So visited a boating lake a while back with my boy (5 year old space cadet who I'm sure lives on a slightly different plane of reality to the rest of humanity). The boats there, they captured him completely, I mean we are talking obsession!
So I rummaged in my attic and dug out my old RC tug boat my Grandad made for me when I was my boys age. Hand made. Fibreglass hull. Wooden deck. Guts were my Dads old Tamiya RC car.
Now. The transmitter is missing and the motor and batteries are long gone. But I've got some neat plans and ideas for it, to hand it over to my lad.
Questions first for any RC buffs.
Looking around on my usual "go to" sites for electronics and finding lots of motors. But what would be right to drive a prop? This thing is about 2 feet long, quite heavy, deep draft... Single screw.
What transmitter, receiver, speed control and servo combo works best? It used to have a mechanical speed controller on one servo, and a lever on the rudder for the other.
I want 6 channels really at least, cos I have some cool ideas, which leads me to my next question...
... Waterproof motors. Is there such a thing? Want a couple because I am going to fit bow thrusters and stern thrusters. I know how to make a dynamic positioning system, so going to turn my boat into a survey ship for fun (my old job was on survey ships) with a dp system running on an arduino with a gps and accelerometer hat, but with manual override.
So... Need channels for:
Propulsion
Steering
Forward thrust
Aft thrust
A frame
Winch
Because one other thing I have been playing with is really cool. A WiFi controlled tethered drone you operate from your phone. Wouldn't be too tough to turn that into a little ROV. But that loops back to waterproof motors, it would need 5 micro motors that were waterproof to work, and the tether needs to be on a winch.
But that's all later. First off... Getting it running!!! So a reasonable 6ch transmitter, a servo, a speed controller and a motor...
Pics to follow!!!
So I rummaged in my attic and dug out my old RC tug boat my Grandad made for me when I was my boys age. Hand made. Fibreglass hull. Wooden deck. Guts were my Dads old Tamiya RC car.
Now. The transmitter is missing and the motor and batteries are long gone. But I've got some neat plans and ideas for it, to hand it over to my lad.
Questions first for any RC buffs.
Looking around on my usual "go to" sites for electronics and finding lots of motors. But what would be right to drive a prop? This thing is about 2 feet long, quite heavy, deep draft... Single screw.
What transmitter, receiver, speed control and servo combo works best? It used to have a mechanical speed controller on one servo, and a lever on the rudder for the other.
I want 6 channels really at least, cos I have some cool ideas, which leads me to my next question...
... Waterproof motors. Is there such a thing? Want a couple because I am going to fit bow thrusters and stern thrusters. I know how to make a dynamic positioning system, so going to turn my boat into a survey ship for fun (my old job was on survey ships) with a dp system running on an arduino with a gps and accelerometer hat, but with manual override.
So... Need channels for:
Propulsion
Steering
Forward thrust
Aft thrust
A frame
Winch
Because one other thing I have been playing with is really cool. A WiFi controlled tethered drone you operate from your phone. Wouldn't be too tough to turn that into a little ROV. But that loops back to waterproof motors, it would need 5 micro motors that were waterproof to work, and the tether needs to be on a winch.
But that's all later. First off... Getting it running!!! So a reasonable 6ch transmitter, a servo, a speed controller and a motor...
Pics to follow!!!
