At less than 10g and such a small size, that certainly looks like the best choice of motor controller for my Z-25 of the options I've seen out there thus far. Are you planning on using scotchkote for waterproofing?
Another progress photo: This is probably as much progress as I'll be making on her until next month since I'm planning to have her packed up to move sometime in the next couple of days.
It's looking good, but is there any way to get the angle on those dogbones a little less extreme? It'd suck to throw a dogbone in battle.
The angle isn't actually too terribly bad; total maximum angle on the port side is ~15 degrees and ~10 degrees on starboard. Based upon the floating tests, I may have to redo the motor mounts to use non-dogbone universals to shorten up the overall length of the drivetrain components or even trim down the stuffing tubes on the inboard ends to cut down that bit of extra weight. I'll probably also be reevaluating the gas system intentions and battery selection (currently a pair of 6-cell AA holders positioned forward and aft of the torpedo position).
The way it's looking, I'm going to be dialing-back the intended armament to one BB cannon (hopefully with some rotation and 25 rounds) and single-shot, non-reloading torpedoes, two tubes per side. Even given the added volume in the hull, with weight to simulate the single-shot, non-reloading torpedoes, two BB cannons (25 rounds each), a pair of 6 AA cell battery packs plus holders, 16-gram CO2 and regulator, firing valves, one submicro servo for steering, two micro servos to actuate the firing valves, two motor controllers, and a mostly hollow balsa superstructure, the Z-25 was floating with only a couple of millimeters between the deck and the water. The waves kicked up by the pond's resident fish were enough to wash over the stern.
Good luck with your build. It might be easier if you go with one battery pack, and swap out between battles. I do have a question, though. Why are you running two motor controllers? Wouldn't it be simpler (and lighter) to wire the motors in parallel, and run a single ESC?
Reducing the on-board battery count is definitely something I might look into. It may just be a pipe dream but I'm thinking about/attempting to pursue the possibility of implementing differential throttle control between the two motors to see if I can get a hair better turning so I can fire the stern turret in relative safety after unloading a torpedo broadside for those hit and run attacks. Linking rotation for the one cannon into the steering servo is looking like it's going to be a necessity as displacement has already been running out very very fast.
To my knowledge, yes as long as none of the props turn at a speed faster than the rate at which they run when the ship is at its maximum allowed speed; I certainly haven't seen any rules prohibiting it and it's not an unrealistic feature for a vessel to have as shafts driven by different turbines on a number of the smaller vessels would have to be operated at different speeds due to asymmetrical prop positions in order to yield a straight line of travel. If there's anything I remember like yesterday, it's the terrible turning that my USS Gearing had (which unfortunately can't be helped much for those in fast gun). --update-- I'm looking into the idea of possibly integrating termite armor into the design of the Z-25's intended hollow superstructure. Since I'm building according to a specific ship that saw an antiaircraft refit that changed some of the superstructure shape, I'm probably going to go about modeling the changes in CAD (just so I can run the weight numbers and double-check my sanity) before I commit to material selections.
The special plastic I use over the hollow closed cell superstructure is actually nothing more than a cut-up oil bottle. If you select carefully, some oil bottles are quite thin, and the plastic used in them is pretty tough, and can be welded by melting together with a soldering iron on very low temp. So far, not one round has penetrated my liberty's super, and if an attacker shoots her at the wrong angle, the bb's bounce back.
I can check it myself after I'm done with work for the day in a few hours so it's no big deal if you don't know offhand/can't check it right now, but do you know what kind of plastic that is (the number in the recycling triangle or the letters right below it would be enough information for me)? Do you glue the plastic sheet onto the superstructure foam or is it held on using fasteners?
After a pH test kit, five telephone calls, and days of waiting (not necessarily in that order), it appears that the West Systems hardener that I picked up recently from Woodbridge, VA was a defective batch so it's looking like I'm going to have to remove half-cured, soft epoxy gunk from my Z-25 before I continue to make progress. I had attempted to do an epoxy sealing of the subdeck and deck, both of which are going to have to be redone.
Didn't someone else also have a problem with a bad batch of West?? Hopefully not a recurring issue. Sounds like it leaves quite an unruley mess!!
