Moebius (Revell) Skipjack Build

[trout]

Begin of leak test.
This will be very basic to some, but in an effort to help those first timers trouble shoot.
First I will try using a vacuum.
The schrader valve's stem is removed by unscrewing it using this tool available at any auto store or department that sells auto, bike, or tires.


Attach a vinyl tube (This tube is 1/4" OD x .17" ID) This will serve as the port to suck the air out or push air in as needed.

Seal off the SAS induction. For this it is as simple as jamming an awl or scribe into the hose.

Then something to seal the vinyl hose after suction or pressure has been applied.

In this case I was surprised.
The battery compartment was leaking pretty bad. It is the o-rings. I had not replaced the one that was nicked and the second one was allowing water to stream in. The amount coming in was at a rate that I could not continue. After I got the unit out of the water, there was some water in the engined room too. So once I get some o-ring replacements, I will do this again.

[trout]

Mark you forgot to throw in the evil laugh when talking about the ducks. Thank you for the compliment.

[greenman407]

Great job Tom! Now you just need to get her out in a larger body of water so that you dont have to twist and turn so much. I like starting at the very end of one of two large ponds/lakes that I use. With a strightaway of at least 150 yards, I can set it at periscope depth and let them run the whole length of the lake. Its cool to watch them stay right at that depth the whole way and then hard about and then back the other way. If you have depth keeping problems, then they will reveal themselves then. Come up under some ducks and watch them. They cant see it but somehow they can feel it. When you get too close they scatter.

[trout]

I am sorry for the delay, last night I finished the editing of the movie clip and we had family movie night. Then I went to bed. So, tonight......
Thank you David, I am glad you liked the video.
Peace,
tom

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Very, very nice video, Tom. Love the way you have this boat dialed in, pal!

Have you identified the source of SD leaking yet?

M

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Very, very nice video, Tom. Love the way you have this boat dialed in, pal!

Have you identified the source of SD leaking yet?

M

[trout]

A video using 3 different cameras. O.K. I am not a videographer. Hope you enjoy anyways.

Peace,
tom

[trout]

That is Sam! He did a good job driving it. It handles so much differently than the Gato. It takes just a light touch on the throttle to get this sub going. It seems like it goes from 0 to 60 in seconds. The turn radius is much tighter on the Skipjack. All that made it a bigger challenge for him.
Mark, I will see how it goes tonight on hunting for any leaks.

[greenman407]

The last time I had a water leak on mine ,after I had missed it again and again, I put it in the bathtub while pulling a vacuum with a test tool hooked to the schrader valve with the valve core removed. I used a flashlight while leaning over the tub and looking at everything real closely, I finally spotted the little bugger. AH-HA! There you are!

[greenman407]

If thats Sam, hes one happy kid!

[trout]

The moisture build up concerns me, as time goes on that has got to take a toll on the electronics. As much moisture as there was, I am beginning to think water is getting in somewhere else like drive shaft. If it is still from the SAS, I think I can fix that. So, tonight I will pressure test the sub-driver and look for bubbles and vacuum test too!

Because both Sam and I drove it, we made many emergency stops. On reverse the leveler seems to work against you and lifts the aft end up. That made the prop so much less effective (a lot of air being churned up, but little response) - I do not know if there is an effective solution to this. I did find that aside from disconnecting, the planes would move on the rod. I thought everything was tight, but I will check again.

[trout]

The Scamp was fun to drive, again.

Rudder respond'ed' very well with the new magnets. (Had to put the ed in single quotes because apparently if the letters d e d are put together you get this ded )

Playing around for 10 to 15 minutes, I noticed it was tough to keep level.

Brought it out of the water. There was a fine mist on the cylinder. The issue for running funny was the connector to the leveler disconnected when I did a quick reverse.

After about 45 minutes, the sub was running with the aft end down. This time the cylinder condensation/spray was noticeably greater with a small amount of water at the bottom. The reservoir was drained by blocking the air intake forcing. Some water came out (it did work), but not a tremendous amount of water came out. Indicating to me that the water was not entirely from the SAS.

The battery compartment had just a small amount of water - a couple of drops. There was a noise in the drive train. I will open it up after everything dries out.
Took some video from above, below and while attached. Will edit that later. Sam got a chance to drive, he liked it.

[trout]

More enjoyable? I can hardly imagine that. Seriously. Hard to imagine.
As far as water's edge and murphy, I have caught myself getting so excited to get it in the water that I need to step back and go over the basics. I am probably going to laminate a check list to keep with me. Pilots do it on commercial airlines, why not?

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Tom,

Don't they!??....

I wish I had a dollar for each time I had a system working perfectly on the bench during the pre-mission check-up, only to have things literally fall apart at the waters edge. Murphy reigns supreme in the real-world!

Keep plugging away. Like Alec alluded here, your SKIPJACK will be a much more enjoyable ride once you have the sail-planes working for you. Can't wait till we hear back from you about the second sea-trial.

M

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Tom,

Don't they!??....

I wish I had a dollar for each time I had a system working perfectly on the bench during the pre-mission check-up, only to have things literally fall apart at the waters edge. Murphy reigns supreme in the real-world!

Keep plugging away. Like Alec alluded here, your SKIPJACK will be a much more enjoyable ride once you have the sail-planes working for you. Can't wait till we hear back from you about the second sea-trial.

M