Recovery time after a sink?

Hey guys, I have a question. From the moment your sunken ship (be honest, it happens to all of us) is placed back on your workbench, how long does it take for you to return it to combat-ready status and get it back on the pond?

I personally can get my cruiser dried, patched, and back on the water in about 45 minutes, maybe 30 if I really rush it. What about you?

Carl

 

HMS Rodney can be back on the water inside of 30 mins from a shallow sink, but a deep, lengthy sink sometimes means rebuilding one or more cannon. When she sinks my old, old BDE cannon fill with water, and if the firing servo glitches they hydraulic and sort of self-destruct.
If the guns are ok, then 30 mins is the norm for her. (Patch, drain, spray, replenish gas, ammo and batteries, check operation and return)
My liberty rarely takes more than 10 mins to put to rights.

 

depends how badly damaged. If she took a long time to sink and didn't get clobbered with broken ribs or anything, technically i could get her back in in 10 minutes, but we dont allow that so you have to wait for the next battle.

 

yeah, if i dont need to switch out or recharge batteries its really only a few minutes of patching..... i generally cut various sizes of the silkscreen out before a battle so its jab and go.

 

Unless there has been an undetected break in the tool-dip coating on servos or receiver (a rare event), all I need to do is drain the water from the hull, fire CO2 through the guns to clear them, and patch the holes that caused the sink.

Patching occurs between our 2 sortie battles, because once sunk the ship is out until the next battle. Patching is what usually determines the recovery time, plus switching batteries.

This can take a few minutes for a small ship that sank with relatively little damage (say 20 hits), or 20-30 minutes if a battleship has taken a hundred or more hits before sinking, which isnot unusual.

Bob Pottle
NABS

 

You guys are lucky to battle in shallow ponds. My pond is deep enough to kill any form of servo waterproofing known to man. I squirt alcohol through my servos and let 'em dry. Most of the down-time is waiting for the alcohol to evaporate before systems checks. A lot of people in my club don't even prepare alcohol for when they sink, they just sit out the rest of the day then replace all the electronics when they get home. Considering how rarely ships used to sink here in California, it's almost understandable to assume that your ship won't sink. Then I joined the club, and things changed It's a shame that folks still haven't figured out how to drill two simple, small holes in each servo so they can get back on the pond before the next month's battle.

 

I've found that there's no practical way to waterproof servos, most methods seem to serve to very efficiently keep the water in, so I use the same "drill holes and let the water out" method.
The circuit boards are sprayed with a silicone based dielectric spray, it's just the pots that need to be flushed out with alcohol and blown dry with compressed air or CO2 from a near depleted tank. I just make sure the hole I drill in the top of the case lines up with the pot.
If there was such a critter as a submersible pot, it would make life even easier.

 

There is, but they're pretty big (compared to what you find inside a servo) & expensive.

JM

 

I do remember hearing someone found a servo that was specifically advertised as "waterproof". He bought one, hooked it up, put it in the sink, and began moving the stick back and forth. It lasted about two minutes before it showed the usual "wet-servo shivers" that we all know and love *cough* *cough*. There may be some REAL waterproof servos, but they're probably industrial servos with industrial size, strength, and price.

I've seen a few oil-filled pots that are rated waterproof, but as JM said, they're pretty big. Maybe useful for building positional control into a rotating cannon, but not as a plug-and-play replacement for the pot inside a servo.

 

As I sit here with my cordless mouse, I wonder if it would be possible to hack the optical encoder from it to operate a servo.....well above my tech level, perhaps someone else has the know-how....