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I purchased a 900mm long and 1.8m tall rc Yacht — Parallax Forums

I purchased a 900mm long and 1.8m tall rc Yacht

whiteoxewhiteoxe Posts: 794
edited 2013-11-08 16:58 in General Discussion
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There are a few radio controlled sailing clubs in Brisbane. Id liken to know if there is any senser that can tell the speed the boat ever time i tack.? IO think i might
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need an X-bee set to transmit this data to me. ?
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Comments

  • SRLMSRLM Posts: 5,045
    edited 2013-11-06 20:19
    whiteoxe wrote: »
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    There are a few radio controlled sailing clubs in Brisbane. Id liken to know if there is any senser that can tell the speed the boat ever time i tack.? IO think i might
    LEGEND3.jpg
    need an X-bee set to transmit this data to me. ?

    Speed relative to what? Air, water, the geoid, ...? If it's air, I'd use a small windvane. If it's water I'd try either a pitot tube or a freespinning propeller with an encoder. In all cases you'd probably have to build it yourself, or at least do some looking. If it's geoid then the main option is GPS.
  • macrobeakmacrobeak Posts: 354
    edited 2013-11-07 05:25
    Yup, this can be real simple or horribly complicated. Thinking of when I have sailed a real size yacht, I would like to know wind direction, wind speed and actual speed through the water. GPS seems OTT. I think you should make a simple wind vane, anonometer and prop/encoder. A prop or BS2 can collect and prepare the data. The transmission back to the operator could be serial packets using one of the many simple wireless modules (xbee being one). Good luck, I have an dream idea for a similar size yacht, but I want to sail it very long distance as a drone.
  • whiteoxewhiteoxe Posts: 794
    edited 2013-11-08 12:30
    I sailed as a teenager, mostly 14 or 18 foot catamarans. Even off the beach into the waves and back again. (could break rudders if you were not careful.) I had not thought about ALL the speeds that could be detected . Watching the Americas Cup got me re-interested in sailing, even if its only r/c models :) I think the sensors might not be allowed in club competitions but would still be useful to learn how to sail the model fast!

    I'm not much with mechanical things, where can you suggest I might try looking for a wind vane?
  • SRLMSRLM Posts: 5,045
    edited 2013-11-08 14:23
    Well, I don't know where you would get one that's the correct scale. You'd have to search around for that.

    If you build one it could be fairly simple mechanically. Note that I was a bit imprecise in my original statement. There are two aspects of the wind that you might be interested in: wind direction (wind vane) and wind speed (anemometer).

    If you want to build a wind vane all you need is a flat panel that can rotate about the vertical axis, and an encoder to measure the rotation changes.

    If you want to build an anemometer then you can make a cup version. With this you don't even need an encoder, just a rotation counter (an IR beam would work well).

    In either case, the challenge would be making it small and water resistant. If you don't want to build it yourself you might be able to hire a modeler (boat, train, etc.) to build the hardware for you, and you provide the electronics.
  • whiteoxewhiteoxe Posts: 794
    edited 2013-11-08 14:35
    . Yes its the speed i need to get. Thanks for your ideas. I haven't started sailing it yet. But at some point I'm going to add some 'helpful' electronics :)
  • W9GFOW9GFO Posts: 4,010
    edited 2013-11-08 14:42
    SRLM wrote: »

    If you want to build a wind vane all you need is a flat panel that can rotate about the vertical axis, and an encoder to measure the rotation changes.

    And it must be perfectly balanced else it will give false readings when the boat is heeled, which is most of the time.
  • SRLMSRLM Posts: 5,045
    edited 2013-11-08 15:31
    W9GFO wrote: »
    And it must be perfectly balanced else it will give false readings when the boat is heeled, which is most of the time.

    Good point. Is that how full size sailboats do it? I haven't ever played with one of their windvanes.
  • W9GFOW9GFO Posts: 4,010
    edited 2013-11-08 16:58
    SRLM wrote: »
    Good point. Is that how full size sailboats do it?

    Yes, they typically have jeweled bearings and their mass is kept as low as possible.
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