New 1/144 Revell sub kit r/c conversion packages for 2010

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Last couple of days I've been playing hooky from the torpedo work and have been working up product to support the r/c'ing of the fine Revell 1/144 Type-214 and Type-212 kits. Lot of commonality between the the two submarines, so I'm getting some synergy from the dual effort.

Pictures are the masters for the type-214 fittings kit and a mock-up of the 212/214 SubDriver. This 1.25" SD will feature a LPB ballast sub-system. I had to devise a new type ballast tank vent valve, a sort of 'guillotine' type, that presented very little operating force yet was small enough to not increase the SD's sectional area significantly. Worked out pretty good -- you see the test-article just after some in-water testing. Like the control surface pushrods, the ballast vent will inter-connect to the internal servos through external magnetic pick-ups, eliminating the need of watertight seals between servo and linkages external of the SD.

You watch ... the moment I'm ready to go to market with these fittings kits and SD's, Revell will pull their tools off the production line!

David,

[Outrider]

Nice start on this. Looks like the 1.25 inch driver fits in well. The snort pump up front seems to be a good use of space, especially here.

What's the protrusion in slide #4?

The last photo shows what looks like new control surfaces with embedded rods. My son tried that with with the kit's control surfaces, but said the bow planes were too thin for the rod he had.

I think this SD is going to be adaptable to a wide variety of polystyrene hulls. It has "Special Navy" written all over it! Type IIA or Type XXIII

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Nice start on this. Looks like the 1.25 inch driver fits in well. The snort pump up front seems to be a good use of space, especially here.

What's the protrusion in slide #4?

The last photo shows what looks like new control surfaces with embedded rods. My son tried that with with the kit's control surfaces, but said the bow planes were too thin for the rod he had.

I think this SD is going to be adaptable to a wide variety of polystyrene hulls. It has "Special Navy" written all over it! Type IIA or Type XXIII

Yeah, the LPB pump is in the wet, the motor in the dry in that special forward bulkhead. But that left the problem of where to put the system mission switch. Fortunately there is space in the lid of the servo box as I only use three servos on this model. Today I'm figuring where to stick all the devices -- the driving issue with that is that I can pass only so many wires through the very small 1/4" conduit tube that communicates between forward dry space and the servo box and after dry space, so most of the electronics will go into the after space! That's where the motor is. Guess we'll see just how good those spark-suppression cap's turn out to be.

That 'protrusion' is the guillotine valve I devised for the ballast tanks that will use only the LPB for de-watering. The brass pushrod makes up to the magnetically coupled ballast sub-system servo. On the transmitter: left stick to the left positions the servo to open the guillotine valve, flooding the tank; right motion of that stick turns the LPB on, blowing the tank dry. The LPB induction is within the sail, up on high -- all I have to do is broach the sail and I can pull air down into the ballast tank. Dirt simple.

I'm just going to glue the bow planes on. Tell your kid that .030" wire will work to make those planes practical.

Oh, yeah! There seems to be an infinite number of plastic model submarine kits (in or out of production) that can now be adapted to r/c with the introduction of these little SubDriver's. Now ... is there a market for this happy-horse-doofer? That's the question.

David,

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

DSCN0042.jpg

... I think this SD is going to be adaptable to a wide variety of polystyrene hulls. It has "Special Navy" written all over it! Type IIA or Type XXIII

Oh, yeah!

DSCN0042.jpg

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Move'n along ...

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Only alteration of the type-214 SubDriver to get it to work in the type-212 is the use of a 'sliding' servo to achieve mechanical mixing of the pitch and yaw servos to drive the X-tail configured stern control surfaces.

David,

[Outrider]

Busy, Busy! You should take more sabbaticals.

Type-214: It looks like you made a scribing template similar to what you used in the D&E Type-212. I assume that the drainage holes are more about effective RC ops than about scale accuracy. (Which makes sense--the holes are on the bottom where you'll never see them when the boat is doing what's intended.) Magnetic attachment on the aft hull point seems much more serviceable than a machine screw. Haven't seen your prop yet. Assume you'll go white metal for serviceability and speed.

Type XXIII: Open doors... Wow, will you be able to make the SubDriver a static diver and a shooter? The Alanger kit looks nice with the SubDriver test fitted.

Type-212: Will the mechanical mixing on the X-tail eliminate the need for an electronic mixer? Any possibility that Sombra could add an electronic mixing function to the SL-8 receiver itself? (It doesn't seem like that would be too difficult, and I suspect you'd really like to minimize the number of electronics you have to accommodate in the SubDriver.)

[Outrider]

SubDriver Electronics... Talk about putting a size 13 foot into a child's large shoe...

Let's see...receiver, ESC, ADF, LiPo guard, snort, ballast & maneuvering servos. That 1/4" connecting tube wouldn't be likely to handle many of those wires, so most everything electronic has to be aft.

Space must be at a premium everywhere in the little SubDrivers. I assume that's why the electronics have lost their shrink wrap cases.

Keep those photos coming!

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

More subjects suitable for conversion using a variant of the 1.25" SubDriver:


http://forum.sub-driver.com/attachme...0&d=1261955520

[redboat219]

Nice work Dave. Can't wait to see a static diving 1/125 Type VII.
BTW, How does the guillotine valve compare to the usual SD poppet style vent valve in preventing leakages when closed?