Overture

Three years ago, under the influence of friends, he became interested in carp fishing. They taught me to catch, they told me all the secrets. The first carps have gone. And then, once on a fishing trip, I saw with an envious eye a fisherman with a carp boat. I really liked this boat. I asked how much it costs - I really didn’t like it ($ 1000 “for a minute”). I googled - it turned out that you can take it for $ 100, but not that. In addition, a large-scale home-made plan was brewing in my head to amuse myself and interest my son.

The first decision was made: to make a boat for the delivery of bait with your own hands. I flipped through the forums on RC modeling, figured out the estimate - scratched my turnips. It came out in a poor way about $ 150 for components. Yes, and the task seemed too easy for me (woe to me naive).

The second decision was made: to make the most budget-friendly boat with your own hands, and ideally for free. Honestly, friends, not out of greed, but out of sporting interest.

So, the concept was worked out: I decided to make a boat on DTMF control. This is when you call from one mobile phone (transmitter) to another (receiver), and when you press the keys, a “beep” of a different tone is heard. On the second phone (receiver), it remains only to program the transformation of this “beeping” into different control commands depending on the received tone (one signal starts the motor, the other stops, the third turns).

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 the case from an old toy. The son (he, so to speak, was in share) easily presented an old pirate frigate on wheels. But during the 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 in stores a toy of a suitable shape for an adequate price. And I decided to make a hull for my fishing boat on my own. Again, after scrolling through many forums and articles, I decided that fiberglass and epoxy would serve as the material.

I started making the hull for the boat by building a blank, on which I then planned to apply materials. I made a blank like this: I made a skeleton from fiberboard and cardboard. I fixed it with just hot glue to a sheet of fiberboard.

Then he began to fill the compartments of the skeleton with gypsum (alabaster). Little life hack: add a little vinegar to the alabaster, and it will harden more slowly, but at the same time there will be an intense release of gases, so do not forget to ventilate the room.

When the disc dried up, I corrected it a little and glued it with a paper sketch, so that later it would be easier to separate it from the case.

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 easiest.

And again minute TB: You need to work in WELL ventilated areas. I'm not kidding. It's not for you to interfere with a couple of drops in a matchbox. A couple of times I bent over the hull of the fishing boat while applying a layer of epoxy, and then for three days I could not catch my breath and my head hurt.

I applied these 2-3-4 layers. Before, I was also surprised at home-made people: is it really impossible to count two or three layers you applied. It turns out that during work, 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 walls of the case. In my fishing boat, on average, the hull walls are about 3 mm thick.
At this stage, the boat for the delivery of bait to the point of fishing was called "Pasta Monster", because. fiberglass mat sticking 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 realize that this is the best thing you can do with your own hands.

When I removed the case from the blank, its weight was 1 kg 200 gr. Which is pretty good for such rigidity and such load capacity.

Painted 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 paint "Yacht enamel PF-167".

Motor. Coupling. Deadwood. Screw

In this chapter I will talk about what is most intimidating in shipbuilding for beginners - about a homemade deadwood (waterproofed shaft) and what is on either side of it: about the propeller and about the motor. Well, how to connect all this with your own hands, so that it works reliably and smoothly on a bait boat.

A homemade deadwood for a boat consists of the following components:

• Case - is a thin-walled tube from an old refrigerator. Outer diameter 5mm, inner diameter 4.5mm. The edges had to be manually rolled out so that bearings with an outer diameter of 6 mm stood on both sides.
• The shaft is a stainless steel rod with a diameter of 3 mm. On one side, I cut the M3 thread for attaching the propeller.
• Bearings 3*6*2 mm. Bearings ordered from the Chinese. In the photo there were bearings with anthers, and upon arrival it turned out that instead of an anther there was only some kind of wire. The Chinese returned the money, but I decided to put those that are already.
• 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 oil 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. It is necessary to fill the body of the deadwood with grease so that there is only grease inside, and not half the grease, half the water. To do this, the nose of the syringe is cut off to make a straight tube. The piston is removed. And such a tube is simply inserted into the barrel (or whatever you have) with grease to the very edge. Then the piston is inserted into the syringe, and only then we take out the syringe completely clogged with grease without air.

As for the clutch, I consider it my duty to inform you that the clutch must be taken from the factory. I checked many homemade rubber and metal options, but until I bought a normal clutch and put the motor in a plumb line, 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 an electric motor 540-4065.

I think that it was even possible to take a slightly weaker motor, but I can’t say, because 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.

The propeller was made independently from brass 1 mm thick. I cut out three identical blades in the shape of a pig's ear. And soldered them to a bronze rack with an M3 thread. It turned out well, but I advise you to buy it, or you will have to make an adaptation for proportional soldering of the blades.

After the first tests, it became clear that everything works well, but on one condition: if the deadwood has a fulcrum not far from the propeller. In my case, the screw is at a considerable distance from the exit of the deadwood from the body. I decided to make a fixation relative to the water jet body by soldering three MZ nuts to the deadwood and connecting the water cannon and deadwood with screws.

Water cannon and swivel mechanism

When designing my bait boat, I simultaneously correlated the size of the propeller, the jet tank and the turning mechanism. As a result of sorting through many options, I opted for a deodorant bottle. The outer diameter of the balloon is about 42 mm, which is 4 mm larger than the screw circumference, and 3 mm larger. less than the diameter of the rotary mechanism, which will be described below.

After 153 measurements, with trembling hands, I cut a hole in the just finished hull of my boat.

The water cannon was glued with hot glue. Made a hole for water intake. I decided to add a piece of aluminum perforation for additional rigidity of the cylinder, since the metal in it is very thin and easily bends with little effort.

Next, I attached the engine 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 clutch - a motor fixed in the mount. After that, I set the boat in such a position that the deadwood took the maximum vertical position, while the motor was in free suspension.

It remains to apply a little glue to fix the correct position of the fastening, and after it cools down, apply the amount of glue necessary for reliable fixation.

For the "rudder" in my fishing boat, I used a plastic jar from food for aquarium fish. This jar, by the way, was divided by jumpers into four parts. It remains for me to carefully cut and mark everything for connection to the water jet cylinder.

The lever for turning is made of fiberglass with a thickness of 3 mm. I cut out an approximate shape, and then cut out a recess in the shape of a jar of food with a file and sandpaper.

I took a knitting needle from an umbrella (thickness 2 mm) and threaded it into a moisture-proof boot for rods (33x12mm).

The end of the spoke was bent at an angle of 90 degrees and brought into the SG-90 servo.

Wiring diagram

Everyone stays where they are and no one runs away. There is nothing to fear. Below is a complete electrical diagram of a fishing boat. The scheme is large, because it is detailed, but now everything will become clear.

The dotted lines show individual blocks. You may not use some of them at all, and some can be replaced with an inexpensive purchased analogue. Only one circuit may seem complicated to you, but you don’t even need to understand it, and if you wish, you can solder what you don’t understand.

You can download and download the scheme in large format

So, the 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. The words pin, arduino, sketch are also afraid of not worth further, I will tell you everything in detail. The column "Through:" indicates the relays that are triggered when a certain phone key is pressed.

The DTMF decoder circuit is easy to implement with just 3 resistors and 1 capacitor. I was able to fit it all into a mini-jack plug.

The next one is a little more difficult. We will talk about the circuit of Arduino Uno, Arduino Nano and relays for Arduino boards. But still, the scheme is drawn in detail. And most of the links are the same. For example, the K1a-K6a relay is a 5 V relay for Arduino. Three wires are suitable for each relay: + 5V, 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 A0 input pin to the Arduino Uno board. There, this signal is instantly converted into a control signal, which is applied to the desired outgoing pin, for example, pin 6, and the K3a relay is triggered, thereby starting the circuit to turn on the "Small Forward" mode.

The second board is the 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 means of the OR1-OR3 opto-relay from a logical one to zero, respectively, from zero to one.

This complexity is due to the fact that the sketch for rotations only works without failures in this order. That's all; analysis of this scheme is completed.

Optorelays KR293KP9A were available. The opto relay block looks like this:

There are three in this block. The smallest and simplest is a 9V regulator. It is called the LM7809. It gives exactly 9 volts at the output, which are powered by Arduino Uno and Arduino Nano.

Two knobs are used to set the comfortable speed "Full speed" and "Slow speed". Firstly, for the "Full speed" mode, you can do without the regulator and simply power the motor in this mode with battery voltage. This will even increase the reliability of the system. Secondly, such regulators can be asked to solder someone who is not afraid of a soldering iron, 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, and they will pick up a regulator for you.

Motor control scheme:

I decided to make a motor control circuit on a relay. This is primarily due to the fact that I had them in stock.

I will not lie. For unprepared people, this scheme is complicated. But I'll tell you at least what it was created for. Perhaps many will understand how it works.

Further, the same scheme is presented in two forms: the first is more convenient for installation, and the second is for analyzing how the locks work. The locks are made in such a way that when the reverse gear is engaged, it is impossible to engage either small or full forward.

When the boat is sailing forward, it is impossible to 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 easily switch small and full forward.

I placed a relay and terminal blocks on the board. This is how the relay circuit looks like:

I soldered the outputs from the relay contacts and coils to the terminal blocks. Be sure to install diodes on the relay coils. Blue varistors (2 circles) are optional.

According to the diagram, I connected the relay and power contacts to each other. This whole process is completely original. I was chasing miniaturization. Did so. You can do more cumbersome, but more neat.

Unloading scheme

The principle of unloading is simple: we give a signal to the arduino, the electric lock is activated, the bunker with bait and equipment is released. The electric lock is a simple 24V solenoid from the paper feed in the laser printer.

In order for the retraction force to be greater, I decided to increase the voltage from the battery to 30 V .. This is done using a simple Chinese device MT3608, bought on AliExpress.

Toggle switches, voltmeters and dimensions.

Here the schemes delight the eye with their simplicity and clarity. Dimensions can be realized simply by attaching a bicycle light to the handle of the fishing boat.

I will finish the story about electronics like this emergency stop circuit:

It was created so that in case of accidental loss of mobile communications while fishing, the fishing boat does not sail beyond the horizon or into the reeds.

The principle of operation is simple: while the receiver is off-hook and the phone (receiver) is in talk 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's motor. If you end the call or if the network is lost, the voltage on the microphone disappears, the opto-relay opens and the motor stops.

Arduino microcontroller programming

Arduino is, if anyone does not know, microcontrollers for the general public. Very accessible and easy. Roughly speaking: connected via USB to a computer, uploaded a sketch to it (a program that says what the microcontroller will do) and you're done. I will not describe the process of installing drivers and programs for download. Everything can be taken on the website. Arduino.

If there are questions, then the network is full of detailed descriptions of 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 download and download the library

The DTMF folder must be copied to the C:\Program Files\Arduino\libraries folder.

In the sketches themselves, there are comments after such a "//" mark.

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); // Make the entire ledPins array OUTPUT.
digitalWrite(ledPins[i], HIGH); // Make the entire ledPins array 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, we will name pin 12 as servoPin
#define servoPin 12
// 544 is the reference pulse length at which the servo should take position 0°
#define servoMinImp 544
// 2400 is the reference pulse length at which the servo should take a 180° position
#define servoMaxImp 2400
Servo myServo;
void setup()
{
myServo.attach(servoPin, servoMinImp, servoMaxImp);
// set pin as servo control pin,
// and also for the operation of the servo directly in the range of angles 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) // 1st Button Condition
{
myServo.write(1130); // Rotate Servo Left 45 Degrees
}
if(digitalRead(6) == HIGH) // 2nd button condition
{
myServo.write(1430); // Bring Servo Back To Center
}
if(digitalRead(7) == HIGH) // 3rd Button Condition
{
myServo.write(1730); // Rotate Servo Right 45 Degrees
}
}

Cover (deck) of the boat and controls on it

Fiberglass 2 mm thick served as the material for the lid.

The weight of the lid turned out to be 590 grams. For such rigidity, the result is quite normal.

I placed the power regulators and the toggle switch for the lantern in a powder container, which I planted on “liquid nails” glue for complete waterproofing.

For the receiver phone and voltmeters, I used an external junction box.
It also contains battery contacts for charging the battery. On the back side brought out the connector for unloading.

This is how the bait boat looks like with the lid installed, but without unloading:

Bait unloading

The principle of unloading bait is as follows: when a signal is given, a solenoid is activated that holds the bottom of the hopper with a latch, and it opens freely under its own weight or the weight of bait.

The bait hopper was made from three paired boxes for small parts. I hung the bottom of a two-millimeter textolite on the smallest loop I could find on the household market.

And all this was attached to a one-millimeter stainless steel corner.

By the way, he made the bunkers quick-detachable. To do this, I attach the corners to the boat on nuts with "ears", and the cable to the solenoid through the connector.

At the top, the corners (the bases of the bunkers) were fastened with a boat handle made of an aluminum tube with a diameter of 10 mm .. The weight of the unloading was a little more than a kilogram. This is a lot, but for my bait boat it is quite acceptable.