Teakgate

[brad72]

Man I love automation and get to do it all day, mostly food manufacturing and packaging lines. Nothing more satisfying than designing a piece of equipment in Autodesk, testing the design in the PC then making the prototype and writing the program to make it all work. Worst part is everyone thinks you are just fiddling because until the machine is made, there is really nothing to show for your efforts except for a few pretty renders.

Time to find an online coarse because I can see so many uses in my equipment for embedded controllers. Even the simple code I wrote (which I found really hard) to dim leds through PWM for my mtb bike lights got me excited, my wife, not so excited with my mindless banter about it.

Looking at a surf gate on SSLXi will the hull overhang on the diamond hull below the swim deck (not having a float transom) have much bearing on the performance of the gates?

Edited October 12, 2013 by brad72

[FastFreddy]

Will your controller work with hydraulic actuators? The ones I have use a dual DPST switch which controls a small hydraulic pump.

[Faceplant409]

Martin,

Very nice work.

I cannot leave anything alone either, however I am not nearly on your plane...

For whatever reason, I never looked at this thread.

Glad I finally did.

Wow!

P

[martinarcher]

Man I love automation and get to do it all day, mostly food manufacturing and packaging lines. Nothing more satisfying than designing a piece of equipment in Autodesk, testing the design in the PC then making the prototype and writing the program to make it all work. Worst part is everyone thinks you are just fiddling because until the machine is made, there is really nothing to show for your efforts except for a few pretty renders.

Time to find an online coarse because I can see so many uses in my equipment for embedded controllers. Even the simple code I wrote which I found really hard to dim leds through PWM for my mtb bike lights got me excited, my wife, not so excited with my mindless banter about it.

Looking at a surf gate on SSLXi will the hull overhang on the diamond hull below the swim deck (not having a float transom) have much bearing on the performance of the gates?

Right on! Give then a shot. The Arduino/Netduino stuff is a great place to get your feet wet.

There were a couple members that have hulls with a rear step like the SSLXI. Checking our Ruggers 23LSV might be a good starting place. he came up with some clever hinges to make gates work on his boat.

Will your controller work with hydraulic actuators? The ones I have use a dual DPST switch which controls a small hydraulic pump.

Sure. As long as they use 12VDC to control the pump it should work fine. Do you know how the extend/retract functionality works? Do you reverse polarity on the pump to get it to retract the gate? IF so, you're good to go.

Martin,

Very nice work.

I cannot leave anything alone either, however I am not nearly on your plane...

For whatever reason, I never looked at this thread.

Glad I finally did.

Wow!

P

Thanks man! Glad you stopped in!

[brad72]

You know what would be cool is a watch that the surfer wears to enable them to switch the port and starboard gates whenever they feel like it. Even to tweak the speed up and down in say 0.25mph increments would be cool. Wrist unit would be a simple silicone adjustable band with the circuit inside and could use induction charging to keep the battery fresh. Only 3 switches needed, tab select, speed up, speed down. You could even add a RFID to each band so the master control unit remembers each persons preferred ride settings with a swipe of the wrist before jumping in the water.......

.

Edited October 12, 2013 by brad72

[martinarcher]

I have been planning on working on a remote control gate control. I was thinking something the size of a car keyless entry fob with a wrist band. I bought some parts to play with, but haven't got there yet. I started it right after completing the initial build but just haven't got it finished up quite yet. I like the watch idea, but all those shnazzy features you mentioned would be uber expensive for someone like me to develop in small quantities. I've been thinking about this feature since my first install....I need to get it installed!

[brad72]

Not to hijack your thread I am half way though making a remote control mountain bike helmet light with remote focus control. I started using aspheric lenses some time ago in lights but you could only have one focal point so i rigged up a servo motor to move the lenses towards and away from the led to change from spot to flood all via a remote on the handlebar. The Tx and Rx am using would be prefect for your application as each unit is not affected by another, they are ready programmed and the TX is a 3 button key fob with 150m range. Would integrate very easily into you design

I just made a small circuit with an H-bridge to control the servo and transistor to turn the light on and off. The Rx can be found here http://www.rfsolutions.co.uk/acatalog/info_HIR6_433A.html and the keyfob here http://www.rfsolutions.co.uk/acatalog/info_110C3_433A.html The Rx is available in both FM or AM.

For wrist band I have used flexible polyurethane that was poured into a mold machined from an alloy billet. You can get many hardnesses of polyurethane but I recon a 25 would be good for a band. You could also use flexible RTV Silicone.

Details of the build can be found in this thread http://forums.mtbr.com/lights-diy-do-yourself/single-xml-focusable-aspheric-light-wireless-bar-switch-789891.html

This is the tx and rx

Edited October 29, 2013 by brad72

[cowwboy]

To bad allen bradley stuff is so expensive, lik brad if I could just throw a micrologix in there life would be so easy.

I need to pick up an arduino.

The controller looks great.

[djscsc]

Martin

I am happy to try over the Aussie summer for the next 5-6 months. I have a 2008 VLX with homemade gates (first attempt at alloy welding but it works great). I just use momentary toggle switches. I am an electrician, not a pc programmer, but should be able to do what ever you need.

My gates are on an alloy backplate that requires no extra fixings other than the swim platform bolt brackets.

thanks for doing this for all us Bu gate lovers over the world.

[Levi900RR]

Dude, we need more pics of your setup...

[martinarcher]

Martin

I am happy to try over the Aussie summer for the next 5-6 months. I have a 2008 VLX with homemade gates (first attempt at alloy welding but it works great). I just use momentary toggle switches. I am an electrician, not a pc programmer, but should be able to do what ever you need.

My gates are on an alloy backplate that requires no extra fixings other than the swim platform bolt brackets.

thanks for doing this for all us Bu gate lovers over the world.

Excellent. That would be great to have a prototype tester available over my winter!

[morrisdl]

Martin, Ill been very keenly following your progress. Im happy to contribute financially and/or as a test mule. Im in SW Virginia and dont winterize my boat - I have a boat heater (and drysuit) so we can use it on the nice days. My 2010 Axis A22 is already fitted with a removable gate until there is a electronic solution available. Kind Regards, --Doug

[martinarcher]

I just got off the phone with a crew member Edsvlx. He and I have been talking a lot this season. He has been busy working on the boat and asked me to post some pictures of his what I call....."masterpiece". Ed nailed this one. He has taken his 2009 VLX and cut the platform and fiber-glassed it to accept his two gates. It looks phenomenal. The fitment is incredible and everything lines right up the way it should. He even added a custom VLX logo to the outside of the gates. Nice work Ed! Another custom part of the project was thickening the transom with West Systems resin and fiberglass where the hinges mount for good measure. I think the boat turned out awesome....next year he'll be rocking one of my control systems. I'm excited to see what he thinks of it. Enough with the talk...here are some pics...

Custom platform underway!

This is my favorite picture because it tells the story....for those who think custom projects like this are easy, they're not. It takes a lot of work and a lot of determination. That first cut into your boat is a leap of faith and the rest of the project will test your determination, skill, and patience. I'm still shaking my head at how awesome this project turned out!

Shiny again! Nice work!

Here are some videos Ed sent me. The videos were compressed with sent so they are a bit grainy, but you can certainly get the idea. They look awesome. Congrats on a job well done. I'm impressed!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK_90VInRnc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TNhBmd_nQQ

[rugger]

Looks great. Was waiting for someone to cut out their fiberglass. That looks totally stock -- awesome.

[djscsc]

My non-original looking gates are made so they can be completely removed with no sign they were ever there at all, Even my electrical cables are routed thru the transom via a bolt hole where a anode plate was fitted by Malibu, which can just go straight back on.

I can also pull pins to remove gates in a hurry

This was version 1, note the different hinge angle and the additional poly outside face.

[djscsc]

here is the version 1 design I mentioned in my last post

[edsvlx]

Matt, thank you for posting those for me.. You are to cool. Man those videos do suck. They look way better on my phone. This goes out to the members of the the Crew. I have better videos and more pics.of my project. I got Matt as a mentor, and as a good friend. But i'm abit of a bonehead when it comes to the computer. So I guess well get on it. LOL

[martinarcher]

here is the version 1 design I mentioned in my last post

Looks great and super stout. I think your gate is the strongest I've seen yet. I dig the lip on the top of the gate...certainly would help reduce spray if it is a problem with your hull.

[martinarcher]

New cables are here....let the testing begin. This week the truck becomes my "test boat" until the weekend comes.

[WakeGirl]

New cables are here....let the testing begin. This week the truck becomes my "test boat" until the weekend comes.

....

Let the begin.

[martinarcher]

Sooo true.

[malibudog]

New cables are here....let the testing begin. This week the truck becomes my "test boat" until the weekend comes.

You put surf gates on your truck? How cool is that!

[Hammertime]

You put surf gates on your truck? How cool is that!

I think it's really an Excursion with Surfgate... which we all know throws a much better wake than a truck

[martinarcher]

Is it bad that I was thinking about what I could do with a pair of actuators on the Excursion on the way to work this morning.

1. Running boards that retract as the truck starts to speed up.

2. Side skirts that deploy at speed to increase MPGs.

3. Front lower spoiler that does the same.

I need to stop.

[martinarcher]

Well the cables passed with flying colors. I ran the controller to and from work all week and they worked great which I expected since the truck isn't very noisy electrically. I installed everything in the boat this afternoon and headed to the lake. I purposely was careless with my wire routing and intentionally routed the display cable near my tach wiring in an effort to truly test the new cabling. I was very pleased....it worked like a champ all afternoon. I also learned my Perfect Pass issues have been self inflicted. I turned the filtering completely off in the PP settings (setting NN) in order to give the perfect pass exactly the speed my system is putting out and that's a no no. I bumped it back up to 15 and it worked great. I still have a minor blip in the speed every so often (looks like a missed pulse on the optocoupler) but it's not bad enough to be annoying. I'll get to the bottom if it but I'm not sure if there's time before the ice comes! Mrs. martinarcher took this pic....I have to give her credit - she's the best for putting up with my need to test even when the air is 45 and the water is 50! It's funny when you pull into the launch and there are zero trucks/trailers in the lot. Is it too cold to fish?