Nautilus Drydocks New 80mm WTC

[JHapprich]

Pump in, pump out.

I see. So the baffles etc. are decorative and its a semisubmergible snort-type cylinder. Bummer, description said " real static diving"

[Subculture]

You can pump out with the boat submerged, but the tank is aspirated via a snorkel. The baffles are not decorative at all, they're very necessary to prevent slosh as the tank fills half way.

[JHapprich]

How does the valve work?

[rwtdiver]

How does the valve work?

Not really sure!

I set my Alfa boat that uses the 70 mm WTC up to sit in the water just slightly above the water line on the deck. Then if I fill the ballast tank it will submerge to just at the bottom of the antenna array. I do not totally submerge any of my boats. And that works great for me. My boats do not need to go totally underwater to get enjoyment from them! If I feel up to it I may go for a dynamic dive! I like the look of a sub pushing water around the sail or part of the antenna array! Do not need all that do-dad stuff to run a sub!

Rob
"Firemen can stand the heat"

[Subculture]

I don't normally use fuzes,

Unwise. With high capacity packs- especially lithium which can deliver very high sustained current- you have something with the capability to burn a hole right through your WTC and/or boat. Some worry about nuisance blowing, will in my experience fuses don't blow unless they're either incorrectly rated or something is badly wrong.

You don't protect the esc with a fuse, you protect the cabling going to it and prevent it from becoming an incendiary device should it short out, which is always a very real possibility with h-bridge style ESC's . I've seen such an occurrence happen more than once on unfused boats and the resultant damage is not pretty, plus the owner still has a boat dead in the water usually.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

If you fuse the main bus, at the battery, upstream of everything else, this is what happens when that fuse opens up: YOU LOSE ALL POWER, TO EVERYTHING... FOREVER!!! Your boat is dead, tits up, deceased, assumed room-temperature, dearly departed, gonner, worm-dirt, game-piece-off-the-board, gone on to its reward, etc.!

If that powerless boat is now on the bottom, you won't even be able to cycle servos, pump, or motor to help audibly identify its location when you go into the water looking (listening) for it.

Think propulsion and 'other' sub-systems that dine off the battery as two different things. Keep them separate legs; a propulsion bus, and a second, 'hotel services' bus. Each bus in parallel to the battery -- if one opens up, the other is still in business.

Fuse the propulsion bus. Leave the hotel bus hard-wired to the battery.

If you're gonna have a major class Charlie fire aboard that WTC it won't be springing from a little ****-ant angle-keeper or servo -- you're towering inferno will be either the propulsion bus cabling itself or the motor and/or ESC.

Maintain hotel services at all costs! You lose hotel services, you die.

Duh!

David

[Sinksalot]

I was wondering, is there room in that 80mm WTC to raise the servo higher to match the height of the pushrod. So you don't have to bend the pushrod down to hookup with the servo.

[rwtdiver]

I was wondering, is there room in that 80mm WTC to raise the servo higher to match the height of the pushrod. So you don't have to bend the pushrod down to hookup with the servo.

When you add the servo arm to the servo, and the arch of the Z bend that lays on top of the servo arm, it's very close to straight out the end cap!

Rob
"Firemen can stand the heat"

[TuptubBuilder]

Hi. I’m a newbie but I have to chime in here. IMHO this ballast system is ingenious. The following is pure deduction as I have no direct experience with this Sub Driver. The valve should be set to leak just a bit when submerged. A small amount of water will be drawn in while pumping out until the valve breaks the surface. Then it fully opens allowing air to displace the water. The space above the horizontal baffle in the ballast tank is for reserve air. Since air is compressible, the pump creates a lower pressure in the ballast tank as it pumps out. The introduction of some water from the leaking valve must manage pressure drop to match the limit of “head” (pressure) that the pump can produce. This system is genius simple. You can’t over fill the ballast tank as water will just spill out the vent.
Check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqnxuMlmhkA for a demo of how this system works mechanically without the solenoid valve and Arduino.

[Das Boot]

If you fuse the main bus, at the battery, upstream of everything else, this is what happens when that fuse opens up: YOU LOSE ALL POWER, TO EVERYTHING... FOREVER!!! Your boat is dead, tits up, deceased, assumed room-temperature, dearly departed, gonner, worm-dirt, game-piece-off-the-board, gone on to its reward, etc.!

If that powerless boat is now on the bottom, you won't even be able to cycle servos, pump, or motor to help audibly identify its location when you go into the water looking (listening) for it.

Think propulsion and 'other' sub-systems that dine off the battery as two different things. Keep them separate legs; a propulsion bus, and a second, 'hotel services' bus. Each bus in parallel to the battery -- if one opens up, the other is still in business.

Fuse the propulsion bus. Leave the hotel bus hard-wired to the battery.

If you're gonna have a major class Charlie fire aboard that WTC it won't be springing from a little ****-ant angle-keeper or servo -- you're towering inferno will be either the propulsion bus cabling itself or the motor and/or ESC.

Maintain hotel services at all costs! You lose hotel services, you die.

Duh!

David

Then you’re dead if you forget to charge the battery and run out of juice? Same difference. Buoyancy is the key to any propulsion problem. Run your sail buoyant and you shouldn’t have an issue. I run a fuse in everything, never had an issue. I’ve lost a prop, broke a cheap Dumas coupler, lost an ESC, but never blown a fuse.

[RCSubGuy]

Run your sail buoyant and you shouldn't have an issue.

This.

Too many bubbleheads are so infatuated with static diving that they lose sight of basic redundancy and safety. I run ALL OF MY SUBS slightly buoyant. There is zero loss of enjoyment in having to put a slight bit of forward throttle in along with a little bow plane. Unless you have a model of an ICBM, your static diving ability is nothing but vanity.

IMHO.


Bob

[rwtdiver]

This.

Too many bubbleheads are so infatuated with static diving that they lose sight of basic redundancy and safety. I run ALL OF MY SUBS slightly buoyant. There is zero loss of enjoyment in having to put a slight bit of forward throttle in along with a little bow plane. Unless you have a model of an ICBM, your static diving ability is nothing but vanity.

IMHO.


Bob

I am one of the most inexperienced people on this forum, but I am finally learning how to get my boats to sit in the water just right (trimming) by using weights and foam. I set the water line on my boats just so that when you go with a low throttle setting the water just comes over the deck and then if I feed in a just the right amount of water into the ballast tank and with a little down trim on bow dive planes and increase the throttle a little more I get water just over the sail with just the antenna array showing.(looking great) and about that time is when it is ready to crash into the side of the pool!



But for that 35' straight run I have enjoyed seeing my boat hull and sail under water and moving forward. Then I blow the ballast, bring it around (back and forward/back and forward) on the throttle and rudder, and then do it again back to the other end! I have ten of my running boats working this same way! My way of trimming out a boat is totally different than most, but it works great in my pool! I used to think that static diving was what you wanted to do, but not anymore!!



My 1:77 scale Nautilus will just make the turn in the pool.

Rob
"Firemen can stand the heat"

[Das Boot]

This.

Too many bubbleheads are so infatuated with static diving that they lose sight of basic redundancy and safety. I run ALL OF MY SUBS slightly buoyant. There is zero loss of enjoyment in having to put a slight bit of forward throttle in along with a little bow plane. Unless you have a model of an ICBM, your static diving ability is nothing but vanity.

IMHO.


Bob

You called the cops on Dave yet? Let’s see some photos of boats.

[Subculture]

The virtue of a ballast system which allows variable trim is not so much aimed towards the ability- or lack thereof- to hover the boat, which in practice is almost impossible without assistance from an onboard mechanism, but to account for the 1% variability in water density. For most boats this means around 20-100ml of ballast, so quite small.


It tends to come at the cost of a more complex system or some other tradeoff though. No free lunch.

[rwtdiver]

I have another question about the motor wiring on the 80mm WTC!? As you know this is a dual motor system and I am using it on my Arkmodel Type VII build.






I am showing a wiring diagram that I think is correct for counter rotation motor operation! I would like someone to verify if I have it correct!

Thank you,

Rob
"Firemen can stand the heat"