GATO! (It has begun)

[Albion]

OK. Something got out of adjustment. I wonder why?

Two things to do at the SD side of things: First, add some oil to the vent hole -- that will break surface-tension, permitting a quicker release of ballast tank air when the vent is open.

Second, move the two ballast servo pushrod wheel-collars forward a sixteenth-of-an-inch. If that fixes the venting problem, check to see if the vent still closes in neutral and 'blow' positions.

Before you do all that: Do you have a transmitter that you can set the end-points? If so, dial in the vent side of the servo to 110% -- that will open the vent just a tad more without any intervention on the mechanism itself.

Lotsa fun, huh!

Keep at it Kido, we'll lick this thing yet.

M

I was in a situation where I was either getting the valve to shut tight, but not vent, or it could vent, but would bleed a trail of bubbles when it should be closed.

Oil plus end stop fixed it for me, superb, I can move to next level now.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

You're closer than you think.

You've almost got the freeboard to be scale, and you still need to add foam as the boat is still terribly negatively buoyant when the ballast tank is full. Good.

Keep cramming foam until you achieve the correct surface trim waterline -- if then the boat is still negatively buoyant submerged, then you can start placing the foam in the above waterline portions of the superstructure, keeping at that till the boat in submerged trim floats with only the shears above the water.

Almost there, pal!

M

[matthewnimmo]

Tonights testing yielded a higher freeboard, but still not boyant enough to come back after fully submerged (which i still dont understand why the stupid thing doesnt come back at all if i have no leaks ... As the sub was floating just fine before venting)

but im about to run out of space to tuck foam. Ive got a few more spots then im going to either go drastically below the waterline or start attaching to the upper part of the upper hull

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Excellent.

You're on your way. That ballast tank is sized to counter the displacement of that specific models above waterline structures. That means, by time you have enough foam in there (keep it all just below the designed waterline) to get the top of the sail above the water in submerged trim, that when the tank is dry, the boat will indeed float high, at the designed waterline (the propeller guards above water and the forward waterline below the bow-bouyancy tank limber holes).

Keep at it!

M

[matthewnimmo]

I've oiled the vent hole and set my binding to 110% and now she sinks again:)! Not sure WTH happened but that was it

attached is sub with a ****ty low freeboard and sinks like a rock. After about an hour of trimming the freeboard has doubled but still sinks like a rock and will not return after many minutes of LPB action. Im going to keep adding foam to get the freeboard higher and hopefully enough bouncy that fully vented her sail is more than half submerged

ive been using the pink fanboard foam used when siding a house. It seems to be working. Its just thin so im having to double up on the stuff

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

OK. Something got out of adjustment. I wonder why?

Two things to do at the SD side of things: First, add some oil to the vent hole -- that will break surface-tension, permitting a quicker release of ballast tank air when the vent is open.

Second, move the two ballast servo pushrod wheel-collars forward a sixteenth-of-an-inch. If that fixes the venting problem, check to see if the vent still closes in neutral and 'blow' positions.

Before you do all that: Do you have a transmitter that you can set the end-points? If so, dial in the vent side of the servo to 110% -- that will open the vent just a tad more without any intervention on the mechanism itself.

Lotsa fun, huh!

Keep at it Kido, we'll lick this thing yet.

M

[matthewnimmo]

I thought of that as well and thought maybe its my damn speaker, but alas it is more forward than the vent hole. I even when as far as just testing the Wtc itself in the pool and it really doesnt seem like it takes in water only if i teeter-totter it. The vent hole is open, im pushing thw wtc under water and it really isnt taking in water (maybe at a snails pace. Im not sure why. Like i said i checked the vent hold and nothing seems to be in the way. I even placed my mouth over the vent to see if i can blow into it when venting and that seems to work

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Yep, im able to see the servo vent just fine. Thats why I'm so confused

Is there anything in the upper hull that, when closed, would press down over the vent opening, blocking the escape of air? Some recently added buoyant foam, maybe?

M

[matthewnimmo]

Yep, im able to see the servo vent just fine. Thats why I'm so confused

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Is the ballast sub-system servo working?

[matthewnimmo]

Im going bananas ...

so, finally got the sound module and it swaps out nicely:). With everything installed it was time to continue trimming. But, now im very confused i have more weight in the sub a lot more so listing isnt a problem and my freeboard is very low (pretty much almost even to the deck) and guess what ... The damn thing wont sink. I checked the vent to make sure its clear. I also made sure that i have enough battery to allow me to vent. But this guy wont sink. I finally had to grab the model and teetet-totter it from aft to bow before it would take on anymore water. Then finally it sank. Then after it sank it wouldnt return after many minutes of using the LPB.

Trimming the gato seems to be a damn myth

[greenman407]

Sorry that you are having that troule with Mtroniks. I love their speed controls though. Ive got at least 4 of them. Have you ever noticed that they all have that characteristic high frequency sounding , sound when you add throttle? I just went to their website and happened to spot the perfect speed control for model cars using brushed type motors. StormX. It has no motor wind limit and it even has braking in addition to reverse. And its affordable. Ill probably order one as I continue putting more and more powerful motors in my Tamiya Mazda GTP prototype car from the early 90s. Ive got a 14 turn quad in it now but I just ordered a 13 turn double. Ill keep going until I hit the point of diminishing returns.http://www.mtroniks.net/details1.asp.../65/stormx.htm Keep going on your build, youll get there.

[matthewnimmo]

Its a shame that i had to threaten mtroniks.net with reporting them as a fraudulent site before they would actually tell me that my item shipped back on the 7th. Absolute worst online ordering experience. Now, i hope that i end up getting the order

[matthewnimmo]

Captain's Log:

it has been a while since my last post. It seems that im never quite satisified the closer iget to being done with this build lol. Ive redone all my lighting connectors to ones that make more sense (no more magnet connections with electric current). This time im using some that are similar to dean connectors. They seem to be working nicely. Ive also added the mtroniks sound system to the sub. Now a few points about all of that.

1) as mentioned in other postings on other topics the sound module sold on sub-driver doesnt have running engine sounds (just dive siren and ping)

2) after my discovery of the first item i purchased a small tug sound module from mtroniks.net (directly from the source) for days that i want to hear a desiel engine instead of just pings. Problem im havning now is im wondering if Mtroniks.net is a bunch of crooks or not. They happily took my money back on the fith but havnt sent any emails indicating if anything had shipped. Im giving them until next week to email me back anything before contacting my credit card company to go after them

3). Now, by adding the sound system that meant more weight and trimming but it also meant two fresh holes in my WTC. I hated to do it, but i had little choice but to add a hole at the aft end of the wtc. Ran all my wires through it and sealed it up nicely with RTV. I hope i dont regret that later on


before adding the sound i had taken the gato to my local pool again for hopefully a full test run. The listing was barely present but she didn't have enough weight to submerge at all. It would get close and i couldn't get her submerged even when applying a dive command with the bow planes. So, i need to add more weight for sure. Also one of my props came off lol. Guess the super glue wasn't enough (granted i think it came off when i was going in reverse and hit one of those plastic floating pool dividers

so, to sum things up. Hoping Mtroniks.net didnt rip me off. Going to leak test my WTC with the newly sealed holes. Needing to add more weight. Needing to reinstall prop

not bad ... I think:)

[Subculture]

She can fill a hall with models of that quality. I've seen many of those models up close and personal, and they're faultless.