I thought that you might be interested in my experiences with a new product on the market for model boaters and that is the “Old Smokey” smoke generating unit from JJC Electronics.
Traditionally smoke makers in model boats have utilised the principal of heating up an element covered with oil to create smoke that is then fed up the funnel to atmosphere and appear as smoke from the funnel. These units have been around forever as I even remember them in my Triang Steam trains of my childhood. A couple of drops of oil in the funnel and the train would duly smoke for a few minutes as it sped around the track.
Anyway the technology for boats had not really advanced a great deal as they still incorporated filling a bath with oil and letting a wick draw the oil up and around the heating element to create the smoke. The disadvantages of this are pretty obvious, the element uses a fair amount of battery power to generate the heat, especially in the larger units, the units get hot, the area around them gets dirty with the oil and the large ones actually smell. The latest one I had fitted to my Badger boat, as in the first two pictures, actually made a bloody awful smell, generated a disturbing amount of heat to have laying around in a model boat and, when I took it apart to check it, the grommets locating the heater had perished and crumbled apart. This is after only a few hours of operation.
So I turned to the latest device from JJC, which is actually a nebuliser unit, as found in the medical profession for generating water vapour from cold fresh water. Generating a very high frequency current that causes the cold water to vapourise and create the effect of smoke does this. The very strange part of it is that it is actually cold so when you put your hand in it just doesn’t seem right. The major advantages are that it does not generate heat, it uses a lot less battery power and it actually generates an effect far closer to the real smoke effect than the wispy burning oil does. The “smoke” is actually more voluminous and emits in a gentle rolling manner and comes out of the entire funnel. It also couldn’t be easier to top it up as all you do is pour some more water into the funnel.
The final major advantage though is that it is very responsive so it can be linked electronically to the speed controller and work in conjunction with the motor speed. As the motor gets faster the output, which is actually controlled by a small fan, increases. It also comes in Diesel or Steam varieties, which behave slightly differently. The diesel for instance has a slight delay when it starts and then put out a significant ‘puff’ of smoke when the engine starts. Very authentic.
So the downsides, the unit is big so it will only go in a substantial size hull and there is no way of knowing how much water there is in it at any one time. This can be a problem, as the unit will stop working with either too little or too much water in it. Knowing what has stopped it is not always obvious so I will be fitting some sort of sight glass to mine.
Finally it is not cheap at nearly 50 quid but when you think my previous oil operated generator was 30 odd quid and is now useless the nebuliser isn’t such a bad deal.
The last two pictures show the same boat with the new unit, which can only really be appreciated when you see it on the water and it is responding to the motor speed controller.
As I am sure you will have guessed by now I highly recommend the unit to anyone with a large enough hull to carry it.
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Traditionally smoke makers in model boats have utilised the principal of heating up an element covered with oil to create smoke that is then fed up the funnel to atmosphere and appear as smoke from the funnel. These units have been around forever as I even remember them in my Triang Steam trains of my childhood. A couple of drops of oil in the funnel and the train would duly smoke for a few minutes as it sped around the track.
Anyway the technology for boats had not really advanced a great deal as they still incorporated filling a bath with oil and letting a wick draw the oil up and around the heating element to create the smoke. The disadvantages of this are pretty obvious, the element uses a fair amount of battery power to generate the heat, especially in the larger units, the units get hot, the area around them gets dirty with the oil and the large ones actually smell. The latest one I had fitted to my Badger boat, as in the first two pictures, actually made a bloody awful smell, generated a disturbing amount of heat to have laying around in a model boat and, when I took it apart to check it, the grommets locating the heater had perished and crumbled apart. This is after only a few hours of operation.
So I turned to the latest device from JJC, which is actually a nebuliser unit, as found in the medical profession for generating water vapour from cold fresh water. Generating a very high frequency current that causes the cold water to vapourise and create the effect of smoke does this. The very strange part of it is that it is actually cold so when you put your hand in it just doesn’t seem right. The major advantages are that it does not generate heat, it uses a lot less battery power and it actually generates an effect far closer to the real smoke effect than the wispy burning oil does. The “smoke” is actually more voluminous and emits in a gentle rolling manner and comes out of the entire funnel. It also couldn’t be easier to top it up as all you do is pour some more water into the funnel.
The final major advantage though is that it is very responsive so it can be linked electronically to the speed controller and work in conjunction with the motor speed. As the motor gets faster the output, which is actually controlled by a small fan, increases. It also comes in Diesel or Steam varieties, which behave slightly differently. The diesel for instance has a slight delay when it starts and then put out a significant ‘puff’ of smoke when the engine starts. Very authentic.
So the downsides, the unit is big so it will only go in a substantial size hull and there is no way of knowing how much water there is in it at any one time. This can be a problem, as the unit will stop working with either too little or too much water in it. Knowing what has stopped it is not always obvious so I will be fitting some sort of sight glass to mine.
Finally it is not cheap at nearly 50 quid but when you think my previous oil operated generator was 30 odd quid and is now useless the nebuliser isn’t such a bad deal.
The last two pictures show the same boat with the new unit, which can only really be appreciated when you see it on the water and it is responding to the motor speed controller.
As I am sure you will have guessed by now I highly recommend the unit to anyone with a large enough hull to carry it.
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