Hi All
Today Jupiter arrived on the bench for a long overdue refit and tidy up.
Jupiter is only a couple of years older than myself  (36) and has been a most reliable boat and deserves a new lease of life.

She was last out on the water about 5 years ago and i am hoping to get her out again for the Model Steamer Club's Show on the 28th of this month.

Unfortunately the refit is necessary as the radio gear has packed up.

A couple of interesting bits about the radio instillation - the speed controller is a home made 'Bob's' board, likewise the switching gear for horn, lights smoke.  The motor is a Bomb site motor and is similar in operation to a modern brushless motor but is controlled by traditional speed controller - I'm not an electrical whizz, infact Christmas tree lights are a challenge to me , I am interested to find out how this works myself! The smoke units have been removed at some point and so i will rebuild and replace.

On deck there is mainly a lot of cleaning and touching up to be done. Several of the passengers legs seem to be a little fatigued from standing for over 30 years 


So there you go that's what I'm up to at the moment in between drawing more paddle wheels and chasing up suppliers.
Regards
Kim

A couple more pics...

Hi Kim,
Lovely model, well worth a refit & getting her afloat again. Interesting that the model has been in existance nearly twice as long as the real ship was 

Super model Kim - well worth the effort of a spell in dry dock.

Stuart

Brilliant model, Kim. I like the flower pots on the superstructure 

Cheers Guys for the comments.
Jack, you have just brightened up a rather dull day 
The flower pots are supposed to be fire buckets ... but I do like the flower pot idea

Cheers 
Kim

  That's what they looked like at a glance 

Quote from: Jack on November 19, 2009, 06:11:10 AM
That's what they looked like at a glance 

I wouldn't worry, Jack, I have seen similar looking Fire bucket/Flower pots for sale in various garden centres, full of blooms.(quite expensive also)   

Clark

Jack, Clark - if its ok with you guys they remain as fire buckets
My attempts to grow my own potatoes this year resulted in a crop that makes the Irish Potato famine look like a bumper crop.
Green fingered - not me

Regards
Kim

Hi Kim

Look forward to seeing Jupiter and yourself on 28th
Regards
Ian

An old postcard of a pre-war Jupiter with open wheelhouse

Hi All,
Despite working all night to try and sort the radio gear i haven't been successfull   (My eyes are pinned open with match sticks   )
Think she needs major surgery and i don't want to rush that.
She did have a shower and a new set of rigging so she is looking prettier.
Kim

Its been a long time since my JUPITER has seen water, she's been in Dunoon Heritage Museum for about 15 years now, and I doubt if I'll have her back home as she's a BIG handful to sail.

Hi All,
a wee bit of work done this eve, unfortunately not enough to get her back on the water just yet ....

I have learnt a little more about the motor  ( not that i full understand )

The Field requires a permanent feed (12v + / -) and it is the armature that is wired to the speed controller... if that makes sense to anybody I'd be interested to hear what it means in Layman's terms.

Anyway, using a blank PCB board i have mounted the speed controller, receiver, fuse and connections ...
Slowly slowly .... 
Regards,
Kim

The Field requires a permanent feed (12v + / -) and it is the armature that is wired to the speed controller... if that makes sense to anybody I'd be interested to hear what it means in Layman's terms.

Hi Kim

This means that the Field windings have to be magnetised as there is no permanent magnet around the coil.

Modern motors do not require this arrangement any more, therefore only two wires supply them.

Hope this helps

Ken