Princess Elizabeth Power train installation

[ihughes]

Hi everyone

Have just got all my all my components together for installation in my Princess Elizabeth based Minesweeper.

I'm going to be using 2 x 6volt geared motors (purchased from Squires in UK) which are supposed to produce 150rpm. I'm using nylon cogs to transfer drive to paddle shafts with slight up-gearing in the ratio to 180-190 rpm.

Battery packs are 6v 1100ma. Not sure what sort of run times I'm going to get with these but they are lightweight and compact.

2 x Mtroniks speed controllers with a mixer circuit built and supplied by one of my boat club colleagues. Not sure if I'm even going to bother installing a rudder servo yet.

I've just put all of the above into the hull and floated it in the test tank (bath) and much to my amazement, I have no problems with fore/aft balance and it needs 570g of additional lead ballast to get it down to what seems to be the right sort of waterline.

With the lead in the hull it doesn't seem to be un-stable in nature, but the proof will be in how it behaves under power and when turning.

I'll let you all know how I get on.....currently giving the batteries their first 18+ hour charge.

One thing for sure I'd recommend is using very light weight stanchions and railings rather than the split pin type that Richard Webb recommends in his build instructions. If you keep superstructure and top weight to a minimum, I think you have got a pretty good chance of ballasting out some of the inherent stability problems.

Ian  

[Red_Hamish]

Hello all, thanks Ian for your update. I for one would be interested in the part numbers of the items you are using from Squires.  When I looked through their catalogue I got completely befuddled as I am not very good at sitting down and planning in detail what I actually require until half way through the build and realise there is a vital piece missing.  :ohno  Would also apppreciate seening a picture of your gearing mechanism when completed. Just so that we can steal your layout ideas  

cheers

Jim

[Barrie]

I was thinking about converting my Princess Elizabeth to twin motors so will be very interested to see how yours turns out. I had found some motors on the Greenweld site which looked interesting, and were quite cheap so worth a try without being too expensive if they didn't work. Don't know about power consumption though.

I would also be interested in what you used for the stanchions - I used the split brass ones which are in fact very light - I dont see anything other than plastic saviving weight in that area. I doubt the whole lot weighed more than a couple of ounces, including the rails.

Barrie

[ihughes]

Hi all

The geared motors I am using from SQUIRES are part no: 570-130 on page 467 of their 2006 catalogue. They are rated at 6000 rpm at 6volts have a 40-1 reduction gearbox so give 150 rpm.

The nylon drive cogs i am using are the Module 1 Gears on page 470. They have a 4mm bore which will fit straight onto the end of the motor/gearbox output shaft.

I have shortened the gearbox output shaft on both motors and used the piece of sawn off shaft inserted in the ends of my paddle drive shafts (which are hollow brass tube) so that the cogs can be fitted perfectly onto the end of the paddle shafts.

The paddle wheels are locked onto the shafts with a small self taping screw and the nylon cog retains the shaft in its bearing tube at the inboard end.

I will post photos when completed.

The motors have an integral plastic mount and will be very easy to position with direct drive to the paddle shafts using plasticard to create an additional mounting plate within the hull.

HOWEVER, I have just been testing the motor, ESC and mixer set-up on my bench and cannot get both ESC's and motors to run properly, so will not be installing just yet!

I will get my boat club electronics expert, who built the mixer, to troubleshoot and hopefully everything will be up and running next week.

Ian