SMS Deutschland Build

I've decided to finally build the Deutschland class ship that I've been wanting for a while. I originally decided to build this ship and acquired plans for it back in 2012. It has been a very low priority project since then so I've taken way longer than originally envisioned. While I plan to build the rest of it much quicker than it took to get to this point this isn't going to be a speed build by any measure.

I still have a lot up in the air for some of the prime systems and I'd like to try a few new/different (atleast for me) things with this build. For instance I'm toying with the idea of a belt drive for the propeller. I'm leaning towards brushed systems just so I can use my All-in-One control board, but I am more comfortable with brushless. No idea what battery or even voltage I'll run yet, I'd like to keep it small and swap every sortie. 3x 1 unit cannons and a 1/2 unit pump, not sure of gun arrangement, probably duals in the stern offset 15deg and a bow sidemount but I might reverse that, we'll see.

On to the actual work.

After I got plans I built a 3D model using them in Pro/E (this took a while, mostly because I didn't work on it very often) but was a nice project while I didn't have a workshop.


Then I got them Laser Cut, because that's what the cool kids are doing. (I'll probably not do that again, while I had a good experience and it turned out great I just doubt I'll be building tons of the same hull and it isn't that great for one hull. I did get two cut, the other then got sent up to the city of brotherly love.)



Dryfitting the Hull, glue is for suckers



Bow and Stern blocks


Adding the dual keel stringers and keel plate



That is about all for now. I'll be adding posts and pictures as progress and time permits.

 

Finally got to spend some time in the shop tonight didn't get a ton done on the boat, but the LCD screen transplant I'm doing on a busted rack-mount KVM is going well so I guess that counts for something. I digress.

I got the casemate/armor belt stringer installed earlier and started adding the hard area stringer. I guess I need more clamps....



Also before I assembled the hull I cut the channel for the prop shaft, probably should have done one for the rudder too, oh well, that's what drills are for.

 

That is one sexy bow on that boat....

 

It's got all the right junk in all the right places. ;-)

Hard area stringers and deck rim got glued in place.


I've started working on the waterchannel and filling in the bottom with balsa.

 

I have the balsa block installed for the bottom of the hull, I started sanding it but didn't take any pictures of that. I'll grab one or two when i'm done there.

 

Haven't posted an update in a while and it doesn't look like much has changed but I've been working on it here and there. Hopefully more interesting stuff to post soon.

Here is the hull sanded down, that was a lot faster this time than I anticipated.


I only fiber-glassed a portion of the bottom for the time being, there is a method to this madness. Like I said I'm trying a lot of new ideas/techniques (for me anyway) with this build. Oh yeah I installed the casemates too. ALL casemates should be solid, just my opinion but for the damage they take vs the effort required it's just not work making them open, pesky rules. ;-)



I got a package of components for the drive system in the mail today so I hope to make some progress on that next.

 

Looking very good, and yes a pesky rule. Maybe that one next, lol. The sanded hull came out great. Your almost done now. With all the new ones ordered and going to be built, we need to save Wed afternoon at Nats just for the predred battle day.

I do like how you did the balsa blocks, already got your water channeling installed at the same time. With all the extra balsa hopefully it is not too tipsy.

 

Thanks, but I dunno about almost done. ;-) I tend to go pretty slow. (and hopefully methodical. Some of my work in the Bismarck has been compared to creating a space pen instead of using a pencil, then again both NASA and the Soviets/Russia use space pens so maybe there is some value to it. ;-) )

I hope it's not tipsy, we'll see. Right now i'm trying to keep it fairly light overall. The plan is to go back and add weight later so I have better control over where the weight gets added since that impacts performance. Doing it that way will involve removing some of the fiberglass/balsa on the bottom but I don't see that as a big challenge or anything, well worth it to be able to get the weight where I want it.

 

Fun fact: Pencils are a no-go due to graphite particle's ability to short electronics in zero gravity.

 

Drive Train Update!

I decided to try a belt drive for this boat, it's something new (to me) and different from what I generally do so it should be a good learning experience if nothing else. The pulleys and belt are Gates 2mm pitch GT2, 6mm wide from SDP/SI.



I'm going to be driving this with a Mabuchi RS-540 motor, I like them and happen to have a number of them sitting in a drawer from my previous VDT builds. I built a relatively simple motor mount for it, the plate the motor itself mounts to can be swapped out in the future if I need a different mounting screw spacing (ie for brushless). First thing I did was model it up in CAD, no really need to but I find it helps my limited shop time to be more efficient if I have a good plan and putting it in CAD forces me to have a plan. So here is the CAD mockup.



And the actual parts/assembly.

Motor Mount:


Mounted Motor:


In boat mockup:



I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Yes I did cut a big divot in the bottom of the hull for the driven pulley to fit, yes it's probably going to fill with water. If it becomes a major problem I'll cut in drainage but I'd like to see how robust this setup is first. Same thing with not having a tensioner, I want to see if the timing belt and the tension I can put in it with just the motor is robust enough for our use or not. It might be a giant failure, but switching to gears is pretty easy.

 

This is the reason I’m going with a brushed motor vs a brushless setup. I’m pretty heavily in the brushless camp but I wanted to get some more testing in. (Charley is doing some testing for this as well so it should get a good workout!)

So what is this?

It is an All-In-One control board equipped with the following:
Dual ESCs
4 Firing Circuits
Pump Relay
5V 3A BEC
Reverse Voltage Protection
Oh and you can solder a LemonRX directly to it if you want to get rid of all the RX<->AllInOne servo leads.



It is all powered off your main battery (the reverse voltage protection means that if you plug in the battery backwards nothing happens, ie no magic smoke), so you don’t need a separate BEC/Battery for the RX. The ESCs and Firing circuits are fed straight battery power (and diodes are already incorporated for the firing circuits). The power components for the ESCs are rated for 55A continuous and ~110A burst but ESC ratings are a lot of marketing hype from the testing I’ve done. The components in this are the big brother version of those used in the popular Wasp ESCs that perform well in our hobby and in my testing this setup outperforms the popular (but no longer available) BaneBots ESC. Power wiring for the pump relay is needed, this was done to better support the high pump currents we typically run which can get tricky on a PCB trace.

 

Very nice. Is the relay epoxy sealed?

 

Thanks. Yes the relay is epoxy sealed, made that mistake years ago.

You can tell because on these relays the epoxy sealed version has an E at the end of the part number, ...-5DE. The 5 means the coil is the 5V version, not sure what the D is of the top of my head, and E is for epoxy sealed. Of course different manufacturers have different part numbering schemes so that's not the case with every relay.

 

Very cool. I suppose this is something we may see at BC in the future?

 

Cool indeed! Just wish it wasn't a garbage Lemon RX (since they are scum and copied a product that pays my bills)

 

@jadfer - that was the plan

@pigeonfarmboy - it should work with whatever your preferred RX flavor is, connecting it might be a tad more involved, getting a LemonRx without pins just makes it simple, but I'm sure it's doable. Plus I've already burnt up enough electronics working on this, no reason to risk adding a $50-$100 RX to the dead pile.

 

Nice work sir, per usual.

 

How did the trials go? If good, when will it be available?

 

I'll take brushed over brushless any day. Bushed and brushed motors produced by the millions by industrial robots will be much more reliable than hand assembled contraptions put together by paid by the piece workers using god knows what quality unsealed ball bearings.