D&E Skipjack Trim

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  • llangston1
    replied
    So would you CA the planes to the brass rod hinges or is there some other adhesive that would stiffen up the connection but still allow for fine adjustment of the planes if misaligned between each other. My sub’s hull doesn’t come apart at the rear so I dont have full access to the yokes. Everything is tucked up inside the rear cone and it is extremely difficult to both line up planes and tighten the yoke screws with only 2 hands. It’s not impossible but very difficult and usually by the time the yokes are tight the planes have slipped a little and need to be trued to each other.

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  • llangston1
    replied
    Yes I believe you are correct that the surfaces are loose on the shafts. I never tried to CA them together so I could fine tune the surface positions after tightening down the control yokes. Apparently some have loosened to the point that they will no longer hold against water pressure.

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  • llangston1
    replied
    Here is the video of the open sea trials from yesterday.

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  • llangston1
    replied
    Its been a while since my last post on my Skipjack. Haven’t had much time to work on it. But yesterday I finally had a chance to get ii in a large pool to check it out. I only got one video of it during surface ops. It ran good but still a little bow low and leaning to the left. I can’t keep the battery pack from sliding over on the left side die to the wires running through the connecting tube to the engine compartment. Even though in the bathtub I had it trimmed so the sail was just above the surface in the pool it dove quickly to the bottom. I don't have the auto leveler in the system and it was next to impossible to keep the boat level in submerged ops. I also think I might have been losing signal when near the bottom (shallow end). I am having trouble keeping the Control fins firmly attached to the hinge rods. While they appear attached in the air when in the water a control input might or might not cause the plane to move. It was really noticeable in the rudders where the upper rudder would move but the lower one would not. I haven’t CA’s the fins to the hinge pins so I can tweak their alignment after getting everything installed. But apparently they have gotten looser now so water pressure jist pushes them streamlined. That can cause some weird motions in the water for sure. The sub did have a good bit of roll during turns. The ballast controls seemed to work fine. It never failed to surface but trying to hold decks awash or periscope depths was impossible. I will post the one video I have when I get it uploaded to youtube.

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  • llangston1
    replied
    If it would let me reprogram it I would but it won’t go into setup mode now.

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  • biggsgolf
    replied
    Sometimes when a battery goes dead, or below a threshold various devices reset requiring you to re program them, even the ESC.

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  • llangston1
    replied
    I dried it out and reinstalled the AD2 yesterday morning. I went through the setup procedure and everything worked fine. After the setup the pitch planes responded to auto level commands and also to xmitter joystick commands. Then The battery pack died so I recharged it. A few hours later I reinstalled the battery pack and started checking the operation of the WTC. This time the AD2 worked fine for auto leveling but it would not pass through xmitter commands. I removed it from the circuit and reverified that the pitch channel worked fine without the AD2. I put it back into the circuit and tried to go through the setup procedure again and now the AD2 will not enter setup mode. I will try to return it to Kevin to see if he can fix it. I have no idea why it worked and then it did not. Makes no sense to me.

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  • biggsgolf
    replied
    Did you disconnect it and and dry all connections and connectors? Mine got wet, I completely removed it and its plastic covering and used an air blower on all connectoted contacts and the AD2 itself. Then as David said reprogram it. Take care to blow out the rx connector.

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  • llangston1
    replied
    I believe the sub is ready for open water testing now. I do have ne last issue with the new AD2 auto leveler I bought to replace my old AC-3 leveler. It may have gotten damp in my leaking event and it has never worked correctly since that time. It’s been air drying outside the sub since then so it should be dry. I can’t get it to enter the setup mode correctly now. And when in the WTC It does issue leveling commands to WTC tilt but will not pass through xmitter joystick commands. Without the AD2 I have full pitch plane functionality. For those who have used these devices Are they easily damaged by Any water? I don’t believe this thing could have been submerged since there was only a few tablespoons of water in the rear engine bay. This is my first try at using the AD2 so I am not familiar with its foibles, if any. Any suggestions? Can or should it be soaked in alcohol or soaked with contact cleaner? I would hate to think I ruined it before I even got to use it.

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  • llangston1
    replied
    Please explain how I tighten the gas flow restrictor. I see it installed in the gas line but have no idea how to mess with it? Just squeeze it more? Do you have any videos I could watch for this? I wonder if this is due to using a different source of propel gas? Before this all I ever used was Testor brand propellant. Now I am using Paasche Brand from a larger can. Could that have a higher pressure than the Testor brand?

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  • llangston1
    replied
    Ok I made my foam block for the nose and added some thin pieces of foam along the upper hull under the sail area. I had to remove foam in the tail area and add some lead weights. Here is where the trim stands right now. I need to open the vent holes in the rear upper hull so the air escapes easier. My issue right now is getting the ballast lever set correctly. I have it set so it only activated the blow valve when the gas saver float is up high. However when the subsaver emergency blow is activated the valve remains activated and blows all the gas out even after the sub has fully surfaced. I don’t remember it ever doing that in the past. I have only noticed this behavior after I removed the servo to dry it out and replaced it. Any ideas on how to fix that? I can live with it since a full blow is better than no blow. Here is part 1 and here is part 2

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  • llangston1
    replied
    What’s the difference between the blue RTV you use and the Clear RTV other than color? Is there a specific reason to use the blue?

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  • Scott T
    replied
    When I was a kid my dad cut arrow fletching / feathers with a hot wire. You could do the same to the foam. Form the hot wire to the shape and spin the foam against it.

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  • llangston1
    replied
    Ok I will remove those nose weights first. Thx.

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  • llangston1
    replied
    Any suggestions on how to glue foam together to make a 4” cube that I can shave down to try and make this bullet shaped nose cone filler. My last attempt with CA gel didn’t really work well. The smaller blocks started splitting apart as I shaped the larger block. Another way might be to build the nose block in layers inside the hull starting with the very front block in the tip and then adding shaped blocks behind that in multiple layers until I fill up the nose area. Any other suggestions or recommendations?

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