I am going insane, not having worked on any new boats since the lobster boat completed back in june.

I am currently shopping for a house, and have been saving my pennies for the down payment, and spending my weekends looking at properties, so my build time has gone through the floor.

however, to keep my sanity, I have been collecting all the photos I took during the Alvin's build over the last 4+ years.

so in a similar attempt to Kmot's post construction photo layout of project X, here are a few photos of Alvin:

any comments or questions are welcome

Tim

Great pictures!

Nice to see a DSV submarine getting built.

More photos, this batch is from March of 2005...

basically, i made my first homemade WTC, and used them to figure out positioning of major components. these are, again very rudimentary.

I also vacform molded the rear sail tip, and an additional "tail fin" that contours into the rear shroud/rudder.

This set also includes photos of the buildup of the brow cut, and cutouts for the windows and hatch in the sail.

Tim

MORE, MORE, MORE!!!!!!! Please!
Dave

no problem, be patient, i have about 50 photos total that will get uploaded...

You've never shown the mechanicals before...
Nice set up of the Graupner drives..

These photos are dated May and June of 2005, and show the final construction of the internal framing that holds the WTCs in place, and final design for the rear propeller arrangements. also you will see the second set of endcaps that are machined PVC instead of the molded bondo original set. This group of photos also contains the first appearance of the ballast system, and the first appearance of the saddle flotation moldings below the side thrusters.

A little info about the last photo: endcaps are milled PVC, note the dubro bellows style servo pushrod seals on top of the WTCs with pushrods leading up to the arm on the backside of each graupner schottel drive, each side WTC contains a full size futaba servo, an Mtronics ESC and a graupner 380 size motor and gearbox #GR1039. Main WTC contains an astroflight ESC, the Engel ballast tank controller, the receiver, a fullsize servo, a Como 550 size motor with 13:1 gearbox, and a robotmarketplace switch to turn lights on and off.

the next set of photos must be from June and July of 2005.

first photo is the WTC made for the ballast tank. final group of photos are of me helping Mike Dory trim the sub and its maiden voyage.

If memory serves me right, the regatta was held the weekend after fathers day, so Alvin's maiden voyage would have been on June 25, 2005...

This set of photos details the details...

since the hull and WTC have been proven sea worthy, now its time to make it look good.

photos include the arm, the basket, the lights, the sail, the decals, cameras, small details and some scribing.

Photos are dated November of 2005 through July of 2007.

a few notes:

39 real live brass bolts on the windows
16 5mm 18000 mcd LEDs
Decals by Aeroloft http://aeroloft.com

During my construction of the details (december of 2006) I decided that some of the issues I was having needed to be fixed.

what issues you may ask?

well, I had 5 servo cables and 6 power wires coming out of the main WTC into the other WTCs and the wiring harness. weird things were happening were tiny little leaks were noticed, and I finally figured out that they were coming in through the tiny little spaces around the wires. I also found the thrusters were basically useless because they didn't move enough water.

I fixed the power cable issues by moving the ballast tank controller to the ballast tank WTC. This also allowed me to upgrade the original controller and tank to a new proportional model that Engel now produces. (don't worry the original tank was used in a new sub) I reduced the servo cables to just the one going to the ballast tank by putting receivers in the thruster motor WTCs. I made room for the receivers by removing the 2:1 gearboxes and going direct drive. I further reduced the space needs in the WTCs by going with high torque mini servos instead of full size servos. Last but not least I replaced all the motors with smaller brushless outrunners. i also used a really nice 6:1 planetary gearbox bolted directly to the endcap for the main motor.

In other words I completely rebuilt the WTCs.

pictures follow:

last batch of photos

these are just some shots taken of the Alvin over the last 18 months floating in a couple of different locations.