Projects / 06 / RC Ship
RC Ship.
A printed-hull RC boat. Watertight PLA shell, brushed motor, servo rudder, Arduino Nano control board — sized for the bath and the local pond.
Overview
Print a hull, seal it, sail it.
The hull prints in two halves, then gets glued and sealed with a thin epoxy wash so PLA layer lines stop drinking water. A printed deck snaps on with O-ring grooves to keep the electronics dry.
An Arduino Nano lives on a tiny perfboard inside the deck. NRF24L01 for the radio, a 9 g servo for the rudder, an L298N driving a single 6 V brushed motor on a printed shaft coupling.
It is small, slow, and almost unreasonably fun. The next revision adds a bow camera and a louder horn.
Photo essay
The build.
Specifications
What's on board.
| Kind | radio-controlled · scratch-built |
|---|---|
| MCU | Arduino Nano · ATmega328P |
| Radio | 2× NRF24L01 · 2.4 GHz |
| Drive | brushed 6 V · L298N · printed shaft coupling |
| Steering | 9 g servo · printed rudder |
| Hull | PLA · 2-piece print · epoxy-sealed · O-ring deck |
| Power | 1× 18650 · 3.7 V · TP4056 charger |
| Tools | Onshape · Prusa Slicer · Arduino IDE · epoxy |
| Status | floating |