The Steamboating Forum

Hi, I built a steam jet engine a number of years ago and mounted it on a model boat (see YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJvpVYJY_cs ). Unfortunately, one of the lads in waders at the model boating event pushed the boat under water because he thought it was "on fire"! The video sho...

Hi, It has been a long time since adding to this thread and the flash boiler, engine and control system have been installed in a new model, see YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HV4s9MjfaQ In addition, a voice control (via a radio mic) and solid-state compass system have been developed and i...

Hi Bart, I couldn’t agree with you more regarding the vibration and marine environment. I remember asking a commissioning engineer what were the plastic struts on each of the control systems boards. He said they were to stop the boards flexing due to vibration from the ships engines; he also added t...

p.s. I should have said the astronomers with the Lissajous pictures!

Ian

Hi Mike, I appreciate very much your feelings towards the old mechanical control systems having started my apprenticeship in a power station that only had pneumatic and hydraulic controls – not a piece of electronics anywhere not even electronic valves (tubes) let alone transistors! The software app...

Hi Bart, This feed forward delay was noticed very early on in the project even with my small boiler. The current control system detects changes in feed water demand by looking at the incoming signal from the transmitter. With an increase in feed demand, rather than wait for the outlet steam temperat...

Hi, Here is the monotube boiler controller schematic. Note: the ESCs are the bulk standard pulse width modulation (PWM) to electric motor interface - the name is a misnomer, since, by themselves, they don't actually control the motor speed and they require an additional shaft sensor and controller t...

HI Keith,

PM sent

Ian.

Hi Wesley, I've watched your videos "the walkaround" the steam plant on shore and the exciting "Foul weather on Fallen Leaf Lake" - I can understand your need for a very robust and reliable system! Do you use a steam/water separator on the monotube boiler and control the level by...

Hi, I'm the author of the above article in "Engineering in Miniature" and its a pleasure to see that it has reopened the topic about monotube control. Without reproducing the 7000 word article on this forum, I would like to give a bit of the background of the project. I had built the Stuar...