Made a start on fitting the nav lights I've just made, (light boards and LEDs) They are mounted near the bow, and the wiring is run to the stern through flexible 3mm PVC garden irrigation tubing, to keep it from being damaged. The wiring will enter the rear of the aux cabinet via a slot like the ramp cables, and be powered by a 3v battery. A stern light will be added also.
I'm also in the process of making a transport stand for carrying the towboat any great distance, (have to carry things around 200m to the small estuary I use). I have just painted it with preservative resin, and when it's dry, I'll throw some paint at it. The 2 arms will have an aluminium tube between them for a handle (already have the 25mm holes bored for the tube) I tried it out before I made the holes, using a broom handle, and it works well. The arms can be folded down to make it easy to stand it on end for storage if needed.
JB
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Made a start on fitting the nav lights I've just made, (light boards and LEDs) They are mounted near the bow, and the wiring is run to the stern through flexible 3mm PVC garden irrigation tubing, to keep it from being damaged. The wiring will enter the rear of the aux cabinet via a slot like the ramp cables, and be powered by a 3v battery. A stern light will be added also.
I'm also in the process of making a transport stand for carrying the towboat any great distance, (have to carry things around 200m to the small estuary I use). I have just painted it with preservative resin, and when it's dry, I'll throw some paint at it. The 2 arms will have an aluminium tube between them for a handle (already have the 25mm holes bored for the tube) I tried it out before I made the holes, using a broom handle, and it works well. The arms can be folded down to make it easy to stand it on end for storage if needed.
You have actually managed to make the navigation lights appear to be approximately the same brightness. Mine always appear that the green is brighter than the red. What is your secret JB.
Peter.😀
Hi Peter, if one is brighter than the other, I usually just dull it with some acrylic artists paint (I use Reeves (UK). I've used resistors in the past to balance lights. I think it can be due to the quality of the LED as well, as some can be a bit wishy washy in the colours. I'm just using trimmed down Xmas lights (tops painted black)and they have been quite good so far colour wise, (they are clear bodied can shaped flat top LEDs) I use a cheap VR board to run them at 3V.
The solid coloured LEDs seem to be a nicer colour than the clear bodied LEDs.
I've added a stern light and powered the the lights with a 900mah 2.7v NimH battery housed in the aux cabinet, with the servo battery, RX and ramp servo.
The transport stand is finished. Coated with preservative resin and painted, and a 25mm ally tube handle fitted (dowel a was a lot dearer and heavier) and wrapped with macramé cord for a grip (wound it on with the lathe).
Just have to work out a plan of how to carry this pile😐 (plus maybe 2 TXs and a camera) all in one go.
JB
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I've added a stern light and powered the the lights with a 900mah 2.7v NimH battery housed in the aux cabinet, with the servo battery, RX and ramp servo.
The transport stand is finished. Coated with preservative resin and painted, and a 25mm ally tube handle fitted (dowel a was a lot dearer and heavier) and wrapped with macramé cord for a grip (wound it on with the lathe).
Just have to work out a plan of how to carry this pile😐 (plus maybe 2 TXs and a camera) all in one go.
Nice job on the stand JB 👍 Maybe it also needs wheels... and a motor.... and RC gear........and .... and ... Then you could drive it down to the estuary 😂🤣
Could buy one of these Graham, (lots of different types just fresh in) but where do you carry it, (roof rack maybe?) Sides come off which is handy. Think I'll have to sell the cars and buy a ute or a van😁
These are like a later version of the famous US 'little red wagon'😁 --check the original price from the NZ importer! ( NZ dollars) Those wheels are Chinese rubbish with tyres which go flat all the time ( I have a bin full,- $13 ea). Whole thing is probably made in China anyhow! Cheaper to buy a copy with a plastic tray at $NZ 158. I have a wheelbarrow so don't really need one
Solved the problem yesterday, of how to carry 2 TXs. I hung them by their handles on the stand handle, and held them in place with a bungee cord, with a clip on the end to clip onto the TX handle. The bungee cord/s go down to the frame behind the TX/s.
I would only usually be using one TX for the barge and boat, but would need another TX for a vehicle. I can now carry the boat, TXs and barge (with left hand) quite easily, without the risk of anything breaking.
JB
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Solved the problem yesterday, of how to carry 2 TXs. I hung them by their handles on the stand handle, and held them in place with a bungee cord, with a clip on the end to clip onto the TX handle. The bungee cord/s go down to the frame behind the TX/s.
I would only usually be using one TX for the barge and boat, but would need another TX for a vehicle. I can now carry the boat, TXs and barge (with left hand) quite easily, without the risk of anything breaking.
"Anything like this Doug,?"
As far as the layout goes, side and bottom pockets, yes JB.
Mine's just bit darker green and finer material.
I'll try and dig it out from the back of the workshop for some pics.
Haven't used it since the start of Covid!🙄
Cheers, Doug 😎
Re- Mine's just bit darker green and finer material
This is made with fairly thick canvas Doug, still have a brand new one. They will outlast me by a long way. My son used the one shown for high school and then I used it for work for years, and it still looks almost new.
Received the cheap sound unit from Ali Expr a couple of days ago, and have managed to squeeze it into what space was left. Had to play with the throttle end points to stop it sounding like a formula 1 car instead of the diesel I was aiming for and ended up with a reasonable sound. Throttle is on the left (centering elevator stick) not the throttle stick, as the siamesed throttle and sound into the throttle channel in the RX caused feedback for some reason.
Tried making a gentle throttle curve in the program, but it made no difference, as the sound unit is not very proportional (sound files aren't blended nicely,- big steps) The sound is only used at about 18% of its' scale. I wasn't expecting much for the price, and I wasn't disappointed, but it will give the boat a bit extra for a video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu_wlk_P_Rg
The unit has 10 sound choices, a few of which might be ok for tugs etc with a bit of a play.
JB
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Received the cheap sound unit from Ali Expr a couple of days ago, and have managed to squeeze it into what space was left. Had to play with the throttle end points to stop it sounding like a formula 1 car instead of the diesel I was aiming for and ended up with a reasonable sound. Throttle is on the left (centering elevator stick) not the throttle stick, as the siamesed throttle and sound into the throttle channel in the RX caused feedback for some reason.
Tried making a gentle throttle curve in the program, but it made no difference, as the sound unit is not very proportional (sound files aren't blended nicely,- big steps) The sound is only used at about 18% of its' scale. I wasn't expecting much for the price, and I wasn't disappointed, but it will give the boat a bit extra for a video.
The unit has 10 sound choices, a few of which might be ok for tugs etc with a bit of a play.
Haven't done much lately. as there has been storm after storm with huge seas and floods, followed by the most destructive cyclone in the countrys' history, with 9 people dead so far, plus a 6.1 earthquake to top it off !. My favourite little estuary for sailing at Hatfields' Beach was completely stripped of sand, down to bedrock and has yet to recover. A bit of sand has come back after the cyclones' winds turned offshore, but it could take months to recover. (pics 1-5)
Pic 6/7, main beach at Orewa (or what's left of it) sand beach was almost to the top originally last year. They are trying to drag some sand back and build it up, but thousands of tons of sand over 3km of beach have disappeared, so not a lot to use. All due to councils' dithering for years, over putting in rock protection walls like the rest of the beach. -(which came off reasonably ok) Believe it or not, the sea was breaking over the top during the cyclone,(8ft above the normal king tide level.
Pics 8/9 Waiwera river/estuary (2nd beach nth of Orewa) before/after- there was a huge dune area (about the size of 2 football fields) with protected rare seabird nesting areas, but now it's a wasteland.
This is nothing compared to most of the countrys' inland areas. A couple of vids for perspective.-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzV2fJpYCBs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM64Vv3Bw8A
But I did manage to find some nice sized rubber tyres for the workboat from Ali Expr, which are hard to find in that scale (bare tyres). they will be better than the wooden ones I made, which could damage the hull with a bit of banging around towing the barge.
JB
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Haven't done much lately. as there has been storm after storm with huge seas and floods, followed by the most destructive cyclone in the countrys' history, with 9 people dead so far, plus a 6.1 earthquake to top it off !. My favourite little estuary for sailing at Hatfields' Beach was completely stripped of sand, down to bedrock and has yet to recover. A bit of sand has come back after the cyclones' winds turned offshore, but it could take months to recover. (pics 1-5)
Pic 6/7, main beach at Orewa (or what's left of it) sand beach was almost to the top originally last year. They are trying to drag some sand back and build it up, but thousands of tons of sand over 3km of beach have disappeared, so not a lot to use. All due to councils' dithering for years, over putting in rock protection walls like the rest of the beach. -(which came off reasonably ok) Believe it or not, the sea was breaking over the top during the cyclone,(8ft above the normal king tide level.
Pics 8/9 Waiwera river/estuary (2nd beach nth of Orewa) before/after- there was a huge dune area (about the size of 2 football fields) with protected rare seabird nesting areas, but now it's a wasteland.
This is nothing compared to most of the countrys' inland areas. A couple of vids for perspective.-
But I did manage to find some nice sized rubber tyres for the workboat from Ali Expr, which are hard to find in that scale (bare tyres). they will be better than the wooden ones I made, which could damage the hull with a bit of banging around towing the barge.
Hi Len, thanks for the thought,- but we have our own bad earthquakes here thanks 😁 don't need Turkeys. We are a small country and population (ie lacking the folding stuff for quick restoration) so we feel it a lot.
Here are a few examples of past disasters.
Re cyclone - repairs to the local beach (Orewa.) 3 Scrapers and a tractor have been working for a week so far, (about 8 hrs a day) to drag sand back from the southern end of the beach, and are making some decent progress,- vid was from 23/02/23
https://youtu.be/H5L3inSK0YM
You can see that the 'cliff' next to the trees (prev pics) is almost gone now.
Rain event has started again, which may cause more damage to already devastated areas. Hope it won't be too bad for those poor buggers this time.
Re moving to Turkey we've had our share of earthquake disasters and floods here thanks, don't need anyone elses 😁 (Napier, Christchurch etc) Only a small country and population here, so these things affect us more than most.
https://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/hawkes-bay-earthquake/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Christchurch_earthquake
JB
Re cyclone - repairs to the local beach (Orewa.) 3 Scrapers and a tractor have been working for a week so far, (about 8 hrs a day) to drag sand back from the southern end of the beach, and are making some decent progress,- vid was from 23/02/23
You can see that the 'cliff' next to the trees (prev pics) is almost gone now.
Rain event has started again, which may cause more damage to already devastated areas. Hope it won't be too bad for those poor buggers this time.
Re moving to Turkey we've had our share of earthquake disasters and floods here thanks, don't need anyone elses 😁 (Napier, Christchurch etc) Only a small country and population here, so these things affect us more than most.
That's a bloody lot of water JB,
Hopefully you were high and dry so to speak.
Certainly questionable driving through that water, good way to get yourself into a lot of difficulty quickly.
Just been down that road this afternoon Steve, and you would hardly know it had been flooded, (apart from debris in the fences and drains) looks like this now. A lot of dips like this all along this road, so all the water from the farms drains into them. Usually goes pretty quickly,- has about 5km to get down to the sea. Sand rebuild was a waste of money as 3ft of the height they put back went overnight. And the council wonders why they have no money- about 4 days work by the contractors wasted. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Finally got round to trying the boat/barge combo. I had to try it in an area next to a boat ramp which was not the best (rocks everywhere), as my favourite site has not recovered from the cyclone. Tried towing alongside which wasn't the best, as the style of jet in the boat doesn't have a lot of steering at the best of times. Ended up wanting to go in circles and having to use partial reverse on one of the side reversing ducts to try and keep it straight.
I'll need to add some small keels to the barge (20x10 or similar over the length) to give it some bite and change the tow position with the barge more forward. Took a lot of juggling to get it anywhere right, and wasn't helped by trying to avoid rocks. Loading the jeep went really well, so at least one thing worked ok. The bilge pump unfortunately stopped due to the servo arm over-running the M/S arm, and it ended up with a load of salt water all round the motor and servos.
The motor had spun water everywhere and the sound unit had a run-away (hear in vid) and couldn't be controlled, so everything had to be washed out and sprayed with CRC. All working ok now. Found the wire had broken inside one of the speaker boxes, which had to be cut apart to be repaired. Hopefully next time out will be better. Vid's a bit rough, and the second camera on the TX didn't start (couldn't see due to the blazing sun) thought it had -we know what thought thought😁 Hopefully find a better place for another go.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ap3yNoXY3Y
JB
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Finally got round to trying the boat/barge combo. I had to try it in an area next to a boat ramp which was not the best (rocks everywhere), as my favourite site has not recovered from the cyclone. Tried towing alongside which wasn't the best, as the style of jet in the boat doesn't have a lot of steering at the best of times. Ended up wanting to go in circles and having to use partial reverse on one of the side reversing ducts to try and keep it straight.
I'll need to add some small keels to the barge (20x10 or similar over the length) to give it some bite and change the tow position with the barge more forward. Took a lot of juggling to get it anywhere right, and wasn't helped by trying to avoid rocks. Loading the jeep went really well, so at least one thing worked ok. The bilge pump unfortunately stopped due to the servo arm over-running the M/S arm, and it ended up with a load of salt water all round the motor and servos.
The motor had spun water everywhere and the sound unit had a run-away (hear in vid) and couldn't be controlled, so everything had to be washed out and sprayed with CRC. All working ok now. Found the wire had broken inside one of the speaker boxes, which had to be cut apart to be repaired. Hopefully next time out will be better. Vid's a bit rough, and the second camera on the TX didn't start (couldn't see due to the blazing sun) thought it had -we know what thought thought😁 Hopefully find a better place for another go.
Hi Jb.
I think your diagram is about right, maybe a tough more aft if necessary.
Yor idea of a bow rudder on the barge should work.
Maybe Lee Boards? Although real barges never had them.
Trev
Hi Phil,
camera was originally an unknown brand (pic 3),- thought it was Chinese) but with a bit of research, I found it was a US Vivitar made sport cam,- made before they closed production and sold the company. It was good till I scratched the lens and tried to clean it, now has a fuzzy spot in the center. Still works ok in good sunlight. It has touch screen, zoom, remote for group pics etc, photo timer, car, photo (max 12m and FHD vid max at 30fps. I've had it about 6 or 7 years and it was my main model cam till it got damaged. Before that I used another smaller Vivitar Hd cam (pic 4) (branded as Digitech) which wasn't too bad for its' time. Another I bought was a poor Chinese copy of it, HD more like 720 and laggy.
I now use Kaiser Baas cameras (bit like a Go Pro but 1/3 the cost),. I was so impressed with the quality that I just bought a second one a week ago on a special. They are marketed by a NZ company, who does sports equipment. They bought the company from an Australian crowd which was going under. No Doubt made in China, but seem to be one of the better ones. They have all the fruit, WiFi, timers, slow-mo, image stabilization (not as good as a Go Pro) and take up to 4k vid and 14mp photo which is not too bad quality for the price.
I have a few sports cameras I've tried over the last 12 yrs, from the small keychain cameras for attaching to planes, boats cars etc to the KB cameras, and they have all had their uses and recorded models in action which is better than you could achieve by yourself years ago. I used to have a video8 camera which was reasonable, and still have a working Ricoh super 8 movie camera from 1978,- Compared to a cheap sports cam today they were terrible but did record your life.
Only problem is, most action cams don't have a long range zoom, so mainly good for fairly close work,- things like planes turn to dots pretty quickly. Go Pros are undoubtedly the best, but you pay for the quality (although they have their problems too)
Pic 5 is a sample from the KB cam. 14mp
pic 6 is a sample from the old Vivitar on a dull day 12mp
(you have to wait for about 10 secs for the photos to load fully)
Have now added 12x12mm ally channel strakes for 3/4 of the length of the barges bum (from bow back) to see if it will make a difference to handling. If the barge is angled slightly to the right when towing alongside, (vice versa for the r/hand) side it should help. Will also protect the bottom a bit when run up to a beach. Just have to wait for another good day to test the theory.
JB
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Have now added 12x12mm ally channel strakes for 3/4 of the length of the barges bum (from bow back) to see if it will make a difference to handling. If the barge is angled slightly to the right when towing alongside, (vice versa for the r/hand) side it should help. Will also protect the bottom a bit when run up to a beach. Just have to wait for another good day to test the theory.
Had a crack at running the rock gauntlet,- miss the 2ft of sand which used to cover it all before the cyclone. Tricky manoeuvring with wind, rocks and current. Pity some tourist had to come and start yelling into his phone,- hard to find a quiet place for a video (sound works good on the camera though !) too good😁
https://youtu.be/bdxQdEUirtk
JB
Had a crack at running the rock gauntlet,- miss the 2ft of sand which used to cover it all before the cyclone. Tricky manoeuvring with wind, rocks and current. Pity some tourist had to come and start yelling into his phone,- hard to find a quiet place for a video (sound works good on the camera though !) too good😁
Nice bit of navigation JB. You have to love those jet drives in the shallows. Love the engine sound too...It sounds very authentic. She works perfectly...Great job! 👍👍👍
RR
Hi Peter, it's better when the tide's in, it was a few hours out from high tide, and that estuary drains quite quickly, so you don't have much time to 'play'. Super slippery on the rocks as the silt hasn't washed away yet,- sand's like mud as well.
Another addition to spaghetti junction. Bought a couple of water level sensors from Ali Expr and fitted one to the boat. Runs on 12v and has 2 stainless level prongs (from windscreen wiper inserts) which will sit in the bilge. Now will be automatic so I won't have any mishaps like on a previous run, (servo operated M/S overrode the M/S arm and didn't turn the pump on,- salt water everywhere).
https://youtu.be/MO8wKa6sC-k
JB
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Another addition to spaghetti junction. Bought a couple of water level sensors from Ali Expr and fitted one to the boat. Runs on 12v and has 2 stainless level prongs (from windscreen wiper inserts) which will sit in the bilge. Now will be automatic so I won't have any mishaps like on a previous run, (servo operated M/S overrode the M/S arm and didn't turn the pump on,- salt water everywhere).
Hi Len, it has to run often, as there are so many shafts, joints etc which needed sealing, it was impossible to stop all the leaks. There is a dam between the motor/jet unit and valve box behind which is the bilge pump pickup. Everything is sealed and waterproof there, so can normally handle any water ingress. Just an unfortunate necessity for the complicated system it uses.
Hi Trev, it was definitely a mission to get it all working, and possibly be the only model in the world with that system, (I like unusual boats) It's a bit of a challenge to drive as well, needing 5 different inputs and combinations of them all to make it move. Lots of fun though, keeps you thinking.
Peter.😀
The solid coloured LEDs seem to be a nicer colour than the clear bodied LEDs.
JB