Building an Unlimited Range Electric Boat

this video is sponsored by PV case more on them later I've always thought it would be cool to have a boat with unlimited range that could just go all day every day without ever needing to refuel imagine the places you could go of course a sailboat can do this but then you're at Mercy of the wind last year I bought this crappy old 13-foot Boston Whaler and completely restored it my plan was to use two electric e-foil motors for propulsion and add solar panels to turn it into my unlimited range Dreamboat this video is about the solar panel part I've already made videos about the whole restoration and propulsion system so if you want to go watch those they can be found on my channel as for the solar panels I chose to mount them on either sides of the boat because it will be relatively easy to do and to make Transportation simple since the panels will just be able to fold in on top of themselves during trailering building a roof with the solar panels mounted on that would have been better but also way more work this version is just kind of a proof of concept to see if long range solar boating is actually an idea worth pursuing further so let's start with the build step one was to design the solar panel pivot mounts in onshape onshape is a cloud native CAD program which makes sharing files and collaborating with others super easy so if anyone out there has an old Boston Whaler and wants to mount big pivoting things on the sides just click on the link in the description and you'll have access to all these designs you can even go in and change all the core Dimensions to make it suit your needs after I had those drawn up I 3D printed them to do a quick fit check after confirming the dimensions would work I sent the files off to pcbway for manufacturing pcbway offers CNC Machining services with no minimum order quantities you can have one-off Parts made for personal projects or whatever you want a few weeks later the designs showed up in the mail CNC machined out of quarter inch aluminum plate wow look at that they looked great and fit together perfectly now time for the solar panels I'm using six of these 175 watt flexible panels from Renegy the best part about these is that they're relatively lightweight compared to rigid panels my plan was to use L-shaped aluminum Extrusion to make the frame around the panels that hold them all together this was relatively straightforward to build it just required a lot of drilling sawing and eventually I ended up with one big floppy solar panel first first I was not stoked on the floppiness but it actually turned out to be super important as you'll see later I drilled some holes in the sides and mounted the big aluminum pivot plates on there then I mounted the other side of the pivot plates onto the wood benches of my boat this way I wouldn't need to drill any holes in the hole to mount the panels the benches just sit in the boat as usual and the panels bolt onto the outsides for the center pivot part I'm using a 3 8 inch shoulder bolt and a lock nut on the other side all the holes in the outer diameter of the plates are spaced out so that I have a lot of mounting angle options for the panels when they are both folded out over the water and folded in for trailering the angle is locked in place with two pins on each side the issue with just having one panel installed is that it's too heavy for the benches so they just tilt up off of the boat so I had to get the other one installed on there to act as a counterweight after that I was able to lift the panels up for the first time and test out the support system it actually seemed to work pretty well until this happened well I just tried to fold them up and the weight of the top panel rested on the bottom panel and this aluminum just kinked so that goes to show that these pieces are not strong enough you need to rethink that one after that happened I bolted on some eighth inch aluminum strips over the weak parts to add strength so they wouldn't fold again that seemed to work out pretty well next it was time to get the solar panels all wired up to the mppt controller I'm using the renegi Rover 60 amp charge controller its job is to pull just the right amount of power out of the solar panels so they can operate at their maximum efficiency Point once that was wired up it was time to take the boat out on the lake for its initial solar test and unfortunately it was cloudy but at least we'll be able to find out how much power they can make when it's overcast before launching the boat I tilted the panels up at a 90 degree angle so that I could load the boat full of all the supplies and then back it into the water this is my very temporary Fender solution I CNC cut them at like 10 pm last night today we are joined by Zuzu the dog and Ansel the boy first impressions with the solar panels was that visibility is terrible you can't see anything but that's okay because the panels only need to be up for a short amount of time after launching and before pulling the boat out of the water at first I didn't have the right technique going on and I tried to lower the panels with strings this was nearly impossible to do because of their weight and awkward angle I later learned that the move is to incrementally Pivot the panels one hole at a time taking advantage of the fact that they can skew a lot we looked it up the operating cost is estimated at 15 million a year so we're getting 182 watts of power with this panel up and this panel down and no sun so that's pretty good oh oh that one's touching is it yeah once the panels were down they did seem plenty strong the aluminum didn't bend when one corner dipped down into the water and impacts from waves didn't seem to have a big effect this boat is apparently owned by one of the guys behind Blackberry I guess they made a lot of money licensing their Tech out to other companies even though their phones didn't end up doing all that well that's a cold dog not a hot dog she's about to be hot she's warming me up yeah we are towing a train of kayakers here choo choo it's still pretty Cloudy and the boat is doing 1100 watts and the solar is doing 620 Watts it's pretty good for for no sun and for having strings on our solar panels how do you feel about this Zeus is just like I want some cheese [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] fiber road bike on the Coast Guard ship it's a herd of gooses wow Sebastian Touch One oh no we got a straggler go little guy go so the sun came out just in time for lunch we put one of the solar panels up for docking and eight on the boat after that we cruised around the lake with quite a few people on the boat and the solar panels were able to supply plenty of power to maintain a speed at a little over three knots without having to draw any power from the batteries that's all I had ever hoped for for this project so I would say it's a big success definitely not the right hole type for low speed driving like this but oh well still a successful proof of concept what I really need is one of those coaching launches they would make for amazing solar boats you'll notice that with this configuration the solar panels are partially shaded by some of the passengers but this doesn't really matter when we're just leisurely cruising around the lake they still make plenty of power but when I'm on the boat alone going for maximum distance I can just move around to avoid shading the panels I know I know a solar roof would probably be better but like I said before that'll probably come if there's ever a solar boat V2 [Music] all right [Music] so I've been driving around all day the mppt says we're still doing 450 watts and the battery is 100 full even though the sun is at a pretty low angle in the sky now earlier today I was doing 1100 Watts that's the highest power that I observed on the mppt haphazardly mounting solar panels to your boat is pretty easy but building large solar arrays on land or rooftops can get pretty challenging due to shading from trees solar panels topography or other things help with that challenge there's PV case PV case is a Next Generation AutoCAD based PV software that allows users to simulate the physical locations of a solar plant incorporating 3D topographical data of the surroundings PV case is the ideal choice for companies undertaking large commercial and Industrial projects as well as utility scale plants the software's intuitive workflows and streamlined processes help reduce the learning curve and improve productivity by offering features for prototyping electrical design stringing shading analysis train analysis and automatic generation of construction document station PV case enables engineers and designers to take a project from its initial stages all the way to the procurement phase this end-to-end approach can help streamline workflows reduce errors and save time by eliminating the need to switch between different tools or software platforms their ground amount solar plant feature offers flexible 3D modeling and complex terrain resulting in shade free table placement it also has piling and collision analysis for motion controlled panels and automated 3D cable routing that even accounts for topographical variants their roof mount solar array feature offers rapid 3D building preparation shading calculation and semi-automated electrical design features all making it much easier to plan and procure Solar Power Systems click on the link in the description to learn more about this awesome new software now back to the video if you've watched the previous videos about this boat project you've probably heard me complaining about how the props are vibrating while underwater even though they are perfectly balanced and run smooth in the air this was around the time I began to think the vibrations weren't from in Balance but instead from the prop blades chopping through the Wake created by the vertical mass portion of the Outboards that is made out of two by fours and since only one side of the blade is passing through the wake at a time it would lead to an imbalance of thrust and an imbalance of force on the motor shaft which would cause vibration this is more likely to be a problem with my design than it is with other outboard motors because my 2x4 masks are really much wider than they need to be still a proper foil shape but way too thick definitely something I would change if I were redesigning these Outboards I figured that maybe if I extended the masts downward past the motor then both Blades of the propeller would be chopping through the wake of the same time and that would hopefully balance out the forces on the shaft and reduce vibration so I 3D printed these Mast extenders on my form 3 plus I'm using their clear resin for this because it's just what I had laying around but it ended up being pretty cool because we can actually see the internal support structure inside since I made them Hollow to save resin so those just screw right onto the back side of the motor mount and effectively extend the Mast downward with that it was back out on the water this is hilarious there's a Vine growing through the parking machine we're about to launch the boat here in West Seattle and we've got version two of these new fenders that work with the solar panel attachments so this is the packaging material from this new battery I got over here getting windy it was so calm we got here oh Jesus wow this doc moves a lot Collision inbound that's a high-speed Water Taxi wow that was a hectic launch well we already blew so far anyways there's a lot of waves this thing is zooming along just Throttle Down these boats these high-speed fairies make pretty big wakes got a bigger ferry over there going to Seattle probably from Bainbridge so we're gonna go where it's less windy down the duwamish river the wind chop is only going to get worse but when I swear when we pulled in here in the car it was like glass remember I said it's like a lake out there today and now suddenly it's like the ocean it's because it is the ocean so this was the first time launching my boat in saltwater we launched it in Elliott Bay which is part of the Puget Sound which eventually connects to the ocean at first I didn't ever want to use these submerged Motors in salt water but eventually I figured out oh what the heck they're full of mineral oil so they should be fine there's a really big old dock right here looks like it's slowly falling apart and there's this crazy big house barge looking thing with a helipad right there I don't know how we're gonna pull the boat out of the water this afternoon there's some big container ships over here in dock getting loaded up with containers there's a ferry in Dry Dock right there we have the solar panels tilted up at a bit of an angle to avoid the waves now open riding the waves waves cruising let's see we're pulling 3000 Watts so yeah we don't want to hit this boat oh it's so windy these panels might fold if they get hit by a big enough gust oh here comes a container it's getting loaded up look at that bulbous bow there's a seagull sitting on the bulb wow that's a big crane the wind waves only got worse and we were getting concerned that we wouldn't be able to make it back to the boat ramp so we decided to turn back into the wind and see how the boat handled going into the swell okay Sebastian get ready to take some waves over the bow good okay all right let's turn around here comes the big one oh yeah oh you know what I forgot is the the bailing device tugboat's doing something oh maybe they're pulling out that old piece of wood that old piling that's a nice looking Tugboat one of our missions for the day was to do some submarine exploring with the fee fish underwater drone this was also my first time using it in salt water so I was excited to see how the scenery differed from freshwater lakes we launched the submarine on the side of the shipping canal and I forgot to turn on the microphone to record our voices but we did end up finding some interesting stuff like old Pier pilings that must have been cut off underwater plenty of starfish a bunch of wood that was probably from a shipwreck or an old Pier that collapsed I found our anchor hooked on a piece of wood a spiky sea slug some crazy looking sea anemone type creatures that seems to Glow in the submarine's light and then I got the submarines tether caught around a big log luckily I was able to follow it back around and we just pulled on it and the rest came free crisis averted I want a tug boat those are so cool I really want to know who lives in that thing I want to live there that thing is awesome although this is a super fun to site so maybe it wouldn't be too great to live here they might have a potential Collision coming up what is that I can't tell oh it's a crane barge we're going under the West Seattle Bridge here this is an old drawbridge for trains up ahead yeah that's a big concrete counterweight right there to offset the weight of the bridge when it goes down that's interesting it's so steampunk and here we have a tugboat coming up that's pretty neat so at this point we were just cruising up the duwamish Waterway looking for more interesting places to explore with the submarine there's a pile of shredded cars and stuff they've got this giant winch right there and it looks like they're trying to pull that crane forward or something doesn't make any sense I don't know what they're doing we're getting chased down by two tugboats look at this people have hung little swallow nests or something from these posts a little holes on them for birds to go in there you got another herd of gooses soaking up the oil in the super fun to site it's like another cement factory here they're probably gonna pull that barge up to Alaska wow wow I was doing two at once looks like this is a fairy loading ramp the polar endurance there's some old looking tug boats looks like some sort of a big old vacuum on the top of that with a sucker that's like a concrete vacuum or something maybe it's for grain or something and I pump grain through that tube yeah the Pacific Trader that's a big barge holy look at the size of that barge that's the biggest barge I've ever seen we're in some wind soil now we're surfing again these are big waves it's a boat ramp that we had put in at had gotten way too wavy to take the boat out so we want to check out this alternative boat ramp that was a little over three miles up the river it doesn't look like anyone's used it anytime recently it was looking pretty sketchy though because not only was it steep but it was also covered in algae which would make it slippery or at least it was during low tide dude but what truck slides into the water what if it's slippery water level going to be going to be higher later on there's a boat ramp but no dock this dock says private no public morage or docking I that's weird we decided that it would be fine to pull the boat out there but we would need to wait until high tide which is around 6 PM there's loaders driving around up there scooping gravel off of this one holy cow look at that that's where we're going way down the river what a view so Majestic yeah so this must be the cement factory over here those are some big cranes here's a river boat next to a barge full of Timber must be the timber Barons yacht I wonder if that thing actually Powers it it's not even touching the water at the moment so the motor's off right now and we're still drifting into the wind and that's because we're in a river that's connected to the ocean and the tide is coming out right now and the river's coming out we decided to go take one more look at Elliott Bay and the odd chance that the wind had died and the water had calms down but it was still pretty bad we got water in the boat now I've been taking some waves over the bow we came back out to the ocean to see if this boat can handle the waves and uh it's sort of can but there's a few big ones that have gone over so we have decided that uh taking the boat out at the boat ramp is not going to be possible I mean it probably would be possible we would probably destroy the boat while we're doing it so now we're gonna go back to the oh geez so we're gonna go back to the river and take refuge we just dropped anchor here right in front of this no loitering sign and then we're gonna do some submarine exploring it's nice and calm right here because this building's blocking the wind all right put that sucker in there it goes got some kelp down there some spiny things and grassy things look at that that's weird oh more starfish these ones are white or the last one's white we I thought so yeah oh I found our anchor look at that it's right by a starfish oh what's it stuck on just dirt oh it's a good thing it didn't drag too much further it would have hit the starfish yep yeah look at this there's the pure piling is that a crab look at the crab is it crap yeah right there see it no no that one that one that one yeah yeah yeah it was a crab it's a real life crab oh yeah look at him he's shy I'm gonna blind him I want to see all sorts of interesting stuff in these Pier pilings oh look at that big fish wow sweet oh here's some more of those things and enemy things they're growing on a rope hi little guy you want to fight me you can see the current flowing now I'm getting blown with the current actually going pretty quick oh sea lion right there or seal I don't know the difference right in the middle oh yeah seal wow that's real shallow in here less than three now it's only three feet deep right here well 2.8 feet according to the fish finder not a lot of room those logs are just sitting on the ground we're gonna go tie up over there in the wind sheltered area and have lunch so it's low tide right now when the tide comes up a lot of this island it goes underwater or at least all this stuff right here I wonder if anyone lives in there crusty looking barges it's a bunch of random dudes hanging out in the bushes up here perfect place for lunch what you got there Sebastian got a salad on top some noodle thing on the bottom very nice pretty good wow that's one big mountain look how good that thing looks it's hilarious it's like a little satellite so I just got off here to check out this alternative boat ramp that's gonna have less waves but either way we'll have to pull the boat out of the water at like 6 p.m or later yeah it's got to be some sort of a aquatic plant restoration thing that's just a big pile of smashed cars oh I just threw a chunk just think Sebastian in 80 years that's going to be your car this must be someone's house right there right next to the Superfund Site this is called a sediment cap I think they put all this sediment over all the toxic materials that were left here it says do not disturb the sediment because then you'll stir up the toxic muck this is a big ass Building look at that it's a barge on a barge two barges on a barge there's a whole Harbor up here wow see how the fins have some tilt to them like that I do a little turn look at that it's the track straight when one end swings out Long Beach Dutch Harbor well that thing's from Dutch Harbor that's a long ways away we just tasted the water and it's fresh here so I think we've come far enough up the duwamish as to where we're out of the salt water I think we were also past the industrial stuff along the shoreline so there's no more barges or anything like that I guess looks like there used to be at one point there's some remnants here but mostly it's just turned into a river we're gonna do submarine underneath this bridge and look for dead bodies and guns oh my God it already blew away it might be very difficult to go here there's also terrible visibility here I don't know if we're gonna see anything oh there's the bottom wow oh it's actually Sandy oh I think I just saw a dead fish Float by it's crazy I feel like I'm in a dust storm oh that's good I got a freshwater rinse we've exited the nasty part of the river it's much cleaner and more tranquil over here the herd of goose is in their natural habitat just by angling this panel up we got 200 extra Watts now with both of these panels we're doing 900 watts Seattle is about eight miles off in the distance and we're battling the wind and the current so it's Times Like These when I'm glad that we have way too much solar surface area good luck Sebastian just dropped me off about three miles away from the boat ramp that we put in at and I'm gonna run back there to go get the truck so at this point I ran like three miles back to get the trailer and Sebastian drove the boat back up the river two miles to meet me at the sketchy boat ramp there's Sebastian I can see him right there it says cement on there so uh maybe they're going to that place right there maybe the one behind it or is it that one yeah it's probably this one that looks like cement to me looks like wonder is coming through that thing's pretty big looking making a pretty wide turn all right made it took about 40 minutes Daniel said he got his car eight minutes ago so he's tripping him soon like eight wrong turns later there he is there he is okay Sebastian bring her in easy all right here it is we got it as for the Mast extensions that I added onto the motors earlier on they didn't really seem to work at all the vibration was pretty much unchanged with both 2 3 and 6 bladed propellers this footage is from my toroidal prop testing video where I was blowing bubbles down into the water to visualize the flow later on I did pretty much solve this vibration problem and it wasn't by making the Mast turbulence evenly distributed over the prop but instead just by reducing the mass turbulence as much as possible I'll talk more about that in a future video that's it for now thanks for watching bye

Channel: rctestflight

Views: 226,095

Keywords: solar, boat, ship, unlimited, range, green, electric, propulsion

Id: 9X82ZSXtT4s

Length: 22min 49sec (1369 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 14 2023