5v from 24v until quite recently required some higher priced BEC's from the robot battle world. Now because the drone guys are running at higher voltages high voltage BEC's are now cheap. I just ordered some of these for my current build: https://hobbyking.com/en_us/kingkong-5v-3a-ubec.html. On the batteries, I'm running two 7AH SLA's in series in the Barham. On my current build (Atlanta CL) I'm going to try some 24v power tool packs. FYI, I'm having to dial the Barham's throttle endpoints down to 60% to make speed so 24v is a little overkill (though offers killer torque). With the RS-555PH motors 18V would probably be sufficient. Also, 6s lipo battery backs (22v) are now fairly cheap at Hobby King. Like Kevin is saying though, 6v 540 motors on reductions will work and be compatible with all off-the-shelf hobby ESC's.
Cool, well I really appreciate all of the tips you guys are throwing up here. Just checked the shipment tracker, and it looks like USPS dropped it off. Hopefully my neighbor who has the PO Box key we share will be home. Kevin--Hey no worries about just throwing up the links, I open those suckers and leave them open when I leave the University so I can read the whole thing at my cabin anyways. I'll find what you're referencing. I was looking at the GB500 last night after dinner, so I'm glad you've a good opinion of them. As it stands, I'm going to run 550 motors with GB500s and some 1.75 40 degree pitch 4 blades from BC. I was crashed out on my cot last night thinking about some of the stem-to-stern threads I had read and had a brainstorm about how to mount the motors. I think I got this in the bag. Can't wait to start. I'll pop out my physics textbooks and do a refresher on electronics this week before pulling the trigger on any ESCs etc. random note before I take off to read threads: if I ran 6.6V, would I need a voltage booster for the solenoids, or would they function well enough? I saw Mark had one on his Alaska.
I saw that, that's rad. I've got the DeWalt radio with a built-in speed charger for those things. works pretty darn good, and you get to listen to some tunes while you're charging you going to gut a charger to make the mounting base for it in the boat?
You shouldn't have to. The Battler's Connection solenoid comes in either 12v or 6v coils to fit your needs. Or you can get the Spartan brand solenoids that are cheaper ($20 roughly) and also rated for 6v and 12v, they just have to be special ordered so it takes a few weeks to get them.
Thanks! Well, I'm headed back to the cabin to see if the kit's on my porch. Hopefully I'll have some pictures for you all when I come back into town later this week.
So the kit arrived this morning. I have the pump, five turrets, the kit itself, and goff plans. So there were two options for the subdeck included. I selected the upper one (middle in this pic), since it lines up with the decking (top). looks like it may be a pain to get at some things, but I figured it'd be a LOT better than having two misaligned deck layers. Also, notice that E turret has no hole. no problem, I have a hole saw. Aside from that, the pump keels mentioned in Mark's instructions were not there, and there are some slight variations to the pictured plans. Nothing insurmountable. I have more than enough scrap wood to fabricate my own pump keels. Here's the dry fit. Please disregard the clutter, things get weird when you live in a one room cabin. Nothing glued in, just checking the fit. the rear portion of the deck had a slight warp, but that will only take a few clamps to fix before I start gluing anything together. Does anybody have any idea what these are supposed to be? they are part of the kit, and included in the parts manifest, but without explanation. there is absolutely no place I have found in the boat where these would fit. Possibly supports for the rudder servo tray? Here's the gap between rib 11 and 12. there is 2 5/8 in of room, so I Hope my GB500s will be able to squeeze in between. if not, I have a plan to modify 11. I'll sketch up the idea and post it if it comes to that. And the boat came with a plywood rudder, just add copper rod. So, some measurements that I've noted so far: Stuffing tube length: 13 to 13.25 inches Shaft spacing: Outside to Outside of the shaft holes 3 inches (good clearance for 1.75 props I think) Spacing between frame 11 and 12 (where gearbox will go): 2 & 5/16 inches 12 & 13: around 2 & 9/32 inches I'm going to get some ABS tube, and other supplies from the store tonight, and get cracking. I've ordered the 550 motors, GB500s, prop shafts, and props. just waiting on them. the one hobby store in Los Anchorage has run out of Basswood, so.... waiting on that too. On another note, Mark wasn't kidding when he said that the parts had a snug fit. the stringer for the casemates on the bow need the tender love of a mallet to get in.
Aha!!! so my stupid guess was right! that was the only thing I saw on the plans that was even close. Good to know, thanks!
UPDATE: So I just got all of my running gear in from BC (550 motors, GB500 gearboxes, stuffing tubes&shafts, props). Some notes from test assembly, looks like the stuffing tubes are fine, but the shafts are a little short. so I'm going to hunt down some shafts at the hardware store/metal fab place (hobby shop did not have stainless steel shafts). I would have dived into assembly and posting some rad pics, but I had an interview with The Park Falls Ranger District last week, and they're going to get back to me by this friday. If I get the job, I'm going to have to pack all of my stuff up and move from AK to Northern Wisconsin in a matter of weeks. so it'd pay to be able to fit the parts all in a small suitcase. So, either everything's going to be completely haywire next week, or I'll be posting pictures on sunday.
So.... things went south on the Lower-48 job hunt. But the good news is that I got to work on things in the past few days. I tacked everything together with some medium CA. once I get further, I'll go back and reinforce everything with epoxy. I put it subdeck down on the flattest surface I have and built her up from there. But apparently in the process, I got about a fifteen milliradian tweak in the hull, so she has a slight bow to her with the bow and stern being about two millimeters lower than the midships when she's upright. I figure I can address this when I cut her up to install the bilge keels. Moving on, I carved out some balsa and prepped the bow and stern for sanding/carving to final profile. I'm going with a laminate rather than a block, so the main base layer is 5/16, and following layers were 3/16. But before I attached that first one, I decided to put some coins in that convenient hole for luck. One TX quarter, one NY quarter, and AK & Denali NP quarters since she's an Alaskan. Had to do a bit of relief in the balsa, but it went extremely well. Here's the laminate. we'll see how well this sands up this weekend. Also, almost forgot to mention, after I sat and stared at the parts for a while, I figured out how to make everything work with regard to the drive system. I cut off the motor mount on frame 12, and have the GB-500s positioned between 12 and 13. works perfectly with the stuffing tube length, and almost perfectly with the shafts that came with them. I eyeball checked the clearance for the props, and think it may go well, but if need be I can turn these puppies down from 1.75 and it'll work just fine. Tonight and this weekend, I'm going to start laying in the stringers and skinning the lower hard hull. I'm going to use 3/16 balsa between the ribs. With regard to finishing the hard hull skin, the instructions say to use 1/32 plywood. I'm thinking of using 1/64, since it's the only stuff we have in Los Anchorage, and just adding maybe another layer of fiber when I glass her. Thoughts on this?
I wouldn't go the plywood route. I'd go balsa all the way. Block the ribs solid with balsa starting by gluing the balsa flush with the rib on the inside and then add more on top (working towards the keel) till you have enough to sand flush with the outside of the rib. When done it will looks like this below. This way you don't have to fill in that empty space between the ribs if you glued the balsa on the outside of the rib. (Bottom photo from Mike's Bearn build to illustrate this)
wow, thanks for the great shots! I've got the first five or six frames filled in with Mike's technique (more sloppily, of course, but I'm getting better). Most of the work this weekend was placing stringers, skinning, and getting the bilge keels installed. The stringers went relatively easy, lots of clamping, lots of CA, and a fair amount of beer I spent saturday on putting in the balsa bottom, with a fair amount of learning mixed in. the last few frames I did before I got to the cutoff point went pretty fast. (I re-did the first frame after a while. I dry-fitted all of the pieces before gluing them in) Above is the final shot of saturday night. Today, looking at the photos of Mike's Bearn, I realize that I did my bilge keel job rather stupidly. But it worked. I started by lining out where I wanted to put the keels in, Then....this is where I may have been a little dumb, I cut out the sections of rib and keel I wanted out first. After that, I grabbed the keels, marked them out, carved notches with the dremel and a finish saw, and went to town. Overall, I'd definitely do Mike's technique if I do it again because unlike mine, it's sane. That being said, I was able to take the opportunity to shim the keels out and remove that pesky warp I had in the hull. So I have that going for me. Here's where it stands as of about an hour ago. I've noted a slight warp in all of the deck segments, and am flattening them under a 40MM ammo can filled with soup cans before I plan on attaching them. Tomorrow, and the rest of the week will be entirely devoted to skinning the hull, since I've finished all of my grant writing. Hopefully I'll have her fiberglassed by the 18th, so I can fly down to see the family for christmas, and charge right into everything else in january.
So, things have progressed further in the build. I have everything up to frame 13 skinned with balsa, including the bilge, and did a dry-fit on the drive train to check everything. sure enough, it's looking like the drive is lined up just right with the GB500s and 13 inch stuffing tubes. I think my 1.75 props may even clear the hull without turning them down! Before I skin the rest of the hull, I'm going to coat the hard-to-reach places under the rudder tray with epoxy, because they'll be impossible to reach after I skin her up. With regard to the Bilge, I just barely made clearance for the pump under the subdeck. If I had used anything thicker than 3/16 balsa it would not have cleared, and the wood is protruding 1/16 out of the hull for sanding. Once I get a full-skin, I'll coat the inside with epoxy, then while I'm house-sitting my buddy's place, I'll use his workshop to sand down the outer hull and glass it.
Looks like your props are currently sitting where the rudder post is. You should sort the rudder and prop positions out before doing anything difficult to undo to the hull (like fiber glassing it).
Yeah... that's my plan. all of the shafts and such are in a dry fit, just to see how well the GB500s are sitting in the hull. the instructions are a bit goofy when it comes to prop placement, giving a general "put them slightly forward of the rudder post" and that's it. So, like Mark did in this photo, I'm going to skin with a gap for the shafts, glass over, then cut the windows out. I'm going to put in the rudder and such after that, and then based on where the rudder does rudder stuff, I'll put the props where they'll be clear. I've got a bit of play with the prop position in the dry fit, so we should be good to go. Speaking of rudders, any suggestion for post and shaft size? the kit came with a plywood rudder blank, so I'm going to use it.
Here's where we stand as of lunch time. once I get home from this beetle conference, I'll start applying epoxy to the inside of the sheeting, then sand the exterior
Fiberglassing in progress!!! my buddy let me use his garage today, so I'm not doing too bad at all. the sheet took quite a while to soak through, but as soon as the epoxy started soaking in, things went really well.
sanding up the hull this morning, prepping to glass the bow, and put a second coat of epoxy on the hull (yeah, I should have just done one thick coat like on the Bearn, but the guy who helped me makes his own surfboards and convinced me at the time to do two coats)
