OHIO CLASS SSBN726 Remote Controlled Submarine
This page is about my R/C submarine, based on the Ohio class submarine kit from www,32ndparallell,com. (They went out of business some months after I bought the hull, so don't try to find their homepage, there are none). I am working on all the internal circuitry and mechanics, and hopefully it will feel the water on its hull this summer 2003.
Pictures of my submarine (will be constantly updated when changes happens).
A fresh and more detailed display of pictures recently taken:
The rear rudder control: 
General Hull View:
Front section: (Will contain Pump and valve, and electronics to control this, 1 servo for controlling the missiles, and 1 servo for controlling the tower rudder )
17.09.2002:
Front section is complete and ready with home made pump / valve control for on
stick control. It will soon bring my sub to the bottom of the lake - And back up
again (-:
Please observe the great design, keeping any pressure from working in the actual WTC, All the pressure during submerged state will be in the ballast tank only. So any mishap in the Ballast system will cause the sub to sink, but no harm is done to the internals of the WTC.
How to Build your own Pump / Valve controller cheap to fully suit all your needs.
Rear section: (will contain Motor, Motor controller, Servo for rear rudders and naturally receiver)
(I know the stuffing box is turned wrong, but this picture is only for
illustration)
17.09.2002:
The previous home made H-bridge motor controller has been replaced by a home
made experimental Relay version. This gives a better money/power ratio and
space/power ratio. The Regulator and drive unit works fine, and only need some
minor mounting changes to be ready for Diving.
Ballast tank (Middle section)
(01.02.2003)
This is the walls that will hold the ballast tank (which is also used to hold
all the other tanks), Please note the hole in the
sides, for the tube that will go from rear to front section, and the grove in
the bottom that makes way for the pressure supply for the ballast tank.
Ballast tank mounted inside wall. Now I just have to safely secure the walls
inside the hull.
Ballast tank Close-ups, I know some of you requested this (-:
This is the pressure tubes that I use to build my Front, Rear and ballast section from:
Some of these pictures has also been posted in the photo section of http://www.subcommittee.com/. (But it seems impossible to get them updated)
Download CylinderDraught.xls sheet to calculate your waterline of a floating cylinder of any given size and weight: (You have to enable macros, since the program that actually does the calculation is made in Visual Basic Scripting - It is virus checked, so don't worry).
Recent hull photos.
The 2 beams to hold the deck in place, I use 2 nylon screws to hold the deck in
place.
The blue foam that fits inside the hull, this will be used to trim the
boat.
Submarine Transportation box.
Making the transportation box, Using the facilities and tools available at the
Model Airplane Club (-:
The box fitted with foam supporters - Will later be fitted with a top support,
so I will be able to store the submarine upright without damaging it.
Making the decorations is a fun and easy task. Print out the letters on a
printer (I used font size 650 (-:) and have them taped to the box.
Use a small screwdriver or thick needle and pierce the paper along the line of
the letter into the wood. Now use a fine marker to make the just pierced holes
visible on the box, and remove the paper.
You can faintly see the markings of what is to become the letters.
Finally paint the letters - I just used a black permanent ink, and it worked brilliantly.
Velcro tape is used for a quick and easy fastening of the submarine.
By using 2 holes in the bottom of the sub and a pair of shafts mounted on a
plate, it is possible to keep the submarine firmly in place, and this makes it
able to be stored vertically.
Submarine stored vertically without damaging the rudders etc.
This is how the fastening of the WTC are done, It takes 1 or 2 screws to pull then WTC out again, and any cylinder with the diameter of 90mm will be able to be secured in the hull.
A snap ring with a guide tap (Made of a piece of spare WTC)
A metal strip band to fasten the snap ring when the WTC is fitted in the hull.
The tap on the snap ring fit into a grove made in the WTC support wall.
Now the WTC is secured, The most aft part snap ring might be placed on the other
side of the front side snap ring, due to lack of space by the deck.
Download AVI showing the Inlet of water to the pressure tank.
Download AVI showing the emptying of water from the pressure tank.
Trials of pressure tank operation.
Preparing for first sea trial!!!
The battery pact consists of 10 x 3300 mAh Ni-Mh Cels, fitted into a sealed
watertight box.
Me desperately trying to sort out some last minute issues..
This is Martin who helped me with the sea trials. as a certified life guard, I
trusted him helpig me out with putting it in the water for the first time,
knowing that he would make a head first dive in case it went to the bottom...
Well the Submarine performed very well, but as expected there are some things to change for the next time it goes diving. But the trial was so satisfying that I trust the layout, and will commence with preparing the submarine for painting.
This is the things noted down for alterations prior to next time:
- There were no leaks in any of the compartments, therefore no change to the
way of sealing the compartments.
- No trouble getting it to float. In fact some of the foam was taken out, and
ALOT of lead was put in.
- Once the pump was primed with water the ballast system worked gracefully
(Despite what others have said, this system only adds 600 ml of water, to dive,
and does it quite well - And when trimmed correctly the correct waterline
is still maintained because of the WTCs placed at the water level) - Needs to
investigate what the possibility is of getting another pump that is more
efficient.
- Take Servo apart for the tower rudder, and reverse its functionality and put
it on same channel as the rear up down rudder.
- Cast the lead to fit the keel.
- Make Plastic tube for right side to compensate for left side main power
supply going from front WTC to rear WTC.
- Arrange for foam only at top of hull, to keep lead at keel, and maintain
stability.
- Assure room for Missiles in future trimming arrangement.
- Shorten wires for Battery pack, as the Battery will be placed between the
Ballast tank and the front section.
- Check the possibbility of save space and weight if purchasing a Motor
controller instead of a home build.
- Improve the Left/right steering, 99% sure 1 or 2 bow thrusters are needed to
reduce the turning circle.
- Paint submarine frosted black, and possibly rust red at bottom part as real
life submarines were.
- Retrieve 1:96 scale letters and numbers for marking up the boat - specially
the tower SSBN 726.
- Fixing a issue with drive shaft loosening while running.
Videos of some light submarine action.. The drive shaft did not engage 100% with the multi-joint in the drive section, causing the submarine to look abit dead... Believe me when I say that the prop did make a nice and rather useless cavety when going for full throttle.
Video 1, Video 2, Video 3, Video 4.
and also some time for playing with other RC- Stiff..
More to come .....
Strange surface after the hull dried up.
Before using a wet finger on the hull inside.
After pressing my wet finger against the hull. It seems like a powder, but there
is no powder, but the surface seems frosted and will change color when wet.
HARDWARE to come:
- OSD on camera (Section on its own)
- Missile launch (Front Section)
Email me at - kimfmx@gmail.com