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</font><div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">I
took the R300 out this weekend.<span> </span>This was
the first time to have it back in water since the 2013 Psub convention in Islamorada.<span> </span>The objective of the dive was to evaluate some
fairly significant modifications.</font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000"></font></span><br></div><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">To
improve low speed maneuverability and reduce noise, I junked the jet pump and ailerons
and went to four fixed MK 101 thrusters. I also junked the VBT and just add ballast
to get neutral. Also I added a Garmin AIRMAR DST800 Smart Sensor to measure
altitude, speed and water temperature.<span>
</span>It worked great.<span> </span>Installed a new
LED 5k light, upgraded to a new HMI, and changed the foot and joystick controls.
<span> </span>I also rewired the main battery bank for
36VDC rather than 120VDC and installed four MK 101 motor controllers.<span> </span>I modified the aft horizontal MK-101s by
adding Kort nozzles and used air to pressure compensate.<span> </span>I used the same pressure reducing regulator
Hugh Fulton posted about awhile back that he is using on the QSub.<span> </span><span> </span>The changes
decreased the weight of boat by 200 lbs while the displacement remained the
same. <span> </span></font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
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</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">My
son, wife, a diving friend and I took the boat to Canyon Lake in Texas this
Sunday.<span> </span>Visibility was less than 5 ft so
could not see much.<span> </span>My main interest at
this point was just to get into water.<span> </span>After
launching the boat, I did some testing to get the base line ballast both mid-ship
and in the stern correct so that I could get neutral and trim after flooding
the MBT.<span> </span>After establishing the fixed
ballast, I took the boat out to test how the horizontal thrusters work for
surface maneuvering. <span> </span>I was very happy
with way the horizontal thrusters performed. Surface maneuverability was
excellent and these motors are supper quite.<span>
</span>I did find that you could cavitate the props on the surface if you hit
it with too much power. As before the changes, when you get up to about 4
knots, the bow wave obscures the pilots vision. <span> </span>Breaking is much improved and it is now
possible to rotate on the surface or in the water column.</font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
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</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">I
then took the boat out for the first submerged maneuvering.<span> </span>The vertical thrusters were very effective
for depth control, pitch and roll control. <span> </span>I found that it was much easier to get to
specific depth and hold this depth using the vertical thrusters than the old
way I did it with the VBT.<span> </span>They worked
great.<span> </span>While removing the VBT simplified
dive operations, it did result in loss of freeboard of about 1 inch.<span> </span>This is a downside of removing the VBT as the
freeboard was already quite low.<span> </span>I just have
to be careful when opening the hatch.<span> </span>I
opened and closed that hatch throughout the day and only took splash one time
when a boat came by I did not see.</font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
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</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">The
new Garmin AIRMAR DST800 Smart Sensor worked great. With visibility less than 5
ft, being able to know the altitude was very helpful on dives. As usual, it got
darker as you descend but knowing when the bottom was coming up was nice.<span> </span></font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
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</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">On
the negative side, during the last dive of the day, the vertical thrusters
failed while my son was on bottom in about 27 ft of water.<span> </span>He had to surface using the MBT. Why these
thrusters failed is a mystery. <span> </span>It was at
the end of the day and I had pushed the batteries pretty hard all day along but
we still had plenty of battery voltage.<span>
</span>My sons second attempt to surface
was to put some air in the forward MBT to lift the nose and then use the aft horizontal
thrusters to power to the surface.<span> </span>This
failed as aft horizontal thrusters were not responsive.<span> </span>After surfacing with the MBT, we discovered
that tree limb about 1.5” diameter had lodged in the starboard horizontal thruster
between the prop and the Kort nozzle.<span>
</span>This explains why we lost horizontal thrust but not vertical.<span> </span>After getting the boat back on the trailer, I
tested the vertical thrusters.<span> </span>They
would barely turn even when giving them full power.<span> </span>My first guess was that the air pressure compensation
system failed and the thrusters were full of water.<span> </span>When I got the boat back to my workshop, I
disassembled both vertical thrusters and discovered they were dry. After recharging
the boat, I tried the vertical thrusters again and got the same slow speed
operation.<span> </span>After turning them off and on
for about five minutes, the starboard vertical thruster stared working
correctly.<span> </span>I kept switching the port
vertical thruster off and on and all of a sudden, it began working correctly.<span> </span>When I had the motors apart, I put a
multimeter on the wires going to the brushes and found it showing 35VDC.<span> </span>At this point the control signal to these
motors was 2.5V so voltage to the motors should have been zero.<span> </span>My guess is that the MK motor controller is
acting up.<span> </span>But it is strange that both
the vertical controllers would fail.<span>
</span>Also, if it were bad motor controllers, then why did they both start working
again.<span> </span>This is still a head stumper for
me.</font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
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</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">Also
towards the end of the day, the OTS underwater communication stared acting up.<span> </span>Base and standby diver using an OTS Guardian
full face mask could hear underwater transmissions from me but I could not
receive either from the diver or from the base.<span>
</span>The underwater commns had been working great for the previous 7 hours.<span> </span><span> </span>I was
also having trouble about this time with the VHF radio that Alec gave me.<span> </span>Again I could not receive.<span> </span>When I get a chance I am going to see if the
connection to the antenna got disconnected.</font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
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</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">One
of the nice new features of the new HMI besides being larger and having a higher
resolution, was it has built in data logging.<span>
</span>So after the dive it was very nice to be able to download into Excel about
50 variables logged at a one minute interval. I was able to plot these and get
a detailed picture of how all the ship systems were working during the day.</font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
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</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">If
anyone has any thoughts on why the vertical MK 101 thruster motors failed, or
have had any negative experience with the MK101 motor controllers, I would love
to hear them.<span> </span>When they are working, they
are great.</font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
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</font><div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">All
in all, I was very happy with the changes but have a few kinks to work out
before I take her out again.<span> Now if I could just find some clear water to dive in, I would be a happy camper!</span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000"><span></span></font></span><br></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000"><span>Cliff</span></font></span></div><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
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