R/C Naval Combat

quote:

---

Originally posted by crzyhawk

Got some more work done on the Belleau Wood today. I did most of the wiring harness, motors are fully operational off both batteries. I got my ESC problem fixed; it seems that the esc does infact run on the RX battery as opposed to the main drive battery. Putting a better charge on the RX battery got the whole system up and running again. The only wiring left to do is hooking up the pump. I'm not terribly happy with how I am planning on hooking it up (basically I would prefer that the pump switch was on the other side of the tamiya connector) but I hadn't thought it out well enough before I actually started cutting and splicing and don't really have the length to do it properly the way I want, so I'll do it properly on the other side of the connector. It's not a HUGE deal, it just means a little more work if I need to swap out the pump. I'm not nearly annoyed about it enough to redo the work.

As for the radio, I was going to put my Polk into the Salem and my ch61 Futaba into the Belleau Wood so the Salem would be available as a loaner (Invincible is on 2.4 as my primary) but I've changed my mind and will run the Polk in Belleau Wood and Salem on 61. The reason is, I want to be able to run the Belleau Wood in scenarios and my ch61 radio is in conflict with Roland. When the Salem is out for that reason, I'll just use the Belleau Wood as my loaner/backup.

---

Finally dusted the Belleau Wood off a little bit last night. I did a little work on the forward deck, as I needed to cut out a slot for the forward gun. I also ground off some old epoxy that was there from someone who owned the ship before me. I'm at least the 4th person to own the ship, which started off life as a Brooklyn class cruiser. Unfortunately, I didn't test to make sure I had cut a big enough notch before I put my tools away to get dinner. Due to the angle of the gun, the deck doesn't completely fit so I need to open it up a little more.

I also need to work on the aft deck a little bit, so the fact I need to revisit the forward deck is no biggie.

I also swapped out the test rudder servo I had been using in there for one that I had already waterproofed. This servo once served as the rotate servo in the Courageous and has been sunk a few times so I know I can trust it to get a little bit wet!  In fact most of the innards of the Belleau Wood came from the Courageous at one point or another, in cluding one of the guns!  It's kind of like how the real Courageous and Glorious provided turrets for the Vanguard!

I'm rethinking my power supply though. I was originally planning on using two NiHM 4500 mah battery packs to provide power, but I am thinking of reducing this to only one battery. My thinking is that by lightening the ship up some, she'll be more responsive to helm and throttle. it will simply be less mass to move, and less water friction. Since we are allowed to change batteries every sortie, I don't need to run more then a single battery in the ship. Since the motors will be working less hard to move the ship, the drive system should be a little more efficient too.

At least that's the though process I am using right now.