I’ve continued to poke away at the trial and error process of finding a prop that is optimized for this motor
Initially I was trying to cut down various off-the-shelf props to reduce area to match the low-ish torque. But these all had too steep a pitch on enough of the blade that by the time I reduced area down to a point to get the RPM I was looking for, there wasn’t much thrust. I’ve now turned to 3D printing, initially just scaling down the original CC @superlefax model, but this too was for a more powerful motor than mine
I’ve now gone ahead and just started designing prop variations from scratch in CAD (top left in image)
Here is a link to the design of my current 2-blade leader of the moment
I still haven’t tested this in open water, but my testing has involved seeing how many amps I can get the unit to draw in a large tank (aka hot tub) and still kick out a decent (qualitative) jet/plume of water flow.
Most of the props I cut down could never get over 12-14 amps, the current design is getting over 20
My read on what is possible from the motor is based on tests with semi-submerged props where I can see into the mid 20s on amp draw (from vx3 remote getting VESC data). This semi submerged state seems to be able to reach the blend between RPM and resistance/effort.
If this produces the thrust I’m looking for, I’ll prob then try a 3 blade version - or maybe a folding version, and then get it commercially printed in one of the reinforced nylon materials. (currently using PETG, which is holding up much better than PLA due to flex).
I’ve also ordered a non-waterproof 6384 coming on slow-boat that I might try waterproofing myself (what I originally wanted to avoid) as the lower KV (120) and outrunner nature should give me a lot more torque to work with.
In the end, I’m looking for something much more optimized for hole-shot to get up fast, than any kind of top speed like one might be looking for in an steady-state e-foil application (as this is assist only).
