Aluminaut Research Submarine 1/96th Scale

[trout]

Crazygary,
I accept your suggestions, thank you sir!
It will be a bit before I try that again, but because of you, the Aluminaut will live!
Peace,
Tom

[crazygary]

Always good to hear that your creaton shall come to pass!!
If ever I can help you out in any way, up to and including casting parts for you, please
don't hesitate to ask!
If the need should arise, I would be pleased to make uip a RTV mold of whatever you may need,
and cast "away" ( No pun intended!) to the best of my current abilities!! ( Laeves alot to be desired, eh?? Hah!!)

Crazygary

[trout]

Crazygary, I hope our paths cross.

[crazygary]

Mornin', Tom!!

I don't know what you're using to power your Aluminaut, but I'll be using Turnigy Nano-Tech 160 Mah, single cell LIPOs for my, eventual, 1" wtc. The connectors are crazy tiny, but I have managed to locate an adapter to charge them from any LIPO charger, as well as connectors to hook them up.

TME ( Tejera Micro Engineering?) makes an "Ultra-Micro Battery Adapter" , as well as Ultra-Micro connectors, with either male or female ends. Found and ordered them from Horizon Hobby, as their website is where I found them! No affiliation with them, just damn glad to have located the elusive little buggers!!

Hope this helps ya!!

Have a good one

Crazygary

[trout]

Crazygary, thank you for figuring the connector out, I have a couple of them, but wanted to make some connectors so I can make components removable easier. Ordered what I thought was the correct ones only to find they were 4x larger than I thought. I have since found them, but will not worry about installing them. So far, I can say that when I decide to tear this apart and redo it, I am going to make the component tray slide out and do as Ken did and create some circuit boards to consolidate wires and connections. Right now I want to complete this so I can work on my Skipjack. And get into something larger (feeling claustrophobic).
The props were painted yesterday and will be mounting them in a short while. Maybe get a test in the tub going. There is another sub that was given to me recently that I will start a different thread on that got water tested last night.

[trout]

Painted the the props aluminum. I have seen photos of them painted white or gray, I chose aluminum because the Aluminaut was the first to use aluminum hull for a deep sea vehicle. Checked the reference photos and added the props.

Assembled the parts together and placed the sub in the water. The Aluminaut is nose heavy.




But the piston ballast works very nicely.

I will need to reverse some of the servos and one motor does not turn as quickly as the other when the command was given. The people blender (being run by crazygary's ESC) works like a champ. I will need to limit the power to it. Just a small amount of power and it moves.
Playing with it for several minutes, I got a tinge of panic, wondering if there was a leak somewhere. So time for a check.
Opened up the sub and it was bone dry. The piston was dry and the end caps that the wires come into was dry.

Trimming this is a little tricky because I cannot add foam. But I do have a keel that is filled with some weight. I can cut out or drill areas out to raise the bow.

Assembled the sub again and cut out a strip of foam. Filling the ballast tank, the foam was held on to the hull with a rubber band. At first the ballast could not lower the sub, but as I pinched off pieces of the foam the hull was becoming more responsive. Then I slid the foam forward, I was able to get a level sail.

So correct me if I am wrong, I have a chunk of foam 7/16" x 7/16" x 7/8" I need to convert this volume to weight and remove that amount of weight from the keel. Can someone help me figure that out?

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

work out the volume of the foam, that's its displacement. Convert to ounces of water weight. Remove that weight of the lead, less the weight of the water displaced by the removed weight.

[trout]

Sanity check -
LxWxH=Volume
0.875 x 0.4375 x 0.4375 = 0.1675 cu. inch


cu inch of water weighs 16.387grams
http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www...1_4_2_0_7.html


16.37 x .1675 = 2.742 grams
I need to remove 2.74 grams of weight from the keel. Did I do good?

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

That'll work. Was the weight in the wet or the dry? If wet, you will reduce the amount of weight you're removing by the weight of the piece you are removing (I never calculate that, its very small -- just showing off). It's late, **** it .... I'm going to bed!

Love your work!

David

[trout]

Thank you David for your kind words and help.
Removed the keel, benefit of using an RTV silicon.
It weighed 20 Grams. So if I took out 3.5 grams I can add weight if needed, but I will also be adding a light bar at some point.

Hollowed out the front were the foam was and worked my way back.

Cut open the sides were some scribing was for flood holes (the front is scooped out as an exit path too)

Weighed the bar and hit 3.5 grams removed on the nose!

Feeling like I can conquer the world, I went ahead and began adjusting the servo directions and limiting the throw. Then...................

[trout]

.....my world began to go up in smoke. Look carefully at the picture.

Yes, billowy, curling, wisps of electrical meltdown AGAIN!!!!!
I went to bed and today after work (I had cooled down significantly) I went to investigate. This time it was the port motor. Here is what it looked like.

Interesting, it is the same location on the board that died. So, until I can conclusively rule out these are bad ESC, DO NOT BUY THEM! I will contact the company I bought them from and see if there is any suggestions on their part.

So, after a brief email from David, I am going to put this to rest for a bit and work on the Skipjack and a ballast system I have been itching to play with.

The other thing that has happened is I received a sub as a gift from a friend, Mike Dory. Will post more about that in a different WIP. I am taking David's suggestion and going to a movie (minus the drugs) and going to relax.
This thread is not over, just on hiatus.
Peace,
Tom

[crazygary]

Appears to be a well deserved and needed break, Tom!

Yet another bad ESC???? Gees! I ordered, and have received, 2 more of them!!
Maybe not a good thing, eh?? Will be interesting to see what the vendor has to say
about them!

A little extra "excavating" room in the Skipjack will certainly
be a welcomed thing!!

The Aluminaut may well also benefit from a hiatus!!

As I'm "still" waiting for electrical connectors for the Virginias 1" wtc, I think I'm going
to concentrate on finishing my latest "target" this weekend!

My tug may actually get wet sometime Sunday?? (Film at eleven??)

Enjoy the hiatus and let me know where your Skipjack build can be found!!

crazygary

[trout]

crazygary,

The vendor said
"ESC and the LiPo and the propellers and the motors they need to work
properly. You'll need to know the correct voltage about that. For this
special knowledge I do not know two much. As we have sold many of those,
we seldom get customers which have these issues. Many customers told that
the ESC fails because of the right ESC connect with wrong motors or LiPo
battery or right motors connect with wrong propellers, etc"

This is true, but there are no specifications on the web site. I did ask on a follow up if a battery and motor they sell is correct for the ESC, no response yet.
That being said, I have a friend who said the problem might be air flow, since one was sealed in liquid electricians tape and the other in shrink tape, that might be the case. These might need space around them.

I still think of solutions for it......
Right now I am filling my time with a couple of ideas I need to play with first before I get to the Skipjack.

Peace,
Tom

[trout]

Just a small update. Adam Carlson has created a very small ESC for me to test out in the Aluminaut.

Here it is the one that self destructed (left) next to the new one (right)

Time to dust off the parts and bring life back to this sub!

[crazygary]

Good ta see ya back in the Aluminaut groove again, Bro'!!
Fingers crossed for ya with Adams ESC! I'm also on his " Gotta have one" list, so if you can make a good go of it, my 1" diameter WTC may actually come into its own!!
Kick tail and take names, Tom!! Best of luck to you and your sub! I will, indeed, be watching!! Would be way cool to see ya "git 'er done!!"
Crazygary