So propshaft is in, need to do the rudder mechanism, but those are in, still need to be filled. I think after that it's on to guns and then water
So a mockup of my servo holder. Plan is to redo this, either see about getting it 3d printed or making it out of better wood or something. I have matching gears for the rudders coming, right now I just used some I had that were the same tooth count. Once i get those gears and this all made up, i was just going to get more epoxy putty and putty it in place. Figured if I needed to change a gear or anything I can always pop the pin out and swap the gear. I'll have metal on the rudder posts. I'll e6000 the gear to the bushing so it stays up where it needs to be. Also need to thin out where the servo mounts, 1/4" there and half inch up by the post. If I do get it 3d printed, not sure exactly how I will hold the gear down, right now I was just going to get a couple shims and put the drive pin back in. I'd cut the threads off to fit it under the deck. Reason for not putting the gear directly on the servo is that the servo hits well before it would be in contact with the gears. I'd like to eliminate the arm, but at least thos way it is geared, and if I get a servo saver any slight impact shouldnt cause the teeth to jump. There probably is a better way to do this, but I'm working with what I got.
quick question before I get soldering things up. For the dual guns, do I wire the solenoids in series or parallel, or does it not matter? I have 3 singles made up, but I was going to make up a new wire for the duals. Would it be better to have a seperate adapter for that though since I could just make an adapter use one of the singles I already have. I could also splice and add into the single am extra plug as well I guess. What is the general consensus on this?
My suggestion is to parallel them however add a test switch in parallel with each gun so they can be fired with the radio off by pressing each switch in turn. This allows for testing an individual gun without having to disconnect things. I also recommend as few connectors as possible in your firing circuit. I personally solder and shrink wrap all connections as its not hard to clip and re solder with a butane soldering torch pond side. I find that I deal with less corrosion this way. The test switches draw power directly off the main buss not from the firing board.
I'm pretty sure my transmitter will let me split the channel into 2 seperate controls. I'll have to see, but if I can do that, I can have each gun on it's own connection to the board, have then set to shoulder switches, and then mix them back onto the stick. So I'd split channel 2 into 2 different controls (far left and far right switches, set them up to match looking from bow) and mix them onto the stick down, so it would fire both. That way I could skip the extra wiring of a firing board, and the extra parallel adapter. Less failure points that way I would believe. Only downside is I would have to still use the transmitter to test them. But if my battery is hooked up, that means my esc and reciever are powered on, so I should have the transmitter on anyways. If I cant figure out how to split the channel, I could add a gun board to the 6th and mix it that way. But I'd just skip that and just make the adapter and unplug each one as needed. I would imagine I'd want to test fire them together more often then alone as that is how they will be firing out on the water
Object of test switches is to be able to do things when a no radio situation is desired. Like when leaning over a wet boat in the water. Lol. Dunk one transmitter and you will quickly see my point lol. How were you planning to trigger the solenoids if not a firing board? Micro switches? Defeats the purpose. Poppits and a servo with an accumulator per gun will be just as fast. A board allows you to cycle them faster. 99.9% of servos can't keep up with a fast thumb on a tuned fast gun cannon. The entire point of the electronics is to gain more cyclic speed in firing.
The multiboard has the gun boards built in, that is what I am currently using to activate the solenoids. I didn't have test switches in the Australia either. Adding the extra gun board would be if I can't figure out the channel splitting so I can set the guns to shoulder switches and mix them back to the stick. At that point though might just buy 3 gun boards (one for each dual so they are on seperate channels, and 1 for the sidemounts) and either esc or pump switch for the bildge pump, use the multiboard in something else. And if we are all about eliminating failure points, why add in a test board to test the guns individually, especially when they aren't being fired individually. It adds in extra complexity, cost, and potential for failure, especially if it stays in the boat when it sinks. Why not just have a battery with a switch in line and hook that up. Could wire in a seperate test plug for each solenoid as well so you don't have to worry about unplugging and plugging the wire from the board. Just pack the extra plug with dielectric grease and have a dead connector to cap it off. I'd rather wear that out when I might need to test a gun singly than send the boat out with a potential failure every time.
I was unaware you had a multiboard. When tweaking a gun you want to fire just that gun. Test switches allow that to be done easily. Good switches last a very long time. And if they fail to work it's only that you can't test not can't fight. Look I am trying to be helpful here. You asked for an opinion and I gave one. Not trying to be mean but you weather you realize it or not are doing something I myself have been guilty of a few times. You are not taking advice well. If you disagree that's fine do it however you like. I don't get upset about how someone builds a boat. Lol. But you seem to be disagreeable to almost half of the suggestions. If you have a better idea I'm all for it. But it seems we're doing more attempting than communicating. Haha. This is always easier in person as the conversation is more fluid. I really think I'm just not getting my initial thought across properly more often than not here. I just want to see another success rather than the alternative. Not that you are doing anything wrong per say. Just seems you could be a bit easier to exchange ideas with in person than on a text format. It's so hard to guess body language ECT lol.
I'm sure one of these guys will be able to explain the system and why it's done that way better than I have. I can show you but telling you via text is different. Lol.
I get how the gun boards work and why people have them. In my opinion, removing one connector to make the single feee from the multiboard split to each solenoid, instead if just an adapter off of the wire I already have to parallel them, to create one less fail point, but then adding in a whole new circuit to test each gun separately, is a bit backwards. Eliminate one small failure point to add in a big one.
Solenoids for duals/triples should be wired in parallel. Install test switches for the duals, not necessary for the sidemounts if you want to reduce failure points (personal preferences). Diagrams here: https://rcwarshipcombat.com/threads/test-switch-wiring.445430/
I don’t think that will work with the battleship boards as they output both positive and negative. It will need to be adapted since the firing boards do not directly connect to the battery.
I think he’s using the multi boards, not the stand-alone boards. The positive distribution on the BC multi boards is uninterrupted (no switching). You can either use positive from the BC board, or from somewhere else in the wiring harnesses, wired directly to the solenoid either way. So the above will still work with multi-board (verified on 3 ships)
Yes that is what I said... the diagram is for connecting directly to a battery which would not work with the multi-board AKA Battleship board. If you send them to the diagram it would not work as they are not stand-alone firing boards. A new diagram is required for those that have to ask how to do it as they probably don't know the difference and might end up wiring the battery to the firing board output on the multi-board/battleship board/whatchamacallit. I also verified this, can we be BFF??!!
I'm going to forgo test switches on account that's additional cost, extra work needed to install them, and an extra possible failure point I have everything else for guns that if I can get my steering system in, I would just need to mount the guns and would be ready for the first battle of the season here at the GLAS pond. If I can get that done within the next week. Plan is to make the attached sketch out of 1/4" ply I have, and add a second section to make it 1/2" thick where the hole is. That hole will be where I mount the RC axle stub shaft I have that will be where the big gear rides on a bushing. Just mesh it with the gears and then epoxy putty around it. The back 1/4" section will be where the servo mounts, and also will try to add extra supports, but I think as long as the 1/2" section is fully attached, it should be good. Also attached some wood mock ups, scrap wood was used.
I used to have them but and have had issues in the past. Jeff does not put them in his boats so I took them out and just take my radio pond-side. With that said, I did not have any duals on my ship it was not an issue.
Progress has been slow, as is the third shift life when your boat is at another location. Should be bringing it home this weekend with the steering installed, which would leave just the guns to be installed. I do want to redo what I have my electronics on (multiboard, reciever amd esc). Riggt now I have a slab of 1/16 abs sheet I cut some holes with my dremel wheel and just ran some zip ties around. What I'd like to do is have a box, kind of. It might be extra connections to contend with, but I want to have the multiboard in a box, and have short extensions leading up.to connectors that will be mounted into the lid of the box. That way I can label each thing. I figured too I would have the holes on the side and on the top to run all the signal wires though. The ESC would sit on a ledge off of the box, and the RX would be mounted on the top, probably just zip tied. Not going for waterproof or air tight, just something to spread the connections out a bit and also label them. From there though too, I would set up a bus of 4 battery XT60s in parallel. So if I go to use 4 batteries, I can just plug all 4 in right there. Only problem I see is no wont be able to directly unhook the power from the board, so I probably should have an extra looped plug on the positive side. Also for now since I will be running 2a amd upgrading to 4 later, I was thinking to take 2 connectors amd make them dead connectors to protect the ones mounted. I'd just take the end where I would normally solder a wire and plasti dip it. Rough sketch of what I'm thinking.
