PANZER IV BUILD no 012

[John Fitzsimons]

Hi Nick, how many batteries are you using. I see just one. Is the other underneath?

[phil fitzpatrick]

Hi Nick
Congratulations on becoming a grandfather
Glad you have got your electrics and started on them.
Hope your smoke canister works good,I saw some vidios a while
ago when there were lots of postings on smoke systems and
someone had used a vane that was driven with a little motor and
it worked good.
Cheers
phil

[Nick Farrugia]

HI John and Phil
John the other batterie is under the speekers they are 22amphour each so i hope they will be enough .Hi Phil thanks, my grandson is slowly wering me out already as soon as i got every thing up and running i will do a short vidio .all the best to you both ,,,,,,,,,,,,nick

[michael hilton]

Hello Nick, I will add my congratulations. I am enjoying your build, it is amazing how much you can cram into the hulls. Best wishes mate and don't forget you can always hand the grandchildren back, at the end of the day.....Mick

[Nick Farrugia]

Hi Mick
Thank you ,i still got a lot to do but now iv,e made a start it should be ok its always a bit daunting for me when i see all the wires and things sticking out of the boxes but i will get there my grandson is a bit like a boomerrang , as soon as he,s gone home he seems to be back ,a bit like a homing pigeon realy he is sat on my knee at the moment preventing me from the build , all the best ,,,,,,,,nick

[Nick Farrugia]

Hi to all
managed to do a bit more today on the pipe work for the exhaust system using 10mm bore central heating joints and pipe to try and keep the presure up so it will turn the impeler thats in side the the the drum i made , the idea is the smoke goes in at the bottom ,turns the wheel that passes the top hole and lets the smoke out through the pipes and hopefully will make the smoke puff a bit well thats what i,m hopeing for ,if it works great if not try again . HERES THE PICS

thats it so far all the best to all,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,nick

[phil fitzpatrick]

Hi Nick
I like it,it looks too neat not to work,so you will have to insist
that it does
I think I remmember now how that fella did his version,he drove the
valve with a servo that had the electronics took out and just went round
and round and drove like a steam train crank arm(do you remember them Grandad)
It might be in amongst that posting that Phil Woodall started off"Too Much Smoke"
I wonder how the Railway Modelers do it,I think they might use them Piezo Water
smokers though,they are instant and can be pulsed electricaly.
Great Idea Nick
Cheers
Phil

[michael hilton]

Lovely, well thoughtout and tidy work. Keeping my fingers crossed that it all works well. A most interesting build Nick....best wishes.

[Adrian Harris]

Very interesting idea to have puffing smoke. I did look into putting a rotating valve under the fan on the old style smoker but couldn't find a motor which would spin it reliably.

> I wonder how the Railway Modelers do it

The problem we have is the speed of the pulses. A steam engine starting off will puff once a second or so, then get faster until it's just a blur of smoke.

By my reckoning, an engine idling at 500rpm would emit a pulse of smoke 8.3 times a second, and by the time it's up to 2000rpm, that's 33.3 times a second (assuming only one exhaust valve opens per revolution.

Adrian

[Nick Farrugia]

Hi Phil Mick and Adrian
Here,s some more pics of the smoke device with a look at the impeller inside .
the impeler can be changed to have more or less vanes when i actualy get every thing up and running ,the impeler turns very easily so i am hopeing that the smoke fan wont have trouble turning it ,i chose this way of doing it so there are no extra motors involved in it ,just air pressure off the fan . In the pics you should see the inlet at the bottom is at an angle to allow the air and smoke to cach the blades better and the outlet at the top is just strait up .
the one thing i can garantee is the smoke will go thruogh it weather it makes it chuff and splutter is another thing ,but like i said there is still other impeler set ups to try as well hope this is of interest to you guys ,all the best to all ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,nick

[phil fitzpatrick]

Hi Nick
The simplest ideas are usualy always the best and its always an interesting
subject.
Look forward to your vidio shots.
Regards
Phil

[Nick Farrugia]

HI to all
have done a bit more today ,been trying various way,s to fit all the electrics into the hull ,its not the space thats the problem as such its just that the rear hatches dont open with the turet in the forward position and the problem is worse with the extra armour added around the turet .the only place i could go with the power supply module was just under the front driver,s hatch so i made a bracket to suport it .i did think of rewiring the swich but didnt want to risk any damage to the electrics , i wonder if it might be better to wire the swich with tails externaly on the power suply unit that way it would be easy to position the unit enywhere inside and be able to shorten or lengthen the wire tails on the swich to suit any place that you can get access to for the swich, what do you think Mark could this be something to Improve on later builds ,its just a thought . Anyway heres some pics
the wires are still a mess but will be sorted out later the next pic show where the swich is just under the drivers hatch
well thats it for the day ,regards to all ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,nick

[phil fitzpatrick]

Hi Nick,
Nicely sorted out with your layout,you have chosen a good place
for your switch.
The T34 was excellent with the rear engine hatch,I found I could get
at the button easy for the start and stop ,also disconnect battery and
recharge,all through the little hatch.
The Russians think of every think,I dont think it was Mark,he just copied
their Tank
Regards
Phil

[John Fitzsimons]

Very neat layout. I was wondering how everything would fit in.

[Nick Farrugia]

HI Phil and John
having trouble with the wires on the smoker ,on the wirering loon for the smoker there is suposed to be a switch but there wasnt on my one thats not realy a problem ,the problem i think i have is the two wires that are not attached to anything which i,m assuming is where the switch should go are diferant colours (red and black) nowe in the book it shows that both wires going in and out of the switch should be red (this would be the switch that turns the heating element on or off so i,m having my doubts as to whether the other wires are right ,here are some pics i have numbered the conections on the pic
number 1 has a black wire and red wire the red wire goes to the fan
num 2 has a red wire to a blue wire on the fan
num 3 is not conected to anything the black wires come from the power suply cable
num 4 is not conected to anything and goes to the heating element
num 5 is conected to the power supply and goes to what i think is some sort of relay
heres another pic with more of the wires in view ,not very good with electrics but some of these wires dont look right the way they are conected to each other , in the pic you should see the two wires that are not connected to any thing 3 and 4 ,i was thinking that the switch would go here ,but one is black and the other is red i wouldnt have thought that they would go together,and number 1 has got a black wire conected to a red wire ,this is how it was when i opend it up . i have e mailed gill today its a bit too soon to get a reply so i thought that you guys might be able to shed some light on this ,best wishes to you both ,,,,,,,,,,,nick