I’ve had this idea for a while, a one piece TPU printed minipod for a foil assists. After a fair bit of copying and selling of the Strap On Pod, i’ve decided to put this version on my website to keep people and companies honest.
First 10 downloads are free if you give me some feedback, then only $10AUD after that - might cover the rolls of TPU i spent iterating on this.
A few people have printed it so far, works pretty good, simple, and i think as close to integrated as you can get. Not designed for quick on and off like the strap, but with tape etc i dont think many people are doing that. Works with any mast, I just need the chord length to generate the file.
The design could be used for 65161 as well, if there is demand i’ll make one up.
This looks like it will work much better than the “existing” designs.
Excellent idea.
Not sure when I will get around to try it and there are a few things I would change for myself. For example the cable guide ist not how I would do it for my 3 seperate motor cables.
Also not sure how practical this will be for you to adjust this for every mast.
I personally would probably use at least 3 different ones regularly (Axis alu and Axis HM at two different chord lengths).
So I guess I will just take your sample and do the changes myself.
I’ve made the design completely parametric, so can run a python script and in 2 minutes have as many variants as needed, all outputted with unique file names in one folder. The trailing edge of most masts are so similar, so no other changes are really needed. It’s designed around a 12mm thickness mast. If the mast is thicker then just stretches outwards without affecting the bolts at the back.
It would be a bit nightmare for a company to make this and sell this design because you would need so many variants, so an adjustable strap is better in that situation. But if you have access to a printer I think this is the way to go.
The motor bolts are side loaded in slots inside the nose cone before putting it on the mast, and then tightened via almost self sealing 1mm holes in the front of the pod using a ball nose screw driver. No plugs needed. Excuse the print quality didn’t have time to dry the filament.
I received mine a few days back. In general I think it’s a great idea. For my Code Foils mast the shape of the pod would need to be changed though as I am unable to push the pod all the way into the back side of the mast. Theres a gap of almost one cm left, even after pushing hard. As a result, the chord I would have to use is much bigger than the actual chord of the mast at that height.
I have the file and TPU ready to go but also use the aliexpress 6384 120kv motor that is pretty popular on here. The file is going to need some work to be compatible. I don’t know if you will have a chance but if you do, here is the spacing for this particular motor.
I hope this is helpful. This is an stl for the 6374 AliExpress motor. This has the same hole pattern and attachment shape as the popular 6384. Do you think you could amend your file to work with this?
I’ve updated with files for the 30mm PCD for a Flipsky. A bit more work is need to make it work with the 44mm bolt spacings as it creates lots of interference. It uses the Foildrive cut out so this could be optimised a bit as well.
Also added a back part to the cable guide and adjusted the cut line.
