Buddy made me and a few friends diy Foil Drives. His first attempt was with a VESC and its settings weren’t quite right…was only getting about half of expected power. He switched to the 150a ESC (flycolor) and it immediately worked better, twice the power. I am not sure what the wrong setting was … but maybe checking your ESC/VESC might help? (and if you’ve already tried that, sorry for repeat)
Good thought. I actually started this project with a vesc but the high temp cutout kept triggering after about 10 seconds of full throttle. Switched to the Aerostar esc and didn’t notice much of a difference in power, although if you hold full throttle too long, the motor connectors will burn through the insulation
I’m new to the club and i’ve searched the forum a lot and read this post about 10 times!
What remotes are people using? I have bought a Maytech v2 but I hear that the waterproofing isnt great and they fail after a few uses. Is there anything better? Or do people use a Maytech with a plastic bag?
Many thanks
I’m using maytech remotes. I gave the circuit board a good coating of epoxy resin. I just pulled off what was there and poured in about 30ml of resin. So far so good. Lasted one year with weekly use. The out of the box waterproofing did not give me enough confidence to last. Pic below.
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Thanks for the reply and photos. So from the looks of it you didnt touch the screen and only poured epoxy onto the top of the circuit board? Did you take any special effort to ensure the epoxy coated the back of the circuit board?
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I simply Poured in slow cure and let air bubbles come out from behind circuit board. I know this means I can never repair or replace any parts on the remote but if it breaks I’ll just get a new remote. You have to watch the resin near the on/off switch that’s about it. I used some surf wax near the trigger switches to stop the resin flowing over the edges where they are lower.
I left the screen alone, it look ok from factory on the current remote I just bought. LCD seems to be encased in some form of resin.
My remote floats now which is a bonus!
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New update: I rewired my battery to 12s2p, but this didn’t go well. I think I must have wired it in a configuration that couldn’t handle the amps. Long story short: burned through some of the zinc strips on the first test.
Rewired back to 8s3p and switched out my 120kv 6384 with a 170kv 6374. This seems promising but on my first test this morning, the motor cuts out under load. And not at very high rpm’s. I’m thinking it’s a low voltage cutoff problem with the esc. But I can’t be drawing many amps when it cuts out. Wondering if I ruined the battery when I had it in 12s
Can’t recreate in the trash can at home which is frustrating
Thanks to those who have provided the links to the files on thingiverse!
Anyone here have some hot tips on printing the folding props?
- Materials
- Speed
- Temp etc
Picked up a printer yesterday and these are my first ‘experimental’ prints!
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Hello
I printed with front flatbase on the bed. Minimum 50m/s. No support on ender3. Pla+ is strong enough. I have printed one with ABS, that went into an acetone vapor bath. It smoothed the printed lines, and after sanding it gets very clean
Regular PLA broke, as well as PETG
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Here is my cleaned up build.
I would say it’s hafway between an efoil and an assist.
Water cooling and 10s4p.
I cleaned it up and tried it this morning on a gong inflatable 5’5.
It works amazingly well as an efoil so far.
I will try again with my former smaller box and 6s when i get better and when waves show up.
I feel like Emmett Brown : I finally invent something that works!
It feels good i can’t wait to go back
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I’m up and running with my foil assist 
I have had a couple of tries, but the propellers have snapped 
Hopefully that issue is solved now.
The VESC is configured, but I’m not sure it’s 100% correct. I feel that it lacks a bit of power Followed the wizard and did a couple of adjustments. Can anyone with the same setup as me have a quick look and tell me if something completely off.
I’m running a 6384 - 120kv motor with a 8s4p battery pack (21700 - 4000mAh - 35A). The VESC is limited to continuously 100A (280A burst). I’m not sure of the exact maximum power of the motor.
Should I increase the motor current max / battery current max?
I’m afraid of burning the VESC. I have also tried to detect motor configuration for BLDC, but it failed.
You can try to increase max motor current and absolut max current. I run a 63100 for an efoil, max motor to 160A, absolute max current 250 and battery current to 105A. As your motor is smaller, I would‘t go that high, you could increase max motor current in steps (100, 110, 120A). Factor 1.5 for absolute max.
Sounds like you’ve got a similar configuration to me. I abandoned the vesc after it kept overheating. Are you able to get up on foil?
Yes, I got up yesterday!
I was on a 1770 cm2 mid aspect foil and a 5’0 75l board. I’m 85 kg. Needed a couple of stokes with my paddle, but then I was up.
I had forgotten to charge the batteries, so after 5 minutes the fun ended. When I checked the voltage was just above the voltage cutoff, so I guess thats what happened.
I could not go above 100A in my VESC, so it’s at max now. Got a message with “max limit reached” when I tried to go higher. Properly a way around that issue, but I will try to avoid that for now.
The batteries is fully charged now, and I will test one more time in the weekend.
Quick follow up.
Tested again today with fully charged batteries. No problem getting up. After about 5 minutes I got power loss on the third time I should get up. Then I waited a while and gave it another go. It was full power again. After a while I could not get up on second try. Loss of power again.
I guess the VESC is overheating and reducing power?
If so, do you think I could get it cooled down properly with a heat sing outside the box? I’s a bit to big to be at the bottom of the box, so I may have to move the capacitor or figure out another way to get it close to the surface of the box… I’m using the Maytech 100A V4.12 ESC.
Nice! I had similar issue running with vesc. Couldn’t keep it from overheating. I cut a hole through the box and glued the heatsink in so that it could let the water cool it.
Still didn’t help. Ended up going with an Aerostar esc. If you keep throttle pinned for long enough, I’m sure this esc will burn out. But so far so good
Nice !
I spent some time coating my motor with epoxy in an home made vacuum chamber… But in the end, it was corroded in unsalted water after only a few runs… I guess there was sand between the stator and the rotor because the epoxy was missing in some places.
Corrossion X seems to be the solution but quite expensive here the 6oz can is 33$. But when I see your picture, it seems to be worth it.
I am wondering if we can protect solder of batteries too (lipo battery )
Bettery or ESC box I am using this
I have the 1.2l (Flipsky 12s 200A) for the ESC and 5.2 L for the lipo (4x 6s 6500mah + fuse box)
I believe that a 2l can fit a 6s4p and an 6s 150am esc
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Interested to know how this behaves on the long run… isn’t one box better than two to fix on the rear of a board ?
Yes, I coat the battery terminals in the corrosion x prior to putting the shrink wrap on. I also coat the receiver and esc. I find one 16oz non aerosol bottle last me over a year of frequent use.
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