Firstly I would like to thank everyone for the great wealth of information found on this site, it gave me a good understanding of what route I would like to take my build.
Nothing ground breaking here but I wanted to document my build to add to all the information on Foil Zone.
Main parts
Flipsky 65161 120kv with carbon/PLA printed motor mount (files from the forum
Propeller, Flipsky 7.25 x 5 cut down to 140mm
ESC, Castle Creations HV160 ice, Passively cooled in aluminium box within the main compartment but the base protrudes to the bottom underside of the board
Battery, 6x hobbyking zippy 8000mah 6s lipo packs arranged to get 12s 24ah pack
Hydrafoil, Gong kite foil Allvator Rise ALU (I use this for kite foiling as well)
Home made board 1500mm x 600mm x 100mm
Polystyrene, plywood stringers wrapped in 2 layers of 200g carbon fibre.
Remote Control made from 3d printed case, arduino and Orange tx module.
Fail safe. Reciever has built in failsafe so loss of signal from transmitter sends throttle to zero, also I have a reed switch and magnetic lanyard on the signal wire between the Reciever and ESC which means the ESC detects loss of signal and sends throttle to zero.
Hatch, the main hatch is fastened down with multiple bolts and an EPDM flat rubber seal used for windows. The round hatch is a standard 200mm boat screw down, used for charging and switching on/off
Small IP68 clear plastic box for reciever on the nose of the board including LCD battery voltage display and magnetic lanyard.
Weight including batteries 24kg
Cruise speed 20kmh @ 30amps and top speed so far 27kmh
I was concerned about getting EPS that was too light weight but I ended up getting this from Wickes which is actually fine, plenty strong enough once wrapped in carbon and easy to sand.
For the magnetic lanyard the reed switch operates directly between reciever and ESC. No issues so far and I have fallen off many times. Most ESC’s will revert to zero throttle on loss of signal, I don’t get any over run either it just stops.
An update on the reed switch between reciever and ESC.
Although this is working I have encountered an issue where sometimes when the magnet is released or reconnected it introduces a big signal spike and trips the ESC which when needs a power cycle, I plan on using a single channel failsafe device which hopefully will be a buffer between the RX and ESC but after the reed switch. I’ll update once it arrives and test it out.
If you add more logic, you could as well use a hall sensor with a magnet and then use an arduino with servo library to forward the ppm signal to the vesc based on the hall sensor state. This adds complexity but it is more reliable than a reed switch that can get suck.
Yes I like that idea using the hall sensor but I don’t know how to program Arduino only upload sketches and use other people’s code, I need to learn really.
Hi, the round hatches are glued and screwed. I used stainless steel screws screwed into polyester resin plugs pre inserted into the board before skinning, it’s glued with a polyurethane adhesive sealant.
Keep sand away from the threads and sealing faces, it grinds away the plastic otherwise.
