Had a super long day today! Charged the battery to 87% and rode for 2 hours and 45 minutes. Ended with the battery at 28%. Now I’ve got some serious foil skills and can ride for ages without crashing. So tired but got tons of data!
Here’s what I learned: max power use is 1400W at 23A against strong winds and 1250W at 20A without wind. For cruising, I’m usually at 1000W and 17A.
Swapped my ESC from a 75200 to a much smaller 75100.
Not sure why everyone recommends more powerful ESCs. Maybe they have smaller boards and foils. I could probably go even smaller, like a 7550, since my big board and foil need less power to glide and take off.
My water cooling broke, so I rode without it. Max MOSFET temp hit 38°C when my prop and foil got tangled in weeds, pulling max current of 40A. Normally, temps stayed between 30-36°C and dropped to 27°C when I landed on water. So, turns out I don’t need water cooling on a water-cooled ESC in a waterproof case because it’s massive and dissipates heat well on its own. Plus, the ESC doesn’t generate much heat at that current.