I am looking at battlers connection rotate cannons. do the barrels swivel or am I supposed to turn the entire gun? got any good links to pics of how this is done? how are you guys mounting them?
The BC rotate cannons are made with a spiral magazine instead of a straight magazine. The idea is to take up less space and to make it easier to add a rotating mechanism to the entire cannon. The cannons themselves do not have a built in rotate.
You build a mount to hold the gun, and rotate the whole assembly; make sure you have long enough CO2 lines to allow for the turning!
Most small gun captains don't use rotates; they fix the guns in place. The coil magazine guns can be made to rotate, but you have to rotate the entire mount. The rotate system I used to have in the Courageous (designed by Bob Pottle) was simple and effective. I'm not sure how best to describe it but I'll try. The barbette was attached to deck and was completely hollow. PVC pipe would be good for this. The gun mount was a flat piece of round plastic that fit inside the barbette. This could probably be made from wood as well. A a coil mag gun was attached to it. A rod was attached to the center of the "mount" and went down into the bottom of the ship, and provided a stable axis for the gun to rotate around, and also, to hold the mount "up". Attached to the bottom of the inside of the hull was a "cup" (for lack of a better turn) which the rod sat in. A small piece of wood with a hole drilled in it would probably suffice. Attached to the rod was a piece of linkage which allowed you to hook up a servo to control the throw of the rotate. If I ever use another rotate (not very likely) I'll copy this very effective system.
Rotating Turrets There are a few ways to make a turret rotate, but first you have to know that the BB cannon and coil magazine will fit within the barbette with enough clearance to rotate. Taller barbettes can make rotation difficult or impossible. The BB cannon should also fit inside the barbette with enough play for its barrel to exit the gunhouse (aka "turret cover") at or close to the scale gun barrel position. You wouldn't want it jammed up against the other barrel in the turret, or off center in a triple turret, which would look peculiar. Here are the rotating systems I've used: A) Tamiya Planetary Drive + Worm Gear System - HMS Courageous (1997) In HMS Courageous (with only 2 turrets) just the bow turret was rotatable because of the shallow hull space between the aft turret on the quarterdeck and the keel. As described by Crazyhawk, who later bought the Courageous, the coil mag cannon was mounted on a plexiglass turntable inside a barbette made from an ABS pipe connector for 2 1/2" outside diameter pipe. (The ABS connector was only 1mm wider than correct scale diameter for British 15" gun turret barbettes.) A 1/8" diameter brass pivot rod was installed vertically through the center of the turntable and rested in a bearing socket installed in the 'floor' of the hull. The turntable and pivot rod lifted clear of the hull along with the deck hatch the barbette was attached to. Installed on a plate bolted to the hull 'floor' was a Tamiya planetary gear kit driven by a 6V '260' motor. This rotated the gun turntable through a worm gear system: one ear on the gearbox output shaft and the other on the vertical brass rod. Various reduction gear ratios were possible, with the fastest rotating the turret through 180 degrees in 6 seconds. This worked and looked great but was too slow to be useful and the '260' motors would survive only a couple of sinks. B) Servo Driven System - HMS Courageous (1998 until recently) This used the same turntable as in A). The planetary drive was removed and the worm gear on the vertical pivot rod was replaced by a nylon rudder arm connected to a servo by a length of medium flex "Gold N' Rod' control rod (used to operate control surfaces in model planes). The system was fast, simple and effective but gave only 90 degrees total rotation: 45 degrees to port and starboard. That resulted in development of a more complex system. C) Servo Driven Layshaft System - HMS Hood (2002) Starting with HMS Warspite and then HMS Hood I used machined brass turntables in the ABS barbettes, with the BB cannons on horizontal pivots and elevation control screws installed in the turntable under each BB cannon barrel. Warspite turned so well a rotating turret wasn't necessary. Hood had a huge turning circle in the days before a 50% larger rudder was allowed and was not going to get its dual stern guns (in X turret) on target very often. My Hood model had side mounts in A and B turrets and was allowed a third, rotating, side mount. The best location was in Y turret, where it could provide some defence for the flanks aft, and the end of the barrel would be less than 2" above the waterline. I needed 180 degrees rotation. The new system was similar to B) except that a second short vertical shaft (not connected to the turntable) was installed parallel to the turntable's pivot shaft. The shafts carried gears with a 2:1 ratio, the larger gear being on the layshaft, which also carried a nylon rudder arm. When activated by the servo (again through a medium flex 'Gold N' Rod'), the layshaft could rotate through 90 degrees. Because of the 2:1 gear system the turntable would rotate through 180 degrees. This was the best rotating system I've built. When Hood was disarmed and sold as an 'ordinary' R/C model the rotating system was removed. Hood's fourth owner is rearming it but doesn't want a rotating turret, so I'll probably reuse the system in HMS Vanguard's Y turret. Bob
What is the system that the Hood is using in the BG video on Youtube?He's operating it using a Nintendo game controller I think.
That is the Morgret Command and Control System, being developed by Steve Morgret from the WWCC. He uses the body of a PS2 controller, but made his own board to go inside, as well as an onboard processor. It is an all-in-one unit, that deals with controlling every aspect of the boat (can drive gazillions of servos, bunches of relays for pumps, solenoids, LEDs, etc, and a high amp reversible ESC) as well as providing data feedback (signal strength, etc) and acting as a fire control computer (give the ship a bearing and range and the computer selects the guns and brings them on target). It is fully programmable, so any function can be mapped to any control. It can use multiple power sources and direct them to the different components. The case for the onboard unit will be fully waterproofed. It uses commercial 2.4Ghz transceivers for maximum reliability, and has programmable failsafes. Comparing a ship with this unit installed to current ships is like comparing the a supercomputer to Charles Babbage's Difference Engine. Of course, a revolution in control is not a revolution in weapons design, so battles won't change very much and older ships will likely still be competitive. The big difference is that it will be much easier to customize controls and include electronics to do whatever you want to do, from powering an anchor winch to receiving feedback on the level of water inside the ship. He's got the electronics finished and worked out production for the boards,he's just putting the finishing touches on the waterproofing for the onboard unit. He'll then likely begin developing a second similar unit for use with 1/16 scale RC tanks.
that sounds interesting... I've been watching that wondering about buying one when they come out versus rolling a different one that just uses existing TX/RX combos rather than rolling the whole RF stage.... I wonder if he will make one meant to interface with standard transmitters...
anybody have the measurement differences between BC's standard coil gun and the rotating coil gun? I'm trying to check to see whether the larger of them will mount in my barbette (2 inch Sch 40 PVC). I've handled straight mags before, but never coils
@Bob Pottle : Do you have any pictures or sketches of this? It sounds like exactly what I need but, I'm having a hard time picturing it.
