Seaview

[greenman407]

Ok we got it. It sits right well in the water. As you can tell from the pix. Water line surfaced is roughly midway below the top of the top row of windows. Submerged water line is right under the sail planes. I added a semi circular piece of foam to the front of the battery WTC. Unfortunately you can see it thru the front windows. So I painted it with this(see pix). This paint will not melt the foam like so many others. Being flat black, it should make the foam invisible.
In a couple of weeks we will have some operational video.

[greenman407]

Howdy all! This new job is taking too much of my time. Not enough time left over for my favorite Hobby. My goal this weekend, among other things is to get the final trim right on this thing. It sits in the water leaning somewhat to the port. I have been moving weight and foam inside of the boat to get things on an even keel. My brother is back down for a visit so I hope to get some operating video of her , soon.

[greenman407]

The removal of all sternplane flutter is quite a feat. I attribute 60% of it to moving the APC away from the source of the vibrations by putting it inside the battery WTC and insulating it with Sorbothane. Using a setting on the APC that is less sensitive to vibrations I attribute 20%. Curious enough that setting was the middle of the three options. Both the least sensitive and the highest setting transmitted too much flutter. The final 20% I attribute to a 3300mfd capacitor plugged into a spare channel on the receiver to tame some unknown mystery noise in the electronics. I wish that you could be here to see this thing. Its as if the APC were not connected at all. And yet it functions perfectly. I dialed in the trim today. Im surprised. I hit the nail on the head the first time. Stay tuned for some open water testing.

[greenman407]

Ok so in to the kiddie pool. Im happy to say that not a ripple was generated by the stern planes. Steady as a rock. But.....................by adding all that sorbothane inside the battery WTC up in the bow.........shes way too bow heavy. So I am now trying to jam all the foam that I can get into the bow.

[greenman407]

OK, here we are , all done. Tomorrow we shall test in the kiddie pool. The reason why Im going to all this trouble is because the Seaviews stern planes are connected to the thrust nozzles. If the thrust nozzles are rapidly going up and down, because of APC jitter, then as you can imagine, you are losing a lot of thrust. Its not being directed back away from the sub in a straight line along its axis, but up and down and all around. The potential speed of the boat can never be realized. Plus being able to run and maintain periscope depth will not be possible.

[greenman407]

Just to let you know that im not dead. Coming along on this modification. Im about 3/4 of the way thru it.

[greenman407]

Well, tonight I started on moving the APC to the battery WTC. Im jumping the gun a little in that I havent tested it in this condition, and I havent run it with the APC disconnected. Im just doing what experience tells me is most likely to work. Ill need two three wire cables. One going to the APC and one coming from it. Pictures and details later.

[greenman407]

Yeah, this new job is taking some getting used to. By the time I get home, Im too tired to do anything. Well, today I did get a few things done. I installed the seals on the drive shafts and the motor shafts. The seals on the motor shafts I put on backwards because the shafts were too short to extend all the way thru the seal body. It doesnt matter though, all I want it on there for is to keep the grease inside the gearbox proper. I also installed the new home made rudder bellcrank. Also a positive block in front of the WTC to keep it from moving forward.
Im making up another rudder extension to give me greater maneuverability. Im still not happy with the APC/dive plane jitters. Next time out Ill see if its any better. If not, Ill disconnect the APC and drive it that way. If Im not happy with that Ill proceed with my plans to install the APC up front in the battery WTC. In the pictures youll notice how much weight I have installed in the bottom of the hull. Its there to keep it stable. Anything less and the sub trys to turn on its side under any kind of throttle. Keep in mind this thing doesnt have counter-rotation.

[trout]

Best wishes on the new job, the subs can wait!

[greenman407]

Yes, well I made sure that nothing was touching the Sorbothane layers and that the wires to the APC were themselves resting on there own sheet of Sorbothane to help them not transmit vibrations to the APC. Trouble is that I have been so busy of late that I havent had much time to chase these various projects. I just quit one job so that I could get hired at another. Maybe it will all come together.

[trout]

Today I tested three sheets of Sorbathane in a stack. Still no visible improvement over one sheet thickness. I tried using a thickness of 4mm felt in the mix, but didnt see a difference. Im thinking about trying 1 sheet of Sorbothane, then a thin sheet of aluminum, then another sheet of Sorbothane.

How are you bundling it all together?
In other fields like sound rooms for recording, I learned that when placing the sound proofing material to the walls, they had to be careful how it was affixed to the wall. If you use staples or nails, the sound or vibrations would travel through the metal and into the room. They used layers, but made sure that sound/vibrations did not have a direct path. Glue was used on the final layers. So, that was my reason for asking. Are there paths for the vibration to travel, circumventing your layers? in our small world, I am not sure how effective vibration can be reduced.

[greenman407]

Dave.....how bout dem 1/8" prop shaft seals......Sir?

[greenman407]

Today I tested three sheets of Sorbathane in a stack. Still no visible improvement over one sheet thickness. I tried using a thickness of 4mm felt in the mix, but didnt see a difference. Im thinking about trying 1 sheet of Sorbothane, then a thin sheet of aluminum, then another sheet of Sorbothane.

[greenman407]

Dave, Kaliegh only has one of the two 1/8" shaft seals that I need. Can you send her some ASAP please? Thanks

[greenman407]

Thanks Tom, but afterall.....it was your idea. The second layer of Sorbothane brought no noticeable improvement. I believe it was redboat that suggested some felt in between. So, the search goes on for some felt.