Electrical torpedo's scale 1:35 with springactuaded launcher

[MFR1964]

Like Green Amphibian i also made electric torps, but this time it was for my VIIC sub.
First some vid's of the endresult.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h56DTIRTYo

The test run of all five inside the bath.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L4Otn6b6Qw

A single testrun to see how speedy they are.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc43i-6j3T4

Added the launcher to the sub and doing a testrun to tinker out the problems.


Greetings Manfred.

[MFR1964]

A few years ago i decided to make the torpedo tubes active, they where all the time present inside the bow and the stern but never activated.



This is the beginning of the fronttubes, the one at the beginning has allready the springmechanism i use for launching.



The mechanism is using a little spring that will propel the torpedo just 2 cm forward, enough to activate the magnetic switch inside the torpedo, seen on the picture the spring is not loaded.



Here is the spring at the loading position, by using a small wedge on top of the tube i can lift the triggermechanism, once fired the spring will extend and will push the torpedo forward.

A little demonstration how it's working in the real life.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Most impressive work. Is there a circuit within the weapon to limit run time? I fear that the torpedo could quickly run out of retrieval range.

David,

[MFR1964]

Thanks David,

Run time is not limited, because of the size i only have some grams bouency, adding a timercircuit will give me to much weight, some build the torpedo at 1:32 scale, in that case there is a timerciruit possible.
To solve the risk of loosing your torpedo i balanced them nose up, it will cost some speed but after 10 meters they start to curve and will not be lost after the run.

This is the picture you get when they are curving.

Manfred.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Manfred,

A trick that Dan Kachur uses with his electric torpedo is to substitute his weapons battery with a big electrolytic capacitor. Once activated the capacitor discharges after 15-30 seconds, limiting the length of the weapons run. also, the weight of the capacitor is less than the battery it replaces -- gives the weapon a bit more buoyancy, which gives you the luxury of adding lead to the weapon for better c.g. location and/or to get it closer to neutral buoyancy.

I love how you worked out the practical shutter doors, Manfred.

David,

[MFR1964]

David,

Using a capacitor is also a good solution for saving weight, only after the end of the run you have to retrieve your torpedo's by swimming or using a boat.
My experience about moving the cg with lead learned me that a slight taildown position works the best, if you don't want to loose your torpedo's don't level them straight.



The one at the background is unbalanced, speedy, but has a irratic course after hitting something, has more than enough speed to plunge her nose straight into the bottom, this way you will loose them.
The other one is balanced, less speed but no irratic course, tends to curve after some distance, after hitting something the nose will stay up, in all cases retrievable.

The shutterdoor system gave me some grey hairs, i'll decribe the system later on in this topic, once you know how it's working it's easy to build.

Manfred.

[MFR1964]

Last thing left was to test if the system would work in the real live.

Did several tests to see if it worked,

1. did a shot in regular mode like it should work, jumpstarting with the spring.

2. also tried a shot without the jumpstart, just pulled away the magnet, she still left the tube, a little slower but it still worked.

All tubes worked fine, now the time was coming for building up the complete launcher.



First i had to open up the torpedodoors, they had been closed for too long.



After lining up the doors and placing the hindges they could open and close, still had to figure out how to move them by remote.

[doramide7]

great news, i love my seed upgrade.



Any one?

To be continued....

[Kazzer]

great news, i love my seed upgrade.



Any one?

To be continued....

Posting crap like this is going to get your ass kicked Sir.

Where's my 'ban button' Goddamit!

[MFR1964]

One of the four hatches that i use, glued a small copper hindge and a holder for the pulling wire.



Placing the lower hatches, this gave some problems because you have to deal with two motions, they go inwards, but also slight upwards, had to tinker with some space to get this working properly.



The four base plates are placed onto the front bulkhead, all four rods needed for the tubes are placed and connected to the servo's, the fifth rod i use for my anchorwinch.



One of the first modifications for the springsystem that will help to get the hatches closed, this construction used to much power from the servo's, had to rebuild it.





All four tubes with the modified springsystem, used some stainless steel for getting a smooth run without using to much power from the servo's.



Placing the lower two tubes, connected the firingsystem to the steeringrods.



The connection of the pullingwires to the hatches, by doing it this way i'm able to steer each hatch seperately.



Placing the upper two tubes is pretty much the same like the lower ones.



The same way of pulling the hatches open, you can clearly see how the springsystem is pushing against the hatches for closing them.

[Kazzer]

One of the four hatches that i use, glued a small copper hindge and a holder for the pulling wire.

AT LAST!!!!!

Someone has actually taken the time to learn how to post photos and text properly..

Wonderful!!!!!

[MFR1964]

This is vid about the test to see if the pull wire would work, in this case i needed to give a lot of strenght to get them open, so i had to replace the springsystem.

Testing the tubes again, but this time with the hatches attached to the strings an servo's, use a makeshift selectorswitch to select the tubes.
Later on i replaced the selectorswitch by a multi switch module, by using this selecting the tubes becomes easier and reliable, there is also a safetydevice inside which gives you a 5 sec delay before you can use the tube.
Done this to prefent firing if one of the servo would flutter due to malfunction.

[MFR1964]

After making the connections to the shutterdoors still had some testing to do, first to see if everything would work allright and if any adjustment was needed.

Again testing if the springsystem would work right, due to the use on dry land she can shoot the dummys out of the tubes, in the water it's different, i only need 2 cm of thrust to get them out of the tube.

The mechanism for the reartube is different, had to make some modifications but she is now in working order.

Also did some tests on the surface, still not been able to do the tests underwater since i don't have a kingsize swimmingpool.

Greetings Manfred.