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

_________________
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

_________________
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

_________________
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

_________________
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

_________________
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

_________________
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

_________________
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

_________________
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

_________________
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

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

Hello all,

In the past couple of weeks I made great progress in getting Well Enhancer ready to sail!! First of the big steps is questioning the idea of using stepper motors along the magnetic angle sensors (AS5600) to turn the azimuths. This because a reduction motor with the same sensor can do the exact same thing. This proofed a great step forwards for rotating the cranes but because I had always planned to sent the actual angle for the azimuth from the transmitter using a 360 degree rotatable joystick. While giving this more thought I realised that dropping the fancy joysticks which also gave my headaches in the design stage in favour of standard joysticks of which I already have 15 in the main section of the transmitter, I could then drop the motorhats which are still proving somewhat more difficult to program, and use PWM modules instead, then having a speed control based steering rather then an angle based control. This means that the rudder angle indicators are now back since I otherwise don't have much to see in which direction my azimuths are facing and now I got plenty of motorhats and stepper motors to make them work, which was 1 reason to drop the at first.

Why is the above such a step towards sailing? That is because I already have a working program controlling all the PWM functions that where already planned, so adding 2 more for the additional functions is a matter of copy/ paste and then modifying a couple of parameters, which has already been done. At this point in time, all I need to do is program the incoming commands from the transceiver into the main program, then make sure the hull is watertight and then program the transmitter. This has now also become more easy since I don't need to program the AS5600 magnetic angle sensors anymore and have now basically 3 different electronics that I need to work with. The new front section of the transmitter is being printed right now so starting this weekend I can continue the work on the transmitter as well.





I replaced the 6V bow thruster motors bij 12V motors with new pedals, that turned out to be a great choice because while I was adding a final layer of epoxy and glass fibre some epoxy ended up in the forward bow thruster and there it glued the motor permanently in place, making it impossible to replace only the motor. I had decided to reuse 1 6V motor to power the new retractable azimuth but this motor only runs occasionally when at full power, like at most half of the time so a replacement motor is on it's way.



Thinking 1 step ahead (that would be finishing the interior of the hull and placing the deck) I got myself a 5m LED-strip providing real proper light inside the hull. The idea is to have some more or less intelligent switch (2 wires placed at a small distance connecting with a piece of coper tape underneath the deck works just fine too) so the lights will only come on where the deck is actually open, not where it is closed.



I made sure the base for the deck is perfectly flush, which it now is.



When I'm far enough, now mostly with the transmitter, I'll need the transceiver to start receiving commands, so I connected it again using a new wire just to be sure and since some wires had broken. I also replaced the several Dupont connectors by 1 2x20 connector to remove any doubt about how to connect should a connector come loose.



After some debate surrounding the mistake in the shape of the moonpool and thus the lack of room for the lower moonpool door I now decided that I would replace precisely what I need to and nothing more. Thus removing 1 sidewall and replacing it by this new wall, shown here with a test version of the door dry fitted in place. The shaft holding the door in place on this side of the door will not protrude into the original front wall of the moonpool, thus keeping the amount of holes in the hull to a minimum and making sure that the risk of leaks is kept to a minimum as a consequence.



On this side the tube extends to make sure that when I glue it in place using epoxy, the epoxy can't finds it's way into the tube thus making it useless.





I need to align the shaft a little better, but nothing that a file can't solve.



Greetings Josse

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

Hello all,


Now that I've started working with the transceivers I also glanced at making the lifeboats work. Here I just received the 4 channel receiver which I will use to control the lifeboat, 5 more are on there way. Just underneath the lifeboat is it's main engine and I'm still looking for lighter and smaller servo's.

The retractable azimuth is ready to be build into the boat! I tested the driveshaft using my power screwdriver and it runs quite smooth and quite. Now I need to modify the design of the engine plate and put it all together.

I put the test engine plate in place to see how things will come together and what room that will give me. The through hull was originally precisely the correct size but after somewhat forcing it in place it apparently got just that tiny bit smaller making a perfect fit a barely fit. Nothing a bit of sandpaper can't solve though.

The last of the electronics has now been connected.

Now the test setup is finished it's time to put everything back in the boat. This could only be done in 1 go since far too many components where connected to each other like a spider web. Next time I'll make connectors on the I2C wiring and put a connector for the 12V right beside it for ease of maintenance and putting everything in the boat. Now I'm trying to fix as much as possible what I should've done in the first place.

It seemed to be a good idea to start with finishing the central computer/ power supply. Recently I got myself some new USB ports intended for the top of the central computer but this proved to completely fill the computer with USB cable and not to be able to make the bend needed to close the computer. Therefore I opted to make the USB ports on the Pi accessible at all times (luckily the Pi sits just to port besides the battery) and also bring a short HDMI cable there for attaching the touchscreen for troubleshooting.

Another lesson learned: because I started without a really clear vision of the end result it's now hardly possible to arrange the central computer nice and tidy, thus, this'll have to do. I can make sense of this when I need to thanks to some proper documentation on my computer. Currently the usefulness of the relais for powering the secondary functions is being questioned, mostly because of a concern of the program crashing when an I2C device is not connected (not sure if this is true or not) and also because I have intended to not have any secondary function working, so also no cooling water and sound. The power consumption at the moment with the Pi powered from the battery comes out at 12,5V @ 600-700mA so 1 12V 12A battery will run me for most of the day if I add 1A atop the 700mA for the motors.

After that I started working my way aft from the central computer, organising the wiring and working towards a general idea on which components need to go where. I also made sure the all connectors can actually fully disconnect an entire section of components, thereby also reducing the amount of wiring to organise.

Then I continued in the stern, focusing on the propulsion. A couple of components, mostly the 2 PWM modules, have been placed permanently now.

All in all there still is quite a lot of work to be done but I've got quite far over the last week alone. It does help a lot to get some idea of which component should come where, I should've taken that more into account when I was working on the test setup. I have also learned a lot more in the process as well and yet the time to have her sail the lakes is closing in fast!!!

Greetings Josse

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

Hello all,


Since I start to get really close to setting sail now it's time to fix the propulsion in place for as far as I haven't already. Here 1 attempt for a fitting mount for the retractable azimuth. By now I have a properly fitting mount where the magnet glued to the gearwheel is barely touching the chip. Now I need to check if the chip is registering properly, proving proper alignment.

I made the stern steering engines the same way though with the extra needed room for the thicker and also bigger gears

Setting sail with a boat which is not watertight sounds like asking for trouble so I need to make the moonpool watertight as soon as possible. I forgot to think ahead and glued the garage and it's connecting piece in place instead of first placing the tubes for waterproofing the drive shafts for the doors first when I had the room. Here I use the remaining piece of 2x3mm tube and a hammer to gently but firmly get the first tube in place. Then I put a couple drops of glue around it to fix it in place once and for all, but the glue found it's way underneath the garage to the other tube where it stopped me from mirroring the steps I had just made. I just managed to avoid having the tube glued in the wrong place after which I decided the garage had to come out. I managed to do just that with some pain and broken PLA, but by now all is ready for placing the doors and lower moonpool door.

If you look closely you can see the remainder of the infill PLA which has broken away from the garage proving the holding power of the glue. Both tubes are now place correctly.

Since I managed to remove the garage I used the opportunity to mount the servo's, which are connected through a Y-cable so the doors will open simultaneously. I made myself some nice servo mounts and then complemented those with a version for floor mounting.

Added the LED strip for lighting inside the hull for once the deck is in place. I continued organising the wiring which starts to come along nicely.

Placing the LED strip around the deck edge seems to provide plenty of light. Concerning the power of the LED strip: the somewhat lighter flooring in the background is fully lit by daylight.

I turned my attention to the bow. Some electronics have placed permanently and the wiring has been sorted out.

The time had come to put the connectors in place in such a way that the electronics can be connected even with the deck in place, starting with the connector for the drilling tower. Since the drilling tower holds 5 working winches and a crane it feels appropriate to have a firm foundation preventing the drilling tower from tipping over. Should water leak past the side of the tower, the connector is protected against water getting in by means of an edge around it and a drainage hole in the bottom of the holder.

De connector can now be used, even with the deck in place, though it will take quite some time before the deck will be glued in place for good. There is still too much to be done inside the hull.
De stekker kan er nu in als het dek erop ligt, al blijft die voorlopig nog los erop liggen totdat alles binnenin de romp definitief af is.

Finisht the construction for the lower moonpool door and both garage doors. I still need to work out how I will control the top moonpool door, I currently have a servo connected reserved for this, though that might just as well be switched with a reduction motor with threaded rod.

The transceiver has now been placed permanently. There will be a second transceiver for controlling the lifeboats in the rear of the main superstructure in between all the fire mains and electrical connections to the superstructure.

Even the dive area will be quite full of electronics, though I do need to keep room in the middle since I need to be able to reach the power switch and rotary encoder for starting up the Pi. Since the program will run into errors if not all I2C devices are connected the dive area with it's electronics need to be in place for the Pi to be able to start and run the program, a hatch will provide access with the dive area in place.

Greetings Josse

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

Hello all,

The last few weeks work has continued quite quickly, I got myself a 6 channel radio so I could get Well Enhancer sailing even quicker without feeling any need to rush finishing my transmitter. The only reason the boat is not ready to sail yet is because the steering motors (N20 reduction motors) turned out not to be able to turn the azimuths.

After having ordered some more powerful motors I then decided to add the deck around the dive area. From there things made a turn south, or perhaps better north. I came to the conclusion that there are too many minor issues with the current hull to continue with this hull and I've now decided I will replace the hull with a new GRP hull. I'll first state what issues made me make this change and then how I will go about this.

Why?
In short there is a long list of minor items that in and on itself are not worthy of such a big change, but combined together it does add up.
-The bulwark on the bow is far to low and there are various alignment issues with the rear bulwarks, mostly related to the deck
-The base for the rear deck is not quite flat and has me doubting whether the stern is straight or not, this issue comes back in the how section.
-Bilges keels are quite flimsy
-The wiring is in quite a bad place, it would best be placed as close to the hull as possible, making room in front of, but still somewhat under the deck, for the electronics providing tons more room for the electronics and putting the wiring away nice and tidy.
-The latest moonpools for the dive bells have been placed on the wrong side of the frame I glued them onto, taking away awfully much of the already quite limited room for the electronics.
-The propulsion now takes up quite a lot of room, which could be much less if done properly.
-The power supply unit is overcrowded due to poor design and the choice to solder all wiring together. It makes it quite hard to find any problems, let alone fixing them,
-The water inlets for the pumps now collect too much air and the pumps can't suck it out.
-This project is meant to be as much a prototype for future projects as it is a project all on it's own. I already know I'm going to lay out the wiring for both power supply and communication rather differently (also benefitting the GRP hulls I already wanted to make). The only way I can achieve this is by making a GRP hull for this model first.

How am I going to do it?
-For the moment I'll build the new steering motors into the current hull so I can sail with that hull until the time comes to move the electronics to the new hull.
-Today I got myself a sheet of wood which I will use with some foam to make the new plug, I don't use the current hull because it's more work and even more expensive to transform the current hull into a proper plug. Besides the bulwark issues I'd also need to close all the holes for portholes and propulsion. And then there is the doubt about whether or not the stern is actually really straight or not which will continue to be a doubt in the GRP hull if I don't make a new plug for the mold.
-The mold will be made in 4 sections and I will use what would be the keel to separate the port and starboard parts of the mold, taking away the need for a very close fit around the keel and moving the separator after making the first 2 parts with all risks involved there. At half the length of the ship I will also put in a sheet of wood to separate the forward and stern mold sections, this will help with removing the mold from the plug and the hull from the mold, and will also aid in being able to store the mold should I need it again in the future.
-While laying the glass for the hull, I will put some PVC wiring tubes in, fixed in place with an extra layer of fibreglass to both make the wiring as much out of the way as possible while also using the tubes to somewhat strengthen the hull.
-I will make a new power supply unit with terminal blocks for connecting the wires, making the wiring more tidy and also more maintainable. The new unit will also be higher because of the issues with the programming when an I2C device is not connected, making the controls more reachable and providing more room where it matters the most.
-The I2C wiring and the power wires will be replaced, making some changes in the connections to make it all more tidy and also more compact.
-The stern azimuths and the bow thrusters will be replaced by own designs based on the retractable azimuth design. This proves to be cheaper but also allows the use of brass propellers rather then scoops and plastic propellers.

Greetings Josse

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