XXL tow boogie/SIB e-boat (65161 14S12P servo-motor steering)

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 :joy:
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.

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So. What motor did you end up using?

just normal 65162 direct drive with flite prop

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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?