gun check

man, i'm on a roll!!!!

gun system check:
i soldered together this 3 way parallel deans with a fuse and ... shoot! i forgot to put in the on/off switch. o well, i'll stick it in there later. dang. anyways, i soldered this whole guy after all the excitement from the drive testing.


because i had worked out how the system all fit together, i knew what to do.

then it was just a matter of alligatoring the components to their appropriate connection point, and turning the sucker on.

or so i thought. it wasn't that simple. i spent a good half an hour trying to figure out why nothing was working. well, thats not fair, the battle switch was switching, but the pump connected to it wasn't turning on. this turned out to be key though. eventually it dawned on me, the only thing that was running, was being powered by the RC reciever. that meant, the battery wasn't getting to the components. but i had the watts up in and it read that voltage was running. after a minute, i realized, you know what, maybe there needs to be a fuse in the fuse holder. ha, just you know, maybe.

once i popped in a fuse, the pumps sang!

two for one

wow, that was the first day i worked and didn't blog. pretty good streak for me

k, so, major turret progress today (mostly) and a little bit from yesterday. i built the housing for the turret and installed it all around the the elevation servo and azimuth servo as well. its going to be pretty sick. the bottom and backing are plastic so they're see-through but then i'm going to paint the top steel grey. you'll be able to sort of see into the turret if you're at the right angle, should be kinda cool.

i started to fit the barrels on the servo, when i realized it wouldn't fit. so i changed the attachment mechanism to a nifty block thats screwed onto the servo horn and then drilled through for the barrel to sit in. sneaky design that i have to pat my back for.


anyways, once that was fixed, i set about building the plate that would hold the dummy barrels (cause the water gun will only shoot out of one of the turret's barrels, the others are just for show). i figured out that ALso wouldn't fit, so i came up with a slightly more ridiculous fix and pushed on. you can see the fix a little bit in this picture. its a block of wood between the two barrels with a hose clamp attached to each. not the best way to support the second tube, but it works

the next thing that wouldn't fit was the servo bracket, so i dissasembled the whole system again. (each time i did this, both directions took maybe 4 or 5 minutes. and i did it maybe 4 times. the time adds up!) this time i had to file down the aluminum bracket which was a butt! but eventually it fit. and that was good :)

heres the whole assembly (minus the barrels) hidden away inside the turret housing that i spent the day building


for tomorrow, i need to cut slots from which the two barrels will poke out of the housing. gonna use a dremmel for that. next i'll make holes for the wiring and water-tubing to come through. then, its onto the motor. thats going to be a big big project. so i may stall and go find something else to be doing while i cower away from the mountain.

coming together nicely!

another pothole... er... porthole

ran into another bump in the road. i don't have any of the schematics for rudder placement and stuffing tube / motor placement. gotta get that stuff from the dude before i can install the running gear. however he's gone for a week. and i've already been sitting around on him a week. so i was pissed all morning. my dad saved the day by cheering me up.

afterwards, I came to realize the sheer scope of the build. no way in hell i'm going to be able to make this thing into the gorgeous warship i was planning by the time tahoe rolls around. time to alter the course a little. basically i'm going to change the fittings above deck to fit things that i can do. also, i'll design it around the water-cannon. that way the important hardware more easily integrates with the aesthetics.

today i prototyped the turret shell and went and got parts for the secondary pump to feed into the holding tank. not much progress but my spirits are somewhat salvaged - overall a successful day considering.

i got a boat?

well, i've placed the boat order. should be ready by thursday or maybe friday. i got a hole flock of butterflies in my stomach - whether its big enough for the parts (which i believe it is), wether its small enough to fit in the car (which i'm sure it is), whether it'll fare ok against the tahoe conditions. i'm just all around nervous. but at least i made the call, and we're pushing forward. i'm gonna have a boat! theres no backing out now!

a couple of side notes: he's selling me a bilge pump he custom builds that may work as an all in one gun pump instead of the toy pump, we'll see.

subskate 2 ready for deployment!

great news: ready for testing tomorrow!

i finished the radio box, installed all the components (including a monitoring device "watt's up" to view the voltage, current, wattage, and amp-hours left) and installed some water shields for the electronics outside the radiobox.

while the water shields are not even remotely sufficient to keep the rudder servo and motor completely dry, it will prevent most of the splashing from getting to the electronics. if the boat starts going under, its all over, but i don't forsee that happening (fingers crossed).


heres a picture of the radio box with all the stuff inside it. like i said, its not fully waterproof - water is a tricky sob! however, i'm pretty happy with how it turned out. everything fits, connects well, and shaffer's idea of putting the connectors in the wall worked moderately well. because of how the wires are soldered, the connections don't go through the holes i made for them perfectly. they function, just not ideally. its mostly the same with the servo cable connector: i had a terrible time making a rectangular hole with a circular drill bit. I had to overshoot the mark and it means there's gaps around the connector. o well, i never saw this radio box being the permanent r-box.


I installed the turret servos in the brackets that came in yesterday and it looks like its going to work perfectly. the turret is going to be top heavy for sure, but i've been planning on streamlining the assembly for the final version (right now the pieces are 3 brass tubes (all cantilevered off the servo adding even more torque), 1 copper connecter, a wood piece, and the screws+nuts). in fact, when I plugged them in, the elevation servo was jumpy in a way that i haven't seen before. that being said, i've done the math, and the servo is rated strong enough to handle the assembly as it is right now. i'm not comfortable pushing it to the limit its at right now, but it'll do for now. here are some pictures of the turret's range of motion




for fun, at the end of the day (actually i worked at night today, but whatever), i put the two projects together. check it out. looks sorta like a battleship!!!!


(p.s. daniel i sent you a fb message, hopefully you check fb sometime before lunch tomorrow because thats when i'm calling ben. i can schedule the pool test whenever so if you have time after work, let me know asap so i can make the appointment then instead of earlier.

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.

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!

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.

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!

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

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!".