don_jarr

Hi all

So after getting absolutely nowhere trying to get an Old Smokey smoke generator, I gave up and decided to build my own. It uses a seuthe12v super smoke generator which produces huge amounts of smoke, and I mean huge far more than I was expecting. The rest is all home made, to my own design to partially fit in my boat and also so it produced the effect I wanted.

I built a housing to mount the smoke element in out of copper sheet which also acts as a chamber for the smoke. This in turn has an outlet in the top where the funnel fits on, and also a division to make sure the air passes straight out drawing the smoke with it, (see marked line) There is then a small 40mm fan on a length of pipe connected to the smoke housing, which is connected to a speed controller and powered by its own 12v battery. The drive motor also has its own speed controller and the two are joined via a Y lead from the receiver.

So when you turn it on, smoke is produced and fills the housing and gradually fills the funnel then drifts out the top. When the boat goes forwards the fan comes on giving a nice big puff of smoke, then the faster you go the faster the fan runs in turn the faster the smoke is pushed out. When running at medium speed which you do most of the time, you get a nice plume of smoke coming out that looks far more authentic than just drifting out on its own. It was designed to simulate a worn out diesel engine, hence the big plume on start up, and the fading the fast it goes. It’s fed via a traxxas fuel tank as it tends to use quite a lot of smoke fluid.

After testing it seemed to run much better on its own separate 12v battery as when run off the main drive battery the smoke tended to slow as the drive motor drew more current. Connecting the smoke element to its own battery instantly made a huge difference.

Now just a few bits to permanently connect and its nearly done.

Don

Bunkerbarge

Don, That's a very interesting set up you have made there and it sounds to have the performance to match.

Can you clarify one thing though, is the smoke generator a heating element heating oil to produce smoke or is it a vapor generator like the "Old Smokey" unit?

__________________

“Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack, Butting through the Channel in the mad March days"

AerynPk

That is a wonderful design of the generator there well done.

don_jarr

Hi m8

Its a seuthe12v super smoke generator which is a heating element that heats the smoke oil or in this case of whatever liquid it comes with it, which as far as I can tell is not oil based as it evaporates if spilt and leave no oily residue and also smells of lemon, which is quite nice.

Dami

hey, can you post a picture or small video of the smoke output, I am looking to make my own smoke unit as well.

Thanks

Dami

Desert Rat Racer

Don looks good but I'm spuprised U'r local electronics store didn't have smoke genorators even small ones I know ours do & we have about 3 typpes to chose from. The unit looks great sounds like it preform great with speeding up and slowing down with the vessel I luv to see it in action.

don_jarr

Hi all

I could get various sizes of smoke generators, but none that did what I wanted, hence built my own to work with the speed of the boat.

The 12v seuthe super smoke generator does put out a huge amount of smoke Dami, but as mentioned its best run off its own 12v battery as if you run it and the motor off one battery the smoke slows right down once the motor is running, and ruins the effect.

I haven’t done much to it lately and after swapping the speed controller for a different one, I have yet to have the spare time to wire it all up. I’ll try and get it done this week and as soon as we get a nice day, I will take and post a short film of it in action.

Don

Desert Rat Racer

Job well done Don.

jankers

That looks awesome Don, what sort of size is the unit?

J.

Averof

Maybe I can add a few tips. A friend and I have been try to put up a 100% home made smoke generator. We ended with somthing looking very much as don's great job exeption made of the independent speed controler wich is a marvelous inproovement.
Still what might be usefull to some of you; We have used a smal coil spring pensil type as a resistor, it's aplyed on a small lair of heat insolating fiber glass. using a 7.4 v 1500 mA NIMH battery. Our smoke oil is simply lamp petrol, wich gives great smoke and is very cheap. For those who try it you will find it can produce a great amount of smoke with very few petrol. Best regards to all of you, your Greek friend from the french riviera.