My first RC sub... The Moebius Seaview

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Alec, I forgot: did you buy a SEAVIEW SD kit or the standard assembled SEAVIEW SD?

Can't wait till you finally get this beast underwater.

David

[alad61]

Alec, I forgot: did you buy a SEAVIEW SD kit or the standard assembled SEAVIEW SD?

Can't wait till you finally get this beast underwater.

David

It was the complete SD as I didn't give myself the credit for building a kit form one.

David please don't misunderstand anything I have written here. I blame no one. Though at times frustrating I am really enjoying the step up out of my comfort zone here. What you have done by making the SD & fittings kit to convert the Seaview I am truly grateful for. It has gotten me to an extenstion of my hobby that I never would have got to on my own. Things go wrong either by our own hand, some one elses or just simply down to fate. What I have learned is only the begining my next goal is for a Gato and or Moebius's Skipjack both as complete rc units.

As for driving this thing under water it is so close I can taste it!!!

[trout]

As for driving this thing under water it is so close I can taste it!!!

Blessings! Looks good and like you I can almost taste it! It is a good feeling to be stretched and this hobby will do it! Looks real pretty on the water.
Peace,
tom

[redboat219]

This is why I love this place, lots of info and input from other members.
That's what's lacking in the 2 other RC sub forums.
Not a lot builds going on, feels like RCG has more.

[alad61]

Well after today my seaview officially no longer qualifies for the builders forum now. After another trip out I can confidently say the 3rd trial run was, for the sub, fairly successful!! The radio operator however still needs more test runs Scuba Diving...
Successful points :-
NO LEAKS...
Great speed under 2 working p/jets.
Vent and blow behaving on que.
Snort system was a joy to see bring her up to free board as she sailed forward.
She dove and travelled down like a dream.

Infact she went under so smoothly that I had a little panic attack and reversed the motors resulting in a rather unlady like tail fin broach. But it did settle back to even keel so I tried again and then drove her nose up cut the power and her nose rose much more lady like as I increased the throttle to decks awash as I flicked on the lpb and raised her to full surface height!!!!! As I said I need more time on the tx to get a better run from her plus another set of batteries too ;)

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Congratulations, sir!.... a Virgin no more!

With the SEAVIEW (I don't think there is a guy on the planet with more stick-time on this beast than me!) the initial diving from surfaced trim to submerged trim, unless done slowly, almost always results in an extreme down-angle and the need to back-down to halt the descent. You did the right things on that 'death plunge' you described in gory detail: Better to look the fool at the lake than to go home with an empty boat-stand in the back seat!

You found that the boat is surprisingly fast. You've also discovered by now that you need to keep the throttle stick well forward if you want those rudders and stern planes to work for you. Once you're in submerged trim and want to make a quick-rate change in heading or angle you're compelled to goose the throttle then to return it to the 'cruise' setting once the desired yaw/pitch rate is established.

And no need to apologize at all for your well written and to-the-point critique of the SubDriver and other items I produce: without you and the others out there (Al, Manfred, Chris, Andy, Tom, Dan, etc.) kicking my balls around, I'm not going to get a full handle on what is not working properly in my products -- what has to be re-engineered, or double-checked during the QA portion of product preparation.

I just suffered another e-mail Blast from Al on just that very topic! So, Alec, you're in good company.

For the Mob looking over our shoulders, Alec: You Bum's with your comments and nut-busing, it's all encouraged here, guys; you people have the sense to make it CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. We're all adults here and we know that simple *****ing don't get it done. But, *****ing followed by well thought out recommendations for a fix: that stuff is pure gold. And Mike and I seek that good stuff out. And we're tickled-pink to see it posted here

And when you have a *****, put it up here, at this forum, in one of the threads, where the rest of your fellow wild-dogs can get a tear at my carcase -- as a pack we tend to work better; to collectively think problems through better. Yes, I've got a God-sized ego, and sometimes I'm the total Ass. However, I also have the sense to listen to my peers when there is an identified problem. I'm as hot to put things right as you guys are. Don't blow smoke up my ass telling me how wonderful I am, tell me what's wrong; tell me what can be done better; and if you have a smart-ass idea, share it with the others here. Advance the Craft, damit!

Team-work. That's what we have here, guys. I like it!

[alad61]

Thanks David.

I had another run in the pond today and I actually got her to run at periscope depth and a tad lower. Keeping the throttle at 2/3rds gave off some good scale speed, well to me anyway, and the rudder still behaved well too. I discovered that with a little up on the forward planes just to stop her nosing in I was able to get a fairly even travel with the sail planes and even got a respectable nose breach on one surface attempt. I may yet master this!!! It was then my good wife came down and ask me when did I want her to start the video... I had already had some 15-20 minutes of wet time by then...Oh well next time.

Now that was the good news. The rest not so...

Toward the end I noticed that she started listing in reverse again and also after I cut back the throttle to see how she glided I noticed her speed was a bit erratic and her turning circle wasn't as tight. I put it down to the batteries maybe getting low or the esc getting to hot. So I headed her in to shore and that's when I noticed she lost all forward momentum and just coasted in to stall at knee depth. Wadding out to collect it bringing her up the the table and opening it up I noticed some moisture/condensation around the motor bulk head, which also was rather warm too, not unknown for these types of can motors. As it was Sandy was getting restless, it had started to shower again and our dog jack had already gone in for an un-programmed paddle so I was basically maneuvered to pack up and head home. Going through everything back on the bench I discovered a couple of things. The first was that the one of the capacitor wires had been worn through where it sat against the back axle/shaft of the left motor. The second thing was that the opposite motor wouldn't run. Yet they both ran on testing up at the lakes? I put it down to it being hot and binding a little because of it. Only that motor wasn't any where near as warm as the left one. And the third thing was the ballast system and forward planes didn't seem to operate on the bench and I know damn well they worked earlier...

First things first I separated the equipment tray and servo arms so I could get to the motors and capacitor wires. Which I just re soldered and dressed so that sat away from the motor shaft. I then ran some tests on the motors with some new batteries even though the ones I had used at the lake had 7.6 volts left when I checked them. So I knew it wasn't the batteries. When I rewired the motors to get the right spin direction I just ran a bridge between the terminals. A bizarre thought I had was that maybe the bridge wires were not getting the juice right to the motors so I re did them with a direct wire to each pole rather than a bridge. Well apart from more time on the soldering iron nothing changed. When I throttle up the left one goes like the clappers and the right one twitches but won't turn. Well it will actually spin but you need to flick it into motion, not an easy thing to do when it's in the water!! The next thing to try was bypassing the esc and running a wire to each pole of the uncooperative motor. Even with a direct boost from the batteries it didn't budge but the other motor did as it is connected in circuit. So that ruled out a faulty esc. You can turn the shaft of both motors fairly easily with little or no resistance apart from the tug of the internal magnets which now puts me at a complete loss. from my past time with slot cars, using them in static models to turn things as well as selling cordless power tools for many years I know these motors are as basic as you can get... A copper wound core surrounded by magnets and carbon brushes on the terminal end to conduct the current. My only supposition is that the brushes are the issue on the right hand motor. It could explain several things, especially if it surged which seemed to throw out the drive shaft and resulted in breaking the resin dumas coupler.

So now I'm open to suggestions in case I have missed something. Looking back on today's run I reckon that 2/3rds of the run was done with only one motor. I also gauged that 15 minutes or so of running the sub before bringing it out to rest is a good plan for the future so I have set the timer on my transmitter to give me an alarm at 16 minutes so I know I need to dock it, resat it and then do some insitu checks on it.

The final thing I discovered was that I have to remove the ballast connection from the receiver, power up the transmitter then the receiver and only then plug in the ballast lead from the adf2 to get it and the pitch control to work?? At least it forces me to leave the power plant dry space open ;)

[trout]

Alec,
I had a similar issue with my ADF2, it would not adjust or move. It was during one of those silly battery issues. I went ahead and re-did the setup and all works fine. Have you tried to re-running the setup?
Peace,
Tom

[alad61]

Thanks Tom, I did a reset on it last week with a new reciever and I hadn't really tested it out since then except to make sure the auto pitch worked as I held the power plant, so I'll try again. I'm feeling like I used to back in my climbing days... I can see the top only a few meters away... two more moves and I'm there. So frakking close!!!

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

We'll get you there. Remember the euphoria when you cleared the top?

David

[alad61]

We'll get you there. Remember the euphoria when you cleared the top?

David

Hell yeah and it never changed no matter what the climb... I reckon it'll be the same every time the sub and future subs dives and then breeches the surface.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

BROACH, damit ... the term is BROACH! Breech is a back-assward-baby-birth!

You people!

David

[alad61]

******!!! I actually had written broached too... So now I know yet another correct term :)

[trout]

Alec,
I am waiting to get a successful run (including broach) :-) So, I can relate to you anticipation.
Soon and like you, I can't flippin' wait!

[alad61]

Firstly I would like to publically thank David on his customer and after sale service. Many others out there are pale by comparison...! But enough but kissing :)

The new motor bulkhead arrirved in yesterdays mail :) so after dinner & a respectable together time watching tv with my wife I casually made my way to the work bench... where undisturbed I dissasembled the old an instaled the new. I then ran a drydock test with the new motors... both run smoothly, quietly and in the same direction. I retested everthing elseto makesure I replaced things correctly and gave myself a big thumbs up and slap on the back with my success. Al thats left is to patiently wait for the w/end to do some wet runs.