That's right ladies & gents! (ok, just gents?) The USS NJ took to the high seas today for the first time! To honor the occasion; I bought a bottle of champange, and broke it over her bow. (Alright, so I popped the cork & played "one for you, one for me" until the bottle was empty... I consider that close enough!) The details: Overall: The NJ sailed well several times during the trial. She is well balanced & responsive at the rudder. I allowed water to fill her until about 1-2" below the caprail (I didn't trust the waterseal on the electronics any further); she maintained manuverability did not have any listing or balance problems during turns, etc (Not that I would expect there to be as she was leaking only from the bottom.) The Murphy: 1.) I found a leak near one of the wing prop supports. After several repeated encounters with sticks & other debris: 2.) The dog bone connection on both prop shafts kept letting go of the shaft. More attention to the connection point is needed, perhaps solder. 3.) The drive shaft solder joint broke. 4.) One screw holding a gear to the drive shaft (in the gearbox) worked itself loose & is MIA. ---> I wonder if a clutch or slipper gear of some sort would work well? The surprises: 1.) The watercooling system not only worked but kept the ESC & the motors nice and cool to the touch. NO damage to the ESCs occurred. 2.) The ship is VERY well balanced. I was expecting the empty bow to come completely out of the water. The ship was infact surprisingly well balanced with only the aft being a little higher than it should be... Which is perfect as CO2 bottles (which are to fit in the rear) were not installed. 3.) The gearboxes performed perfectly... With the exception of Murphy #4 which didn't effect the inner operation of the gear box; both gearboxes worked perfectly throughout the trial. 4.) Even though I only installed a "std" "just lying around" servo to control the rudder, it performed perfectly without faulter or slippage. It was capable of turning the rudders at full throttle / speed.... It was, however, not as waterproof as I thought it was. Potential Future issues: 1.) The watercooling system is setup as water --> through ESC --> split --> through both motors --> out both props. When one prop stopped working, waterflow was pulled from both the ESC & the malfunctioning prop... Thus the efficency through the ESC was reduced & it warmed up a bit... Just warm to the touch, but I wasn't battling either... So this could potentially be bad. ->Anyone know of a "diode" (one-way street) for water flow?
The important question is: despite the missing parts and failures, is the ship still moving and maneuvering? If the answer is yes, then you should survive in a battlefield environment. If the answer is no, then someone will put your ship out of its misery soon enough
Go to your local pet store and get an anti-flowback/check valve for the air supply on a fishtank. I use a drop of CA on the top of the lockscrews on my drive couplings. If the MIA screw was steel, it's probably stuck to one of your motors, or possibly the side of a servo. As for the clutch or slipper gear, have you considered a magnetic drive coupling, using rare earth magnets? Just a thought.
http://www.bderc.com/howto/chapter4/page6.html In the shaft assembly. >anti-flowback/check valve Thanks for the tip.. I'll "check" it out! >magnetic drive coupling I have one such device, that I bought thinking it would do exactly that... but it wound up too big to fit. >is the ship still moving and maneuvering? Until both drive shafts gave up, yes.
