Overture
Three years ago, under the influence of friends, I became interested in carp fishing. They taught me how to catch and told me all the secrets. The first carp have arrived. And then, one day while fishing, with an envious eye I saw a fisherman with a carp boat. I really liked this ship. I asked how much it cost - I really didn’t like it ($1000 “for a minute”). I googled it and it turned out that you can get it for $100, but that’s not it. In addition, a plan for a large-scale homemade project was brewing in my head in order to amuse myself and interest my son.
The first decision was made: to make a boat for delivering bait with your own hands. I looked through the forums on RC modeling, estimated the estimate - scratched my turnip. It came out to about $150 for components. Yes, and the task seemed too easy to me (woe to me, naive one).
The second decision was made: to make the most budget boat possible with your own hands, and ideally for free. Honestly, friends, not out of greed, but out of sporting interest.
So, a concept was developed: I decided to make a boat with DTMF control. This is when you call from one mobile phone(transmitter) to another (receiver), and when you press the keys, a “beeping” sound of a different tone is heard. On the second phone (receiver), all that remains is to program the transformation of this “beeping” into different control commands depending on the received tone (one signal starts the motor, another stops it, the third turns it).
See how simple it is? I decided to convert the signal using the Arduino Uno board. We will consider this issue in detail in the Electronics section. Let's start with the body.
Frame
Initially, I expected to use a case from old toy. The son (he had his share, so to speak) easily presented an old pirate frigate on wheels. But upon preliminary weighing of the proposed equipment (battery, motor, electronics, etc.), it turned out that the frigate did not have enough carrying capacity.
Unfortunately, I could not find a toy of a suitable shape at an adequate price in stores. And I decided to make the hull for my fishing boat myself. Again, after looking through many forums and articles, I decided that the material would be fiberglass and epoxy resin.
I started making the hull for the boat by building a blank, onto which I then planned to apply materials. I made the blank like this: I made a frame from fiberboard and cardboard. I simply attached it with hot glue to a sheet of fiberboard.
Then the compartments of the frame began to be filled with plaster (alabaster). A little life hack: add a little vinegar to the alabaster, and it will harden more slowly, but at the same time there will be intense release of gases, so do not forget to ventilate the room.
When the blank was dry, I corrected it a little and covered it with paper sketch, so that later it would be easier to separate it from the body.
The fiberglass I used is also called glass mat. The seller said that for curved shapes it is better to use it. Epoxy is the simplest.
And again a minute TB: You need to work in WELL ventilated areas. I'm not kidding. This is not for you matchbox stir a couple of drops. I bent over the hull of a fishing boat a couple of times while applying a layer of epoxy, and then for three days I couldn’t catch my breath and my head hurt.
I applied 2-3-4 layers of these. Previously, I was surprised at homemade workers: is it really impossible to count the two or three layers you applied. It turns out that while working, sometimes you have to overlap the layers, and sometimes you have to apply patches. Therefore, it is better to simply focus on the thickness of the case walls. On average, the hull walls of my fishing boat are about 3 mm thick.
At this stage, the boat for delivering bait to the fishing point was called the “Pasta Monster”, because fiberglass fibers stuck out in all directions.
And also a lot of coarse sandpaper. Then the process is clear: rub, putty, rub, putty. And so on until you understand that this is the best thing you can do with your own hands.
When I removed the body from the blank, its weight was 1 kg 200 g. Which is pretty good for such rigidity and such load capacity.
I painted it when the water cannon was already in place (described in the next section). Painting was carried out in three stages: primer and two layers of “Yacht enamel PF-167” paint.
Motor. Clutch. Deadwood. Screw
In this chapter I’ll talk about what is the most intimidating thing in boatbuilding for beginners - about the homemade deadwood (waterproofed shaft) and what is located on both sides of it: the propeller and the motor. Well, how to connect all this with your own hands so that it works reliably and flawlessly on a bait boat.
A homemade deadwood for a boat consists of the following components:
- The body is a thin-walled tube from an old refrigerator. External diameter 5mm, internal - 4.5mm. The edges had to be rolled out manually so that bearings with an outer diameter of 6 mm would fit on both sides.
- A shaft is a rod made of of stainless steel with a diameter of 3 mm. On one side I cut an M3 thread for attaching the propeller.
- Bearings 3*6*2 mm. I ordered the bearings from the Chinese. In the photo there were bearings with boots, but upon arrival it turned out that instead of a boot there was only some kind of wire. The Chinese returned the money, but I decided to bet what I had.
- Oil seals. Their role is played by TO-220 insulating bushings (radio components, if anything).
The photo above and the video below show how the deadwood is assembled.
During operation, the oil near the bearings can heat up and become more liquid, so I decided to add more seals from simple 3/5 mm rubber rings. They are inserted directly in front of the bearing.
I used LITOL-24 as a thick lubricant. There are several nuances in filling the deadwood. You need to fill the deadwood housing with grease so that there is only grease inside, and not half grease, half water. To do this, the tip of the syringe is cut off to create a straight tube. The piston is removed. And such a tube is simply inserted into the barrel (or whatever you have) with lubricant to the very edge. Then the piston is inserted into the syringe, and only then do we remove the syringe completely filled with lubricant without air.
As for the clutch, I consider it my duty to inform you that you need to use the factory clutch. I checked many homemade rubber and metal options, but until I bought a normal coupling and set the motor upright, there were constant problems with reliability and runout.
When choosing a motor, I was dumbfounded by the prices, so I started looking for alternatives. I found the most powerful of the cheap ones - this is the 540-4065 electric motor.
I think that it was even possible to use a slightly weaker motor, but I can’t say so, since I haven’t tested my bait boat with weaker motors yet. Perhaps someday it will come to this, in order to increase the power reserve from a single battery charge.
I made the propeller myself from 1 mm thick brass. I cut out three identical blades in the shape of a pig's ear. And I soldered them to a bronze stand with an M3 thread. It turned out well, but I advise you to buy it, or you will have to make a device for proportional soldering of the blades.
After the first tests, it became clear that everything works well, but under one condition: if the sternwood has a fulcrum not far from the propeller. In my case, the screw is located at a considerable distance from the deadwood exit from the body. I decided to fix it relative to the body of the water cannon by soldering three MZ nuts to the deadwood and connecting the water cannon and the deadwood with screws.
Water jet and turning mechanism
When designing my bait boat, I simultaneously correlated the size of the propeller, water cannon cylinder and rotary mechanism. After searching through many options, I decided on a deodorant bottle. The outer diameter of the balloon is about 42 mm, which is 4 mm larger than the circumference of the screw, and 3 mm. less than the diameter of the rotating mechanism, which will be described below.
After 153 measurements, with trembling hands, I cut a hole in the newly completed hull of my boat.
The water cannon was glued with hot glue. I made a hole to collect water. I decided to add a piece of aluminum perforation for additional rigidity of the cylinder, since the metal in it was very thin and easily bent with little effort.
Next, I attached the motor mount to the body of the bait boat. I did it this way: I attached a screw and a rigid coupling to the deadwood. To the coupling there is a motor fixed in the mount. After that, I set the boat in such a position that the sternwood took the most vertical position, while the motor was in free suspension.
All that's left is to apply a little glue to secure it in place. correct position fastening, and after it has cooled, apply the amount of glue necessary for reliable fixation.
For the “rudder” in my fishing boat, I used a plastic food can aquarium fish. This jar, by the way, turned out to be divided into four parts by jumpers. All I have to do is carefully cut and mark everything for connection to the water cannon cylinder.
The turning lever is made of fiberglass 3 mm thick. I cut out the approximate shape, and then hewed it with a file and sandpaper a recess in the shape of a food jar.
I took a knitting needle from an umbrella (2 mm thick) and threaded it into a waterproof boot for rods (33x12mm).
The end of the spoke was bent at an angle of 90 degrees and inserted into the SG-90 servo drive.
Electrical diagram
Everyone stays where they are and no one runs away. There is nothing to be afraid of. Below is the complete electrical diagram fishing boat The diagram is large because it is detailed, but now everything will become clear.
Dotted lines highlight individual blocks. You may not use some of them at all, or replace some with an inexpensive purchased analogue. Just one circuit may seem complicated to you, but you don’t even need to understand it, and if you want, you can solder even what you don’t understand.
You can download and download the diagram in large format
So, control will be implemented from the keyboard in this way:
And in the table below you can see which pin on the Arduino Uno is responsible for which command. They are also afraid of the words pin, arduino, sketch; I’ll tell you everything in detail. The “Via:” column shows relays that are triggered when a specific phone key is pressed.
The DTMF decoder circuit is simple to implement, just 3 resistors and 1 capacitor. I was able to fit it all into a mini-jack plug.
Then it's a little more complicated. We will talk about the Arduino Uno, Arduino Nano and relay circuits for Arduino boards. But still, the diagram is drawn in detail. And most of the connections are of the same type. For example, relay K1a-K6a is a relay for Arduino with a 5 V power supply. Each relay has three wires: +5 V, GND (2 wires for power) and signal.
When the phone receives a DTMF signal (for example, pressing the “3” key), it transmits it through the input pin A0 to the Arduino Uno board. There, this signal is instantly converted into a control signal, which is sent to the desired outgoing pin, for example, pin 6, and relay K3a is activated, thereby triggering the circuit to turn on the “Small Forward” mode.
The second board is Arduino Nano. It is used exclusively for turns. Input signals for Arduino Nano are outgoing signals from 7,8,9 pins of Arduino Uno. But before entering the Arduino Nano board, these signals are inverted by optical relay OR1-OR3 from logical one to zero, respectively from zero to one.
This complexity is due to the fact that the rotation sketch only works flawlessly in this order. That's all; The analysis of this circuit is completed.
Optorelays KR293KP9A were available. The opto-relay block looks like this:
There are three of them in this block. The smallest and simplest is a 9 V stabilizer. It is called LM7809. It outputs exactly 9 volts, which powers the Arduino Uno and Arduino Nano.
Two regulators are used to set a comfortable speed " Full speed ahead" and "Small move". Firstly, for the “Full speed” mode, you can do without a regulator and simply power the motor in this mode with voltage from the battery. This will even increase the reliability of the system. Secondly, you can ask someone who is not afraid of a soldering iron to solder such regulators, if you have such a phobia. Or, in the end, explain to the radio store what power the motor is, what voltage you want to power it with, and they will select a regulator for you.
Motor control circuit:
I decided to make the motor control circuit using a relay. This is primarily due to the fact that I had them in stock.
I won’t lie. For unprepared people, this scheme is complicated. But I’ll at least tell you why it was created. Perhaps many will understand how it works.
Further, the same diagram is presented in two forms: the first is more convenient for installation, and the second is for analyzing how the interlocks work. The locks are made in such a way that when reverse is engaged, it is impossible to engage either small or full forward.
When the boat is sailing forward, it is impossible to turn into reverse. To change direction, you need to stop the boat by pressing the “0” key. The main idea of these interlocks is not to overload the electrical circuit. At the same time, on the go you can switch between low and full forward without any problems.
I placed relays and terminal blocks on the board. This is what the relay circuit installation looks like:
I soldered the outputs from the contacts and relay coils to the terminal blocks. Be sure to install diodes on the relay coils. It is not necessary to install blue varistors (2 circles).
According to the diagram, I connected the relay and power contacts to each other. This whole process is absolutely proprietary. I was chasing miniaturization. I did this. You can do it more cumbersome, but more neatly.
Unloading scheme
The principle of unloading is simple: we give a signal to the Arduino, the electric lock is activated, and the hopper with bait and equipment is released. The electric lock is a simple 24V solenoid from the paper feed in a laser printer.
To make the retraction force greater, I decided to increase the voltage from the battery to 30 V. This is done using a simple Chinese device MT3608, purchased on AliExpress.
Toggle switches, voltmeters and dimensions.
Here the diagrams delight the eye with their simplicity and accessibility. Dimensions can be achieved simply by attaching a bicycle light to the handle of a fishing boat.
I’ll finish the story about electronics with this: emergency stop circuit:
It was created so that if there is an accidental loss of mobile communication while fishing, the fishing boat does not float over the horizon or into the reeds.
The principle of operation is simple: while the handset is off-hook and the phone (receiver) is in conversation mode, there is voltage on the headset microphone. It can be used to control an opto-relay, through the normally open contacts of which voltage will be supplied to the boat motor. If you end a call or if the network is lost, the voltage on the microphone disappears, the opto-relay opens and the motor stops.
Programming Arduino microcontrollers
Arduino, if anyone doesn’t know, is a microcontroller for the general public. Very accessible and simple. Roughly speaking: I connected it to the computer via USB, loaded it with a sketch (a program that says what the microcontroller will do) and everything is ready. I will not describe the process of installing drivers and downloading programs. Everything can be found on the website Arduino.
If you have any questions, the network is full of detailed descriptions this process.
My bait boat uses two Arduino boards: one UNO and one NANO.
For Uno, in addition to the sketch, you will need libraries.
You can upload and download the library
The DTMF folder needs to be copied to the C:\Program Files\Arduino\libraries folder.
In the sketches themselves, after the “//” mark there are comments.
And here are the sketches themselves:
For UNO:
#include
int sensorPin = A0;
float n = 128.0;
float sampling_rate = 8926.0;
DTMF dtmf = DTMF(n, sampling_rate);
float d_mags;
char thischar;
int ledPins = ( // Array for 10 PINS / relay.
2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 // 4-Pin, used by the library!
};
void setup() (
for (int i = 0; i<= 9; i++) {
pinMode(ledPins[i], OUTPUT); // We make the entire array of ledPins OUTPUT.
digitalWrite(ledPins[i], HIGH); // Set the entire ledPins array to HIGH.
}
}
void loop() (
dtmf.sample(sensorPin);
dtmf.detect(d_mags, 506);
thischar = dtmf.button(d_mags, 1800.);
if (thischar) (
digitalWrite(ledPins, LOW);
delay(500);
digitalWrite(ledPins, HIGH);
}
}
For Nano:
// add a library for working with servos
#include
// for further work let's call 12 pins as servoPin
#define servoPin 12
// 544 is the reference pulse length at which the servo should take the 0° position
#define servoMinImp 544
// 2400 is the reference pulse length at which the servo should take the 180° position
#define servoMaxImp 2400
Servo myServo;
void setup()
{
myServo.attach(servoPin, servoMinImp, servoMaxImp);
// set the pin as a servo control pin,
// and also for operation of the servo drive directly in the angle range from 0 to 180°, set the min and max values of the pulses.
pinMode(5, INPUT);
pinMode(6, INPUT);
pinMode(7, INPUT);
myServo.write(1430);
}
void loop()
{
if(digitalRead(5) == HIGH) // Condition of the 1st button
{
myServo.write(1130); // Rotate servo left 45 degrees
}
if(digitalRead(6) == HIGH) // Condition of the 2nd button
{
myServo.write(1430); // Return servo to center
}
if(digitalRead(7) == HIGH) // Condition of the 3rd button
{
myServo.write(1730); // Rotate the servo to the right 45 degrees
}
}
Cover (deck) of the boat and controls on it
The material for the cover was fiberglass laminate 2 mm thick. I attached the hull of the fishing boat to a sheet of fiberglass laminate, traced the outline with a marker, and cut out the desired shape with a jigsaw.
The weight of the lid was 590 grams. For such rigidity this is quite a normal result.
I placed the power regulators and the toggle switch for the flashlight in a powder container, which I attached with “liquid nails” glue for complete waterproofing.
For the receiver phone and voltmeters I used an external junction box.
It also houses the battery contacts for charging the battery. On the back side there is a connector for unloading.
This is what a bait boat looks like with the lid installed, but without unloading:
Unloading bait
The principle of unloading bait is as follows: when a signal is given, a solenoid is activated, holding the bottom of the hopper with a latch, and it opens freely under its own weight or the weight of the bait.
The bait bunker was made from three paired boxes for small parts. I hung the bottom of two-millimeter PCB on the smallest loop I could find on the hardware market.
And I attached all this to a one-millimeter stainless steel corner.
By the way, I made the bunkers quick-release. To do this, I attach the angles to the boat with nuts with “ears”, and the cable to the solenoid through a connector.
At the top, the corners (bases of the bunkers) were fastened with a boat handle made of an aluminum tube with a diameter of 10 mm. The unloading weight was a little more than a kilogram. This is a lot, but for my bait boat it is quite acceptable.
Hi all. My review is dedicated to those who are tired of modern, complex radio-controlled toys with a bunch of electronics inside. Meet: a wonderful boat, with steam engine, powered by the heat of a candle. This is exactly the toy whose operating principle you can easily explain to your child :)
Actually, I have long wanted such a boat. There was even an idea to solder it myself, from a tin can, but recently I came across a ready-made one and bought it. The seller turned out to be a little fraudulent and sent it without a track, although the page stated that they were sent by normal mail. However, everything arrived quite quickly. The boat is completely metal, comes in a box, and includes two candles, an iron tray and a plastic straw. Apparently, to fill the tubes of the boat with water. 
The build quality of the boat leaves much to be desired, so it was decided to disassemble it and do everything in a normal way. Inside the boat there is a “steam boiler”, which is a small volume chamber with a flexible brass membrane on top. There are 2 tubes attached to the bottom of the chamber, which are led out over the side of the ship. To remove the boiler, there was no need to disassemble the boat, everything works out just like that. 
The tubes going overboard were glued with something like superglue and were hanging loose. So I soldered them. Surprisingly, the paint did not peel off from the heat.
The principle of operation is very simple: when a chamber pre-filled with water is heated with candles, the liquid boils, the pressure rises, and the steam, pushing the water through the tubes, moves the boat forward. The steam then condenses, creating a vacuum, and the water is sucked back into the boiler. The cycle repeats.
All this is accompanied by cool sounds made by the bending membrane. It's like a small motor is running. That's why the boat is called PopPop boat, because of the sounds it makes.
You can read more in detail in the bourgeois Wikipedia at the request of PopPop Boat
The article is interesting, but in English. The toy was popular in the 50s of the last century, and was invented even earlier.
And of course, a video of the work. The main thing is not to forget to fill the tubes with water before starting. Otherwise nothing will work.
I'm planning to buy +59 Add to favorites I liked the review +116 +213
It's summer and you can go for a walk with the kids by the river, enjoy the fresh air, and at the same time launch a boat into the water, which we propose to make right now.
We will need:
- 5-volt motor from the CD drive;
- three AA batteries;
- electrical tape;
- Styrofoam;
- cap from a plastic bottle;
- two pieces of plastic;
- two washers.
The first step is to make a screw. To do this, we make slits in the lid in places where there are no threads. These places are located symmetrically, therefore, the screws will also be located symmetrically. We will make the slits with a regular stationery knife.
Now you need to insert pieces of plastic into the slots, fixing them with hot glue, creating blades.
We glue the resulting screw to the motor.
Let's move on to the hull of the boat, which will be made from a piece of foam. On a piece of foam plastic you need to mark the places that will be cut. This will be the front triangular part, a recess for the battery compartment, and also a place for the blades with the motor.
Cut out all unnecessary parts.
1.5-volt AA batteries can be connected in series. By connecting three batteries, you can get 4.5 volts. The batteries must be connected as shown in the figure below. Please note that the washers should create contacts between the outer and middle batteries.
We wrap the batteries with electrical tape, not forgetting to bring out two wires - negative and positive.
All that remains is to put everything together using a glue gun.
In Soviet times, children did not have Barbie, Playstation and radio-controlled helicopters. But so many interesting things could be found at the nearest factory, at a construction site or, sorry, at a landfill. Saltpeter, carbide, metal shavings, and finally the same copper tubes and brass plates. According to the ancient Soviet recipe, a water-jet engine was built like this: the shell was removed from a large D-type battery, the central electrode and all contents were removed. The ship modeler was interested in a zinc cup. The upper two-thirds of the cup was cut off with a hacksaw, the edges were smoothed with scissors, and two holes were drilled in the resulting “saucepan” for copper pipes. The tubes were soldered with ordinary tin. A round lid was cut out of a brass plate and also soldered to the “saucepan”. The lid was then pressed down slightly to create a movable membrane. By blowing into the tubes, it was possible to make the membrane click. It is better to make the boiler as small as possible: the smaller the volume of water inside the engine, the faster it will start.
It makes sense to place pipelines on a ship so that a significant part of the pipes is below the waterline. Water in this case plays the role of a coolant. The faster the steam cools in the pipes, the more reliable the engine operates. When designing the hull of a ship, remember that the steel tubes from the “eight” weigh a lot. The volume and displacement of the boat must correspond to the substantial mass of the engine and spark plug.
Before turning on, the engine should be completely filled with water using a syringe. The design has exactly two tubes, and not one, to facilitate “filling”: while water is poured into one nozzle, air comes out of the other. The ship is built so that both tubes are constantly immersed in water. When a candle is placed under the cauldron, the water in it heats up and begins to boil. The resulting vapors push water out of the boiler. Passing through the tubes, the water cools, the pressure in the boiler drops, and the engine sucks the water back. Thus, a constant back-and-forth movement of the water column occurs in the pipes.
After pouring some ink into the engine, we were able to see the water jet in all its glory. The photo shows how far and collected the steam engine hits. It is not surprising that with such thrust the ship rapidly rushes forward.
The simplest steam water jet can be made without a boiler at all. It is enough to bend the pipe in several turns directly above the candle in the manner of a boiler. The boiler is made for special effects: the bending membrane makes a loud rattling sound. Despite the fact that the water column moves in both directions with equal amplitude, the engine pushes the boat forward. This is due to the fact that all the water is pushed out of the tubes in one direction, but is sucked in from all sides.
Attempts to find a replacement for copper tubes and brass plates, which are rare these days, led us to the following solution: the brake line from a VAZ 2108 car became an excellent tube. It fits perfectly in diameter, is well soldered and, most importantly, is sold in any auto store.
A steam jet can be called a two-stroke engine. During the first stroke, the water in the boiler heats up and reaches boiling point. The resulting steam pushes water out of the boiler and drives it through the pipes. During the second stroke, the hot water in the pipes cools, the pressure in the system drops, and the water is again sucked into the boiler. The release of water occurs in a strictly defined direction, and the suction occurs from all sides. Therefore, on the first beat the ship pushes forward, but on the second it does not move back.
The membrane is a delicate matter, in every sense of the word. With such a small diameter of the lid, its material must be very soft and pliable. After several unsuccessful attempts, we made a membrane from an aluminum cup from the cheapest tea light. It is very thin, soft, and sounds good. The only negative is that aluminum cannot be soldered. Instead of soldering, we used a 10-minute two-part epoxy glue. Concerns about its durability in harsh temperature conditions were not justified. If the engine is working correctly, the cup does not get too hot - this is the thermodynamic cycle of the water jet.
The engine performance is impressive. Its power is sufficient to push the ship forward, creating streams of water visible to the naked eye behind. To be honest, we were not able to get a really bright sound from the car, like in ancient times. So it looks like the membrane material is still worth experimenting with. We sincerely wish you good luck in your search for brass plates!