Foil Drive Assist, DIY

To me the new assist housing does look like some plastic. (edit: just saw the video. yes its aluminum)

With some smart design ideas we might be able to 3D print something similar. Or at least the most in 3D print with some alloy here and there.

Interesting to know would be how they waterproofed the battery itself :thinking:

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you can easily do the same with PA12 and a little plate of aluminium. Count around 500 USD for it MJF Printed.

The interesting part is the latch system but you use 4 M4 screws and you’ll be fine.

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I’m waiting for the video “Foil Drive v.2 Teardown” I hope we have rich enthusiasts on the forum)

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Based on that you can see cell outline, I’d say it’s been dipped and then wrapped.

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Jezza right… we had the idea for such a box already in 2018, and then in 2020 showing already how it can be done… see posts under New waterproof Alloy V+ESC Box - #25 by ELEVATE.rocks

First we packed just ESC in it and later on we used bigger boxes for batteries as well… we already knew key point for this 20minutes drives would be exchangeablity of the battery… That was challenging and when I see what foildrive made out of it I´m prowd as well because we know we were just ahead of time, and now its the right time to go this way… But as we worked on similar as well we know that FoilDrive will encounter issues concerning waterproofing of this housing and as well connectors. And for the price they ask this will not get a super seller… But wait for next season, several similar system will come at half price and then such a system is just perfect for all of us foil lovers and it will make traveling possible as you can take it on the airplane too… :wink:

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From the DIY stand point I like the @okp idea. Because this design can be 3d printed or at least iterated at home because it does not bear a load.

It can be extended to both the front and back. The batteries can be placed in 3 compartments (4th is the ESC). These 3 compartments can form a whole battery part, which will be connected / disconnected
to the ESC part similar in the idea to the foil drive V2.

Just saying…

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that’s what I’m talking about. what if we use only 4 M4 screws to fit the nose to the rear part. I’m sure we can get a super solid build using only MJF PA12

We could put aluminum bushings through the mounting holes.

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The honest truth is I was planning on bringing out a commercial product, but then I realised trying to spool up a supply chain was going to be a very large task for a product like this and I simply didn’t have the time…

There are a few options for the casing:

  • CNC acetal with an aluminium plate.
  • CNC aluminium
  • Pour mold bottom with aluminium top.

There are a few changes I need to make to the designs before I build a proto though. The big bonus is in my design the batteries can fly on a plane…

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I’m going to go Elevate’s way and get this out of PA12. This is just to test the fit on my mast. No need for aluminium here. My mast baseplate is already made out of it.

So just speed controller below board?

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What does it mean @Jezza ?

Dipped - in epoxy? Isn’t the battery must be allowed to gaz?

Is antispark a must from some voltage?

Is he the foil-drive guy?

I’m going for a custom 4’2 board that will host the Camdenboss box, so no waterproof challenge on the battery side. This will sit flush on my mast with a top cover for dust and everything will be covered with power gel. Motor cables will naturally go in this box via the mast.

Rumour has it that’s foildrive V3 :rofl:

Wait, that would just be a lightweight efoil…

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Thank you for your advice Vladimir, so I will go with the flycolor HV3 160 A

Bushing isn’t the right way to do it, it would create 4 point loads on the board and cause damage. The plate needs to distribute the load over the board to work properly.

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Ah yeah, true. Okay, so we need to iterate further on that :thinking:

moving on with my upcoming complete board integration.

there is A LOT of space under the mast. walls are 7mm. This is likely very strong in PA12.



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