelite you had to have the kickstand open. figured that out when i read the manual ON MY COMPUTER CAUSE SOMEONE THOUGHT HAVING A MANUAL FOR THE CAR WAS A DUMB IDEA!) anyways. i did eventually make it to 2 of the 4 hobby shops (in the amount of time i should have made all 4 if i had any sort of nav team). one was a bust, but the other was a substantial success.
it was 10 in the morning, so i was literally the only one there. i learned abunch from the guys working there about boat motors and propulsion (btw daniel, this was a different one from d&J). they have a huge selection of most everything RC (which is the best part of the success, having a place to go for stuff is crucial!) and even some boat parts. i ended up deciding i should get a bunch of low end boat parts so i can start to get a feel for how it all works. I bought all the parts of the propulsion except the speed controller (cause there was no low end ESC) so in the next couple days i'll be putting together a boat motor, shaft, prop, and rudder
all very good news because i was definitely in a post-shaffer rut there for a while.
talk to you tomorrow!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
switching gears
while there are certainly steps left to be completed on the gun (integration of azimuth and elevation servos, make the turret housing, make a light weight barrel assembly, figure out what to use and how to use the lake pump & holding tank, etc.), i'm switching over to the drive end of the project.
I'm reading up on marine motors, boat speed controllers, that sort of thing. I've been doing internet searching for local hobby shops and i'm making calls to see if any carry boat parts. front runners are D&J (which we went to and saved our day last thursday), California hobbies.
~ hour or so break~
Spirits aren't so high. i'm at a standstill. I have to go get new parts to keep working but i'm going in to volunteer at JobTrain, and don't have time to go drive down and get them. Another wasted day.
I'm reading up on marine motors, boat speed controllers, that sort of thing. I've been doing internet searching for local hobby shops and i'm making calls to see if any carry boat parts. front runners are D&J (which we went to and saved our day last thursday), California hobbies.
~ hour or so break~
Spirits aren't so high. i'm at a standstill. I have to go get new parts to keep working but i'm going in to volunteer at JobTrain, and don't have time to go drive down and get them. Another wasted day.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Parts
I'm a cheap ass! I can't pull the trigger and buy parts cause I don't like spending money. Argg
Sunday, June 21, 2009
fathers day report
worked on controller a bit today, mostly nothing to report
on a side note, we finally have a follower (who isn't me!) hooray!
on a side note, we finally have a follower (who isn't me!) hooray!
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Hey guys!
mAJOR progress today!!! i got up and didn't really feel like working, so i slummed around for the morning then finally started to itch to get back to work. so i went to my dad with a question and he redirected me in a new direction that, well, led to the first complete prototype.
so, i went out and got a little kiddy inner-tube and pool to test how the gun works on water. I picked up daniel and we went to radio shack to get some parts and then we set off to get something working.
we started by redoing the supersoaker wiring so that a switch operated it instead of the push bottom that it came with. that way the servo could turn it on and off (very important step). daniel helped big time on this part. next we put the stuff on the temporary boat "deck". you can see that here
after playing with the working water gun for a good 10 minutes because it was that fun and satisfying to have it work, we started mounting to the tube and then we put it in the kiddie-pool.
a lot of things went wrong: leaks, the controller needs reprogramming, the battery and other electronics need to be more accessable and a bunch of others, but it worked!! so we sat around and discussed what worked and what didn't and then daniel came up with a good idea for the turret. we could attach the fake barrels to the side and make it centered around the (tobe) azimoth axis of rotation. you see that here:
great idea again from the shaffer! So, now what? well, i'm gonna prolly spend the night reworking the rc controller and servos so that they don't flip out again (RIGHT) when we need them to behave. then I move onto assembling the azimuth servo (parts come in sometime next week) and making that balenced and operational. then, either build the turret to cover the whole thing or move on to the actual battleship hull! thats exciting, cause it'll start being a battleship once I have a hull! scary!
as much as it would be a great gift to be working on the project with my dad tomorrow (and if you know my dad at ALL you'll know exactly what i'm talking about), my grandpa (though he would enjoy it too i have a sneaky feeling, thats where my dad and i got the engineer bug afterall) lives in walnut creek. SO, fathers day is off day. at least in the morning ;)!
cya guys!
mAJOR progress today!!! i got up and didn't really feel like working, so i slummed around for the morning then finally started to itch to get back to work. so i went to my dad with a question and he redirected me in a new direction that, well, led to the first complete prototype.
so, i went out and got a little kiddy inner-tube and pool to test how the gun works on water. I picked up daniel and we went to radio shack to get some parts and then we set off to get something working.
we started by redoing the supersoaker wiring so that a switch operated it instead of the push bottom that it came with. that way the servo could turn it on and off (very important step). daniel helped big time on this part. next we put the stuff on the temporary boat "deck". you can see that here
after playing with the working water gun for a good 10 minutes because it was that fun and satisfying to have it work, we started mounting to the tube and then we put it in the kiddie-pool.
a lot of things went wrong: leaks, the controller needs reprogramming, the battery and other electronics need to be more accessable and a bunch of others, but it worked!! so we sat around and discussed what worked and what didn't and then daniel came up with a good idea for the turret. we could attach the fake barrels to the side and make it centered around the (tobe) azimoth axis of rotation. you see that here:
great idea again from the shaffer! So, now what? well, i'm gonna prolly spend the night reworking the rc controller and servos so that they don't flip out again (RIGHT) when we need them to behave. then I move onto assembling the azimuth servo (parts come in sometime next week) and making that balenced and operational. then, either build the turret to cover the whole thing or move on to the actual battleship hull! thats exciting, cause it'll start being a battleship once I have a hull! scary!
as much as it would be a great gift to be working on the project with my dad tomorrow (and if you know my dad at ALL you'll know exactly what i'm talking about), my grandpa (though he would enjoy it too i have a sneaky feeling, thats where my dad and i got the engineer bug afterall) lives in walnut creek. SO, fathers day is off day. at least in the morning ;)!
cya guys!
Friday, June 19, 2009
gun prototype
hey guys,
major progress today. it didn't start out that way, again i went driving to find parts. i went to OSH (orchard supply hardware) and they didn't have much of what i needed. however, i didn't go anywhere else, i didn't wanna goose chase again.
so i went home and set to work doing what i could. i got some pipe connectors to secure the barrel of the gun. i also started assembling the plate that will hold the two fake barrels (since battlship turrets have 3 barrels and i only need one for the water gun). when that was done, i was discouraged with how much i got done. so i decided to improvise.
i drilled out the holes in the servo head so that the smallest screw i had (and OSh and Home depot carry) would fit. this turned out to work much better than i had thought it would. so i continued enlarging the holes such that i could connect to the servo. after about half an hour i had this.
the top brace you see came next. the gun barrel needs some way to connect with the servo and the best i could come up with (with what i had laying around) was this brace holding a connecter that the barrel (pipe) could screw into.
then i put the fake barrel assembly onto the real barrel connection and thats what you see below
its not by any means the final product, it may not even be the first draft, but its starting to look like a turret.
talk to you tomorrow or possibly later tonight if i keep going.
[this is the hose that i'll run from the pump to the turret and in through the barrel. i think i talked about this yesterday i just didn't get you a picture until now. ]
major progress today. it didn't start out that way, again i went driving to find parts. i went to OSH (orchard supply hardware) and they didn't have much of what i needed. however, i didn't go anywhere else, i didn't wanna goose chase again.
so i went home and set to work doing what i could. i got some pipe connectors to secure the barrel of the gun. i also started assembling the plate that will hold the two fake barrels (since battlship turrets have 3 barrels and i only need one for the water gun). when that was done, i was discouraged with how much i got done. so i decided to improvise.
i drilled out the holes in the servo head so that the smallest screw i had (and OSh and Home depot carry) would fit. this turned out to work much better than i had thought it would. so i continued enlarging the holes such that i could connect to the servo. after about half an hour i had this.
the top brace you see came next. the gun barrel needs some way to connect with the servo and the best i could come up with (with what i had laying around) was this brace holding a connecter that the barrel (pipe) could screw into.
then i put the fake barrel assembly onto the real barrel connection and thats what you see below
its not by any means the final product, it may not even be the first draft, but its starting to look like a turret.
talk to you tomorrow or possibly later tonight if i keep going.
[this is the hose that i'll run from the pump to the turret and in through the barrel. i think i talked about this yesterday i just didn't get you a picture until now. ]
Thursday, June 18, 2009
long day of driving
So, i discovered the advantage of phones today. well, i found this out by not using one. I called daniel up and we drove to 5 or 6 places all over the santa clara, san jose, cambell, cupertino area going to R/C shops and finding nothing at all on boats. everyone had plane stuff. no boat stuff. that is until we came upon D&J hobby shop. they had a guy there who knew all sorts of great things about how to set up the propulsion of the battleship. he explained motors and screws and shafts and nuts and all that to us so that i feel slightly knowledgable on the subject. he also said it should be left until the end. it just means i know i can hold off on the propulsion until the last step so long as I leave A) space and B) a waterproof compartment for the parts.
so after maybe 2 hours of driving failures, we finally had a success. that was good. then we went to home depot and for the most part failed there too. we got a couple things for the gun (which turned out to be pretty good when we got back and looked at them, but disappointing at the time) but not too much. we happened to be right right right next to apple headquarters so we stopped in and went to their corporate store and got a tshirt (only official seller of apple gear. nowhere online, only at the store, believe i've looked. all there is is 3rd impostors.) then we went and ate, and then got started working on the gun.
the second super soaker came in today and i made sure as hell not to break it. we ran the various tests i had meant to run on the first one (which is unsalvageable i've now determined after the glued back together piece promptly broke again). these include learning the gun does need a nozzle to have the range we want. so it can't just be tubing. the barrel we got from home depot should work almost perfectly with the soaker's nozzle after i bandsawed it short. all we have to do is lathe the end of it so that it fits into the barrel snugly. this is really encouraging because it essentially means the shooting part of the gun is done. except for the holding tank (which i have to either find and make work or mold myself (which might be fun) ) and the feed pump (which may end up being an unnecessary luxury) the firing portion of the gun is all figured out!
tomorrow we'll prolly go work to finish (or finish the prototype) the gun firing system. that means figure out the holding tank, work out the barrel connections and such, interface with the RC controller, and whatever else comes up. May start work on the secret project because thats the next toughest or I may start work on the rotation/elevation control of the turret and just work to finish the gun all together. we'll see how it goes.
later both imaginary and (1 confirmed real) guys!
so after maybe 2 hours of driving failures, we finally had a success. that was good. then we went to home depot and for the most part failed there too. we got a couple things for the gun (which turned out to be pretty good when we got back and looked at them, but disappointing at the time) but not too much. we happened to be right right right next to apple headquarters so we stopped in and went to their corporate store and got a tshirt (only official seller of apple gear. nowhere online, only at the store, believe i've looked. all there is is 3rd impostors.) then we went and ate, and then got started working on the gun.
the second super soaker came in today and i made sure as hell not to break it. we ran the various tests i had meant to run on the first one (which is unsalvageable i've now determined after the glued back together piece promptly broke again). these include learning the gun does need a nozzle to have the range we want. so it can't just be tubing. the barrel we got from home depot should work almost perfectly with the soaker's nozzle after i bandsawed it short. all we have to do is lathe the end of it so that it fits into the barrel snugly. this is really encouraging because it essentially means the shooting part of the gun is done. except for the holding tank (which i have to either find and make work or mold myself (which might be fun) ) and the feed pump (which may end up being an unnecessary luxury) the firing portion of the gun is all figured out!
tomorrow we'll prolly go work to finish (or finish the prototype) the gun firing system. that means figure out the holding tank, work out the barrel connections and such, interface with the RC controller, and whatever else comes up. May start work on the secret project because thats the next toughest or I may start work on the rotation/elevation control of the turret and just work to finish the gun all together. we'll see how it goes.
later both imaginary and (1 confirmed real) guys!
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
more planning
Look at me go! this is the second day in a row where i'm entering multiple posts. crazy considering writing is on my 'least favorites' list. o well, don't let darren know!
went to dinner with my dad this evening and drew out some more details of the GUN: instead of using the super soaker provided motor switch pad (activated by the prodding action created by pulling the trigger), i've found a RC compatible electric switch. meaning the controller can flip a physical switch [see top left or right of the photo] which will trip an electrical switch to turn on the motor. this will simplify the assembly and controlling a little bit.
new problem just came to light: how am i going to completely seal the holes i make in the hull for the screw(s) and rudder? obviously i can't let water into the hull but I have to cut a hole for the propulsion. conundrum.
found some new websites that sell parts and such for rc ships, which is good. it'll make my life easier.
here's the plan for the turret. thanks to daniel for the use of his garage, and whiteboard. o and his brain, gets pretty good mileage. what you're looking at are two different possible top views and a side view of the turret. the top view on the left is a side laying servo that will rotate the barrel of the gun to different elevation angles. the right top view is essentially the same. the side view is the method for rotating the the turret and connecting the hose to the barrel.
thats it for now. making the first of MANY hardware store runs tomorrow. very exciting! talk to you tomorrow.
went to dinner with my dad this evening and drew out some more details of the GUN: instead of using the super soaker provided motor switch pad (activated by the prodding action created by pulling the trigger), i've found a RC compatible electric switch. meaning the controller can flip a physical switch [see top left or right of the photo] which will trip an electrical switch to turn on the motor. this will simplify the assembly and controlling a little bit.
new problem just came to light: how am i going to completely seal the holes i make in the hull for the screw(s) and rudder? obviously i can't let water into the hull but I have to cut a hole for the propulsion. conundrum.
found some new websites that sell parts and such for rc ships, which is good. it'll make my life easier.
here's the plan for the turret. thanks to daniel for the use of his garage, and whiteboard. o and his brain, gets pretty good mileage. what you're looking at are two different possible top views and a side view of the turret. the top view on the left is a side laying servo that will rotate the barrel of the gun to different elevation angles. the right top view is essentially the same. the side view is the method for rotating the the turret and connecting the hose to the barrel.
thats it for now. making the first of MANY hardware store runs tomorrow. very exciting! talk to you tomorrow.
Gun update 2
Hey guys (i haven't any idea if theres anyone out there, but let's pretend you exist),
good news and bad. for about 20 minutes the super soaker worked perfectly. I charged it last night and it fired a good 30 feet perfectly. emptied a tank, refilled it and it continued to impress. i took the thing apart to understand exactly how it works and its even better than i had hoped! the nozzle valve is unimportant because i will be shooting above the tank (ie gravity won't want to force water out when i'm not ready for it) so i can get rid of that. the tank can be any size i want and doesn't need to be pressurized at all. which is great great news (because i was envisioning needing a holding and a seperate pressurizing tank). i disassembled the gun and made it work outside of its casing to ensure i could actually use the parts for my own purposes. that worked too.
the problem came when i tried to unattach the hosing from the pump (to be able to use a longer hose for my use). the hose was glued onto the pump on one side and glued onto the superfluous nozzle on the other. so i tried to cut it and rip it off. but the piece of junk thing broke in hardly a minute. i can't replace it because its a toy and i don't know the part number or maker. so i uttered a couple of explicatives and set aboout trying to glue it back together. in the mean time, i've ordered 2 more (which irks me, but my dad just made the point that the pump in the gun prolly costs twice or three times as much sold seperately than the entire gun, so i'm still saving money) the second soaker comes in tomorrow and the third on friday.
while letting the glue dry, i went and picked out some of the RC equipment. brings back great memories of my sci proj. its a shame i have to take apart the car to use the equipment for the boat. o well. its not doing any good getting dusty on my shelf.
back to the shop!
good news and bad. for about 20 minutes the super soaker worked perfectly. I charged it last night and it fired a good 30 feet perfectly. emptied a tank, refilled it and it continued to impress. i took the thing apart to understand exactly how it works and its even better than i had hoped! the nozzle valve is unimportant because i will be shooting above the tank (ie gravity won't want to force water out when i'm not ready for it) so i can get rid of that. the tank can be any size i want and doesn't need to be pressurized at all. which is great great news (because i was envisioning needing a holding and a seperate pressurizing tank). i disassembled the gun and made it work outside of its casing to ensure i could actually use the parts for my own purposes. that worked too.
the problem came when i tried to unattach the hosing from the pump (to be able to use a longer hose for my use). the hose was glued onto the pump on one side and glued onto the superfluous nozzle on the other. so i tried to cut it and rip it off. but the piece of junk thing broke in hardly a minute. i can't replace it because its a toy and i don't know the part number or maker. so i uttered a couple of explicatives and set aboout trying to glue it back together. in the mean time, i've ordered 2 more (which irks me, but my dad just made the point that the pump in the gun prolly costs twice or three times as much sold seperately than the entire gun, so i'm still saving money) the second soaker comes in tomorrow and the third on friday.
while letting the glue dry, i went and picked out some of the RC equipment. brings back great memories of my sci proj. its a shame i have to take apart the car to use the equipment for the boat. o well. its not doing any good getting dusty on my shelf.
back to the shop!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Pump.1
First GUN update:
the super soaker i ordered got in this evening. i have to wait until morning to try it out because its too dark but i'm excited. the difficulty of the gun, as you surely remember, is in the distance goal i set for such a small pump. where could i get the distance? when you don't know how to do something technologically, you look to what is working in the real world. SuperSoakers! I did some looking and found one that boasts 35 feet shot and i figure i can take it apart and reassemble the components in a smaller housing (not in a gun shape in other words). this might solve the shooting aspect of the GUN project leaving only the rotational and elevational turret control left to figure out.
however, daniel and i conceptually figured that out today. with two servo motors and a simple linkage that will be easier to build and photo than describe, i can achieve the controls I'm looking for. major headway!
here's a photo of the supersoaker still in one piece
the super soaker i ordered got in this evening. i have to wait until morning to try it out because its too dark but i'm excited. the difficulty of the gun, as you surely remember, is in the distance goal i set for such a small pump. where could i get the distance? when you don't know how to do something technologically, you look to what is working in the real world. SuperSoakers! I did some looking and found one that boasts 35 feet shot and i figure i can take it apart and reassemble the components in a smaller housing (not in a gun shape in other words). this might solve the shooting aspect of the GUN project leaving only the rotational and elevational turret control left to figure out.
however, daniel and i conceptually figured that out today. with two servo motors and a simple linkage that will be easier to build and photo than describe, i can achieve the controls I'm looking for. major headway!
here's a photo of the supersoaker still in one piece
Project Overview
Hey guys,
I don't know how faithful I'll be to this blog, but I certainly want to be documenting the whole process and I might as well do it online. So, don't be too mad if I stop blogging randomly or am at best sporadic in my posts. But, here's the plan:
I'm going to be building an R/C (Radio Controlled) Battleship this summer. I couldn't get a job (past the programming gig I did in the first couple weeks of the summer) and so I decided I needed a cool project to keep me busy. This will certainly keep me busy. Its going to be between 3 and 5 feet long, around 10 inches wide, and weigh in the 20 to 30 lb range. This means its monstrocious!
I forsee 5 major segments of this project.
the first major task is to make it go: DRIVE. Using some of the equipment I have left over from my science fair project I did junior year, I have a head start on the radio components (i.e. the controller, the transmitter, motor, etc.). However, I have to go figure out how to take my (mostly forgotten) knowledge of RC cars and translate it into boats. They're totally different technologies. Wheel and axel vs. rudder and screw (they're actually not called propellors on boats. good tidbit for ya).
The next major portion of the project is the BODY of the boat itself. I have to either go buy a hull and deck that are to scale and sturdy/waterproof or make the hull and deck myself. This is really hard because the hull has to be entirely waterproof and extremely smooth or else it will wobble the boat. I haven't the skill or the tools to make a hull to this standard so I'm most likely going to buy the hull. However, I hope to make the deck. From my web research most people mold the decks (meaning they injection mold or thermoform, requiring tools that cost tens of thousands of dollars) which is not gonna happen. however, I've gotten my good friend Daniel intrigued in the project and he brought up some possibilities for constructing the deck. We're looking through computer models for plans and may just design it ourselves from online photos and such. Oh, I also have to waterproof most everything in the boat so it doesn't get the electronics wet.
The next part of the boat is the GUN. No, not an actual gun, and for anyone who knows anything about the hobby, its also not going to be your typical BB gun.
[background: there are clubs all over the nation where as a hobby people build rc battleships just like the one i'm building but they outfit it with BB guns and wage RC war against eachother. i don't really want to do that for a couple of reasons. mainly, i don't want to hurt the boat but also I don't want to be putting lots of BBs into lake tahoe. Leave No Trace]
anyways, this gun is going to be a water cannon! that way, i can drive the battleship through the buoy field and spray unsuspecting kayakers and swimmers and such from afar. I can see you smirking, thats my reaction too! sweet right? so, this water cannon is going to be challenging because no one has done anything like it at the scale i'm talking. i'm shooting for 40ft range, out of a cannon thats no bigger than a stack of small books. I'll have something like 60º elevation angle and 180º azimuth angle. I'm hoping I can make the pump pull water either directly from the lake or from a holding tank that intakes from the lake. that way i don't run out of ammo and the lake water is reused.
The next part of the ship is going to be some sort of emergency LOCATOR mechanism. I'm thinking it'll be a fishing bob that has line to the boat if it happens to sink. that way i know where it went down. Daniel suggested maybe having in addition a balloon hover a few feet over the bob. This is a less fun part of the project but certainly an important step if I want to preserve this thing I'll be spending so much time and possibly money on as well. [i did a programming job in the beginning of the summer and thats going to be my budget for the project. however, I'll likely have to spend some on top of that. however, thats none of your business :P ]
The last portion of the project is a SECRET. I may decide to tell you at some point, but for now, you have to just wait.
So thats the plan. DRIVE, BODY, GUN, LOCATOR, SECRET. I'll have further descriptions of progress, schematics possibly, photos, videos and maybe even a countdown to launch.
would love to hear comments from you. even if its just, "hey, you're crazy" or "thats simple!".
I don't know how faithful I'll be to this blog, but I certainly want to be documenting the whole process and I might as well do it online. So, don't be too mad if I stop blogging randomly or am at best sporadic in my posts. But, here's the plan:
I'm going to be building an R/C (Radio Controlled) Battleship this summer. I couldn't get a job (past the programming gig I did in the first couple weeks of the summer) and so I decided I needed a cool project to keep me busy. This will certainly keep me busy. Its going to be between 3 and 5 feet long, around 10 inches wide, and weigh in the 20 to 30 lb range. This means its monstrocious!
I forsee 5 major segments of this project.
the first major task is to make it go: DRIVE. Using some of the equipment I have left over from my science fair project I did junior year, I have a head start on the radio components (i.e. the controller, the transmitter, motor, etc.). However, I have to go figure out how to take my (mostly forgotten) knowledge of RC cars and translate it into boats. They're totally different technologies. Wheel and axel vs. rudder and screw (they're actually not called propellors on boats. good tidbit for ya).
The next major portion of the project is the BODY of the boat itself. I have to either go buy a hull and deck that are to scale and sturdy/waterproof or make the hull and deck myself. This is really hard because the hull has to be entirely waterproof and extremely smooth or else it will wobble the boat. I haven't the skill or the tools to make a hull to this standard so I'm most likely going to buy the hull. However, I hope to make the deck. From my web research most people mold the decks (meaning they injection mold or thermoform, requiring tools that cost tens of thousands of dollars) which is not gonna happen. however, I've gotten my good friend Daniel intrigued in the project and he brought up some possibilities for constructing the deck. We're looking through computer models for plans and may just design it ourselves from online photos and such. Oh, I also have to waterproof most everything in the boat so it doesn't get the electronics wet.
The next part of the boat is the GUN. No, not an actual gun, and for anyone who knows anything about the hobby, its also not going to be your typical BB gun.
[background: there are clubs all over the nation where as a hobby people build rc battleships just like the one i'm building but they outfit it with BB guns and wage RC war against eachother. i don't really want to do that for a couple of reasons. mainly, i don't want to hurt the boat but also I don't want to be putting lots of BBs into lake tahoe. Leave No Trace]
anyways, this gun is going to be a water cannon! that way, i can drive the battleship through the buoy field and spray unsuspecting kayakers and swimmers and such from afar. I can see you smirking, thats my reaction too! sweet right? so, this water cannon is going to be challenging because no one has done anything like it at the scale i'm talking. i'm shooting for 40ft range, out of a cannon thats no bigger than a stack of small books. I'll have something like 60º elevation angle and 180º azimuth angle. I'm hoping I can make the pump pull water either directly from the lake or from a holding tank that intakes from the lake. that way i don't run out of ammo and the lake water is reused.
The next part of the ship is going to be some sort of emergency LOCATOR mechanism. I'm thinking it'll be a fishing bob that has line to the boat if it happens to sink. that way i know where it went down. Daniel suggested maybe having in addition a balloon hover a few feet over the bob. This is a less fun part of the project but certainly an important step if I want to preserve this thing I'll be spending so much time and possibly money on as well. [i did a programming job in the beginning of the summer and thats going to be my budget for the project. however, I'll likely have to spend some on top of that. however, thats none of your business :P ]
The last portion of the project is a SECRET. I may decide to tell you at some point, but for now, you have to just wait.
So thats the plan. DRIVE, BODY, GUN, LOCATOR, SECRET. I'll have further descriptions of progress, schematics possibly, photos, videos and maybe even a countdown to launch.
would love to hear comments from you. even if its just, "hey, you're crazy" or "thats simple!".
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)