Here is a some fin extract from today session, but the servo motor failed.
Here is how the servo motor looks like, it is well burned. I checked the video but could not see why it failed, the rope did not seems to be stuck on the engine causing over torque. It was very hot day, and the watercooling only works above 15kph. It failed after I was trying to take off with the 1050cm2 foil for 15 minutes, so probably a lot of heat.
I need to replace all spacers by alu ones to transfer heat also to the bottom plate, and maybe also reduce the pivot friction.
New servo is ordered, but boat will be out of commission for a little while.
The bremote worked well, good signal and trigger precision compared to DS-600 in a bag
Range seems similar (stock bremote power settings)
Longer session video, love the 360 cam, set and forget. Battery and process ing power of the x5 cam is Impressive.
Is the steering necessary? I guess it is convenient, but I wonder if you had a pole tow point if you’d miss it that much
I think so, I use it a lot to replace in the water after a fall, and avoiding the traffic efficiently. I can do quite sharp truns with me in the water with the rope in hand, with the river currents and winds it would be very complicated to handle without direction control.
So. What motor did you end up using?
just normal 65162 direct drive with flite prop
Made some mounting upgrades while I want for the replacement servo
Installed the water block with thermal paste this time, and clamped the bottom PCB to the top plate.
Will try to do something better for the rx.
The broken servo was refunded by Aliexpress, but I have to find put how to cool it for the future.
Based on last rides, I will reduce the travel of the servo, or add expo to the steering control.
Is the vesc just clamped down with pieces of PCB?
I’m looking to do something similar with the same vesc but was thinking of re using those little L brackets that it’s mounted with in the original housing.
Also are you treating the other parts of the vesc PCB as it’s some lacquer or something?
Yes I tried to use those brakets, but did not have the correct screws and tap, so used 3mm thick G10/FR4 fiberglass parts and M4 screws. First I had it mounted with alu parts, but I was in fear of shorts to vcc and gnd.
I will probably mount a pump to extract more heat out even at low speed. I am not sure if some kind of ram/ cone would help to increase pressure and circulation at low speed for a pure Dynamic pressure style of cooling loop?
This is my experience with no pump water cooling. Your power demands are likely quite a bit more than my use case however.
My tubing is smaller, with OD of 6mm and ID around 4-4.5mm.
On my tests It needed around 15kph to get flow.
The existing water block fitting are not suited to larger tubes unfortunately.
So with load or low speed for longer, it gets into a state where there is no flow, and everything is too hot to get full power needed to get to speed needed to water cool.
It does not really happen for tow foiling, but with more than one person aboard.
Is there a possibility of your tubing collapsing a bit - mine was quite stiff - bendable but would crimp and not come back if you bent it too far?
Regarding water cooling, I have enlarged the opening, and checked for kinks, It works perfect above 10-12kph but not below. It removes a lot of heat and at 4500W the ESC stays cool.
I have checked with the laptop what happens under full load, with the two balde 6x7 during a family ride day.
The prop is too small and does not fully load the motor, top speed was only 14kph alone in the boat.
I wanted to do the same test with the flite prop, but I was already low in battery.
The system is setup at 300A phase and 175A battery, and I could see no other limitations than the prop based on the settings and duty cycle.
Nice and fun boat ride, towing my wife on the paddle, enjoy the lake with the tiller installed while I wait for the servo replacement, but still burned 3kwh of battery just cruising along at 8kph.
The tow is back in action, and I could test it this morning during proper parenting time
Added a fan to prevent burning the servo
Then decided to go on a test back with the flite prop, without checking the forecast first
After the storm short test ride, flite prop is better suited to my system, but I think I still need a bigger prop to get max power out of the system (battery can handle 150A continuous = 12.5A per cell, <3C)
First session in a while, I forgot all pop up techique
Sucess rate with the barracuda xl went from 90% down to 5%
Main issue is throttle modulation when I need to transition to feet. I need to work on my sinker starts…
At the end of the session, the servo motor failed, nothing serious but still anoying and dangerous.
I tested on 16s10p p28 pack, it is quite a bit more power, I could tow a second foiler with me in the boat.
Preparing a bigger prop to go higher power than the flite. Goal is to get on plane with my wife and kid aboard, and be able to tow a foiler while in the boat.
Will print in PPA-CF, I tested it for assist prop and it seems very very strong, I can stand my full weight on the prop without any damage to the tips.
Testing that today
That’s quite a prop! makes the Flite look tiny in comparison
Did you do any post print processing to it or is the photo just remove the support?
The folable prop has just some sanding, the fixed prop had a coat of epoxy on it, but it was not sufficant and exploded on the first full throttle run ^^
I did some logs and the motor max out at 4500w with the flite prop, no matter the settings.
I still have some issues with the battery as I have 3 14S4P in parallel and despite the wire harness being fully symmetric and equal length, sometimes one of the pack BMS cuts out before the other ones at higher loads, and when one of the battery cuts out, the other two get hammered pretty hard regarding voltage drop.
I had ordered a 14s12p with big bms during summer but it will be delivered only late october.
Shame the props broke.
Have you thought about having the packs without a BMS? Just balance charging them?
Who makes your batteries for you?