Re: 1/16 Oliver Dozer Conversion
 

I think it is going to work. I have one real loose and one tight side and at this point no good way to control tension. This particular die cast uses springs on the front rollers for tension but the travel is short and not designed for this sort of use. I haven't figured out just how yet, but I plan to make the rear motor pod adjustable in some sort of sliding action.

The blade lift servo seems to do okay, more testing required. Really frustrates me that the specs of the sabertooth controller and spec of a hitec 645MG indicate that it should work fine, but obviously that ain't true! FYI, even when I ran a separate bec for the RX from the same power source it acted the same way. So, that makes me think the sabertooth is putting out some funky RF causing the RX to act up. All this behavior is while the servo is sitting idle, so it must really be drawing some power even idle?

I should have also mentioned that if the RX is powered by a different battery completely isolating the RX, AND servo from the motor controller that then it all works. This is exactly how I ended up doing it in my crane. Don't have room for a second battery in the dozer.

Anyhow, enough bitching, here is the bench test video!:rolleyes:

http://youtu.be/rMa8AcXsnow

Re: 1/16 Oliver Dozer Conversion
 

Here is a short video of the first test run in the dirt. I am out of practice and i have to solve the loose track issue. Otherwise I think it is going to be usable.

http://youtu.be/T1b-CVwDljI

Jim

Re: 1/16 Oliver Dozer Conversion
 

It looks good in the dirt, seems to have plenty of push. I have no experience with those motor controllers but have a couple trucks with 645 servos and they are serious power hogs. I run a receiver battery in the trucks that have them so I don't notice it.

Re: 1/16 Oliver Dozer Conversion
 

It keeps getting better...:p

Today I put bearings in the main drive assembly. I'm sure that will help runtime and power to the dirt. Added a dual rate and slowed it down to about half speed so I can control it pretty well when pushing. This way I can hold the stick full forward and steer, while running the blade with the other stick.

I think I might have a bit of descent footage finally! :rolleyes:

http://youtu.be/-n_qGyaEwGU

Jim

Re: 1/16 Oliver Dozer Conversion
 

I'd go with a separate BEC so when you are under load or possibly even stall the motors you don't have issues. If you run a separate BEC, you would not use the power wires from your esc to the receiver. Also I note that your diagram had a flip channel which is mostly used for bots. It can be used to drive in reverse easily but can just as easily be left unused. Cheers.

Re: 1/16 Oliver Dozer Conversion
 

I hope I don't jinx myself but I think I figured out the problem I was having with the sabertooth!

First I have to say, I can't believe the dimension engineering help desk never asked or suggested this... All I got from them was some nonsense about regen and battery capacity, they even suggested that I try a 2000mah battery:p Ya, where am I gonna put that sucker in is tiny dozer?:confused:

Anyway, maybe this will help folks with similar trouble.

I was about to see if a slot car motor would replace the motor on the back end of my gear drive units when I realized the carrera digital motors always use capacitors across the motor leads to suppress noise. So I shortened the motor leads as much as I could, added a cap to the pos and neg poles and grounded them to the can. I also wrapped the signal wires from the blabber tooth to the RX with foil.

Here is a link to one site that I referenced to help with the solution.

https://www.pololu.com/docs/0J15/9

If you guys are thinking, "I always add capacitors to my brushed motors" you won't hurt my feelings if you say so. I just never even thought about it, but it makes sense now! I used to race associated 1/10 scale pan cars on a paved oval and we NEVER installed the caps on the motors back then and that was with old Futaba fm radios and old novak speed controllers.

I have run two battery packs with not a hint of trouble.

I bet on a bigger conversion where stuff is not literally right on top of each other, the problem might not happen.

When the blade servo had the jitters before, I always thought, that seems like radio interference?

Thanks for putting up with my rant...:rolleyes:

Jim

Re: 1/16 Oliver Dozer Conversion
 

I need to apologize for the terrible video quality, but I was not able to load it directly from the sad card due to the resolution or some hogwash so I took video of the video using my phone from the iPad. Nice:p

Anyway, it started raining here this am, since naturally I figured out my trouble with the dozer and really wanted to give it a good test outside but can't.:o

So, moved a small dirt pile into the shop to test out the rewired electronics! It is working great! :cool:

Here is a time lapse shaping the dirt pile, this took me about 5 minutes I think...

http://youtu.be/2ZsPuKlSZDM

Re: 1/16 Oliver Dozer Conversion
 

That's a pretty good video, if for no other reason but comedy relief! :lol::lol: Glad you got it figured out, looks like a lot of fun!

Re: 1/16 Oliver Dozer Conversion
 

Here is another video, I cranked this one up to 4x using the editor...

http://youtu.be/dvh2xbz_Qdk

Jim

Re: 1/16 Oliver Dozer Conversion
 

New motors for the diecast Oliver Dozer!

Here is a very short Timelapse video of the first test with the new motors.

https://youtu.be/o-xMCmtyr0Y

I broke another one of the economy gear motors in the Dozer at cabin fever this year so the plan was to try the planetary gear version. I had the Dozer on the bench since January and FINALLY got around to installing the new motors.

I had to make a bushing/sleeve for the new motors because they are just a tiny bit smaller diameter and didn't fit into the existing motor mounts, so got those made on the lathe.

Another problem I had with this project was with the sabertooth motor controller. I finally added capacitors to the motors and that solved it, BUT, as I installed the new motors I decided to try powering the new motors WITHOUT the caps and so far the seem to operate with less electrical noise and I didn't have the same trouble! So, if you are using the economy gear motors from servo city I would recommend adding capacitors to control the interference noise that causes problems for the sabertooth. And, the motor can of the new planetary motors looks different and I suspec it is a little better quality motor. Time will tell...

For those interested here is a link to the old spur gear motors and another link to the new planetary motors at Servocity.


Old spur gear motor - https://www.servocity.com/56-rpm-econ-gear-motor

New planetary motor - https://www.servocity.com/52-rpm-pre...ary-gear-motor

And I have a question about these motors for you tech type guys-

As I post the links I expected to see a higher torque vale for the planetary motors but that is not what I read? Is this based on the motor more than the gear style and ratio?

Jim

Re: 1/16 Oliver Dozer Conversion
 

I was having too much fun so I made another short dirt pushing video.

https://youtu.be/WlxGPWZ8s5I

Jim

Re: 1/16 Oliver Dozer Conversion
 

Anyone ever find a good way to reduce the dirt pack between the track pads on a crawler machine?

I know this is common, I have tried waxing the pads and I think that helps for a bit.

Also, when I run on extremely dry dirt there is almost NO problem. But, if the dirt Has a little moisture in it the leading AND trailing edges get the dirt packed on them causing the pads to heave away from each other. The biggest trouble this causes my machine is that it becomes hard to blade a nice even level grade cause the track start to get a round curve to them and the entire machine will rock fore and aft while moving forward. This makes holding the blade constant very tricky.

Anyhow, I'm just thinking out loud and....

This is just after cleaning
http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/...psnsktdv52.jpg

Here is a shot from the back, showing the bevel gears and you can see the bushing I had to make to fit the new motors.
http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/...psynmalnpf.jpg

Side view of one of the new motors installed. The bushing hides the gearbox section of the gearmotor
http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/...psyidvezfj.jpg

Jim

Re: 1/16 Oliver Dozer Conversion
 

Video of the little Oliver working the sand pile at the barge dock.

https://youtu.be/W7rCP09_O5U

Jim

Re: 1/16 Oliver Dozer Conversion
 

Little, but strong and effective :)

Re: 1/16 Oliver Dozer Conversion
 

NICE Dozer you have there! I wish I could scratch build something like that, but I'm not that skilled with metal working

Re: 1/16 Oliver Dozer Conversion
 

Skeeter, thanks.

It is a diecast model that I converted to RC. I had to do a bit if simple machine work for the motor mounts and bearings on the drive axels but it wasn't too bad.

Jim

Re: 1/16 Oliver Dozer Conversion
 

Getting ready for Brownsville, can't wait!

https://youtu.be/BIoVD9Tmr6Y

Jim

Re: 1/16 Oliver Dozer Conversion
 

jim , only thing I have found out with dirt packing in between pads is to enlarge clearance. scale wise the pads would be about a half millimeter apart. like you said when dirt is dry it usually isn't a problem. what happens is the small particles of dirt stick together and they don't have enough room to be pushed out of the way and become lodged in. think of it like having a one inch hole with 3/4 inch marbles, they will pass through one at a time but when two are side by side they get lodged. now having a 3 inch wide hole with same 3/4 inch marbles it is less like to get several to line up in a way they jam. like on my dozer the track pads look far apart but it prevents the dirt getting jammed. more fun to run the dozer rather than dig out the tracks. and also I see a lot of people getting the tracked machines fouled with dirt from simply turning too sharp or pushing dirt into tracks (like with the excavators) in the 1;1 machines a good operator will try to keep any loose material from spilling into track links. yes most of the time the machines will simply crush any rock or dirt out of the way but that is hard on equipment. on our toys, they just simply don't have the ability to push or crush any debris and usually end up jamming or breaking something on the machine. I think it would be equivalent of having softball sized pieces of tool steel for the 1;1 machines, sooner or later something on the machine is gonna jam or break.


love youe dozer, sure has pushed is share of material!!!

Re: 1/16 Oliver Dozer Conversion
 

Thanks Cooper, I was planning to do some more video today, but I have been struggling with fusion 360 trying to design and print some brackets for the hopper on the short conveyor.

ya, I tried milling off a bit of the leading edge of a few tracks but these little suckers are so small and hard to hold. I just seem to end up cleaning tracks as needed. It is really interesting seeing how good or bad it can be depending on the type and moisture content of the dirt.

PS it just dawned on me and I tried it out in thingiverse, HO Scale, O Scale there is all sorts of stuff that the model train guys have done!

Jim

Re: 1/16 Oliver Dozer Conversion
 

Cool video. I really like watching your job site.

For machining i'm unskilled with generally unsuitable tools... but to open up the track pads how about leave it linked together on machine or a track jig, then take a dremel/diegrinder with a cutoff wheel (or two stacked) lightly run between them to gain clearance?