05.5_Articulated
Mecanics : Cesar Harada
Electronics : Gabriella Levine
This version Protei 05.5.x is really a Protei 002 enhanced. I started building this Proto to re-create the sensation I had with Protei-002 to the team, because often in our group discussions there are some unanswered questions that would be addressed by simply using a functional articulate sailing RC Boat.
The length is 108cm, in 3 equal large part of 38cm each. The hull is 12cm wide, symmetrical. The mast is also 108cm high above the deck, it is a very simple boat in geometrical terms. Made of 5cm insulation polystyrene and 0.3cm regular plywood. The mast is a PVC electric tube, the sails are strong advertising plastified fabric. It is a heavy unit but it has a lot of buoyancy, I hope it will be a good test platform, the control box is big, we should be able to fit a lot of stuff there even if the overall boat is small. We'll need a lot of ballast weight I think.
I had to chop the 3 segments to make it into a 6 segments, more flexible, easier to turn.
This is version 1 (Protei 005.5.1) of the control box. Bended PVC pipes. Would work ok with a powerful Servo, not with this one. The feeding system of the cable close to the reel is working good except there are so many jams, high maintenance.
This is version 2 (Protei 005.5.2) of the control box. Same problem : not enough power... On this one, the shape of the hull is on the winch, the sail control on the 90 degrees servo. Too much friction and a bad understanding of the electrics ... brake it down, build a new one!
And that's version 3 (Protei 005.5.3) , with external arm extension to amplify the lever (thanks to Qiuyang advice!). The arm may be too long with this brass bearing at the end, I will chop it / shorten it if necessary (if it touches the water too much) when the boat is tilting with the wind) - but I want to make sure it will be strong enough.
This time, the winch is mounted on the other side of the floor to actuate the sails. The shape of the hull actuated with this flatten PVC arm pipe.
Again, not enough power in the servo for this design - that is very similar to Protei 02.0. Frustrating. Take it apart, build next version.
After so many power issues, Gabriella Levine and Cesar Harada are looking at cordless power drills as powerful and cheap pack that are easy to hack. Typically, a cordless drill set contains a super powerful DC motor with a heavy dutty gearbox, 2 batteries (we are working with 12V here), a variable trigger, a large heat-sink transistor, switches, LEDs, and a few goodies, so really good for the price. So we might hack a few of these in near future.
This is Gabriella Levine hacking the cordless drill and controlling this super powerful cordless drill with the Arduino and a large transistor via a a potentiometer. Next steps are controlling the Rotation Speed (RPM) with the keyboard.
and now ... TESTING!!!
For the test we did not really have good conditions, the water we had access to had no wind, our batteries were low powered. We did the test pulling Protei_05.5.3 (third control box) pulling with a rope from the border. There was also not enough weight at the bottom to act act as ballast so the structure was too buoyant and unstable. Next time : more weight at the bottom, more battery power and more powerful servos !
To continue the story of the life of Protei_05.5,
On Friday Nov 18 2011, it's been reported that Protei_05.5 had suffered some significant damages as it was found in this shape in Berlin HKW. The prototype will still be exhibited and hopefully fixed soon.
<img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6092/6358623569_5f60ed6600_m.jpg width = "375px"> <img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6045/6358613577_0ee9f5c9b3_m.jpg width = "375px"> <img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6096/6358606241_bc6d4756f4_m.jpg width = "375px">
To help the installation of Protei_005.5 in Berlin, a little wiring tutorial was made:
See Protei-05.6