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Yesterday at the lake was a very interesting day.
I had my Skipjack out. I was on the bench getting the system ready to put the boat in the water.
Turned the Tx on then the Rx.
Did my normal check by moving the rudder stick, the rear planes, the sail planes, the ballast tank pistol and then the main motor.
I lifted the bow to make sure the pitch controller was working.
Then the stern.
Yep looks good.
Every thing is working.
As I moved the Tx out of the way to put the upper hull on the lower, I bumped the rear planes stick. Because something moved I looked at all the control surfaces. The rear planes where in the rise position. Well this is not right. The control stick is in the dive position.
So I did the pre check again.
Rudder, sail planes, ballast tank and motor.
And I did the rear planes.
But this time I was actually watching the movement.
Sure enough, the rear planes where operating in reverse.
Now this is not an unusually event on a boat that has just been completed or modified.
The issue is I have been running this boat for more than 3 years this way.
I looked over the system to see if a plug was changed. Nope.
I looked to see if I could change it to make the rear planes operate correctly.
Before anyone says to just reverse the rear planes at the Tx, my transmitter is not a computer transmitter. I can go in to the Tx and reverse the control stick plug and this will reverse the servo direction.
BUT, there is a problem doing that. I run 3 boats on this Tx and I have to build the boats to work with the transmitter as it is setup.
I did turn the pitch controller around but that only made the pitch control backwards and left the serve still reversed.
So I put the boat back together and ran it for almost 2 hours. Mostly at periscope depth.
Here is where and why it has worked.
I put the boat in the water and move it out about 3 feet from shore where the water is about 2 feet deep.
I fill the ballast tank piston. Then I empty the tank. I do this a second time to get all the air out of the piston.
Once the air is out, I fill the ballast tank until the top of the sail is just below the surface and the mast are up 3" to 4".
Once the boat settles down, I move off at a slow speed. I make a big circle and bring the boat in past me where I can see if the boat is running level. I adjust the rear planes slider control to get level. I do not look at the Tx but only the boat so I really don't know which way the control is moving but the boat is running level.
Now I can run the boat diving using the sail planes. I usually do not touch the rear planes controls again. The sail planes with the boat trimmed with just the mast out of the water, I can drive the boat down to 2' or 3' and I can bring the boat up to where the sail is out of the water riding on the sail planes.
Because of the boat being trimmed as it is, I have never realized the rear planes servo was reversed. The pitch control operated correctly so the boat ran correctly.
But now I know the servo is reversed.
This will bother me every time I look at the boat which sits in my living room.
So, this after noon, I opened the boat and took the cylinder out.
Out to the shop and opened the cylinder.
I went back in to the house and googled reversing servos.
Found the model of servo I use and watched how to reverse it.
4 wires to unsolider and move.
2 on the motor and 2 on the control board.
Went back to the shop and opened the servo.
The bottom of the servo is exposed on the electronics tray so I did not have to remove the servo from the tray to work on it.
in less than 10 minutes the job was don't.
Did several test of the servo and it is now correct.
I did have to turn the pitch control around to the way I originally had it.
I mounted that with a big drop of silicone glue so it pops right of with a screw driver.
Once the silicone cures I will put everything back in the cylinder.
I feel better now but once I trim the boat in the water I will still probably never touch the rear planes stick.
But this does explain a couple trips through the weeds when I did an emergency surface that resulted in a dive and required a full ballast tank blow to surface before getting stuck in the weeds.
Here's the video that I used to reverse the servo.
I had my Skipjack out. I was on the bench getting the system ready to put the boat in the water.
Turned the Tx on then the Rx.
Did my normal check by moving the rudder stick, the rear planes, the sail planes, the ballast tank pistol and then the main motor.
I lifted the bow to make sure the pitch controller was working.
Then the stern.
Yep looks good.
Every thing is working.
As I moved the Tx out of the way to put the upper hull on the lower, I bumped the rear planes stick. Because something moved I looked at all the control surfaces. The rear planes where in the rise position. Well this is not right. The control stick is in the dive position.
So I did the pre check again.
Rudder, sail planes, ballast tank and motor.
And I did the rear planes.
But this time I was actually watching the movement.
Sure enough, the rear planes where operating in reverse.
Now this is not an unusually event on a boat that has just been completed or modified.
The issue is I have been running this boat for more than 3 years this way.
I looked over the system to see if a plug was changed. Nope.
I looked to see if I could change it to make the rear planes operate correctly.
Before anyone says to just reverse the rear planes at the Tx, my transmitter is not a computer transmitter. I can go in to the Tx and reverse the control stick plug and this will reverse the servo direction.
BUT, there is a problem doing that. I run 3 boats on this Tx and I have to build the boats to work with the transmitter as it is setup.
I did turn the pitch controller around but that only made the pitch control backwards and left the serve still reversed.
So I put the boat back together and ran it for almost 2 hours. Mostly at periscope depth.
Here is where and why it has worked.
I put the boat in the water and move it out about 3 feet from shore where the water is about 2 feet deep.
I fill the ballast tank piston. Then I empty the tank. I do this a second time to get all the air out of the piston.
Once the air is out, I fill the ballast tank until the top of the sail is just below the surface and the mast are up 3" to 4".
Once the boat settles down, I move off at a slow speed. I make a big circle and bring the boat in past me where I can see if the boat is running level. I adjust the rear planes slider control to get level. I do not look at the Tx but only the boat so I really don't know which way the control is moving but the boat is running level.
Now I can run the boat diving using the sail planes. I usually do not touch the rear planes controls again. The sail planes with the boat trimmed with just the mast out of the water, I can drive the boat down to 2' or 3' and I can bring the boat up to where the sail is out of the water riding on the sail planes.
Because of the boat being trimmed as it is, I have never realized the rear planes servo was reversed. The pitch control operated correctly so the boat ran correctly.
But now I know the servo is reversed.
This will bother me every time I look at the boat which sits in my living room.
So, this after noon, I opened the boat and took the cylinder out.
Out to the shop and opened the cylinder.
I went back in to the house and googled reversing servos.
Found the model of servo I use and watched how to reverse it.
4 wires to unsolider and move.
2 on the motor and 2 on the control board.
Went back to the shop and opened the servo.
The bottom of the servo is exposed on the electronics tray so I did not have to remove the servo from the tray to work on it.
in less than 10 minutes the job was don't.
Did several test of the servo and it is now correct.
I did have to turn the pitch control around to the way I originally had it.
I mounted that with a big drop of silicone glue so it pops right of with a screw driver.
Once the silicone cures I will put everything back in the cylinder.
I feel better now but once I trim the boat in the water I will still probably never touch the rear planes stick.
But this does explain a couple trips through the weeds when I did an emergency surface that resulted in a dive and required a full ballast tank blow to surface before getting stuck in the weeds.
Here's the video that I used to reverse the servo.
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