Okay so here is the situation, I trigger one micro-switch with a finger and BRRRRRRRR the motors are running, props are spinning and things look great. I remove said finger and trigger the other switch...silence...Joy is gone from my world. Thought perhaps I had a bad micro-switch, replaced it and the same thing is happening, Life and floatyness on one side and death aand a sad sinking feeling on the other. What might it be? BTW my wiring looks like this. All comments welcome (hopefully helpful ones)
First of all, did the motors ever run reverse in the first place? See what happens if you connect the battery directly to the motors, both forwards and backwards, without the MAG throttle in between. Also double-check to be sure the wires are all connected, etc. That's all I can think of for now. Maybe a photo or two would help?
when the switches are in the center state, check and see if the motors are locked (sort of), bit of resistance! If the switches are correctly wired the motors should be shorted and should present some resistance to movement. But.... It sounds like the second micro switch is not getting to NO connection. Marty (half the inventor team who invented the MAG switch)
Have you thought of using a motor controller instead? Check out this web site! Our club has purchased several of these. I just installed one in my Armed Liberty. If we can show enough of a demand, they will be willing to produce a water proof version!!! http://www.trossenrobotics.com/store/p/4265-BaneBots-Motor-Controller-9A-peak-.aspx?feed=Froogle When I start dressing out Tirpitz, I shall purchase the larger version for that ship.
Armed Liberty ship? Very Sweet! What scale and club format is it? Building up a Liberty ship for convoy duty it high on my wish list and I'd love to see some build pix of it, especially your internal layout and gun installation? Mack
I am in a BIG guns club, she is 144 scale. Photos are already posted on her in this forum. there is a bow shot of her in 'Our Ships' photos there are several other photos of here else where, But I am not sure where they are right now.
that would be a negative. here is what I've done so far. I was only getting power one way so I resoldiered on microswitch1 and checked. That didn't change anything, so I replaced the switch1, that didn't work either. So I've now resoldiered switch2, checked and faiedl, power only one way. Last night I replaced switch2 and now I don't have any power. All conncection appear to be solid, but I'm about to resoldier all the connections and take another stab at it.
So here is a pic of my mag throttle So what i've found is that if I connect one lead to my motor on the switch1 common and the other lead to the power wire thus by-passing the NO, then the motors run. If I operate switch1 the motors continue to run. These events also happen when I do the same to switch two. I'm guessing that neither switch is flipping between NC and NO.
so I aquired a volt meter and checked the resistances on both switch1 & 2. As it turns out, both switches have faulty NO; Switch1 showed nothing while switch 2 had so much resistance it might as well have been nothing. So this brings a question to mind. A) What might I have done to f*#@ these things up? and/or B) How often do these micro-switches burn out / don't work from the get-go? So, I'm putting back on one of the original switches and the other new one I just bought, both of which I tested to verify that they work before hand. Lets hope this works!
It's possible that they get cooked when you solder them. I've done that before. Other than that, I have no idea.
What are the ratings on those switches. For a drive motor it should be at 5 amps for a set of 380 motors and 10 amps for a set of 550 motors. I bet you cooked the solder points when wiring them up. Read some articles on soldering on the web. In short put some flux on the wire and switch tab. get some solder melted on your iron and touch the wire, let the solder run into it. do the same with the tab. Then reheat the wire until the solder is melted, then touch it to the tab. remove and blow on it until cool.
Well, if you suspect a somewhat "heavy" hand with the soldering iron might have fried a switch, try using a clip on heat sink attached to the bottom of the contact when you solder. It carries the heat away from the casing and internal leads and protects the component in case you hold the iron in place too long. That's what we always used when working with transistors, printed circuits, and most solder in components including the tough but lowly resistor. Just for info, I have over 25 years as an electronics technician and am trained for multi-level circuit board repair including surface mount components. I'd say I was qualified instead of just trained but the qual is basically "use it or lose it" and since I've been out of a lab for over a year I'd have to go on a refresher course to officially requalify. Simply stated, if you've applied more than a paint-thin coating of solder you've used too much. Mack
The photo seems a little out of focus. But I think that "themackster" hit it on the head. To me it looks like there is way too much solder on those leads. (Western Electric taught me how to solder back in 1971! Lost count of how many circuit boards and IC's that I have soldered in the past. I understand where you are comming from Mack.)
Okay, Thanks guys. I got the new switches put on last night and they are working great. I'll remember that about the soldier. I'm still trying to learn that art along with many others required for these toys of war! I'm gonna be taking the Des Moines out for her first pond trial this afternoon so maybe I'll get motivated to finish a few more things like affixing the sub deck and deck and then start work on the gun system.
I don't use that setup anymore, but when I did I soldered connectors onto the wires, then slipped the connectors over the tabs on the switches. You can get the connectors at Radio Shack or just about any hardware store for a few cents each. Cheap switches are no bargain. They'll get cooked from soldering, won't take the full current draw from the motor(s) (especially stalled), & fail from corrosion (getting sunk multiple times doesn't help, either). Good high-amp, sealed switches are well worth the extra cost (usually only a couple of dollars, which is what percent of your total ship cost?). JM
A good soldering iron helps as well. Last month I fried a switch because of how bad the tip of the iron had become! For controlling the motor I still say: Look at what Trossenrobotics has to offer. 1) you save the weight of a servo and switches. 2) you are soldering wires well away from any componet that could be dammaged by heat.
