Captain Nemo12

I have pictures of my Kilo taken and want to share them with enthusiastics [img][/img]

petn7

looks good. how does it all work? you got a WTC under the hood?

magnumball

where did this submarine come from. what are the specs?

Captain Nemo12

I ordered this sub from an online hobbyshop, took about 3 weeks to deliver!

Specs: Lengh: approx. 19 in
Beam: 4 1/8 inches with diving planes extended
Height: 5 7/8 inches including periscopes on conning tower.

This sub works with a pump ballast system. The pump empties water in and out of the ballast tank, at first I wanted to make this sub a dynamic diving sub but the back diving planes kept on having problems. With the front planes above the waterline, the only way to make it dive was to use the pump method.

I converted this sub to not yet Rc from the 1/144 Trumpeter Kilo Kit. Pretty small for an average RC sub but it's cool in its own way!

> Martin, I do have a WTC installed (I'm moving this Saturday so I couldn't take pictures) because space is a problem, several times I encountered fit problems. I use a nice brass rod for the prop. Martin, I noticed you put up a new post about painting your Alfa on the SubComm BB. Basically I used water based acrylic color paint, there didn't seem to be a problem, you get a nice shining effect too.

leejax02

My Feedback: (1)

Do you have a web site address to the hobby shop and did you have to adapt the wtc to fit or did it come with it?

Captain Nemo12

Hi guys good to be back again,

Leejax, the hobbyshop's name is Military Hobbies, www.militaryhobbies.com (US shop), www.militaryhobbies.ca (Canadian Shop). The kit was meant to be a static display model but some of the guys in the SubCommittee have successfully "RCed" their Kilo. So I thought I might as well. The WTC is not included in the kit. I built the different sections of the WTC with different materials.

- Center WTC, is PVC and styrene
- Back WTC is simply a blue transparent medecine boottle which houses the motor.
-Front WTC is another plastic bottle which houses all the electronics need to run, receivers, etc.

jim1221160

Hey Nemo:

Where did you get the pump for the ballast system?

RockGuitarist109

Where do get the frame for the subs, do u juts buy a really cheap one and take the inside out or do u make ur own frame. if so with what and how.

Captain Nemo12

>jim1221160

The pump is homemade (I'm a do-it-yourself kind of guy so that doesn't really break the rules or anything!) the pump is made of two circles of styrene with PVC bordering (looks like a flat cylinder) Two holes allow water to sip in and out. Inside, there is a fan powered by a small motor to regulate the flow of water. The sides of the pump is transparent, so you can actually see what it's like INSIDE!

>RockGuitarist109

Depends on what you mean by "frame" The kit came with the hull and control surfaces (I had to modify them for RC operation).

If you want to see the kit's build-up go here: http://captainnemo12.tripod.com

Keep you guys posted on the project!

Captain Nemo12

A few pictures can tell more words:



First picture, looking aft from the rear wtc, you can see the motor inside the bottle, the black object is the water tight seal, to make the the prop run better I simply grease the hole for the shaft or simply the shaft itself (brass tube). The white stuff is glue gun glue. It is not waterproof so I simply sealed it off with CA.

Second picture: WTC layout, from left to right.

1.Motor WTC
2.Ballast tank (black object)
3.Ballast tank pump housing WTC.
4. Forward WTC housing electronincs.

petn7

looks good[8D]

Captain Nemo12

Thanks. BTW I had her opened up last night, I tried the motor and the pump with battery. MAN! This is a noisy sub! The vibrations caused by shaft through the hull doubles with the pump's fan moving in its own case. I could buy some capacitors but I don't want to buy a new soldering iron just for that. Plans are to retrieve motors that already have capacitors soldered onto them (e.g. on RC cars) and install them on my model.

OK, I need some more help on the hull's hold down mechanism. Due the plastic's flex, I have trouble making the hull halves hold together. Petn7, could you describe to me how your Alfa's hull halves are held down? Others, if you have experienced the same problem, could you maybe tell me how you overcame this probelm?

petn7

go here:

http://www.rc-submarines.com/id119.htm

that picture at the very top, "Bow hold down" is almost exactly what i did. instead of fiberglass, i just took some scrap plastic lying around. i used a small stainless steel nut and bolt set from my old Piccolo helicopter parts box and instead of using a brass tube, i used a plastic styrene tube. i used slow dry 24hr epoxy and glued the blue plastic to the hull as well as the styrene tube to the hull by literally submerging both the styrene tube and bolt; i bascially filled up the little "pocket" i made in the hull with epoxy. after a few days when the epoxy was dry, i took my mini pin vise and drilled a little bit through the nut to clear a hole in the epoxy for the bolt.


http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/upfi...21/Lg18208.jpg
here you can see the blue plastic i used instead of the fiberglass. the top part of the hull is at the bottom of the picture and that tiny hole on the left has the nut behind it, but you obviously can't see it. on the right of the top part of the hull you can barely see the peice of clear styrene plastic i glued. this flap slides under the remainder of the top of the hull that is permanently glued to the bottom of the hull and encases the rudder and dive plane linkages. this flap at the back of the top part of the hull wasn't actually my idea, but rather Mark Jones' idea. if i had his permission i could send you his pics of his alfa sub that was the inspiration behind mine.

Captain Nemo12

Thanks! I can see what you mean, are your bow planes removable? I don't seem to see them in the picture. BTW I also have a couple of questions like, what type of motor do you use? I use a Mabuchi FA-140RA (or 230?) on mine with a gear reduction.

petn7

my bow planes are kind of removeable. i could add them in if i wanted to, but i decided not to. i may later on since it might help the ability to dive from the surface. as for the motor, i have no idea as to what type it is. it's some simple mabuchi type motor that came with the plastic model kit. oh, and it's a direct drive straight from motor shaft to screw and looks alot like this one:

http://www.hobbyengineering.com/SectionM.html#CatMDC

item#:1205

Captain Nemo12

I think it looks like a FA-130RA or 280 RA/SA they usually come with motorized tank models, I got one of thoses and used the motor/ gear box on my sub. When you hook them up with a 3 volt battery pack (say 2 AA's) it really gives a punch! I wonder if they can be put outside the wtc when running in fresh water and still remain working without seizing up.

petn7

i'd guess a few hours. i used some different mabuchi type motors in the water and they worked for an hour or 2. they stopped working underwater, but worked fine when dry.

Captain Nemo12

In the process of redesigning the ballast tank now, I found the following problems with the old one:

- There were two instead of one because I had to stack them up between a brace.
-The holes cut were too small
-the tubes used are too thin

The new ballast tank will be mostly located on the bottom of the hull, leaving space on the top for other equipment.
I will make a diagram showing how the sub will dive and also a drawing of the ballast tank.

Captain Nemo12

OK, so I have the plan all laid out according to my previous post, here are some pics,

The 1st one is the ballast tank 2.0 picture and the 2nd one is how the sub will be controlled once underwater:

Captain Nemo12

Ok, some relocations had to be made on the rear servo-motor, the space left near the motor wtc is just too small to fit anything. With the new B-tank almost finished, I relocated the servo on top of the rear part of the tank. As for the belt drive pump, I replaced it with a geared system, I'm looking forward to see how she performs!

Captain Nemo12

OK! This is another update on the sub, the new ballast tank 2.0 had just been made, I found a couple of big gears so I didn't use the belt drive system. I also included a inside picture os the forward electronic WTC.


Looking at the second picture kinda gives me a little headache. What a mess, I think I'll clean up the space a little!
The ballast tank 2.0 works well except for the fan running a little slower than expected.

Captain Nemo12

Well, with ballast tank in place and all electronics to go, I tested the sub in the bathtub. The first 3 tests I ran resulted in almost catastrophic damage to the electronics (before the sub crashed down anyways) due to a leak at the bottom of the forward WTC. Speed was a little bit too slow, maybe it was the batteries or the prop. The fourth test will be planned somewhere this weekend. I have made a new WTC for the receiver and this time it is waterproof! Here some pictures of the sub now:

Captain Nemo12

P>S>: also made a new epoxy sealed battery pack, EPOXY= best glue on earth!

RC Sumo

so you just covered your batt packs in epoxy?

Captain Nemo12

The battery pack is made from styrene plastic, I think while cutting the parts I might have left some very small curved edges, the CA glue didn't seem to have sealed the openings enough so I covered the small corners with some epoxy instead (CA dries WAY faster than epoxy, I guess I was in a hurry when I made it) I sealed the cover with sealing tape and this method seemed to work well. One problem with small subs is that the batteries will take up a lot of weight, either the front will be heavy or the back will sink, if you add a little extra weight in the back, the whole sub might be going down! Takes a lot of patience but with the fun that I had so far with this little sub, I don't think I will quit!