Mitchell Electric Prototype Mark II

BUILD:	Start of built 2008, Mark II ready in 2009.
MATERIAL:	Aluminium
MADE IN:	France
SERIAL:	?
PRODUCED:	1
PRICE:	€ 0,-
BALL BEARINGS:	None
GEAR RATION:	1:4.2 with 1:50 electric motor.
WEIGHT:	>400 gram, of course its heavier than a standard Mitchell 330 !
REMARKS:
This is my Mitchell 330 Otomatic electrical reel. This is a true prototype and has been fished with super result. During the first field test the unit performed very good and fish was taken on a jensen lure from Denmark in august 2009. This reel is work in progress ! Please note this is not a commercial project, its just for fun, if you have nice design idea's for improvement please feel free to mail me. Prototype drive train The drive train is connected to a Mitchell 330 Otomatic The reel has chain drive Design issues! During testing with the first prototype we learned following: 1. To reduce weight we skipped a chain tensioner, this was a mistake, chain drive always required some kind of tensioner mechanisme. 2. The old Mitchell 300 cover has originally a glider bearing, because the covers are very old, they have a lot of mechanical play. This is not good for electrical drive, its not as smooth as expected. Via the controller electronics we can set very high retrieve speeds with this reel, but for a smooth ride a ball bearing is needed. Preferable a large one, not any of these small Shimano bearings, we need to go BIG. 3. The steel chain add's too much weight, the motor is also heavy but is of course required, so weight reduction is very important. 4. The drive axis is made from a Mitchel 324 reel and fixed into the Mitchell 300 gear to extend the axis. Reason is that the screwthread used by Mitchell is very special M5 (Mitchell was using M5 with a pitch of 0.7 instead of the 0.8 pitch in standard M5)and we can't make it ourself, we need some other solution. 5. The idea to remove the A/R is good, it provides an nice fixing point and the motorgears of 1:50 ration already functions like a good A/R system. Part II Design and manufacture of Prototype II has been started. Instead of using a chain drive we go for direct drive. This requires modification of the original Mitchell 300 cover as you can see at the picture. Because these old covers have a large play, a large ball bearing is used for the base plate, its a 19mm ball bearing with a 8 mm hole. All materials are recycled from a prototype medical MRI scanner made by Philips Medical Systems. As the Mitchell gear has a 6.5mm axis, a special drive shaft was made which holds the bearing and Mitchell gear together. The other entry of the shaft will take the axis of the DC motor. The complete construction is only fixed with a single M3 screw. As you can see in the second picture the next step is to design and manufacture the base plate for the DC motor. The side plate with bearing can even function without motor, its easy to add a custom handle and created a very smooth Mitchell with a BIG bearing. The side plate with large bearing runs very smooth, could be a great Mitchell for this century. Overview of parts prototype II Raw preview. The side plate was remade, the result is a nice and smooth running drive unit; next step will be the creation of a control unit. Final drive unit back Final drive unit front In augustus 2009 the reel was used for the very first time with large success. In a one hour session we managed to caught fish on this, this was great fun. As you can see from the pictures there are two switches, one is a push button, this is used to close the bail and to play the fish, this button applies full power to the moter, it works very smooth. The flip switch supplies a regulated preset voltage to the motor which can be tuned at the control unit to adapt speed, this switch is designed for a steady retrieve of your lure. When a fish hits the lure , the force of the fish stops the retreive and your rod will stay in a nice curve. The playing of the fish has to be done with the power push button which works very good indeed. Because the Mitchell 330 otomatic bail can be used to cast, the combination of casting and retrieve can be done with your right hand only, when using a single handed spinning rod. Your left hand can hold your sigar when you are fishing. Right side Left Side The final kit with control unit which controls retrieve speed which is adjustable. The box has been paint brushed with a simple picture, showing several fish and in the background a large net. The front has been painted purple with aluminium glitter, a color uses in professional music devices. The circuit bord is mounted in a special teflon device to hold it firm in rough conditions. The unit is not yet fully ready, further improvement and modifcation will be added later ! Control Unit In the last months of 2009 the Mark II was created, during fishing the Mark I was not 100% perfect, the reel feet was a bit too short. A new design was created from 100% aluminium and the perfect position for all switches was created. All switches are now pushbutton switches as during practical use these are producing the quickest response. The new designed reel feet is manufactured in a Z-shape, not 100% visible in the pictures, but it looks very nice from a design point of view. On the last picture you can clearly see the phone connector to connect the reel to its control box. 3-wires are needed, 12V supply, return feed and a PCM control line in case the reel runs on reduced speed. The complete reel is controled with two switches which can be controlled with the right hand. Left side Mark II Right Side Mark II