Moebius Skipjack

[Ken_NJ]

They move pretty smoothly as they are. At the start of closing the doors is when the most force is needed. I'll experiment later adding a spring just to see if that helps once I get the SD, servos, linkage and all working together. I've gone thru a few of these mini servos I use in the Marlin already, they just seem to die on me. Have a small stock of them on hand when they do fail.

[MFR1964]

Ken,

I’ve enjoyed both of the vids, friction seems to be the problem, same issue i had with the XXIII, tubes are giving less friction, also used two different materials, the rods are made from carbon, the tube in which the rod slides is brass.
It has to move as smoothly as possible without using force, just sligthly pushing with one finger has to operate the mechanism, your mini servo’s will burn out when asking too much force, trust me, i know.

Manfred.

[JHapprich]

Good knee lever construction! Lovely brasswork!

[Ken_NJ]

Thanks Jorg

Success! Have it working pretty good at this point. Replaced the telescoping arm with an articulating arm and moved the pivot point. Also filed the four sides of the two square inner tubes so there is less friction sliding in the tube.

Made another video. I seem to stumble trying to explain things.

Video not embedding properly so watch on Youtube.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g05xOL1ezA

[JHapprich]

Some ideas:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9M2QqaGbPCw

Best Regards!
Jörg

[Ken_NJ]

Thanks for the vote of confidence Tom!

Lot's of interesting ideas here! ....... https://www.google.com/search?q=conv...w=1565&bih=855

and here..... https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...+linear+motion

With this one use my existing mechanism and extend the square tube further out and slot it for the pin..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuTNtg7-Bwg

[trout]

Ken,
I have no doubt you will beast the mechanism into submission.
Peace,
tom
(that was supposed to be beat - I hate spell check at times)

[Ken_NJ]

Here a quicky video on the torpedo door opening mechanism.

[MFR1964]

You found a solution for opening all doors together which work for you, opening the doors independently asks for more servo's which is a bit of a issue with using a standard SD, the modular SD gives more room for that, it worked for me with the type XXIII with a standard SD.
The big type VII is a different ball game, a dryhull with plenty of room and a different lay-out, but the reward is, independed steering of the doors, i'm looking forward to your video, i know you good enough that it will work as intended.

Manfred.

[Ken_NJ]

Good to hear from you Manfred! Rods, gears, wires many ways to accomplish this. Didn't think gears or wires would work in my application so went with rods. One thing about my doors is they require a 'snap' to actually close, or bit of a force to snap into place. With how fragile the doors can be with many opening and closing didn't want to put too much preasure on them. And have limited space. Could I have done this simpler? Maybe, if I spent weeks or a month on it. Next week I'll post a video how this works, or doesn't work. Like I said, challenging to get four doors to open simultaneously.

[MFR1964]

Ken,

I've used wires and mechanical rods for opening the doors, the type XXIII has a rod steered system, my type VII uses simple pull wires, the only snag with using wires is, the doors are being closed by a spring with light tension.
I would go that way, on the other hand your designed contraption will make Rube Goldberg proud, i like to keep those things simple, meaning less maintenance, nice catch with those "hidden" screws, did pretty much the same for splitting my type XXIII.

Manfred.

[Ken_NJ]

Was going for something like that with the sliding tube. What you suggest should be less friction. Added to my list of things to try. Thanks Scott.

[Scott T]

How about replacing the spring and upper arm with a servo arm with a slot.
Something like the picture. The pin should slide in the slot not the hole.

[Ken_NJ]

Good thought Bob, minimize any contact. Have a few things to try out. Open to any other ideas as well so keep them coming.

[Bob Gato]

OK instead of the long brass square guide -what if you cut some square holes in Delrin and had two or maybe three guides bolted where the square guide is now...and leave everything else as is?