THE BIG YELLOW TEA POT
I was able to get my hands on not one but two tea pots, one from my mate
Don Blackbands grandson and one from another mate Terry Thorpe from the
Nottingham Model Boat Club,(I think Terry had grown out of it? ) First of
all I had to decide what I wanted the tea pot to do and how to do it, I
wanted the pot lid to go up and down , red LEDs to flash round the edge of
the lid and water to flow from the spout, sounds simple.
The build.
I made a pair of pods from card to house the batteries these as you can
see from the pictures are fixed to bottom of the tea pot ,the weight of
the batteries also give it stability in the water, A suitable prop shaft
was fitted along with a rudder (just like that,) The drive is through a
A457-re-380 electric motor mounted on a 6to1 reduction base this allows
for a 40 m/m three bladed prop to be used and low power drain, The rudder
is driven from the servo by two 20 m/m bevel gears this makes the rudder
movement positive and very responsive, The usual electrics were fitted
Futaba 6 channel receiver M Sonic Marine speed controller.
Now we get to the interesting stuff, To make the pot lid go up and down I
used a inline motor and reduction unit driving a 4 m/m brass lead screw
and nut, two micro switches and a stop bar to govern the travel of the
lid, In the base of the tea pot I used a servo with a cam assembly and
micro switches to alter the polarity of the motor hence up and down
movement, As the lid starts to rise a switch puts a pump on and water
comes out of the spout the LEDs flash round the lid and Bobs your uncle,
when the lid reaches the top of its travel switching takes place then the
lid returns to its lower setting and switches of, Then H.M.S Typhoo sails
into the sun set.
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My winter project picture, don't laugh to loud, a
radio controlled watering can no less!! it's in its early stages yet as you can
see. The long pods out of the bottom are to stabilise it and house the
batteries. My 4 year old granddaughter sat in the model room with
here new yes its a duck and its head turns and its eyes light up good fun
!
Brian (the can)The picture was taken in my shed note the little lathe and
miller - my wife carol says their is no hope for me! - and yes, the water spout
works - so watch out!!!
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