[PSUBS-MAILIST] R300 Dive at Lake Amistad

[Cliff Redus via Personal_Submersibles]

Alan, operation of the four Minn-Kota thrusters was a joy.  Maneuverability
is an order magnitude better than before plus they are super quite. I use a
foot control that you tilt forward to increase speed of stern thrusters and
if you tilt the foot control back you can reverse the stern
thrusters.  With this I now have brakes.   I have a 3-axis joy stick which
I use to control pitch, roll and yaw through PLC. I programed three
different vertical thruster modes. The first is full control in
which starboard-port movement generates roll, the second in which I switch
them over to momentary  switches for up and down movement and have them
locked together and a third in which I have them back on the joystick but
lock out roll.  I use the first mode when I want to fly underwater with
full pitch, roll and yaw control.  I use the second mode for vertical
ascent or decent and the third mode which gives yaw and pitch movement
but locks out roll movement.  On the surface I have to be careful not
to apply  full speed to aft thrusters or they will cavitate. On the ascent
from the 154 ft dive, I could see out the viewport a steady stream of
bubbles coming from the pressure reducing regulator used to pressure
compensate the thrusters.  Also, after the dive I analyzed the logged data
and confirmed that during each dive air was been supply to the thrusters
for pressure compensation.  I have not done so yet but I plan on
disassembling one of the thrusters to confirm it had no water encroachment
during the dive.  I am really happy with the Minn-Kota thrusters.  After a
full day on the water, I had a SOC of 90%.  With my previous drive train,
my batteries would be at a 50% SOC for same number of hours.  As to boat
length, I did end of shortening the boat by 2.5 ft. I also shortened the
trailer by 3 ft.  As the pressure hull is shaped like a coke bottle, I
could not cut much more off the stern FRP cowling.

After I do a 400 ft unmanned dive to qualify the boat to 300 ft, then I am
going to find some clear water.  How you doing for garage space?  I sure
you could find me some nice clear water in New Zealand!

Cliff

On Wed, Jan 27, 2016 at 9:40 PM, Alan James via Personal_Submersibles <
personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:

> Thanks Cliff,
> congratulations on getting the refit finished.
> How did you feel it operated with the 4 Minn kotas.
> What was the steering like on surface & diving.
> I notice you didn't shorten the sub. What were the reasons
> for that, I thought that tale section would just be an
> appendage now.
> That was a shame about the visibility. Wait till you get in to some really
> clear water, you will be blown away.
> Cheers Alan
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Cliff Redus via Personal_Submersibles <
> personal_submersibles at psubs.org>
> *To:* Personal Submersibles General Discussion <
> personal_submersibles at psubs.org>
> *Sent:* Thursday, January 28, 2016 11:07 AM
> *Subject:* Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] R300 Dive at Lake Amistad
>
>  Lake Amistad 2016 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ojwoedzn8ms> is a
> link to YouTube video of dive last weekend.  This is the deepest dive to
> date with the boat.  Got the thruster electrical issue from my last dive
> sorted out.  The objective in diving this lake is that it is the deepest in
> Texas and most of the time, the clearest.  Having said that, last weekend
> visibility was bad.  Surface vis was 6ft, lost all light at 80 ft and zero
> visibilty at 154 ft.  Still if was fun to get the deep dive in.
>
> Clif
>
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