1:75 diving support vessel Well Enhancer

[Neptune]

discovered that I haven't started quite well (or actually, I had a rubish start on this build, not that that is completely new to me, just never noticed I screwed up this much...).

I know that feeling Josse. You think like starting roughly with the idea of being able to adjust later on (just to see a quick result), but in the end it seems you have to start with the idea of getting perfect from the start.
Had the same thing with the Chaconia, also my first true large scale build. Hull looks like a banana after a car crash... Anyway, good that you've learned some lessons, your last updates show quite some progress and improvement in your skills. That's the most important thing to see and most likely your next one will go much smoother!
Anyway, keep us updated on your progress, I guess you're having holidays now?

[tweety777]

Hi Neptune,

Thanks for the kind words.

When I started this build I knew that it was way above my abilities of that time, but I allready had found out that skills improve over the time so I hoped that my skills would improve fast enough to achieve the desired result, of which I immediatley decided would have to be the actually achieved result before I would call it a finished project.
Fortunately my skills improved fast enough indeed and now I'm building at the level at which I wanted to finish this build, or actually above it, especially when taking my most daring dreams into account.
And now I'm ever more proud of my model.
At some points in the not so far history I think by myself that, if I would keep on building at the high pace at which I've building from time to time, I could be able to finish her in say half a year.
That would not be good cause I then won't have any room to store the Well Enhancer safely to make room fot the Seven Atlantic...

Greetings Josse

[Ticonderoga]

Hi Josse,

Don't be to hard on your self, we all have to start somewhere, and I know as Varyag is my first model build of any significance and is certainly my only scratch build.

I am pleased to see that you are using an Arduino and building your TX/RX, not many on the forum have done that! I am planning to use and Arduino Uno in Varyag as the Computer for the Gun Fire Control System. The Uno will receive a couple of the channels from my Radio, but more on that later in my own post.

If you are willing I am happy to exchange notes on the programming side and share internet resources. I don't have my Uno yet, but I am about ready to begin writing my Sketch.

Keep up the good work. (I also like the "comments" from the budgie )

Andrew

[tweety777]

This time I'll start with the end:

Something big and important is missing here...
Some 6 months of hard and enthousiastic work worth some �60,-.
Here is the story behind it:

I thought, well, it's nice weather outside, let's go out sailing and make some photo's at sunset.
Here Well Enhancer is ready for launch.

Here still looking proud and mighty with the helodeck.

If you look closely you can still see the helodeck here.

And here the magic disappearence tric has took place.
When I looked back to the model I watched the helodeck going overboard due to a small gust of wind...
A well, the helodeck wasn't looking all that good, some parts weren't anywhere near straight, just keep sailing...

This was an attempt to act as if Well Enhancer entered a harbour.
At this point something had went wrong aboard Well Enhancer leaving me with mostly not working, and if working, responding completely opposide to what I told to do.
This resulted in a model that drifted away from me whilst I tried my best to extent the range and to get any control to get her back...

Then came the point where I decided to phone home to ask if the canoe could be brought to me at the rush so I could get her back.
Then I tried to walk around the lake hoping to get within range of the transmitter, but that failed and during this attempt the main superstructure went overboard as well.
Fortunatly I always have a towing line at the aft deck so I didn't have much trouble to get her attached to the canoe (or actually to myself, thought I would capsize right beside my proud model if I would try to get it attached behind me...).
The towing was a scary expedition as well as Well Enhancer already listed due to water in the hull and on deck and I was towing her against a harder wind then I had while I still had control over the model.
The nice thing about the towing is that Well Enhancer has never sailed that fast before...

Here a list of parts that have gone overboard:
Helodeck
Main superstructure
Mast
Hyperbaric lifeboat
RHIB
ROV
The 2 larger interior panels.


By a strange coincidence I had build a new bridgedeck this morning, as if I knew what was about to happen...
The downside is that the larger interior panels have went down with the superstructure.

As I need to build a new superstructure I'll build the new one like I will build Seven Atlantic, meaning that I will build the panels with detailing and fully painted before placing it.


Well Enhancer with the linesplan of Seven Atlantic to show where Seven Atlantic will be build.

Bought the water inlets.
This is a test to check if it's watertight, as this photo was taken after having gone up the stairs to get my camera I'd say it's watertight indeed.

This lot will in time be mounted in the bottom of the hull.

Greetings Josse

[tweety777]

Today I tested the electronics indoors and though the test didn't last long (and therefore the test is not accurate enough to me) it was a succes.
Having the puls wires in the Arduino makes it unable to control anything but when I took the wires out everything worked fine.
A test trial in a narrow water will have to conclude if I really have found the problem.

Then I also found a place in the bow where I can place the waterinlet.
As I had the platforms for the Arduinos placed in a space consuming way I have now placed the front 2 platforms vertical, with the bow platform hanging on a hinge so I can still access the room behind it so I can mount the mechanical part of the davits there.

Greetings Josse

[Ticonderoga]

Hi Josse I have sent you a PM.

Andrew

[tweety777]

Hi Ticonderoga,

As I think the answer to the question in your PM seems to be interesting to more people out here I'm replying here.

The set-up of the Arduino is at this point still temporary.
I have attached wires to connect the puls wires that come from the traditional transmitter to the Arduino so now both systems can control the functions.
As I have had problems with the puls wires attached to the Arduino I decided to disconnect them before I sent Well Enhancer onto the water.
Right now the only reason for having the puls wires attached to the Arduino is so I can test the Arduino system.
At this point I still need to find a way to get the Lazarus program talk to the Arduino which will handle the communication and then have the Arduino Mega send the commands to the Arduino Uno which has the puls wires of the controls attached.
As soon as I've managed to get this working I'll post the commands in a new reply in this thread.

What I can tell you now is how I connect several Arduinos.
This is very easy: connect a RX pin of the first to a TX pin on the other and do the same with a TX pin on the first Arduino.
Then tell them somehow (still need to figure that one out myself too) to talk to eachother in a way that the Arduino that needs to execute the command knows what to do.
If you search in Google you'll most likely find quite some stuff about this.

As of now I might spend my newly planned hobby evening on wednesday trying to figure out how to get things working.

Greetings Josse

[Neptune]

That electronics is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay above my head.

Anyway, I like how you took up the loss of your superstructure and helo deck so lightly and saw it as an opportunity to improve the model. Something you wouldn't have done all over apart from that bridge maybe. It will slow you down a while probably, but the end result, with what you've learned in the past years, will be much better!!! Sure Tweety will agree as well. Good luck with the reconstruction. For me the electronics is the thing that ALWAYS slows me down and of course the lack of decent sailing waters.

[tweety777]

The loss of the mentioned parts also motivates me to continu the work on getting the new electronics to work properly.
The new electronics come with a much better range, 1000m rather then the 100m range of my current transmitter.
That makes these kind of problems less likely to get to the level at which they occured last saturday, apart from the fact that I surely have learned my lesson and will therefor never ever place any hatch without any means of securing.

Greetings Josse

[tweety777]

Update:

The platform for the bow computer has been attached much properly by means of a hinge so I can still access the room behind it so I can place the winch for the davit there.

At first I thought I would need to cut a USB cable off so I could attach the wires to other pins then those attached to the USB port in the Arduino.
That turned out to be wrong so I broke the old USB cable free and now I'm preparing the next USB cable to be attached.

As the outlines of the deck aren't quite straight I'm using filler to make the edges straight as that seems to make more sense then adjusting the shape of a carefully straight cut-out deck.

The new deck.

The brand new anti-going-overboard-task-force, part of the military
In other words, these brackets will keep the new superstructure from going to the same fait as it's predecessor...

Take a bar of wood and cut out a block with the outer measures of the final subject.

Grap some tools and cut the first corners off of the block.

If your any good at these sort of things this can be the result of some 15 minutes of sawing, cutting, woodworking and sanding.
Now apply some filler, a little sanding and then the first half of the bow is finished!!!

This is where the hyperbaric lifeboat will be placed when finished.

Greetings Josse

[tweety777]

Update:

As the transceiver was poorly connected to the Arduino Mega and nothing else causing wires to break free I decided to use a breadboard to give the wiring more room and it also made it more easy to fit the antenne beneath the deck for which I had planned to make a hole in the deck above it earlier this week
Unfortunately there are no holes for screws in the transceiver so there is no proper way to attach it to anything.

Made the new deck to fit in it's place and reinforced it.
When glueing the reinforcements in place I forgot to check at which side of the deck they needed to be fitted and had them fitted to the wrong side...
Talking about measuring is knowing...

New attempt to mount the boomrest.

Then I started demolishing...
A few years back someone on a Dutch forum happened to carry cargo for the Well Enhancer aboard his ship.
The cargo was the moonpool door which completely closes the top side of the moonpool taking away the very reason for me to even build this pain-in-the-ass construction
Since I build it it has only been consuming room which I actaully needed for other things.
Because of the moonpool there was no room for the Arduino Mega that is needed in the stern as well and this week I found out that my plan of using an Arduino Uno there would not work due to the lack of pulse pins which can control servos.

This might not have been my best decision yet but it seems to me that the keel in this part of the ship doesn't help enough to keep the ship in shape to keep it in place.
The reason for demolishing the keel is so I can place 2 12V 7Ah batteries in this compartment whilst also having room for a vertically stored Arduino Mega.
Now I need to figure out how I can best place everything in here.

Greetings Josse

[tweety777]

Update:

The hole in the deck with the now empty room below it.

Closed the hole in the deck by cutting a plate of wood, glue it in place and then apply some filler so tomorrow I can start sanding again...

I now fitted the pipes with round bars which stick through the deck to make sure the boomrest will go nowhere.

As I had no lights above the boat working behind a superstructure was quite hard so I got myself a light (designed to be attached to a painting, suites well as Well Enhancer will be finished at high quility) so I can see what I'm doing out there.

Attached the first "thing" to keep the superstructure in place.

Added some stiffeners to give extra strength.

Made a temporary platform for the temporary Arduino Uno which will control the rear function (and the bow thruster) during the testing period (or until I receive the still to be ordered Arduino Mega).
At this point I'm thinking about having the spare 12V 7Ah battery in this compartement with the Arduino and have the other (main-) battery in the compartement before it where it has been for quite some time now.

The hyperbaric lifeboat has got some more shape but I'm not completely satisfied with the result, there are notable differences between the port side and starboard side.
It will take some filler and some sanding to make both sides equal.

I also fitted the connector which will power the superstructure.
I want to find a way to connect the water pipes as well as I want to have all connections fitted before the walls are placed so I can easily access the places where the connections are made.
For the piping I'm thinking of metal pipes as I can use that as a simple safety to keep the pump from running when the superstructure is not in place: just make the pipes part of the electricity circuit.

Greetings Josse

[tweety777]

This weekend I attached the connector in the superstructure that will transfer the power and orders for the electronics in the superstructure.
That means that there is 1 + wire, 1 - wire, 2 data wires for the Arduino and 2 wires, each switching on and off a different group of floodlights (1 with the big and very bright more yellowish lights and 1 the more common floodlights using TL lights).
I will also connect 2 more wires which will later on switch on and off the 2 pumps which each serve 1 fire monitor.
The reason for this set-up is that it also acts as a fail-safe against working pumps while the deck is removed.
The only way to start the pumps will be because the superstructure-Arduino sents power up to the deck where the fire monitors are placed and then straight back down into the hull to switch a relais which will in turn close the circuit with the kind of power needed to get a pump working.
I chose to use this method as it is very simple yet very effective and with hardly any room for error.

I have 2 questions:
1. Where can I get myself some decent water pumps (I need 2 pumps, each powering 1 fire monitor and another pump of lower calibre to serve the fire extinguishers on the helodeck and 1 more very light pump for the cooling water).
I have been thinking about using the ships speed to power the cooling water outlets but as the cooling water on a generator powered ship like this would be fairly constant even when preparing to sail or just after mooring I decided that a pump would be more accurate.

2. Could I use a sail winch to drive the steering of the thrusters by means of V-belts?
I'm hoping to finally get rid of the room in the steering, causing me to adjust the trim (which I won't have when the Arduino system is in service) after having made a sharp turn.

Greetings Josse

[Neptune]

Not sure about a pump, but perhaps you can use a bowthruster as a pump? They can get quite some pressure since they push a ship from and to one side. So I think if you'd attach one side to a pipe towards your monitor and the other to some sort of inlet in your hull it might work? Anybody tried this before?
They are available in different sizes so I assume the smallest would do for this purpose?!
I'm looking into bowthrusters too, but not for Chaconia ^^

[tweety777]

Today I ordered 4 water pumps, the 3 remaining Arduinos and 2 step-motors of which 1 will turn the main crane.
I also cut out the rear wall of the superstructure as that needs to be aligned with the wall below it.
Next thing to do is to make the Lazarus-build software able to control the Arduinos, get it working by means of 2,4GHz transceiver and then prepare the programs for the ordered Arduinos, prepare the crane arm so it can hold some loads so I can test the crane when the new Arduinos have arrived.
As I today also received a copy of the book "programming for dummies" I'm hoping I can start to understand what I'm doing, especially for programming the Arduinos.
Shortly: I got plenty to do when I'm home.

Greetings Josse

[tweety777]

Update:

These wires are ready to be attached to the electronics which have been ordered yesterday.

New rear wall under construction.

Dry fit of the rear wall.
During this dry fit I found out that the walls below the removable hatch are at various distances off centre line which is now being corrected.

All the wires have been attached so this point has been updated to the status of "In check".
The wires are: +, - 2x data for the Arduino, 2 groups of floodlights, "prepare to set sail" and 3 wires that will trigger the pumps to be turned on.
Speaking about the pumps: I decided that having 2 pumps which only deliver water to 1 single fire monitor and having 2 more pumps doing only very light work (flushing the anchors, simulating cooling water and the fire extinguishers on the helodeck) was a bit odd so I decided to stick with only 2 pumps, each still powering only 1 fire monitor but also taking 1 or 2 of the other water requiring functions into account.
That seems to balance the work load better.


I also "moved" the wall on this side to make it end as far out of centre line as the wall on the other side does.
This might not be the very best way but the very best way is not quite possible any more.

Greetings Josse

[tweety777]

Update:

A rather different introduction to this update, showing this photo of the real ship.
The reason for this is that this photo shows a silver pipe on the rear of superstructure which is the main item in this post.

Sawed the first angle out, just from the loose hand, no measuring and surprisingly this went quite well this time, I managed to get an angle of about 45 degrees.

After having cut off the next piece and having tried to solder it to the first piece of pipe and having failed doing so as there is a 2mm narrow piece of pipe in between the 2 larger pipes I decided to check what it would look like with the first piece in place.

The other piece of the tube has got it's bracket.
I'm thinking of applying masking tape around the mounting brackets and then fill the space between it with filler to act as metal ring to which the shown pins would be connected on the real thing.

As the tube is only a detail just being there because the real ship has it glueing the new piece of tube would give a satisfying result so I glued it to the first pieces.
Next thing to do here is to add the last bend (using a narrower tube) and the actual exhaust piece which is placed parallel to the centre line.

Platform back at it's place, though that's some 7mm further from centre line.

If you look closely to the end of the crane arm where the wheels will lead the hoisting cables overboard one may notice the added wooden frame which is to give some strength to the crane arm.
At this point it looks like the crane arm will eventually be turned up and down by means of threaded bars.

Greetings Josse, who is quite satisfied with the result of this free Sunday.

[tweety777]

Got sidetracked:

I guess I'll need to explain this one.
This is not the first plate to make the Seven Atlantic.
Whilst looking for an idea to improve the lighting in the living room I came up with the idea of making a star sky with quite a bunch of LED lights in it.
My parents didn't think it would give the sort of light they wanted but as I'm very font of the idea I decided to make a star sky anyway but for in my bed room.
The plate is at the full size of the sky.
The small and long planks will be used to make an edge to make it fit the ceiling better and to hide the wiring from view.
The blue thing is to show what colour I will spray the sky.

This is the polar star, a 5mm 3000MCD strong LED light.
The other LEDs will be the less powerful 5mm 2500MCD LEDs which I ordered in Germany which is less then half the price of ordering the same LEDs from a more local store like Conrad...

As I want to create the impression that this is an actual star sky I decided that I would need to make some well-known star figures.
I've chosen to take both Ursa Minora and Ursa Majora and a part of Draco.

This photo shows just how low the edge is so I can't use any available transformers so I'll have to make 1 myself.
As I know from myself that I tend to not finish this kind of wonderful projects I'm going to push myself to at least drill 5 holes or place 5 LEDs every free evening.

Greetings Josse

[tweety777]

https://www.youtube.com/embed/OjhC7sAaU5c

WE HAVE VICTORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seriously?
Yes!
Why?
Because today I continued the attempt to link my self-build software to the Arduino and succeeded to do so!!!!!!
Against an unwilling debugger I managed (with the help of my father) to get my software to talk to a form which will handle the communications with the Arduinos.
At some point we had reached the point where we saw prove that there was at least made some text which tells the Arduino what to do.
At this point the USB cable had to be connected but my PC refused to work with Arduino so I had to get my laptop up and running.
The first test failed in the part of an actual responding function though the Arduino clearly showed it received messages.
Success point 2 was reached!!!
After having rearranged the wiring a bit, taking some wires out of the Arduino and putting some back in later on I suddenly had responding servos!!!!
After some more re-wiring (at this point only the throttle stick is programmed to actually send something to the Arduino) I managed to have the bow thruster respond to my commands!!!!
Then attempt 3 to get the main engines respond failed as well and as I haven't been able to get that fixed I'll now need to contact a friend to ask if he can help to figure out what goes wrong.
In other words, big success with a challenge!

Greetings Josse

[tweety777]

Update:

Filled the exhaust pipe.
I also applied this epoxy filler to the inside to make sure the parts are connected indeed no matter how much filler I'll sand off of the outside.

The hyperbaric lifeboat has also been filled and sanded.

Now some great news:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsBEmjfkvRk
The main propulsion is responding properly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It still needs fine tuning as applies to the other propulsion functions but it's responding!!!
I now also have the wiring set-up such that I now control the functions with their equally named bar!!
I also tested the keyboard commands and those work as well!!!

Greetings, a very proud Josse