R/C WarShip with Tomahawk Missiles

[rigidigital]

I was reading a post here where R/C Warships were mentioned. Then I did a search and found clubs that do battle useing mostly BB gun mechanisms to shoot each other to bits.

Then I thought about how much fun it would be if your Ship was taken a beating and then you unleased a salvo of low powered rockets (controlled by picaxe) into enemy Ships.
Of course you'd probably not have anyone laughing along with you and that would be the least of your problems
Sounded like a lot of fun, don't think its taken off in OZ.

 

[BeanieBots]

Cue Wrenow!

I'm sure there are rules about that sort of thing.
Much like there are in robot wars.

How would YOU feel after spending a few months building a ship and a few $$$ on materials and someone fired at YOUR ship?
Fancy taking part? You can be the target.

 

[Dippy]

... and all for under a fiver too?

I wonder how good those Ebay rockets are?

 

[Wrenow]

Actually Big Gun stye Model Warship Combat is HUGE in Oz. Check out the Australian Battle Group at http://www.ausbg.org

Those are not BB Gun mechanisms, by the way.

However, as to rockets - several problems.

1) there is a "no pyrotechnics" rule.
2) there is a "no firing above the horizontal" rule
3) the only countable damage is in the sides of the hull, preferably at the waterline +- 1".
4) ships are restricted to the 1900-1946 period - battleships were not armed with rocket batteries during that period.

And, above all, safety is paramount. What you are describing is either inherently unsafe or inneffective. Yes, it has been discussed ad nauseum on multiple forums, let's not infect this one.

To head off other, similar, frequent, questions not already answered.

PT Boats - 6" long, hard but possible to build, totally ineffective, a novelty.
Submarines - terribly complex and expensive build, pretty much ineffective under most rules, a novelty (remember, if you can see your sub to steer it, your enemy can see it to avoid it).
Aircraft Carriers - permitted by some clubs, but try to build a 1/144 scale airplane that can fly out in the real world. Good lu8ck with that...... Plus, you need pilots as well as captains. Someday, perhaps possible, but unlikely with current technology.

If you are interested, I suggest you peruse the Servo Magazine article in the "in the news" section of the http://www.ntxbg.org web site.

And, BB, we fire 1/4" ball bearings at each other's ships all the time. That is kind of the point. Poor SMS Baden cam in the 3rd best looking ship when she arrived. Left looking pretty sad and war-torn. Verdun, winner of the Seive award this year, collected 54 holes in her hull at NABGO, the North American Big Gun Open

Cheers,

Wreno

 

[BeanieBots]

Granted about the 1/4"" BBs. However, slight difference between having a hole in the hull and being smothered with an incendiary!

 

[rigidigital]

More on Rockets

Thanks for the info there Wrenow. Followed the link and turns out its a big sport in my City with events coming up in next month, think I'll check it out.

Anyway I thought of rockets (i did not expect it would ever really be allowable due to safety) as a Long Long Time Ago in a place not too Far Far Away, I was a member of 'Space Pilots' a club in QLD. I was about 10! Anyway we used to build rockets at night meetings, either kits or start out with a cardboard roll out of a used gladwrap or alfoil box, cut out balsa wood fins and etc etc. Then fit whatever size rocket engine depending on regulations or club rules. Have a launch day once a month.

It's cheap and easy hobby or you can spend a lot, say if you wanted to build a three stage rocket or a big rocket.

I once saw a replica Apollo Rocket launch, it was a Beast; However not all the engines fired but it was spectacular how it started to take off with all the rocket exhaust cloud and it went up about two feet and kinda hovered there for a while and then sat back down on earth Some guys even launched some ants in their 'manned' rocket one day.

I think these days people launch these model rockets with microchips and sensors inside them. They come down with a parachute so you get to retrieve them collet the data and reuse the rocket............

Also the way a two or three stage rocket works is when each 'rocket motor' burns out it sets off a charge at its top which then ignites the next rocket motor. Though you can buy motors that do not have this second charge, you could then use a microcontroller to set off the rocket motors and perhaps get more height by having a slightly longer delay between the stages firing.

And yep the more powerfull your rocket the more regulations come into force.

 

[hippy]

4) ships are restricted to the 1900-1946 period - battleships were not armed with rocket batteries during that period.

So that doesn't exclude a PICAXE controlled atomic bomb if all the other criteria are met, such as skimmed across the water surface.

I always thought 'atomic beans' would be great - size of a pharmaceutical capsule - throw on the table and instant 3 inch mushroom cloud.

 

[lanternfish]

I think you will find that the use of (model) rocket engines is covered by state/federal legislation. This is to make the sport/hobby of rocketry as safe as possible.

There is quite a bit of info around if you Google it.

Nice idea, if not impractical. You will have no way of accurately guiding your 'missiles' to their intended target. And the legislation generally frowns on such activity.

Cheers

 

[Wrenow]

Rigidiital,

If you go to the event, be sure to ask if Brett F, Darren S, Richard S. or some of that crew have ever heard of Wreno from Texas - and tell themn tell them Hi from me! I have several hulls from Oz, from Bowning Shipyards, some purchased directly and others second hand. I think you will enjoy the guys. The ones I have met are great guys.

Let us know how you get on.....


Cheers,

Wreno

 

[rigidigital]

A Pleasure Wrenow

Unless something comes up I will be going to the club meeting and will try to find those guys and say Hi for you. I might even go to the build workshop to see whats involved in making one of these boats.. oops Ships

Im also going to build a rocket being the 40th anniversary of the moon landing ! I want to incorporate a picaxe into it. I will do some searching as Ive no idea what kind of data or sensors used. Add a lot more fun to it depending on what kind of data can be collected.

<I FOUND THIS GUY USING A MICROCONTROLLER IN HIS ROCKET>
"""The design is simple consisting of three major parts: a 5.5g accelerometer switch, a microcontoller and a GPS receiver. A parts list, pictures, source code and a schematic are included in this article.
The GPSDL records the date, time, latitude, longitude, altitude, speed, heading in degrees and number of satellites that are in communication with the receiver every second for a total of 5 minutes"""

So I need a datalogger and a GPS module, prices of these in the Tech Store are bit expensive. Building a Two Stage Rocket with motors is the cheap part of the project. However its still dooable.

Wait a sec... I'd just connect the GPS and antenna to the PICAXE and the picaxe would log the data ? Could I use the battery out of one of my mobile phones as its small and light weight but keeps the phone running for a whole week.??

 

[Wrenow]

So that doesn't exclude a PICAXE controlled atomic bomb if all the other criteria are met, such as skimmed across the water surface.

I always thought 'atomic beans' would be great - size of a pharmaceutical capsule - throw on the table and instant 3 inch mushroom cloud.

Probably would be ruled violative of the prohibition against pyrotechnics, though.

 

[hippy]

Probably :-(

But then again, arguing against a pedantic with a dictionary and a pocket full of mini-nukes ...