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DubaiAmateurRocketry
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RC boat fight.
Im in a competition with my friend who makes rockets with me a challenge in armoring a remote controlled boat and whoever's ship sink first loses pays
for a expensive meal :p any ideas?
The RC boat we will armor will be around 2 laptop size.
I wonder where i can get a remote control an ignitor? I will probably have a flame thrower on my boat (Butane re-fueling can) not sure where do i get
few pounds of pushing force from my boat though...
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Metacelsus
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If you're dealing with an armored boat, I doubt a flame thrower will be very effective, since you can't set the target on fire.
Most boats have propellers for propulsion.
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TheAlchemistPirate
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If you are willing to put a lot of money into this, I would suggest a fast boat with a device that could lay an array of remote-detonated land mines
as a weapon. Are you and your friend planning on using rockets as weapons? If you are, good luck hitting anything with them. For a flamethrower
ignitor (As Dubai said good luck using this),I'm sure you could take an old transmitter/receiver setup from an old rc car and connect it to some
nichrome wire. Also, to keep the boat from sinking, you should compartmentalize it so that the water can only fill small areas if you happen to get a
leak.
"Is this even science anymore?!"
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DubaiAmateurRocketry
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Yes I do realize using small rockets to hit each other is not practical. Land mines? We're going to do it in a small lake or pool. Sink... umm we also
agreed that if our boat is in a condition so critical that our remote controls cant work any more, its considered as a loss. haha.
Umm.. need more ideas...
Note : I moved to USA 
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DubaiAmateurRocketry
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Oh I mean pushing the butane can's spray so the flame thrower could work.
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Metacelsus
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Easy. Jam the signal of the remote.
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Loptr
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Without jamming your own?
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subsecret
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Attach a spear, tipped with some contact-triggered explosive device. Just ram the end into the opposing boat, and he's finished.
You could also make your boat drop a length of string or yarn, in order to ensnare your opponent's propeller.
Fear is what you get when caution wasn't enough.
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Magpie
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Catapult some large chunks of Na at your opponent. 
The single most important condition for a successful synthesis is good mixing - Nicodem
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Pyro
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use a fan driven boat and lay lots of yarn.
train a fish to place and activate a limpet mine
a basic ram would be best. as well as a spare set of batteries built in so you outlast you opponent.
and build a cover for your boat (thin aluminium) at a correct angle to deflect possible projectiles
all above information is intellectual property of Pyro. |
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DubaiAmateurRocketry
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Quote: Originally posted by Awesomeness  | Attach a spear, tipped with some contact-triggered explosive device. Just ram the end into the opposing boat, and he's finished.
You could also make your boat drop a length of string or yarn, in order to ensnare your opponent's propeller. |
Hhahahaa, that'd be some funny stuff. Umm.. I'll considering dropping some potassium.
I also like the spear with a war head idea Just need to bump into him. However I
need to make sure I can detonate it. That'd be bit hard and risky handling explosives since we're doing for fun.
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Brain&Force
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Why not dissolve a strong acid or base in the pool and dissolve your opponents' boats? HCl will work for aluminum hulls. If you do this, make your
boat out of a chemical resistant plastic or something. If you use a strong base (NaOH is cheap) it'll dissolve aluminum and certain plastics, but your
boat should probably be made out of a non-amphoteric metal, like iron.
At the end of the day, simulating atoms doesn't beat working with the real things...
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DubaiAmateurRocketry
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| Quote: Originally posted by Brain&Force | | Why not dissolve a strong acid or base in the pool and dissolve your opponents' boats? HCl will work for aluminum hulls. If you do this, make your
boat out of a chemical resistant plastic or something. If you use a strong base (NaOH is cheap) it'll dissolve aluminum and certain plastics, but your
boat should probably be made out of a non-amphoteric metal, like iron. |
That'd too messy, polluting and stuff, also, the lake can simply dilute the acid to a extend I guess it would be almost useless?
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numos
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| Quote: Originally posted by Brain&Force | | Why not dissolve a strong acid or base in the pool and dissolve your opponents' boats? HCl will work for aluminum hulls. If you do this, make your
boat out of a chemical resistant plastic or something. If you use a strong base (NaOH is cheap) it'll dissolve aluminum and certain plastics, but your
boat should probably be made out of a non-amphoteric metal, like iron. |
That's a lot of substance... most pools are around 5-10 thousand gallons, forget speed boat, you gotta build a small freighter for that!
If you can fill your boat with 100 grams of explosive, you could do a kamikaze style attack, though, if he's using 'armor' that could turn into
shrapnel so be careful.
Also might I suggest Greek fire? Was apparently used for ship v. ship battles long ago, Some combination Antimony trisulfide, crude oil, and Potassium
nitrate, I suppose compositions vary... But it burns on top of water at very high temps..
Last but not least, a cannon system? maybe using a CO2 cartridge as a propellant, you can fire a handful of ball bearings (about half a cm
in diameter) at high velocity or perhaps it could fire a single shaped charge.
Just know that if he's gonna have that kind of armor, his ships is going to be really slow and easy to hit. So if your boat is fast and agile with a
lot of punch, you could easily take him down.
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Brain&Force
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Not if you can spray the acid or base at your opponent's boat. Or, depending on the size of the lake or boat, just dump it.
As for environmental concerns, don't do this in a lake filled with fish and things, but do take both acid and base so you can neutralize the mess
you've made.
[Edited on 3.8.2014 by Brain&Force]
At the end of the day, simulating atoms doesn't beat working with the real things...
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m1tanker78
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How many extra channels on your receiver? Assuming 2, I'm thinking 2 small servos that wind a string and set off a spring-loaded firing mechanism for
2 shotgun rounds. You'd need to build the skeleton of the boat to withstand the force of the buck but not much else to go wrong with the above setup.
If you miss, you still have a second shot and if you miss that one, well, it wasn't meant to be.  If said competition will have bystanders, this isn't so safe
Tank
Chemical CURIOSITY KILLED THE CATalyst.
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TheAlchemistPirate
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Sorry, I meant to write only "mines" in my above comment, I naturally wrote "land' for some reason. A ship mine idea that I was thinking of would be a
small chunk of sodium or potassium metal, attached to a few very small neodymium magnets, coated with a material that would slowly dissolve in water
(maybe wax...?). These could be attached to pieces of foam by string, so when deployed they would float under the water surface, maximizing
effectiveness. The neodymium magnets would serve to attach to the enemy ship's hull if it is made of metal, though you would have to make your own
ship out of a different material(maybe a epoxy/fiberglass cloth material?). They could be suspended above the water along the side of the ship,
attached by fuses to the ship itself, that would burn when a button is pressed on the controller, releasing the mine.
Another weapon idea I thought of would be to have small single-use cannons along the side of the ship, activated by single fuses attached to nichrome
wire, remote activated by buttons of course. They could simply use black powder as a propellant and a 1/2 inch metal ball as a projectile. The
cannons themselves might have an accurate range of six feet? But they would be very effective I'm sure. I would secure them so that the cannons
themselves would be inside a slightly bigger metal tube, able to slide freely along but not able to fall out. They could have wads of fireproof cotton
at the back, to reduce kickback.
These are some other random ideas I had:
1. Fill the empty spaces of the ship with shipping foam to greatly reduce the odds of it sinking.
2. Protect all the expensive electronics in a strong waterproof metal box, with all wires going in and out sealed with a glue.
3. When all else fails, and your friends boat is about to win, activate your secret self-destruct sequence next to his boat .
As you can probably tell, I'm very interested in weaponizing RC "toys?" and battling them, I wish I knew people that shared this though.
"Is this even science anymore?!"
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prof_genius
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You could cover the sodium in a thin layer of gelatin, that would slowly dissolve but you would have to run some speed tests.
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DubaiAmateurRocketry
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Hhahahaa Im actually laughing out loud imagining my friends expression when I kamikaze him. Oh well.
I read all of your replies and thank you all so much.
I still find a flame thrower related weapon as most promising for now since I can fire for a long time and the range/ flame radius is not so bad.
Projectiles are risky since it is easy to miss the target.
[Edited on 4-8-2014 by DubaiAmateurRocketry]
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Praxichys
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Insanity
Am I reading serious suggestions about floating an RC boat with a gun on it, where it can point anywhere as the boat drives around, and the trigger is
subject to radio interference at commonly used frequency? Or triggered by a controller that might get damaged in the battle? Do I even have to explain
how absurdly dangerous that is?? Have you ever seen a bullet fired at a low incidence angle skip right off the surface of a lake? I hope this body of
water is miles from civilization... and you!
Sodium/water explosions are very weak compared to real chemical explosives. On a small and lightweight boat that is free to float around, I would be
surprised if you could damage a boat with sodium or potassium at all. Besides, the sodium would likely melt and float to the surface before it popped,
and would be safely left behind by a moving boat.
The acid spray is also ridiculous. Unless the armor on the other boat is aluminum foil, there is nothing you could use to dissolve it with any
rapidity at all, or without re-application of the acid many times to replace it as it is spent, and perhaps a gelling agent to keep it on the surface.
Besides, you might be creating an environmental hazard in the process.
The spear with explosive or towed explosive mine might work, albeit super dangerous. You could trigger by contact or remotely. Just be prepared for
high velocity shrapnel skipping off the water. Remember that a WWII hand grenade has about 57g of high explosive in it, and fragments were still at dangerous at 200m.
That said, go with a flamethrower. Even if the armor is metal, the electronics and batteries will cook inside. "Greek Fire" is as much a farce as it
is historic, and is extremely overrated in comparison with modern chemistry. Most flammable organic solvents are easy to pump with a 12v windshield
washer pump, and can be gellied to stick. They also float on water to create additional hazards for the opponent. Palmitic and stearic acid will
readily turn a diesel/gasoline mix into a thick, flammable, pumpable mess. A little flyback transformer driven by a ZVS driver can easily be used as a
reliable igniter.
I think this is cool. I used to watch BattleBots back when they were still doing it. Just be careful and don't skimp on safety.
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Brain&Force
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| Quote: Originally posted by Praxichys | Sodium/water explosions are very weak compared to real chemical explosives. On a small and lightweight boat that is free to float around, I would be
surprised if you could damage a boat with sodium or potassium at all. Besides, the sodium would likely melt and float to the surface before it popped,
and would be safely left behind by a moving boat.
|
Granted, sodium isn't a good explosive, but you might be interested in this:
<iframe sandbox width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Nn3M1hfjxMU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Flaming oil is a good idea, but I'd still worry about making an environmental mess if you're doing this in a lake. I don't know much about battle
bots, but a can of Axe is flammable, light, and cheap.
At the end of the day, simulating atoms doesn't beat working with the real things...
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prof_genius
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Try setting up a smoke screen, this would stop your enemy from seeing the boat if the size of the body of water is small enough, and if you have
thermal imaging equipment you could attach a heating coil to your boat and see it through the smoke screen.
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gdflp
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Launch some napalm at it then fire up that flamethower.
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Pyro
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this whole thing is an exercise in futility. you won't be able to sink an RC boat since the strength of the materials relative to the size is so high.
attach a few extra battery packs to your ship, use aluminium armor plating and fill everything under it with foam and outlast your opponent.
this should be in whimsy, i'm surprised it hasn't been sent there yet.
all above information is intellectual property of Pyro. |
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confused
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shaped charge on a stick, attached to your RC craft 
stick it on, have a small spool of wire to provide some standoff distance between the enemy craft and your's
if th point is to disable the craft, perhaps a craft mounted EMP woud work if your onboard electronics were shielded against it.
A somewhat simpler alternative would be to jam the particular frequency your friend is using , while keeping your channel clear.
Just throwing ideas out there
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