Lets see your rescue boat!!!

[Simon.O.]

This is my new one.
It has had successful sea trials and will be pressed into service next week if the weather is good.
Here is a photo from a week or two ago.

Build thread

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1228533

[sailr]

Explain the concept please! Do it have vector steering so you can blow the stern up, thus lowering the front of the vessel to scoop up whatever you are retrieving? If so, very clever. Get some video!!

[pescador]

Nice, some of those parts look familiar maybe from a Meccano set?

[DesignerDan]

I wish it worked that way. It has a wireless camera on it (not shown in the picture) to give a "water level, first person point of view" but it didn't work very well. I found it easier to use without the camera. The water bottles are in case it starts raining. I don't want the boat to fill up with water because it will sink without those water bottles. The whole motor pivots on a turn table that's hooked up to a servo. It very slow but it works, it's reliable, has a zero turn radius, and has about 30 minutes of run time. Here's some videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-l4SWWdOe0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtoGBgQOYTQ

[785boats]

Well as a bit of fun I got rid of the EDFs on the boogie board & installed a flex drive & a Turginy Typhoon 500 out runner on 4s. It might not be the best rescue boat anymore but it can get to the crash site damn quick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dldANIVDQjw

[befu]

Well as a bit of fun I got rid of the EDFs on the boogie board & installed a flex drive & a Turginy Typhoon 500 out runner on 4s. It might not be the best rescue boat anymore but it can get to the crash site damn quick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dldANIVDQjw

What do you do when your rescue craft blows over!?!?!

that looks like fun!

[sunsation288]

I have added a video of my rescue boat in action to my original post #14.

I may as well link it here too.

Brad

Great Thread guy , and Wannabe , i will look to built one like yours

[scubasteve95]

tommys tug....

[forescott]

Mine looks like Diesel's.....but with less BLING!!

[Diesel6401]

Mine looks like Diesel's.....but with less BLING!!

SWEEEEEEET.....

I just actually changed mine around. Now using a Apache 24 with stock motor, prop and a xl-5 esc. I found that the steerable drive on the apache allows for some great slow speed turning making easier to line up the down boat.

[forescott]

AAAh, nice! I picked the rio because of the dual rudders, but I can see how the steerable outdrive would work even better.

[chummer]

Could have used one of these yesterday. 2hrs to get the SV back! At one point I thought it was gone forever, but eventually (1/2 mile later) it floated to a shallow spot.

[FE Wannabe]

Great Thread guy , and Wannabe , i will look to built one like yours

Sunsation,
It is definitely one of my best contraptions, adding the lift to my rescue boat. If I only had a little bit more ability when it comes to being able to steer it, I would be set.
Let me know if you need any help building it. Let's just say I learned a lot about how servos work and how to modify them during the design phase.

Also, I am using a Proboat Apache steerable outdrive as well. This with a flex cable and the ability to reverse allows for a lot of slow speed manuvering.

Brad

[bustitup]

Can u please post pics and info how u rigged the serve to pick up the basket...nice job

Sunsation,
It is definitely one of my best contraptions, adding the lift to my rescue boat. If I only had a little bit more ability when it comes to being able to steer it, I would be set.
Let me know if you need any help building it. Let's just say I learned a lot about how servos work and how to modify them during the design phase.

Also, I am using a Proboat Apache steerable outdrive as well. This with a flex cable and the ability to reverse allows for a lot of slow speed manuvering.

Brad

[FE Wannabe]

Can u please post pics and info how u rigged the serve to pick up the basket...nice job

Thanks Nick,

I will attempt to take some decent pictures when I get home tonight.

The large servo is used as a winch motor to wind up 40lb test fishing line around a 1/2 inch PVC pipe. I use the third channel on my JR radio to control the servo. The fishing line is routed through four eyelets on the vertical PVC support posts and then is attached with 4 snap swivels at each of the corners of the metal basket that lowers into the water. Doing a little math I figured 10 rotations of the 1/2" PVC pipe would give me the ability to have a 16 inch vertical range of motion, which should allow me to get under the transom of partially submerged boats that are nose up.

The Servo I used is a 1/4 scale Hobbico CS-80 Servo that is basically the same servo as a Hitec HS805BB. These servos have 343 oz-in of torque at 6V which translates to over 21 lb-in of lifting capability. I have successfully lifted a 10lb can of nuts and bolts vertically 16" and held it for 5 minutes. I figured that is a good enough test for any of my boats, even if they are partially filled with water.
I first modifed the servo for continuous rotation by opening the servo and carefully removing the stop on the main output shaft with a dremel. I then removed the potentiometer (pot) from the case and wired in an external 10 Turn pot with the same resistance value as the stock pot, which I believe is 5K. The pot is used to tell the servo where it is currently positioned, so it know when it has reached its limit and it should stop. I mounted the the 10 Turn pot in the other end of the PVC winch pipe and secured it to the PVC frame. That way when I use the third channel on my JR radio I can watch the numbers on the screen and know pretty much where the basket is positioned on the rescue boat at any time.
There are a few websites that I viewed to help me figure out the servo mods, but this one was the most helpful http://sites.google.com/site/joeboti...bbicotowerhobb

I then screwed the round servo wheel horn into a 1 1/2" x 1/2" PVC pipe reducer that was the same diameter as the wheel horn. I then screwed the 1/2" PVC pipe into the reducer. The winch pipe is guided by 2 metal eyebolts that is way overkill, especially since there is no vertical load on the pipe. Looking back on it I could have used just about anything as guide for the winch pipe.

I have secured the entire PVC rescue boat with screws so that I can change the scale of the rescue boat if needed.

This will probably make a lot more sense when I can provide detailed pictures.
I should probably make a build thread at some point.
Brad