I thought I would finally start my own discussion. The following are pictures of my boat in various stages of the build.
Formers are set on the building board ready for planking. The masking tape on them is to prevent the planks from getting glued to them because they will be removed when the hull is done. Former #3 and #8 are plywood and will be left in for structural reasons.
Hulls are planked and sanded. They are not meant to be water tight. The planking is simple there to give the glass and epoxy its shape and strength.
One of the hulls glassed and ready for sanding.
Picture just showing the beam of the hull. Notice the leftover masking tape in the hull where the formers were.
One hull with deck reinforcements and the other without.
Both hulls are decked and awaiting glass.
Now this is when all the work starts to pay off. Next picture is a float test. She is carrying 6 pounds of LiPo batteries ( 40 Amps ), and a 2 pound weight on the deck. Notice how the bow is not breaking the surface off the water. She is still a bit high in the water. Probably around 25 Amps in each hull will be perfect.
Lets add a measure 33 paint scheme from a CL- 55 class WWII warship.
Another angle.
I have loaded Ardurover 2.45 on the APM 2.5 and all the testing seems to be good except for the thrusters because I don't have them yet. I have cycled through manual, learning, steering, auto, and invoked a RTL according to my ground station. In steering mode if I move the bow to the right the rudders turn to bring the bow back to the left. I don't know if I will use rudder or skid steering at this point. If I use skid steering I still may keep the rudders available on a separate channel in case a thruster was to get fouled. I would be able to get home instead of doing circles in the water. I can also cut the rudders down to about half the length they are now if they prove to be to powerful.
My OSD is not working but I am sure that is a simple error on my part and will look into it later. I'm hoping Blue Robotics doesn't have anymore delays so I can get out on the water.
Any comments, suggestions, or questions are welcome.
Regards,
David R. Boulanger
Replies
It looks great. So impressive that you built all that from scratch.
cheers
Grant
Hi Grant,
Thank you. It really isn't that hard to do. Just time consuming.
Regards,
David R. Boulanger
Hello,
I tested steering and AUTO navigation yesterday with one thruster unplugged. The boat did O.K. . The turning diameter went from about 3 meters to 12 in the direction fighting the force of the operational thruster but it was able to carry out a waypoint mission good. It crabs sideways a bit when running straight but I now know I can get home if I loose a thruster or ESC. I still have a bit of a problem though. I said earlier that I had a servo twitch in my camera turret. If I remove the plastic cover off my electronics it seems to go away. I can only remove the cover a couple inches without unhooking my 900 MHz telemetry wires. Moving the telemetry module that 2 inches seems to make the twitch go away . So here is a silly question. If I was to wrap my servo wire in aluminum foil with maybe some un shrunk shrink wrap on it to keep the foil in place does anyone think that may help. I've never had this problem on my helicopter but the telemetry module is far away from any other wires.
Regards,
David R. Boulanger
Grant,
Thanks. I've got the parameters pretty well tuned in. I am very happy with 2.47.
Regards,
David R. Boulanger
Loved the buoy navigation video. And the rescue at the end was great - bet you made someones day rescuing their boat.
Cheers, Grant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkyivbl0YRA..
Here is a link to video around a bunch of buoys I marked in learning mode and recorded the video in Auto mode.
Regards,
David R. Boulanger
Ken and Rusty,
Thanks for the reply. I have a ferrite ring. I will give that a try. I think if I clean up the wiring under the main control center cover I can put this problem to rest.
Regards,
David R. Boulanger
Hey David,
Interesting problem. If you have access to a scope that would definitely help.
You may be able to use a ferrite bead (like those on power cords) to clean up the servo signal. HobbyKing has some for servo wires but they are out of stock at the moment: link.
If you try the aluminum foil route, I would recommend grounding it like Ken suggests.
-Rusty
Hello David,
What telemetry wires are you referring to; the signal from camera to transmitter?
Two things may happen. The foil may change the cable capacitance and cause skin effect changes, especially if the end at the camera isn't grounded. Otherwise it could work, but.... doesn't the cable already have a shield? If it does check to see if it is on the common ground. There may be a ground loop causing the twitch.
Regards,
Ken McMillan
Hey David,
This looks great and the video is very cool. Did you consider using the mounting brackets at all? That might make it easier to mount to the pontoons, although you'd have the same rudder issue if a thruster failed or jammed.
I'm really curious to see how it does with a thruster disabled. Those rudders are pretty large and I would expect pretty good results.
Best,
Rusty
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