RE: Lost or recovered RC-sub tales  
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All Forums >> RC Boats >> RC Submarines >> RE: Lost or recovered RC-sub tales
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RE: Lost or recovered RC-sub tales - 10/2/2005 4:30:09 PM   
CrunchyFrog



Posts: 468
Joined: 6/10/2005
From: austin, TX, USA
Status: offline 		Thanks--glad to oblige.

Those are some awesome RC ship photos on your page! My favorites are the subs.


>Glad you've recovered her, any chance of some pic's?

>http://www.81x.com/paul123/Military

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< Message edited by CrunchyFrog -- 10/4/2005 8:03:28 PM >

(in reply to Turbulent)
       Post #: 26

RE: Lost or recovered RC-sub tales - 10/2/2005 4:33:57 PM   
CrunchyFrog



Posts: 468
Joined: 6/10/2005
From: austin, TX, USA
Status: offline 		Some debris got into the prop cage, some of it between the Styrofoam cards I'd placed. Inside the sub, I found the internal Styro blocks dotted with lines of the same seed pods that had stuck to the exterior.

For photos I should have kept the bug exoskeleton on the sail, which was intact and entirely transparent--that was kind of cool!

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< Message edited by CrunchyFrog -- 10/7/2005 7:53:11 PM >

(in reply to Turbulent)
       Post #: 27

RE: Lost or recovered RC-sub tales - 10/2/2005 9:21:47 PM   
CrunchyFrog



Posts: 468
Joined: 6/10/2005
From: austin, TX, USA
Status: offline 		When I first opened the battery compartment--with the sub upside down--I couldn't see its ceiling through the rusty water, which gave me the impression my sub had sunk from a lot of water taken on. But on more careful inspection later, the top half of the battery pod was not colored by rust. All the rust I found on the lower surfaces in the compartment where the water might have pooled: inside the compartment door, on the lower batteries, on the lower surfaces of the plastic pod. Maybe only a little water got in--though it still might have been enough, because the batteries were weak from a long session when I stopped seeing the sub respond.

Interesting, most of the seed pods stuck to the hull are on the right side, and the left side has the more silt spots. The stern horizontal rudder missing was the left.

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< Message edited by CrunchyFrog -- 10/9/2005 3:55:11 AM >

(in reply to CrunchyFrog)
       Post #: 28

RE: Lost or recovered RC-sub tales - 10/2/2005 10:37:19 PM   
CrunchyFrog



Posts: 468
Joined: 6/10/2005
From: austin, TX, USA
Status: offline 		The same day I found the lost Chicago sub, I had my nicely prop-modded new Chicago with me.

After so many trips to the pool, I had a hankering for a new "ocean."

I went to a scenic little pond surrounding the circular red brick speech/drama building on the university campus in San Marcos, Texas. Really pretty--the building basically has a moat around it and sits out in the middle of the water. I'd always wanted to try that area.

Quite often, those scenic little ponds are full of weeds.

That's how I've lost my newer sub--a few hours after I recovered my previous one!

The pond is adjacent a busy road accessing the campus. Waving my three-foot modded transmitter antenna as I tried to get my sub back, I wondered if anyone from the hundreds of passing cars would call campus police about the guy fishing the koi pond.

No swimming in this little pond--I wouldn't care to run THAT idea by campus police. The sub's a goner.





"Andrei...you've lost ANOTHER submarine?"

--Dr. Pelt from The Hunt For Red October





< Message edited by CrunchyFrog -- 10/14/2005 4:08:28 PM >

(in reply to CrunchyFrog)
       Post #: 29

RE: Lost or recovered RC-sub tales - 10/2/2005 11:25:26 PM   
Captain Nemo12



Posts: 785
Joined: 4/26/2004
From: Montreal, QC, CANADA
Status: offline 		Crunchy, you need a new paint job on that thing! Well, sorry to hear about your newly modded sub, hope all goes well if you'd have to recover it someday.

-How 'bout a joint rescue mission?

< Message edited by Captain Nemo12 -- 10/2/2005 11:26:34 PM >

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       Post #: 30

RE: Lost or recovered RC-sub tales - 10/4/2005 8:10:22 PM   
CrunchyFrog



Posts: 468
Joined: 6/10/2005
From: austin, TX, USA
Status: offline 		Sounds good! Which subs do you have in your fleet?

Your story about the tangled prop makes me think that's what happened to my most recent casualty. Those plants looked healthy and firm; batteries were fresh, but if the prop entwined a tendril and reverse didn't free it, the sub would be there to stay.


< Message edited by CrunchyFrog -- 10/7/2005 8:25:17 PM >

(in reply to Captain Nemo12)
       Post #: 31

RE: Lost or recovered RC-sub tales - 10/5/2005 2:53:22 AM   
Captain Nemo12



Posts: 785
Joined: 4/26/2004
From: Montreal, QC, CANADA
Status: offline 		Yup, those weeds sure are a pain, I actually ended up using a broom to free the boat! Everything went by so fast, the weed patch extended just above the water and guess I wasn't fast enough to make that turn. Anyways, the patch was very near were I was standing and a big crop of bushes slightly blocked off my way, but everything went well and I ended up getting the boat back with the exception of a few patches of dirt on my shirt.

Perhaps a ROV equipped with a camera might help locate the sunken sub one day? Either that or pray that they lower the water down someday soon!

< Message edited by Captain Nemo12 -- 10/5/2005 2:55:40 AM >

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In the works: HL Panzer III, Type VIIb U-boat

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       Post #: 32

RE: Lost or recovered RC-sub tales - 10/7/2005 4:54:39 AM   
gulfstreamI


 

Posts: 371
Joined: 2/11/2004
From: Upstate New York, NY, USA
Status: offline 		Crunchy,

Congrats on the recovery of your sunken sub. At least now I have an idea what the sub I lost in the pond a year ago looks like.
That is one of the most graphic/detailed pictures of a recovered Wally sub. Too bad about the electronics.
You should put that sub in a glass display case for future reference. I would.... if I recovered my long lost sub.

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(in reply to CrunchyFrog)
       Post #: 33

RE: Lost or recovered RC-sub tales - 10/7/2005 8:11:32 PM   
CrunchyFrog



Posts: 468
Joined: 6/10/2005
From: austin, TX, USA
Status: offline 		Thanks, GS! I did set the sub apart from other stuff so I wouldn't lose evidence about the sub's travels since I had last seen it.

When I dissect or handle the sub to find something out, though, my fingers unwittingly clean the sub. Guess I'll eventually end up with a clean sub without working electronics--or maybe they do work, and I just haven't given the sub the TLC to leave casings open and let it all dry (kind of hard to leave stuff open with a toddler in the house).


< Message edited by CrunchyFrog -- 10/7/2005 8:26:21 PM >

(in reply to gulfstreamI)
       Post #: 34

RE: Lost or recovered RC-sub tales - 10/9/2005 4:13:04 AM   
CrunchyFrog



Posts: 468
Joined: 6/10/2005
From: austin, TX, USA
Status: offline 		Over a week after the sub's recovery, having said the motors were dead, I opened her up for a second look, having the luxury of taking a longer look this time.

Most of the water has dried--but I found some water inside the receiver module in the bow. On the other hand, the motors--while caked with the crud and seed pods that permeates the Styrofoam and sits snug in the bilges--do not appear to have moisture inside. Maybe the motors are still good. Heck, maybe the receiver will run the boat again when dry. I'm going to leave the sub open on a top shelf now.

A picture is worth a thousand words, but I gave back my loaner camera: You know the shiny, stainless-steel post the Chicagos have inside the bow? Mine is caked solid brown from the water and dirt that got into this thing.


< Message edited by CrunchyFrog -- 10/10/2005 3:14:38 AM >

(in reply to CrunchyFrog)
       Post #: 35

RE: Lost or recovered RC-sub tales - 10/9/2005 3:30:42 PM   
Turbulent


 

Posts: 45
Joined: 3/12/2005
From: , UNITED KINGDOM
Status: offline 		I'd like to be able to weather my boats like that!

maybe I should sink them all for a week or two!!, Is the other one lost for good then?

Thanks for the compliments about my boats by the way.

I hope hope foam doesnt loose its boyancy......see the attached pic.



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http://www.81x.com/paul123/Military

(in reply to CrunchyFrog)
       Post #: 36

RE: Lost or recovered RC-sub tales - 10/10/2005 3:32:58 AM   
CrunchyFrog



Posts: 468
Joined: 6/10/2005
From: austin, TX, USA
Status: offline 		That's funny! I hadn't expected to inspire any sinkings.

My last sub is definitely gone for good: If it does bob to the surface, no doubt it will be seen first by some of the scores of college kids that pass the pond each day--I won't wait on it.

Regarding foam, what kind did you use?

I hear that Styrofoam will lose its buoyancy with repeated deep dives. Styro can actually become waterlogged, said a guy in the Wal-Mart subs topic. Some of the guys in that topic are actually on a quest for the perfect foam as of late.

(in reply to Turbulent)
       Post #: 37

RE: Lost or recovered RC-sub tales - 10/10/2005 3:48:16 AM   
CrunchyFrog



Posts: 468
Joined: 6/10/2005
From: austin, TX, USA
Status: offline 		After exploring my recovered Chicago, I opened up my Dallas--which is another Wal-Mart sub, basically the Chicago with a different name on it.

I had sealed up my Dallas' motor casings and receiver case carefully with hot glue. But with the glue intact until I reopened the receiver, I found water in Dallas' receiver too! Just a few drops of water--but the sub had only cruised a total of two hours in its career. Around the motor-wire inlets, I found beads of moisture, and a small pool in the bottom of the receiver case.

Whenever I open up a Chicago or Dallas, I find water in the wire-harness tubes connecting the receiver to the motors, where the design seems to have meant to keep it out. The wire connectors seem to be an Achilles' heel of the Wal-Mart subs, the first place water shows up where it shouldn't. From there, I expect the water can seep into motors and the receiver.

To prevent my Dallas' becoming a leakage loss in shallow water--which might have happened to the sub I recovered--I've now taken extra steps with Dallas: I reopened the receiver case and sealed the wire inlets from the inside with hot glue; then I re-sealed the case. Didn't do the motors--I'm out of time this weekend.