Screw Loose

WHAT !?!?!?! There would be a stewards enquiry if I done that

But damned tempting

Its bad enough having to dodge the ropey Pedalo's they have on the lake. Wish I had some torpedo's on board

Screw Loose

I finally got the periscope mechanism working correctly this weekend!

I recieved a new motor from Subtech ( Pandan models ) on friday after getting tired of Engel not replying to any of my quiries, which there were 4 !

The motor came from the Akula periscope mech, so its an official one. And as soon as I wired it up the whole thing worked properley! So I think either the origonal motor was faulty or it was indeed a 12V motor which I think it was. But anyways its working.

The rest of the day was spent finishing off the wiring for it. You get control wires which are for the PCB, but first you have to solder on all the terminals for the relays, 2 resistors and a jumper on the board. No problems really, just I was using to big a soldering iron, and it didnt work due to a dry joint, a right pain in the arse when its all mounted and on board

The hardest bit was getting the control arm correctly set up. Basically the mechanism works off a plunger and 2 micro switches. When it reaches its furthest travel it moves the plunger up deactivating the motor, and when you move it down it hits a collet and the plunger hits the second switch and cuts it off. Simple really



In the kit you get plastic tubing which slides over the bearing and onto the plunger. It acts as a water barrier. The stuff they use is PVC tubing, which is a little tight, so I had to remove it and stetch it a little and apply some grease.

So apart from when I had it all done it wasnt switching correctly, which turned out to be a flat reciever pack, that was the only bother.

So sad sitting there watching "Periscope goes up, periscope goes down!" about a dozen times to make sure it wasnt a fluke and nothing has fell off!
Glad its done now

Paul

Screw Loose

Now the missus is at work and the dogs behaving herself for once I got some good time for the boat today. I spent the first hour basically trying to get the nuts on the top of the WTC (water tight compartment) to fit. The problem is the whole WTC has warped slightley. It has been like this from day one, up till now its not really been a prolem.

But when I came to put the nuts on today the ones on the Forward-starboard side would not fit at all. I have had to remove a section of the white liner that fits under the lid, and file a bit of the alluminium lid on the corner to make it fit, just to get round the warped WTC. Not much of a problem, but why on earth German kits have such fine tolerances? When the bolts are 9MM, the WTC is 3MM thick, and the lid is 3MM, the gasket is 2MM leaving 1MM to get a nut on ? Any imperfections in the WTC or the lid and your knackered! Dont think a few extra MM's are going to harm anyone ?



So thats done now I was just messing round with fitting bellows onto the control arms, and glueing in the captive bolts for the motors and such that have came loose.

I have modified the rudder mechanism, basically made the control plate a lot smoother and narrower to make it slide inside the tail a bit easyer, but nothing intersting.

The antennae is fixed under the WTC and round to inner lid of it. The kit is designed not to have an external one so inside it is!

The only thing of note is I have replaced the M4 nuts with a butterfly nut instead. This is personal preferance, I hate having to get a box driver and remove all the nuts on a cold winters day with no feeling in your fingers. I always drop them, so these are easyer to work on with. Pricey for what they are but worth it.



Only problem now is the Bow thruster is ready to go but I have ran out of functions on the reciever. A multi Switch decoder maybe on the horizon. But a little while yet, or she will kick up a fuss again

Paul

Mankster

You work a lot faster than I do! If you find your sub sits a little too low in the water when surfaced, removing those butterfly nuts will help, as will sanding the inside of the upper hull down with a powered sanding belt or similar.

Screw Loose

Thanks Ramesh. I have lined the inside of the upper lid with the foam that Engel have supplied, and if I need more positive ballast i am going to use Expanding foam. I have tried this on other boats and its great for providing extra lift. Plus easily moulded. But messy

But I agree with what you say about the clips now you mention it, I hope they arent to heavy and make it slightly top heavy. I chose the ones that are hollow so I hope they will work.

Probably not, I have found on my subs its one step forward 1 1/2 back

Paul

Mankster

Ahh they are hollow, thats ok. Its the buoyancy of the butterfly nuts I was thinking of, their weight is insignificant relative to the weight of the sub. Don't use any foam above your desired waterline, or your sub will sit very low when surfaced. The two 825ml piston tanks are the very minimum needed to achieve the desired waterline (the protoype Engel Typhoon used 4x 500ml tanks arranged in a twin shotgun type arangement, but proved costly). If you cant increase the capacity of the ballast tanks, you have to reduce the buoyancy of the top hull (reduce volume - buoyancy is proprtional to volume, weight is immaterial).Thining out the upper hull by sanding, cutting out excess below the conning tower etc, helps a lot. I used no foam at all and took great pain to reduce the above water line hull volume, and mine only just scrapes the scale waterline. Russian subs are all double hulled and hence have relatively high surface freeboard compared to US/Brit boats.
If you need more postive boyancy, don't dont add foam, remove lead ballast instead. Foam is only really needed to raise the centre of buoyancy above the centre of gravity to maintain stability (stop the sub from rolling on its side); but this this sub has so much lead in the base that the CofG is pretty low already. Also it has twin props so no torque roll either.

Screw Loose

Thanks Mankster I will try that !

Think I will do some cutting out with the dremmel this week. As you say shave a bit of the upper lid round the conning tower and remover a bit of the inner lining.

I am glad you said that, I have only put the lead shot in the WTC, not externally yet. I think I have got about 1KG of lead to put in yet. I was planning on putting it in when I was on the water to ballast it properley.

I didnt know that about the 4 tanks though. I must admit after weighing the boat this weekend I did wonder about how much bouyancy they will have in relation to the weight. Looking forward to putting that in the water and removing it

And just another thought I have used a higher power battery, its not much heavyer, but I think some tweaking is going to be needed here

Paul

Screw Loose

Hi there lads. Not had time to get anything done on the boat in the last few days. Its not worth the risk going out in the snow and gales. God knows what she would say if I bent the car or something, even for the boat

I have just ordered some stantions and brass rod etc for the exterior detailings. On the real boats there are things like exterior rails running down the outer casing. I think it equates to 2mm rod on the model. I have tried using a plastic line, but finding it hard to stick. Anyone got any ideas ?What did you use Mankster ?

Is there anywhere you can buy gratings for exterior vents etc ? They seem pretty hard to come by ? I did try to make some myself, but they were less than successfull

The model shops up here dont even have things like trimline or flags etc. Or filler come to that !

Any help appreciated

Paul

Screw Loose

It seems to be taking a bit of time to get the little bits done on the boat. I have sealed in the restraining bolts for the motors and mechsanisms. I have also sealed the holes in the removable lid. The instructions say to use fibre washers, which I have used but have also used a little silicone sealant as well.

I have ordered grills and a few other small parts for detailing, and cut a few extra holes for vents and outfall pipes etc.

The boat has had its first coat of paint last night as well, which has went on pretty well except for one section which I must have missed washing prior to painting, in which the paint has not taken properley. So when its dry I will sand it down and re-apply.



I have also ordered some Graupner running lights, I am not going to switch them, as you can hardly see them in daylight as it is.

The only big job I have left apart from the ballasting is to make the thing completley air tight. As I said previousley I have added a Shraeder valve to aid in the pressurisation tests. Needless to say there are still a few holes that need to be filled, and I dare say a few more that are going to be a pain in the backside

I have finally got hold of the right size silicone tubing to replace the standard PVC tubing. I have added a spring inside the tubing so it wont get kinked.

Now back to painting

Paul

Screw Loose

Well it has been a good and bad day. The good bits are the paint has went on pretty well. There are still a few bits that need to be filled and touched up, but on the whole the paint is ok.



Seems I might have underestimated how much paint this thing will take as well.

I was going to do a few other things on the boat, but between spending 2 hours onto computer help desk getting PC repaired and the car breaking down I have not had the chance.

Paul