My electric expedition canoe
May 9, 2019 7:11:50 GMT
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peterboat, JohnV, and 1 more like this
Post by Deleted on May 9, 2019 7:11:50 GMT
That boat I bought last weekend for £27 is the ideal base for a proper long range expedition canoe. Its ideal.
Being a non body builder type it will need to have electric drive but I do not want to cut holes in the hull.
Looking at the boat
That central flat bit behind the round deck hatch is ideal to bolt down a length of wood with a hinge on the end onto which is mounted a small pod motor.
So I made up a mount. The motor is only going to be used in straight ahead and steering or stopping will be with the kayak paddle. So the motor simply hangs vertically. In forward the thrust will obviously push it against the piece of wood and if it hits any underwater obstructions it will lift freely.
It can also be lifted at will with a cord so as to get motor out of water to reduce drag when paddling.
The long thin piece of wood will be cut to correct length then bolted on behind the access hatch with an aluminium strip below the deck for reinforcement.
This means the whole assembly can be removed and all that is left i s two 6mm holes. Nice and tidy.
PWM speed controller which will be sealed inside a business card box once wiring is sorted. I'm using "Deans" remote control plane battery connectors. The speed control is simply a Variable resistor as is usual with pwm stuff. This PWM is nice because it has an adjustable current limit so if I set it to say 10a and get a bad prop foul the motor won't overload my fairly light weight mounting arrangement.
PWM
A little test on the dinghy showed that 5amps provides sensible thrust with this little Minn Kota. It's one of the old ones which are heavier duty. The boat is so easy to push I think 60w ish is going to be fine for it. And anyway its not pure electric it can work as assist for the paddling as well.
Couple of ordinary car batteries for range testing then the plan will be to have a bank of batteries around 100ah at 12v up the front of the cockpit with a ply top then 75w solar panel on that. Plenty of space.
I'll use 24ah-26ah golf cart cells (SLA lead not Lithium at this stage) as they are nice and portable and can be charged in the back of a car with the right adapter. Plus they are low profile.
At 5 Amps using half of capacity that should be around 10hrs on motor and there is always the option to paddle.
Have also been looking into the pedal drive options but that is more invasive so not going to hurry that.
More to come
Being a non body builder type it will need to have electric drive but I do not want to cut holes in the hull.
Looking at the boat
That central flat bit behind the round deck hatch is ideal to bolt down a length of wood with a hinge on the end onto which is mounted a small pod motor.
So I made up a mount. The motor is only going to be used in straight ahead and steering or stopping will be with the kayak paddle. So the motor simply hangs vertically. In forward the thrust will obviously push it against the piece of wood and if it hits any underwater obstructions it will lift freely.
It can also be lifted at will with a cord so as to get motor out of water to reduce drag when paddling.
The long thin piece of wood will be cut to correct length then bolted on behind the access hatch with an aluminium strip below the deck for reinforcement.
This means the whole assembly can be removed and all that is left i s two 6mm holes. Nice and tidy.
PWM speed controller which will be sealed inside a business card box once wiring is sorted. I'm using "Deans" remote control plane battery connectors. The speed control is simply a Variable resistor as is usual with pwm stuff. This PWM is nice because it has an adjustable current limit so if I set it to say 10a and get a bad prop foul the motor won't overload my fairly light weight mounting arrangement.
PWM
A little test on the dinghy showed that 5amps provides sensible thrust with this little Minn Kota. It's one of the old ones which are heavier duty. The boat is so easy to push I think 60w ish is going to be fine for it. And anyway its not pure electric it can work as assist for the paddling as well.
Couple of ordinary car batteries for range testing then the plan will be to have a bank of batteries around 100ah at 12v up the front of the cockpit with a ply top then 75w solar panel on that. Plenty of space.
I'll use 24ah-26ah golf cart cells (SLA lead not Lithium at this stage) as they are nice and portable and can be charged in the back of a car with the right adapter. Plus they are low profile.
At 5 Amps using half of capacity that should be around 10hrs on motor and there is always the option to paddle.
Have also been looking into the pedal drive options but that is more invasive so not going to hurry that.
More to come