Topic: HMS Inflexible

[colin]

Hi Folks, my Build has started, and heres the first photos of the Engine room.

i have decided to add Bulkheads to support the propshafts and Motors.

there will also be another 3 Bulkheads added, one either side of the Glacisplate to form the battery bay, and one 100mm from the Bow as the width of the ship near the Bow is very critical, so that the raised bow (capstan deck) meets flush with the front of the Forward flying deck.

anyway if anyone needs the dimensions for the Bulkheads i can Scan them in and send them per Email as a Tiff photo, so the dimensions stay correct.

[Mark]

Hi Colin,

Won't you get a bit of vibration noise from the motor Bulkhead?

Mark

[Belgium Crazy Team]

I used the complete bulkhead in several ships.
Never had noise problems.  The key is that you align the motor perfectly with the propshafts.  Then you have limited noise.

Kurt

[colin]

so far in all the years that i have been building model boats, i have never had any noise from the way i build my Engine room (motor mounts)

and as Kurt says, if you have lined up your motors and shafts as close as possible to 100% then there is no noise at all..
 

[Tommydean]

Colin nice job on the bulkheads,  what motors are you using? also it looks like you have gear boxes on the back of the motors??
  Tom

[Belgium Crazy Team]

Colin,

Do you use brushless motors in the inflexible?
Why? What's the advantage against a normal motor?

Kurt

[colin]

i have used a couple of Buehler motors Prt No. 1.13.055.241 at 12 Volts they will draw about 1 Amp, and run at about 2000 RPM, and produce about 13Watts of power, theres not much thats going to stop them props from turning.

for more information you can visit this website http://www.buehlermotor.com

i have never burnt a Buehler motor out, and they have never sent my speed controllers up in smoke.
all of my present working Boats are powered by a Buehler, and mounted on Bulkheads.
see threads;
http://www.deansmarine.co.uk/index.php?topic=66.0 (Furie)
http://www.deansmarine.co.uk/index.php?topic=51.0 (Liz Terkol)

@ Mark; Next Year at the Open Day or on the Intermodellbau Dortmund,  i will give you a Demo of how quite my mountings are.

@ Kurt; i reckon that brushless are still to expensive at the moment, my set up cost me about 80 pounds
(both motors, cuplings and P94 DUAL ESC AND MIXER from Action)
http://www.action-electronics.co.uk/pdfs/P94.pdf

@ Tom; theres no gear box on the back of the motors.

[Belgium Crazy Team]

I thought I saw 3 wires leaving the motor casing, but the 3th one was a shade...
I have to look better at the photo's.

[karlgalster]

Should have gone to Specsavers Kurt

[Mark]

I look forward to the demonstration 

Mark

[colin]

here comes some more Photo's;

90% of the Electrics have been installed, i am missing two Batteries at the moment because my pocket money has run out.

what can we see;
the motors, speed controller, receiver, servo, and a power distribution board, plus my own made suppression board.

the main Battery compartment takes two Batteries with a further Battery forword in the Bow, in the Battery Bay is also the Charging socken and On / Off switch

all of the Bulkheads have now been installed plus all of the Deck Support beams, i prefer to use Plastic, in the Kit all the Deck Support beams are made out of Wood.

[colin]

i have even managed to fit some of the Decks... they have not been glued in Place yet, and Probably wont be for some time, also the coming for the turrets has also been fitted.

i`ll be down the Lake tomorrow to test my Drive System, its the first time i have used a Speed Controller with a built in Mixer that speeds up the outer and slow down the inner motor in a Turn.

muss not forget to take my Camera with me.!

[Belgium Crazy Team]

Looks nice...
Sometimes I use 2 microswitches on the rudder servo that cut off the power to the inner prop.
That's the cheap way.

Kurt

[colin]

your right Kurt, it would be a very much cheaper way of doing it, and i have used that system before (microswitches on Rudder) to control a bow thruster.

but with this speed controller and built in mixer, its all completely proportional, wether its the throttle or steering, the motors get mixed according to the amount of rudder and throttle you have given.

she does not turn in her own length, but for a ship thats over 1 meter long and about 25cm wide, she has now got a reasonable turning circle of about 1.5 to 2 meters

[karlgalster]

Hi Colin. Am I correct in assuming you are using the Action mixer? I have used the Action mixer (a stand alone as compared to your integrated unit) and have found it impressive although I think Kurt's simple modification is also very effective. One aspect of the Action mixer I think might need some re-thinking though. My mixer (not on a Deans Marine model I would add) has a facility for turning the boat on its axis - very useful for steering courses! The mixer achieves this by turning the two motors in opposite directions. On the transmitter one commands this by putting the helm hard left or right and applying a very small amout of forward throttle. This is not particularly intuitive and it takes some time to learn to do this (specially for an old brain like mine). The aspect I really do not like about this however is not the command method but the fact that the mixer in this mode commands both motors at maximum power. My mixer does not have any facility for reducing the power output in this mode. It works OK but is a bit harsh. If you have a model with drive systems too powerful for the model you can always correct for this under normal conditions by restricting the transmitter output manually or by programming the transmitter if it has that facility. When however you command the mode above, full motor power will be applied to both motors with interesting results.
Robin