I’ve been playing around with the idea of 3D printing foil profiles that could slide over a piece of aluminium flat bar.
If I find something that works eventually I would like to lay some composite to form the skin.
If you found a profile that fit the width of the battery you could potentially make the aluminium extrusion the mast itself. (With a little hydrodynamic smoothing of course)
You could also have a split mast with the section above the motor aluminium extrusion and below the motor composite for mounting the foil with the least drag. (25cm ally/50-60cm carbon for example)
Housing the esc in the ally extrusion would obviously also make a beautiful heat sink.
I can see this would work best with an assist design.
@nicolasLGM yes, no cnc, only holes. Battery inside two rows high , same as FD.
I will use Bremote Long range , so hopefully the signal will be strong.
Gen2 has still signal problems. For example they devoted an hour long video to explain how to improve signal reception
I am currently building according to the same principle. I bought a 120x50x3mm aluminium flat-edged tube for €9. The screws from the mast plate go through it. I have welded in additional tubes where the screws go through. This means that not everything has to be waterproofed and you can replace the battery. Either 12S2P or 10S3P
Weight housing 1060g total 4kg
Trying to buy one of the recommended Flycolor Flydragon 80A v3… don’t seem to be any available . Found one on AliExpress but assume it’s version 1. Also found a v4 which looks about 50% more expensive. Any suggestions for where to buy one?
Also what BEC are people using? - looks like the ESCs are mostly opto.
And looks like the Molicels are out of stock - would a 30A discharge cell be ok eg these?
Thanks Tim!!
I’ve actually just updated the board to 12S because it’s nice to have the extra power and since I’ve had some water ingress in the plastic housing I’ve switched over to an aluminium one.
The housing has the exact space for 12S2P, which equals the 8S3P (24cells) which I’ve had before.
I’m using normal XT90 plugs to connect the battery to the ESC, and using a small resistor (10 ohm/5 watt) which was recommended by @Toto44 as an antispark.
But you could also get the designated XT90 which have antispark built in.
To connect the phase wires I’m using 7mm bullet connectors.
Battery cable is 10AWG, phase wires are 12AWG.
Thanks to @hangloose, I’ve ditched the BEC and just use a 2S connector of the balancer plug of the battery to feed the maytech receiver.
Battery has no built in BMS and is balance-charged using iCharger X12 with 48V/ 1000W power supply.
Amazing - thank you so much. Wow your build is looking very professional - are you going into business?
Could I also ask, how you made the mast cone thing and motor mount (stl file and materials used). I read about several people had these break on use.
How did you waterproof your motor? There seems to be debate on this.
Are you still using the PropellerKing prop (looks like you’ve moved to your own build)?
Sorry for all the questions… I’ve spent the last week reading the foil.zone forum - it seems odd that there is no consolidated list of materials and build details. There are basically 2 designs (efoil and assist) and variants eg 8s vs 12s. Once I’m done I will post details.
Not planning any production, because of too many different projects…
I’m using a mast clamp which is actually an adapted version of the FR Motor Clamp. It’s made of fiber reinforced plastic and more durable than my 3d printed ones. You’ll gonna find a lot of STL files if you use the search on the forum though.
Most people have success reinforcing their printed clamps by filling them with epoxy/fiberglass mix.
Or you can also laminate the clamp in carbon or fiberglass to make it more resistant.
You’ll also find a lot of information of how to treat the 6384 motor if you use the search function.
Or you get the waterproof version by Saite.
And yes, still using Propellerkings folding prop. Super happy with it!
Can’t seem to find any Molicel batteries at a reasonable price (landed in Australia) - any idea if these ones on Ali would be ok.
It says: 21700 INR21700 lithium rechargeable battery 4000mAh 3.7 V high-discharge battery high-drain Li-ion battery
Product description: Number:INR21700-40T
Model: 48T
Size: 21700
Nominal capacity: 4000mAh
Nominal voltage: 3,7V
Maximum rotation: 4,2 V
Download current: 30 maximum continuous (up to 40 not continuous)! ESTILE: Upper plane Protected: NO, without protection
Also some similar ones here - but dodgy description.
Same issue i have in NZ. You can order from a trusted Alibaba supplier but not worth it for under 300 cells.
Seems like a reasonable price when purchasing 20+ cells. Flick them a message and you will probably get them cheaper. I paid around $11 per cell from a company here in NZ for 70 cells and that was the cheapest I could find.
Do not buy from Aliexpress. Especially not the sellers you listed.
Redit subs even have a bot to guide people away from ali, short story - legit ali cells are same price or even more expensive, except if youre lucky that one time.
