It all started about one year ago, when me and my dad built a ship hull out of plexiglass. My dad never thought I'd be able to do something greater than a R/C boat or something, but I had huge plans with that simple hull, and abandoning it in the back wasn't part of it. It just happened. Then I heard of this thing, called "Sea Charger". I started reading about it, and then all my priorities got reorganized. Even my airsoft training faded from my memory to the point my team asked what the hell happened to me.
Sea Charger gave me the will and confidence I needed to take on the ArduCraft Carrier project once again.
The ArduCraft Carrier is an Arduino-controlled fully autonomous model warship designed especially to survive months in the ocean. For the "autonomous" part, a GPS module and a compass do the job. The solar panel is small, so days are short for her while she waits for its batteries to be filled. LiPo batteries are WAY too sensitive to be let unattended for so much time, so I'm using portable batteries, connected to the Arduino via USB cable. The servo is high above the water, and the rudder is real tall to reach out the actual water. The ArduCraft Carrier hull design #1, nicknamed "Uplink", will resemble a destroyer in design and will even be armed with two spring-based torpedoes to be launched remotely via satellite instructions in case other foul boats show up during the Microtransat race. The torpedoes are razor-sharp, and are able to either disrupt a boat's pattern, break the motor or the rudder (if it runs into it) or even pierce through soft ship material in order to cause it to sink. Hopefully the plexiglass, with its elastic, but tough composition, will give us the ultimate advantage required to at least make it halfway through the race.
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