I want to build a waterproof diy 3ft ship hull out of wood with an integrated camera to livestream my local coastline, how feasible is this? What can I do about range? And will an electrical engine work with such a big hull? What kind of electronics can I salvage at the local dump?
>why not a rc heli/quad
It wouldn't feel the same especially on still waters like at the lake
The build needs to be able to be controlled with high waves and bad weather so it doesn't get lost
It's all about the waterproofing. Wood boats have very tight joint tolerances, so I wouldn't suggest that unless you are an experienced woodworker. Consider carving a block of styrofoam, then sealing it with bondo if that does not describe you. Range will be affected by the drag of the hull, the capacity of motor+battery you put in it, and the efficiency of the propeller you use; so find an RC boats guide and research best methods. RC boat expert does not describe me, so I stop now.
Hobbyking has cheap b-grade 3ah 6s lipos, might come in useful.
>>924053
>how feasible is this?
It's not exactly rocket science
>What can I do about range?
It depends on a multitude of things, but you shouldn't expect more than 2km for controller range. It mostly depends on how you want to solve the streaming though, if you want to stream from the boat directly via 3G or some form of Wimax, you're not likely to get the 3km range. If you stream video using conventional 5.8G methods, then you upload the feed to the internet on the shore, you can get near the 3km once again, but it would become a lot less in bad weather.
There are ways of getting a 5+km range for the video stream but unless you explicitly need that it's probably not worth the bother.
>And will an electrical engine work with such a big hull?
Sure will, the only question is how fast it will go. And then the question of battery, how long it will go, but if you don't care a lot about speed, you can always just add a car battery. You could probably get away with building a smaller ship though.
>The build needs to be able to be controlled with high waves and bad weather so it doesn't get lost
Make sure it's not a design that flips easily, then add GPS homing, if signal cuts out it attempts returning to the "home" coordinates. Or reports position via 2G phone networks.
>>924053
>how feasible is this
Entirely feasible. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stitch_and_glue
An electric motor is just fine. That's basically what a trolling motor is. Doing it on a DIY budget may be an issue though.
>>924053
I wouldn't go with wood. It's heavy as hell and is prone to leakage. I would recommend getting some large styrofoam sheets, stacking them and carving the hull out, then using fiberglass to make it a rigid structure. Similar to the construction of surfboards.
And for what you want, I'd say that a 3 foot long vessel would probably be a bit small. without some extra stabilization. (probably in the form of outriggers)
If you want to mount a camera, it'll have to be at least a few feet high to see above the swells, that means raising it above the hull . Which would also raise it's center of mass. You'd also need a rather large antenna for the RC components if you want to get any decent range from it. That'll also raise your center of mass.
You could mitigate those effects by putting the batteries lower in the hull in a watertight compartment, but it would have to be extremely watertight to avoid destroying your batteries with seawater.
Coating the wood with a thin layer of epoxied fiber glass and a gel coat solves pretty much all the issues highlighted with wood.
West Indian boat building is primarily that method and only the real poorfags have a pure wood boat with a couple layers of oil based paint.
>>924178
He can make the whole thing water tight seeing as all it needs to do is carry a motor and a camera. The only question is how hot will the batteries get and he want an access door to the motor and the camera.
Maybe do the deck round and add weight to the bottom of the ship. Hull of course out of foam. So that the boat will be selfrighting. An easy method if you have the access to the gear is vacuum forming (?), you know, heat a sheet of plastic and push it over your mold and vacuum will suck it down.
>>924053
for waterproofing i would suggest glueing wooden pieces together BUT PLACE POLYWAX COVERED CLOTHS OVER THE WOOD
No problem with a wooden hull at all. Just spackle and sand it smooth, then fibreglass it. At least with one layer of 163g/m2, and one with 25 or 49g/m2 on top. The lighter one is smoother, so it's easier to sand it to get rid of the weaving pattern. Paint it, done. This is the most basic thing wooden hulls need. Even the tiniest crack in the paint will allow water to make the wood swell, crack the paint even more, and the hull will be toast. Fibreglass avoids this. It's very flexible, two pieces, one from each side, should do. Plan 2cm overlap at the keel line, here you need additional strenght the most.
>>924053
i can't help but think it'd be cheaper and faster to just buy a small fibreglass boat for like $500
K OP. I think hkpilot 2.7 from hobbyking would work great as it has GPS and all that sort of stuff. You will be able to set way points for. When you lose signal. For controlling I suggest getting a high power 433mhz transmitter and a diversity controller or antenna tracking on the receiving end, with a high gain directional antenna like a helical.
>>924053
>I want to build a waterproof diy 3ft ship hull out of wood with an integrated camera to livestream my local coastline, how feasible is this?
For a model boat you could just make it out of whatever (thinner) wood you wanted and then paint the outside of it with some marine epoxy.
However....
I would think that the view is going to bob too much if you just do a surface hull.
Doing a SWATH type hull would reduce that a lot, but it's harder to built and the SWATH stability is partially dependent upon the hull's draft. There is also a much greater chance of snagging underwater debris with a SWATH also, so you may need to go out and assist it to untangle it now and then unless you used drive screws for flotation.
