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!".