Revell Gato 1/72 - Newbie no more Part duex

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

A character from a movie who I identify with: a smart guy trying to get people successfully through a maze of 'problems'. Look up, 'wynn, cube zero'.

Ellie's the single point of sanity here at Castle Merriman.

David

[trout]

Worked a little more on conning tower railings. Got the lower rail installed.

The threading went easier than expected once I drilled out the holes with a .018 drill bit. It gave enough freedom that using tweezers, could pull the brass through. That being typed, I broke one of the stanchions before even threading the brass wire and it is making it hard to get this right (in the picture it is the one furthest away....it is glued and in position), I will let it set overnight and see what can be done tomorrow.
Also added to the deck the barrel brace.

It holds onto the barrel with, of course, magnets. One under the barrel in the hole and in the bottom of the U on the brace. I may have to uninstall it and put a pin under each hinge to fasten to the deck.- will see.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I found braided fishing line wire best for the forward railing -- flexible, strong, easy to thread through the stanchions and face of sail. Got that pointer from Brian Stark.

You're doing fine work here.

David

[trout]

Thank you David for the suggestion, a little on the late side, but good information!

[trout]

Here is the deck wiring done for the conning tower.

and a replacement part for the one I lost

David, what brand was that braided string? Do you have a picture? I think I could use that on this sub.

[trout]

Since my conning tower is removable and has lights, it has caused a bit of grief on how to make the connection. I tried to be creative. The first way was with pins on each side of the conning tower that had a matching pin/receiver on the deck. When the conning tower and deck were put together, the pins made contact and lights on. That worked for a while until the pins started to move and not make contact. So I am on plan two.
I love how Apple computers power connect, it is a magnetic connector (and you know I love magnets). So I took a broken power supply and broken magsafe (the port on the computer) and played with that. If I can get the two sides to connect and create a seal around it, no corrosion and good contact every time.
Last night I cast a resin housing around the connector and got everything soldered up..I have created a RTV seal and tonight I will do the same for the other side. Then test in the water and see what happens. It is fun to experiment.

The only problem I am having is, with all the magnets, a slight wrinkle in the space time continuum. The sub works fine, you just have to be careful within 3 feet of the sub.

[Scott T]

Like the apple computer power connect plan. The rails are looking great.
For us without a junk pile of apple bits how about using the charging parts
on our remote phones we use around the house.


Scott T

[trout]

Scott, Great to hear from you. Simple answer - no magnets. :-)
Actually, your phone suggestion is the kind of connection I was trying on the first plan. The problem was without creating a spring to keep contact, it would loosen up and break the flow of electrons and when dealing with springs you have that push force to contend with (unless you want to string the spring to pull). I did not want to start playing with springs and since I have tons of dead parts or continual supply of dead parts with magnets, I went that route. You are always thinking Scott!

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I can attest to Trouts good use of magnets. Here is an example of what he did with some barrel type magnets used for mechanical and pneumatic hook-ups:



Now, that is the out-of-the-box thinking that advances this Craft of ours.

David

[trout]

Thank you David. Your response to this was one of the highlights of my sub build.
These are on my Gato and working very well. The connector works very well for the standard SNORT, I have not tested it (yet) with the SAS. When I get a real lathe, and I am working on that, then I will jump into more testing and development.

The connector that is just a magnetic connector works great in my bow planes. It does not disconnect or slip off.

[trout]

Did a test last night in the kiddie pool, it is funny how it seems to me I have added more, but the sub was lighter. Two more pieces of lead were needed to get her level. The entire time I was testing, no lock up of the ballast. Perhaps tomorrow a pool run. One thing that did happen was my lob system was taking forever to push out the water. I thought I blew a pump. Post check up proved otherwise. The hoses were a little kinked. I may need to do some brass tube runs......

I noticed that my battery pack is getting more and more puffy after each use. It is significantly rounded. Is this normal?

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

A 'puffy' battery is bad ju-ju! What kind of charger are you using? And I assume you have not discharged the battery past the critical voltage -- you are using a Lipo-guard in there, right?

Then again ... I have a 'puffed up' Lithium-polymer battery I've been using for three years now will no ill effects -- though I'm sure it now only works at a fraction of its origional capacity. We're not flying ducted-fan jets here, so our performance standars are much lower than the flyers and race car guys.

Andy! you're wisdom in these matters is requested.

David

[trout]

It is a Caswell charger and I do have LiPo guard.

[trout]

Having done some do-dad stuff and did a trim adjustment, wanted to get a pool run in to see how things ran.
Did a pre-check and all looked good. Ran out of Propel, but that was O.K. because it is in the safety of the pool.
She started out looking really good. (forgive the grainy photos - night time, crummy camera)

Running lights on - very pretty. Handling seemed very sluggish. She was not making turns in the diameter of the pool. but she dove O.K.

There is a threshold of about 2 - 3 feet that my Gato goes from positive buoyancy to negative buoyancy. From my diving days, I remember that on the initial descent, that first 10 - 20 feet there is a lot of adjusting of BC/mask/ears so you would not get the squeeze or sink too fast. At 3 feet under the air volume is reduced about 10% (going off memory - please correct me if I am way off) so somewhere in that pressure. It changes things in my sub.
The turning seemed to get worse as time went by. To the point I could not make a turn with out having to put it in reverse and doing 2-3 point turns. There came one point that I was going too fast just seeing if forward speed affected the turn rate, when I had to put the sub in a quick reverse because a wall was coming up quick.That brought her below the positive buoyancy and she settled down to the bottom.

That should not be a problem - I thought not panicking - Forward planes up, hard starboard, and we will power up. Not even a hint of a turn and the wall was real close. So reverse and get a longer run. Would not turn a degree starboard or port so any gain in moving up was shut down because of a wall coming up. Sent the emergency diver to retrieve the sub (Sam was very excited he got the go ahead to help out and he got to practice going under water).
When I took the sub out the rudder was not connected the emergency reverse must have put enough force to disconnect.
Tested the movement of all servos - no lock up on ballast, forward planes work, rear planes work, rudder now works, low pressure pumps sing just fine, and throttle was responding O.K. - wait ......one prop was not moving. ****ake Mushroom.

Dry dock for the sub.

Interesting I had a bit of water in the battery compartment (I know how that got in - I added a foam piece to hold the battery in - it flexed the tube enough to reduce the gaskets contact) and in the engine room (very concerned about this one because it has NEVER leaked - will need to re-pressure test the WTC)

Turning the one prop, it felt O.K. as it turned until 3/4 of the way through, it spun with no resistance and came to a hard lock/stop. A little jiggling and it would begin to turn until the same point came around and a replication of the symptom. I remember something like this from my slot car days back in the 60's to early 70's. Stripped gears.


So for you sickos that slow down when there is an accident to see the gore continue on.





Still going to continue looking aren't you.....

Still want more?

Conclusion:
Looking at my props for damage, there is not much there except for one blade on the port side. Some scratches on the edge, this same blade barely touches my skag (which it did during the build, but I thought I took care of it permanently by moving it out) it is a slight touch that normally I would not notice. However, I must have tagged a wall/pool floor in my sub driving education. This caused damage to the gear (maybe not all at once) and it began to tap the skag as well. So, some mixture of tagging hard surface, skag tapping, and even emergency reverse of prop have come together in a wonderful way to !#@% up my sub. Am I glad it was a pool? H. E. double toothpicks YES!

Solution:
Pre-dive check - I am doubting myself that I looked at the props closely - I heard the whirl of the motors and said check. Last time for that! Fix contact with skag. Get new gear. Always have propel or get SAS installed (or both)

David, where can I get a new gear?
and what are the specs? and what is the procedure?
I STILL love this hobby and my Gato! LOL

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I'll prepare a replacement gear for you and will mail it off right away. Give me your mailing address. Loved the write-up. The horror ... the HORROR!

David