The Ship Model Forum

Hello all,

It's been a while, haven't got around working on the model a lot lately though I did get some important break throughs in the background. I decided that having the deck surrounding the dive area and housing some davits for lifeboats fixed to the hull creates all kinds of problems when it comes to making the davits work so I will make the deck with a bit of the walls below it removable so I can use the large open space in the removable section of the dive area for electronics and servo's without inferfering with the main computer and the battery. I have now also made some software reservations for the dive bell so should I decide to make it working as well I only need to add some working works.

Yesterday I uploaded my first video to YouTube where I want to keep track of the build process like I do here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVQar8oVR84&t=85s


Project Flying Helicopter is GO! This helicopter is to land on the helicopter deck, though I do intent to try and make it look like a Sea King or Super Puma used by some offshore company, preferably with a bit of cockpit interior if the battery there allows it.


The size fits well for the helicopter deck, though that is yet to be build. My focus is currently on other, more important parts of the ship.


The main computer proved to big to get access to electronics once the main deck is fixed in place so I designed and printed a smaller version which I now started to rebuild to.


By now the fuse box is moved to the new main computer, I still need to design and print the electronics rack to fit in here.


Still a lot to be done! I got a new PCB which acts as a computer like power supply for the Pi and I also replaced my first self made PCB's by a new version to get rid of the short circuits in the old design.


Lastly I updated the list of functions and mostly the corresponding commands and decided to add 2 more PWM modules, 1 in the drilling tower and 1 in the dive area so I can keep the number of wires going through connectors as low as possible.

Greeting, Josse

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Making a complete new Well Enhancer, again scale 1:75.

Hello all,


Today I managed to fix the issues I found earlier this week by cutting through a solder lane on the PCB and attaching 2 wires because I had 1 adress pin connected to GND and the other to the + but both needed to be connected to GND and turned out to need to actually be connected to GND (that was blocked by switches thinking I needed to short it in order to get the default adress. Also, the Reset pin turned out to need 3,3V in order for the chip to boot.

This test set-up I used to get to eleminate the problems with my self-designed PCB, though I cheated a bit by using a similar but slightly different chip (functionality is the same, pin layout is slightly diferent though the functions of the several pins are same, just in a different place) because I ran out of the correct chip. I tried removing 1 from a faulty PCB but I couldn't get it loose, that made me decide to not solder the chip directly in place anymore but rather have an IC holder in place and put the chip in it.

All in all I got a couple of great break throughs! The party isn't yet complete though, since the Pi in the transmitter only accepts connection for a couple of minutes before freezing totally and the Pi in the boat refuses to pick up the the I2C devices for some still unknown reason. I did get to test the NRF24 transceiver and that seems to work though it is difficult to know that for sure without another transceiver to communicate with.

Greetings Josse

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Making a complete new Well Enhancer, again scale 1:75.

Hi all,


This week I received the improved PCB's (10 in total) and quickly found out why putting text next to connectors showing the purpose of each pin is so important. Now it was easily visible that the + and - wires are at least multiple times connected the wrong way around. I already started fixing a few connectors but I still have a long way to go to check all the connectors and fix them all.

I put all the new PCB's where the will end up, though I still need to solder the resistors for selecting the I2C adress. Since I keep using the 2 modified somewhat older PCB's as well I'll have 2 spare PCB's now.

The new version PCB along the 2 now obselete PCB's which will be replaced by relais modules along with the new version PCB. This solution is both cheaper and more practical in terms of room and flexibilty of placement.

Greetings Josse

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Making a complete new Well Enhancer, again scale 1:75.

Hello all,

In the past couple of weeks I have been focusing on getting the Well Enhancer sailing before the end of this season but after running into a multitude of problems, mostly regarding the wiring, I decided to go back to the drawing board.

I chose the literal drawing board as well, since I painted school board paint on the wooden shelf so I can easily make notes and remove them just as easily. I will paint a couple of lines to make things more organised. In the background the new main I2C cable is visible, this has 5 connectors to which a second cable is connected with 1 point where I will solder all the needed wires and there is a spare connector for just in case I find some more needed devices connected there. I will also use wire numbers to make things clearly recognisable.

This image gives some idea of what I'm going to. At this moment I still need to remove a lot of stuff out of the boat (including the main computer, still in progress of building up the new version) and still have some stuff to buy as well. I now really want to see everything working, including all servo's and motors though for LED's I'll use some test setups because of the practical reason of having the LED's pretty much all mounted on the other side of walls or decks.

Greetings Josse

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Making a complete new Well Enhancer, again scale 1:75.

Hi all,

The last 2 months I have been quite busy arranging and still finishing a dormer which was placed on my house now 2 weeks ago. In the meantime I have been working on a model of the work I do nowadays which will be used to sell the products I work on at expo's. Encouraged by these results I decided to pick up my own project as well.

I mounted the entire plate on drawer slides to make everything more accessible without hitting the roof with my head. Since I needed to clear everything off the plate for mounting the slides I also decided to clear things up a a bit and start working on the power supply and it's wiring. Even though this is not a small plate, it's still quite small to fit all the electronics of Well Enhancer.

Using some Tie-wraps to tie the servo's and electronics down this looks like a decent enough testing setup, especially with the servo horns now put atop the servo's. Next up is preparing the power supply wiring and connecting all the wiring. I will also upgrade this to a fully equipped with a PC power supply powered labsupply and storage for spare wiring and spare electronics parts as well as some tools needed for working with the wiring and electronics, alongside upgrading my spraybooth with some proper ventilation and lighting.

Greetings Josse

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Making a complete new Well Enhancer, again scale 1:75.

Hi all,


In the last couple of weeks I continued the work on programming and working towards a finished test setup. This feels like a process of 1 step ahead, 3 steps back. Considering that it used to feel like 1 step ahead and then 5 back I am making progress, also when considering that 1 set back doesn't take me a year to solve any more. By this time I have arrived at the point where I can actually start making all things come together quite quickly when the last pieces of the puzzle start falling in place. For that matter it would help not to create a short circuit through the address pin on a port expander, destroying a Pi, a motorhat and 3-4 PWM modules in the process. The port expander already was to be replaced by a different chip so that loss is not much a problem, the Pi and motorhat are big problems, though they will end up in the transmitter, where the motorhat will control the helm indicators.

After trying MOSFETS to control the winch motors resulting in blowing the MOSFETS up, I ordered some 40 continuous servo PCB's leaving me a couple for the life boats. When testing these on the PWM modules I got no stop and also no reverse, but using the servo tester these work fine, also for the lifeboats, which I tested seperately.

Got myself a couple of new pumps which will be the cooling water pumps and for flushing the anchors. The new pumps are so much smaller then what I originally got myself which is a great benefit. These pumps don't need to pump large amounts of water so these seem fine.

Sometimes a change of scenery helps to keep going. Therefore I decided to glue all the outer walls of the superstructure together.

The whole ship looks a lot better too, so I'm very happy about this progress. The newly painted crew (still work in progress though) also adds to the improvements.

Greetings Josse

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Making a complete new Well Enhancer, again scale 1:75.

Hi all,


Oh dear, oh dear, what did I just do?? Now being 16,5 years into this project having never ever even considered making the retractable schottel fully working (even though making the 2 in future project Seven Atlantic working was never in doubt) I decided I had to make it working, even if only to try it out before the Seven Atlantic. Considering I really want to try to have Well Enhancer sail this sailing season this was about as late as I could still afort making such a design and make it happen as well. Therefore I picked up my multitool and started making the needed cuts in the hull. Next to the hull I hold the final pocket in which the retractable schottel will be kept with all the components needed to attach 3 guiding shafts and 1 M4 thread which will move the entire assembly up and down. Before printing this final version I printed a version without any holes just to see if I can make it watertight, which proved a resounding succes.

Designing the schottel is coming along nicely, the schottel design itself is almost finished though I still need to come up with a proper solution for making the connection between the mounting plate that makes the schottel up and down as well as holding the needed motors and there sensors because the schottel needs to turn, have it's removable gear atop (5mm high) and I need to keep the height as low as possible. The entire schottel need to be removable so I can even replace it if need be.

This gives some indication for how the assembly will come together, though this schottel is still printed in PLA rather then resin just to check the design for proper fitting and whether it will work the way I want it to. The final version will be shorter then what is shown here to optimize the available space and the vertical gear didn't fit as well as it needs to so driving the propshaft wasn't going to happen in this version.

This is the definitive design for the schottel itself, the vertical gear now fits properly and there is enough room for maintenance. The final version will be printed in resin so I only need to paint it and assemble the entire assembly to make it work as intended. Because of the choice for resin I will add a resin ring to act as a seal in the pocket housing the schottel because this ring can be made watertight with the pocket with as much material as can be reasonable for the application without needing to worry about fixing things that should be able to turn and move.

Now back to now, I only need to fill up the gaps with greenstuff and I most likely will poor some epoxy resin in there after that to make sure all is really watertight.

I started sawing the hole a little small hoping to make the hole as precise as possible with regard to keeping it all watertight. In the end precise turned out a little difficult under these circumstances. The piece of bottom I cut out is laying atop the hull.

I wasn't done just yet making holes in my hull, there were 2 more to go for the dive bells. The moonpools that will be fitted in these holes have yet been 3D designed and printed with some supports to fit the moonpool to the frame (the battery will fit directly between the 2 moonpools) and also some support for adding the winch later on.

At the moment Well Enhancer is in undergoing maintenance at Damen Shiprepair in Amsterdam. where Seven Atlantic (a future project for me, I walked on her while she was only a double bottom) was laying 2 piers further after having docked for a new paint job. It made quite a picture for me:


Greetings Josse

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Making a complete new Well Enhancer, again scale 1:75.

HI Josse just been lookin through your build again an you say you have been at this build for 16.5 yrs do you ever think you will finish it ?
chrisb

HI Josse just been lookin through your build again an WOW what a lot of wires in there more than my tiger build
chrisb

Hi Chris,

Yeah, I sure have a lot of wires and the power supply wiring isn't even finished yet and also the on/off functions mostly still need to be wired. I keep an Excel sheet as a guide to keep track of everything including the functions of all wires in a connector for ease of maintenance and installing up front. There is simply no other way going about this, I can keep track of quite a lot in my head but this way to much for me as well. I also use a second Excel sheet for planning which steps I still need to take and how far they've progressed which also doubles as note list so I can keep track of all things I need to look out for and ideas for how to make things happen.


That's a good question. I know 1 thing for certain, I won't stop until I finished this project. The planning I mentioned above in this post says it could be done in like 8 years at an average of 1 hour a week, considering all things start falling in place relatively easily. This includes time for programming and designing of parts so it's quite complete. Below I attached the current status, mind you, this is not considering the construction of the hull since I only started using this planning like 2 years ago.

To add to the current status, I have made the hull watertight again and right now I'm focusing on getting the bottom finished and fully painted. After that I'm going to install all the power wiring in the boat, followed by the communication wiring and electronics and then all the different functions. The reason behind this decision is that I need some positivity in my life and I started without a plan with the test setup, making a mess of the wiring. So, rather then taking all from the test setup and building it up again the right way I use the moment to make a step towards sailing while fixing the problem in 1 go, now with a plan.

Greetings Josse

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Making a complete new Well Enhancer, again scale 1:75.

Hi all,


At the moment I've waterproofed the hull again and am now in the process of filling and sanding the new edges so the fit nicely, then have the paintwork patched up again, at least on the bottom so I don't need to turn the hull on it's side anymore. In this process I will also finish the inside of the main moonpool because there will be 1 more watertight connection so I can open and close the lower moonpool door. When this is done, I will start with making the power wiring throughout the boat, which should've been what I've started with on the test setup in the first place. Now nowing what I learned from making the setup I will now start putting everything back in the boat, power first, then communication and after that the electronics and all devices, all with proper cable management. This saves me having it to do it twice and currently I'm confident that all I have works as intended.



Perhaps the moonpools for the dive bells aren't as big as they should be but no-one will ever see them in a way to be able to spot this.

Here is 1 nice job finishing the inside of the moonpool with only 1 photo as reference.

The styrene sheet didn't fit quite as well as I hoped, apparently I hadn't taken off the material smooth and far enough. I'm going to rectify this mistake now.

I didn't glue the deck in place, I'm only checking how it all fits and what needs to be done to improve the fit for when the time comes.

Nice overview, I'll need to check some measurements because I recall being able to walk with 2 people side by side through the corridor where the crewmember stands, but as the lines indicate, that will not fit here.

Also added some supports to the ROV hangar so it isn't hanging off of the moonpool anymore.

Printed some nice supports to mount to the frames for holding the electronics.

I prepared the fuses for both the 3,3V and 5V regulators.

Printed a new foundation for the 8-way relay module with room for a 3,3V regulator, a 5V regulator and a MCP23017 port expander.

Still need to modify the lower end of the new moonpools so the battery can sit flush on the bottom again, or make a support so the battery will no longer rest on the moonpools.


Greetings Josse

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Making a complete new Well Enhancer, again scale 1:75.

Hello all,

Yesterday I made a big step in the direction of being able to sail the boat, which I hope to achieve on juli 13th when my new club has a model sailing competition. The next step will be to transfer to inputting the commands and having them end up controlling the steppers and main engines.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClzWigQk960



Someone in my new club somewhat jokingly suggested that some water detection would be a good idea, so I got going on a very simple version of detecting water (simple cutting a wire in 2, glue both ends to the bottom at a small separation) and then I made these drawings indicating where the water is actually detected. This is not really a luxury on this model since the bottom will most likely be completely or almost completely covered by electronics making it very hard to actually find leak water. Now I need to remember when adding all the electronics to also leave room for a hose so I can also get the water out as well.



Put the LED's in firmly and made sure they don't leak any light.



Connected all the - wires, at this point thinking I would use wires rather then a PCB to connect the LED's. Added downside of this approach, and benefit for a PCB is not needing more wiring but bringing it all together in 1 central place and handling the connections there.



I started working on the detection grid, the first 2 frames are wired now. I put the first panel at a possible location to how things will work out, though the PCB still needs to be added here.



Indicating a leak in frame 28, with bear eyes the number is perfectly readable, it's the lack of contrast in the camera that is not showing it in the image. The LED's have already got a resistor fitted for powering straight out of the 12V battery.



The PCB has now arrived, I hope I chose the right diodes, these appear to have a fairly high resistance, but then it needs to deliver a maximum of 3,3V to an input pin on an IO multiplexer.



A PCB cannot get any simpler than this. This is a practical solution for powering all devices connected to an I2C multiplexer, which is why I designed this PCB.



Greetings Josse

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Making a complete new Well Enhancer, again scale 1:75.