Not the hobby I expected :)

I started with a Elegoo Mars and then upgraded to the Saturn for its bigger platform.

But you can also use an Anycubic of similar. The MSLA technology is not that complicated

But it is MESSY !
Unlike FDM printing you have to do some post processing after the print.
Clean of uncured resin from the part with Ethanol or IPA. then dry them and cure them with UV-Light afterwards.

If you have worked with glasfiber & Epoxy you know what to expect.

And print times are on the slow side. the only thing that effects the duration is the height in Z.

I do resent fibre glass. I’ve been repairing fairings off an old motorbike and honestly I’m overjoyed that it’s over. Resin printing would be a LOT cheaper than lathe, but also lathe…

As as alternative to the O-rings under the nuts I decided to use dowty washers (AKA dowty seals) these are basicaly an O-ring bonded to the inside of a washer so that you can't overtighten or squash them.
I havent finished my 1st boat yet, but I have tested them by connecting to a cold water tap and they are OK.

Gosh, it's really been a while.
I have many projects on the go and I flit between them.
Subs are getting a bit of attention right now.

I've finally worked out how to program my radio to, I THINK, run a dive pump. I can control a servo output channel from full deflection to middle point to full deflection with either a knob or a three position switch. yay. that had been stressing me out a bit.

I've got a peristaltic pump and a latex balloon and so far i've not been able to get a complete seal between the pump hose and the balloon, i was trying a wire twist to lock the latex into the groove on the hose joiner, probably not tight enough. I'm going to see if i can find some kind of spring clip for this job, i don't think a cable tie is going to do it.

I've emailed about https://www.mr-rcworld.co.uk/shop/dive-pump-controller/ to ask how it actually interacts with the radio and if my assumptions about it are correct. Assuming I'm not stupid I'll get one of those on order with a failsafe.
I believe I could perhaps do failsafe in my radio but perhaps having it in hardware is better.

I've got my rudder and elevator(what do subs call those?) servos mounted to a printed carrier so I can start to rig up the stupid number of things that need to go down that tube.

heh, and I'm back on the 50mm tube so I can clamp it with external rods. I've backed away from trying to seal internal ones.

More next year when i make the next bit of miliimetric progress. All the fun to come with magnets and bellows and waterproof drive couplings... may yet go for a 'runs in water' motor, sob.

my setup for the ballast pump "bag" is a standard party balloon, double bagged. i use large size model airplane fuel tubing over a 5/32" brass tube. I then ziptie the neck of the balloons tightly around the fuel tubing. then, for one last attempt to make it air tight, i fill the gap between the balloon and the tubing with gorilla glue.

I know, its over kill, but it works.

in addition to all that, i make a new bag every year, just to make sure things don't rupture when the sub is under water.

I ordered one of these. blood pressure cufs, they are much thicker than anything else i could find.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33022852832.html

Possibly it was your thread I was reading yesterday because I've got a kids pressure cuff on order already :)

It's a great idea.

Small progresses are made.
I have resin to try sealing printed end caps, also some casting silicone on the way to cast endcaps in resin if sealing is unsatisfactory.

I printed a new connector between my motor and peristaltic pump which snugly fits into the WTC.

This is a test print, it needs reliefs for cables and whatnot to sneak past the bulkhead.

I also got a dive controller board, which amazingly seems to work with the 3 pos switch I programmed into my radio!


Sadly when I turn the radio off there's no sign of it doing any fail safe behaviour. I wonder if this is because my receiver is still sending valid data to the controller despite not having signal from the Tx.

When my blood pressure cuff arrives, I'll have enough equipment to attempt to seal my WTC and try a dive!

what receiver are you using?

an orx 433 mhz unit. no part number visible, and wonderfully opentx companion is now segfaulting on my mac, grrrr.

cat wrote:an orx 433 mhz unit. no part number visible, and wonderfully opentx companion is now segfaulting on my mac, grrrr.

set your radio to failsafe position (throttle idle, empty ballast, dive planes up) then hold the button on the module for 3 seconds and it will save the failsafe servo positions.

If you want no pulses as the failsafe then you will neeed to set that in the openlrs configurator under receiver settings.

yeh, this rx has no 'button' :/ so i think my only recourse is software.

Thanks

cat wrote:yeh, this rx has no 'button' :/ so i think my only recourse is software.

Thanks

Press the button on the transmitter module not the receiver.

ahhahahahahah looks at back of tx. sees button labelled fail safe. dies inside

i seem to be missing all the boats, the openlrs configurator doesn't work in chrome anymore. *grinds teeth*

you can configure it all from the CLI, I believe you start the module in bind mode by holding the button on powerup. then using putty or arduino command line interface press enter and the menu should appear.

I'm using minicom on linux at 115200 baud and i get this line:

OpenLRSng TX starting 3.8.8 on HW 2, but pressing enter doesn't yield anything

The RX is flashing a blue LED and beeping.

putty isn't giving me anything and I'm crap at windows :/

heh, i'm unsure why i find this stuff quite so hard.
I've got an old version of chrome and openlrs configurator installed. i've managed to flash another TX with working firmware, but i can't get it to bind to this: https://cdn-global-hk.hobbyking.com/media/file/o/r/orangerx_openlrsng_433mhz_with_bluetooth_dec_13_16.pdf for the life of me.
I've cracked the case and although it has PADS for a button, there's no button installed and no slot in the case to HAVE a button, so i'm a bit of a loss for how to bind the rx to the tx. lol.

I do have a ppm to pwm converter on order, so perhaps i can jumper something on THAT side of the bus to get it into bind mode.

Either way the only way I'm getting success when connecting to the TXs with openlrsng is by opening them up and connecting a programming dooble direct to the J1 jumper.

Anyway today is a total success thanks to you, my dive controller works and you finally got me to understand where the fail safe button was :D

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2960482-OrangeRX-OpenLRSng-RX-Firmware-Flashing-Instruction looks like what i need, to the soldering iron!

you need to start up the TX module while holding the failsafe button and with no receivers powered on. it should be beeping in bind mode and you should see it say "entering binding mode" on the cli. then press enter and it should take you to the menu.


I just noticed what receiver your trying to use, that came with custom mavlink firmware based on the gitsly fork for mavlink telemtery.. you will need to flash it to regular openlrsng for it to work.

might not matter, i think i 5Ved it :( oh well. sob, rip etc.

cat wrote:might not matter, i think i 5Ved it :( oh well. sob, rip etc.

yeah these modules dont like 5v. basically the rfm23bp radio module can only take 3.7v on the data pins or its dead.

they don't seem to be NOT available? can one glue another one in?

https://www.tme.eu/en/details/rfm23bp-433-s2/rf-modules/hope-microelectronics/rfm23bp-433s2/

yes its not a easy solder job tho. its not something I would recommend if your not experienced at surface mount soldering on pcbs.

I'm an idiot, we've WELL established that in this thread, but for my sins I do fit dcc controller to 1:450 model trains.

So I'm not SHY of small soldering work.