I think no one has noticed the RoboBoat project has started to move forward again. I have spent a couple of weekends (not every hour) working on the hull. Progress is being made and I am reporting and showing new pictures in the blog.
The project is in the “build the boat” stage and will be there for some time. I intend to do a decent construction job to produce a worthy platform upon which to begin testing my control system. I just hope my control plans don’t become “ancient technology” by the time the boat is launched. HA!
I like the wooden boat kit building as much as any part of the project, so it is all enjoyable for me. I like to see things taking shape from a pile of raw material. The Dumas kit of the Dauntless is close to being just a pile of plywood. The die crunching er… cutting of the sheet material just helps a bit from having to draw the parts on the wood and cutting out with a band or jig saw.
There are a few pages of written instruction but the construction is mostly looking at the plans to see how parts fit together. There are no step by step pictorial assembly instructions. I would call the Dauntless definitely an “Advanced” but not necessarily “Expert” builder level.
The size of the boat is impressive with its four foot length but I don’t consider it overwhelmingly large. I think it is actually a very reasonable size for a model boat. It is just big enough to take it out of the “toy rubber duck bobber” class and closer to realistic scale.
Maybe it is too soon to make that call until I see it on the water but I am already starting to feel it. I have built and run smaller boats and this one is definitely has a different “feel” to it already.
Wandering OT (Off Topic) a bit
In all model operation, the larger the scale (size) the more realist the operation of the model becomes. That is mostly due to the fact that air and fluid dynamics change proportionally but not in scale with the size of the model.
It was not unusual (before computer simulation and tremendously complex components) to build progressively larger working models of prototype designs. Before radio control, there might have been quarter, third or even half or three quarters the original size models built. Large enough so humans could pilot them. The bigger they were, the more accurate the test data.
The Lockheed flying wing concept was tested in several small single person versions before building the full size. It flew but was considered (or reported) hard to fly.
The small or scale versions were used to prove basic concepts like shape and controls placement and basic controls response. They weren’t big enough to prove the absolute performance of the large full size design.
Today with computer simulation, manufactures usually skip the working test model stage and just go for their big designs. Complex models are too expensive and delay production.
What used to be a model is now the end design. I am referencing the small remote piloted vehicles that no longer need to be sized to carry a human and their life and comfort systems.
They operate so much like a model; they have raised concern that similar hobbyist activities may be a terrorist threat. That’s another whole OT discussion.
Back OT (On Topic)
Well, I am not testing the boat design. Of course I will imagine the model as a representation of the real boat when I watch it running on the lake. That’s the part model boat hobbyist like the most.
My testing is of the control systems. I am not trying to design the fastest boat on the water or some nefarious device to do harm. In fact what I want to play with has already been done as the hardware parts are available off the shelf. My personal challenge is the software creation and exploring the almost unlimited possibilities of control function and data communication through operating software variations. I am putting computer simulation into the reason for running and testing the model.
So I am using the model to test the remote controls rather than using remote controls to test the model.