Thanks, it's not going to be a pretty model but I hope an extremely functional and effective one. On the time, I find that I'm kind of bipolar when it comes to projects. Interest and creative juices wander so projects may get shelved for extended periods. This project though got shelved due to a tank project that got in the way. Hope to have this one shooting and scooting by the end of the month.
Well young Caleb. You may have heard that time is relative and this is true. As one grows more experienced in this existence, you will find that the time of day, day of week, or week of the month start to blur and meld together. It's a curious phenomenon which sneaks up on you. From my vantage point, it's already 2016ish (or something along those lines).
Today's progress Glued on the casemate roundy bits Found this PVC junction box at the HD. Thought it might be a decent electronics box. Big enough for my firing board with plenty of room to spare. I think I can fit all my electronics in there. Thinking of methods of piping ESC heat outside the box. The gasket is interesting. It is a flexible foam stuck to the top cover. I surmise that it was applied in liquid form and expanded a bit. That thicker area is probably where the process started and ended. One issue with the box was the mold lines on the sealing edge. Might be good enough for weather but not for the pond. I sanded all that out. Smeared some synthetic grease on the now smooth sealing surface and giving it the bucket test. Will check for water in the morning. Thinking of using industrial Velcro to keep the shields in place (if it passes an overnight soak test). I needed to fab up this small section to measure the thickness... ... for these pieces. Stiffeners for the fiberglass decks. Till tomorrow...
Yes, homemade. There's no circuit per say. It's a simple diy carrier board for two 8 pin PIC's I fabed up one night following the sample in the PIC datasheet. I threw in a 5v reg also. It can fire up to eight cannons reading four r/c inputs. The board triggers off board TIP120 Darlingtons that are wired as bottom side switches on the solenoids. The pics where programmed by an associate whose good at that stuff and feature a minimum open time (50ms I think) to help reduce double feeds.
This morning efforts Checked the box. After a 12 hour soak. Good enough for me. After copious amounts of red dust and burning through a bandsaw blade, the Tyng Barham has decks! Off to the paying job.
Why bother with a box then - especially one with a seal that leaks in only a bucket of water? Neatness?
Neatness, damage protection, and an extra layer of water proofing. I'm not all that sure it did leak. That dollop of water may be from when I opened it up. If there was a steady leak, I would have expected more than a few drops of water.
Forgot to add reliability. Keeping all the wiring dry (even if waterproofed) can only help in this regard.
I've made that type of box work, but not by using the 4 screws in the corner. If you can latch the lid using pressure in the center, it should seal well. I put a screw through the center and used an o-ring to seal the screw. I'm sure there are other latches you could build that don't require a hole through the lid.
Time is relative. I think it's my second cousin on my Mom's side. Oh, wait...I thought you meant relatives DOING time....
Been toying with the idea of mounting the box upside down. An aluminum clamp plate across the top (bottom) could act as a heat sink for the ESC's.
Those boxes tend to leak, especially when the corner screws are well tightened which warps the lid slightly and unseats the sealing material around the edges. The leakage is even worse the deeper the ship sinks. A much much better box is one of the Pelican series. Cost is not much more than the grey junction box.
My box didn't leak until it was underwater (6 foot) for 3 minutes. And that was a quick recovery, so I am now going away from boxes as part of a "water-proofing" system. The thing I never liked about the grey box, you can never tell if the water is in it by looking at it, so you don't know if you have an issue between battles unless you take it apart. Conformal coating is the way to go. MG Chemicals 419C Acrylic Lacquer Conformal Coating, 55 ml Bottle, Clear
