RC help

Rogue Wave · 26 August 2006, 07:26

does anybody have much experience of model rc eqipment?

Our tug and barge has a system ( and what a bag of worms it is) that operates the hopper doors remotely using some futuba kit. The installation of the system is awful and the design seems inelegant to me.

so some questions for you

1 the reciever works a servo which turns around a servo horn and trips a microswitch which then trips a relay which then supplies 12 volts to the feed.

Can i drive the relay direct from the TX or does somebody make a relay that replaces the servo by plugging direct to the TX?

secondly does any body know if I can charge up the RX battery from a solar charger ( I think it runs at 6 volts)

don't forget the thing normly bobs around about 50 yards behind the tug so I want it to be as self replenishing as possible

Alex Brown · 26 August 2006, 11:00

Hello Stuart,

When I was re-rigging my r/c tug, I wanted a way to get the water pump to come on remotely so I could soak people in the marina when the tug was close enough.... I did find a little board that does this, but as I recall it was something like £130, so I gave up on it (I will try and find the link later on when I get my 'favourites' back into internet explorer.). Looking at most model boats though, the majority of people use microswitches for speed controllers and the like, so your existing setup is pretty robust as is I should imagine.

When it sends out 12 volts, what does that drive? - I wonder if you could put a speed controller on there, and limit it to either 0 or 12 volts output. I have a baby speed controller on my tug that you can adjust the sensitivity so the motor goes from 0 to full ahead with complete accuracy, or you can adjust it so the moment you go ahead with the controller, it just goes instantly to full ahead. The controller cost about £25 and is capable of driving loads upto 20 amps, although my tug now has a 30 amp motor in it (fantastic bollard pull)

As for receiver, you can get a solar charger from maplin or something to top up the battery, but if you have room in a little box, I'd throw in a couple of decent size 6 volt lead acid batteries in parallel - they'd go on for days then without need for charge. My receiver on 4 x AA batteries seems to last about 4 or 5 hrs before the motors start to do funny things

-Alex

Colin F · 26 August 2006, 11:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rogue Wave

Can i drive the relay direct from the TX or does somebody make a relay that replaces the servo by plugging direct to the TX?

A possibility

An electronic speed controller may do this job for you. You would need to check the output spec of the unit though......

(oops too slow!! - Alex

)

Alex Brown · 26 August 2006, 14:41

http://www.pandanmodelboats.co.uk/ac...ories_137.html - I didn't see this before, although I don't have enough channels, but from what I can tell, one of these relays further down the page would plug into the receiver output.

There seem to be a few things on that page which may help you, although since they'd be instant on or off, if there was a "glitch" with the radio gear, would you end up discharging the hopper in the middle of the solent? (I have visions of seeing this on the mcga website

)

My r/c gear is futaba on the tug - pretty good stuff, unfortunately, I now have only 0.5cm of freeboard after installing a rather hefty battery. Mine is the tug with the bow that goes nearly underwater when it goes ahead - http://videos.ribseadrive.co.uk/modeltugs_07-05-06/

-Alex

Rogue Wave · 26 August 2006, 20:51

cool guys,

thanks

re accidental discharge it happened a few months ago Jan got fined 5 K, the load was triiggered by the CB on one of the local fishing boats

we have a 2hour timer fited to avoid this but it happened a little bit after that! Any body know of a timer that lasts longer and works on 12 volts

12 volt relay is actually a sarting solenoid so I guess a speed controler would work that a treet

Nice RC tug vid.

Alex out of interest to you Storebror (jans tug) was the boat Jon eveleigh swapped for Kinston

Alex Brown · 27 August 2006, 00:21

Think I had heard that before somewhere Stuart - any idea why the swap?!

Saw a pic of Storbror on the tug forums the other week, does the barge you shift have a red topside at one end per chance? The pic of her was alongside a barge on the River Itchen or something.

She does have a few pics lying around, but not too many unfortunately. http://www.tugphotos.co.uk/pages/storebror.htm

Griffin Towage' Princeton was in Pembroke last week with a barge called Apache, the barge is still here, but the tug went - I failed to get some snaps unfortunately. Seem to be getting pretty regular calls from various tugs and barges at the mo with all this LNG stuff going on up and down the river.

-Alex

Rogue Wave · 27 August 2006, 01:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alex Brown

Think I had heard that before somewhere Stuart - any idea why the swap?!

Saw a pic of Storbror on the tug forums the other week, does the barge you shift have a red topside at one end per chance? The pic of her was alongside a barge on the River Itchen or something.

She does have a few pics lying around, but not too many unfortunately. http://www.tugphotos.co.uk/pages/storebror.htm

Griffin Towage' Princeton was in Pembroke last week with a barge called Apache, the barge is still here, but the tug went - I failed to get some snaps unfortunately. Seem to be getting pretty regular calls from various tugs and barges at the mo with all this LNG stuff going on up and down the river.

-Alex

yeah john caled me for that trip but I have signed on to Storebror for the next six months.

dont forget nobody really likes towing anything above a force 6 and your harbour provides a nice bit of shelter for a tow running down the west coast from Scotland

re snaps of princeton the guy who is the skipper on the girl class tug your lot flogged Jon (Damien ) is an Avid photographer and will have loads of shots of the three tugs if you need some

kitten · 27 August 2006, 10:38

Rogue, Check out some of the robot wars sites for heavy duty r/c stuff, there is also a new radio system out Spectrum (do a search)

which is inteference free that should stop your premature discarge (tehe). Solar panels can be got from the garden fountain type places, some of them supply just panels and batterries.

Hightower · 27 August 2006, 11:01

Could you not use Mobile phone technology or PMR instead of the R/C equipement. What I guess you should be looking for would be a dedicated RX/TX interface and a phone number or DECT cordless system using the intercom funtion might just work. Would be much more reliable and most handsets give at least 300m range these days.

Alex Brown · 27 August 2006, 14:18

Or, just reading what Andy just said, what about a wireless lan? Get a network bridging kit, which is 300metres direct line of sight, and on the barge, have a box which has remotely switched relays on it, controlled via a web interface. You'd then use a laptop or something in the bridge of the ship, and control each relay individually - potentially, you could even turn the nav lights on and off with that too.

Here ya go - http://www.digidave.co.uk/product_in...ec971835570558

I am tempted to get one at home, so I can turn stuff on and off from the office remotely

On the tug stuff, I'm going to try and put the bullet cam on the mast of our voith tug next time we move a trawler.... should be a bit different from the a-frame on the back of the rib!!

-Alex