My DIY R/C Boat Pulled me 20 Miles!!!

there once was a ship of fiberglass most 3d printed super fast the sun melted one side of it but daniel did not give up blend a mission our two rovers so many waypoints all in order flip it into auto mode and off daniel did go gps will lead the way from dusk to dawn hill sail all day batteries charged by the sun until the night falls it will run life the best batteries that ever were 10 amp hour capacity and six of them in store as he ventured through seattle both propellers sure did rattle you won't believe me when i say it didn't even matter this is the third video in my solar powered autonomous catamaran tugboat video series if you want to see how i built this thing check out the first two videos in this video i set out to lake washington to see if my creation can handle a full day of pulling me around seattle in my kayak for this whole mission the boat would be autonomously following a nearly 20-mile waypoint route that i programmed into its audiopilot-based flight controller onboard with about 750 watts of power in the batteries and 200 watts of solar power coming from the panels i was pretty confident i would be able to drive all day i set out to the lake inflated my kayak mounted the solar panels and set sail okay finally here we go climbing into the boat oh nice okay i'm going to put it in auto mode boop and we are on our way going pretty quick i got to turn down the speed so that we don't wear out the batteries too fast because the sun is not very intense right now already i had to make an emergency turn to avoid that swimmer it's going to be a busy day on the lake okay back into auto mode i just split the rowing team in half whoops going right through the middle my path is slowly intersecting with some swimmers but i think i'm gonna beat them yeah i built it it's solar powered so when i was planning the waypoint mission it was really hard to judge where to draw the line underneath bridges i was using google earth a little bit because they have a 3d view on there where you can kind of see where the bridge pillars are but it's not super good so uh so hopefully my autonomous mission is accurate enough and shooting through the gaps but there's construction here so i'm thinking that things might have changed since the google imagery data was taken dang so i did have to do a manual override because of all this construction we were gonna go through the gap on the other side but there's a barge there right now oh there's a tugboat right there wow we're about to go through the tugboat wake oh wow this is a lot of turbulent water oh it's getting blown away oh geez i'm getting pushed it's a busy work day out on the water got all sorts of stuff going on i hear welding hug boats autonomous tugboats hell yeah so i've got my laptop charging off this lipo right here it's an 8 amp hour 3 cell basically i just have this little boost converter that steps the voltage up from 12 to 19. so that's fun that's totally not sketchy what are you talking about rogue wave [Music] oh that wasn't so bad oh geez i better slow down so when i first started the max speed was set to two meters per second and the boat's only able to go about 1.7 or 1.8 meters per second but that uses a lot more power so i turned it down to 1.2 meters per second and now i think that's a pretty efficient cruise speed so we're doing good might have to turn it down even lower to like one meter per second if the battery voltage starts to drop too much we'll see damn it i got to be more careful i just accidentally cut a big slit in here oh well i have tape i'm gonna see if i can patch it at least that's just the seat oh that was so dumb okay manual override we got fishermen throwing lures out here i don't want to run over their lures my waypoint mission got too close to the shore this is a very risky part of the mission i programmed it to go under a bridge that's over there but that bridge is not very tall at all so i don't even know if i'll be able to make it underneath oh my god if this works i'll be so amazed oh it's gonna make it it's gonna make it holy i don't know if my computer's gonna make it but holy i got a duck oh oh oh we made it oh it's so good i didn't even have to manually control it wow okay now we're in the swamp [Music] we're really close to the bridge but it seems like the gps is still doing fine in the past with my autonomous boats the gps's would get really wonky when you go underneath the bridge so we'll see what happens today get out the way wow i can see the bottom here it's pretty shallow i will not be surprised if i get some seaweed tangled in a propeller seems like it's still working fine right now so i'll check for seaweed later or if something starts to seem weird here we go the next bridge is coming up this one looks a little bigger though should be easier oh yeah this one's going to be easy the boat is kind of zigzagging so i think there probably is some weed stuck on one of the props this one's bigger this one's way bigger that was easy now let's pause right there for a minute while i tell you about the sponsor of this video ritual essential protein sometimes when you're working on your autonomous boat all day you don't have time to think about getting all the vitamins and minerals you need that's when ritual comes in it makes it easy to help supplement your diet maddy what do you think about this this seems so interesting i'm always looking for a plant-based dietary supplement you think banji should have some yeah i do ritual essential protein daily shakes supports the maintenance of lean muscle mass and promotes healthy active aging for everyone not just athletes it contains all nine essential amino acids providing a complete amino acid profile helping to build lean muscle mass and satisfy appetite and maintain bone health it also contains choline to support brain health and fill dietary gaps ritual makes it easy just add one scoop to 8 to 12 ounces of any cold liquid and shake it up 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point in my life right now also jesus christ this is not ideal there's so much water going over the solar panels but now we're good and i got it back into auto mode the bridge didn't seem to screw with the gps signal too much so that's good now we're back on the road again cruising i patched my slice with electrical tape seems to be holding okay so far wow there's a guy riding an e-foil over there got another bridge gap coming up let's see if we make it my stupid computer is such a piece of crap it won't work at all that's where all the rowers go right so there boats wow wow wow the bridges are so cool oh and there's seattle coming into view [Music] that is a wide-ass boat holy cow oh there's a sweet crane barge wow they're coming in for a landing there's a big boat hello that tug boat looks very top-heavy oh there's a forklift going to pick up some boats get out of my way it's autonomous too so it's just it's running a waypoint mission yeah it's pretty uh pretty fun just testing it out oh yeah there we go okay i've got to make a detour i need to put this thing in manual mode and head to the park over there on the shore because i have to pee oh wow there's a cool houseboat [Music] okay wow hi oh yeah it's just for fun just for fun to see if i could build a solar powered boat that would pull me that's cool yeah so i'm adjusting the mission a little bit since i had to take a pit stop at the park okay going back to auto mode now we're gonna take a turn and cross this channel and then go over through lake union which is close to downtown seattle turned out to be a good time to cross this channel because i don't see any other boat traffic okay it's time for some sunscreen oh yeah it's gonna be a long day there's so many houseboats around here it's like a whole city on the water it's pretty cool imagine living right there wouldn't that be nice oh looks like a wooden boat oh i think that's one of the hot tub boats that people rent around here it's a tugboat solar powered that would be so cool to live right in there how about that careful with that razor blade a big incision it has made a good thing it was just the seat or surely you'd be sunk sea planes are coming in hot you'd think they'd crash but surely not daniel wishes he flew one but for now a dinghy's all he's got the head wind was blowing stiff the boat was smaller than a skiff but the big solar panels kept those big propellers turning full speed across lake union under bridges only one crewman beautiful yachts passing by field big kayak energy we got some pretty big ships over there that's cool looks like a ferry or something i don't know but this stupid computer keeps freezing oh i almost hit another rowing team ah work you freaking piece of crap we got some dry docks over there that's where they fix the boats that's pretty cool oh high level grungy nautical industrial stuff oh we got another crew team ahead get out of my way this guy looks like he might be coming to land right on top of me i'm chewing on beef jerky right now that's why i sound like there's something in my mouth mmm beef jerky is good yeah baby oh it's a killer whale how neat is that they come in so steep that's pretty cool touchdown bingo oh i think they go negative with the variable pitch propellers that's so cool they slowed down so fast oh wow more cool boats look at that one what do you think it does no idea oh look at that the america number one it must just influence the world with american-ness no idea what something like that does maybe it's like a submarine cable laying boat or something more boats ocean prowler oh neat that's pretty good oh there's some more seaplanes over there those are some little ones we are now approaching the south end of lake union what was that sick i wonder how much that costs not cheap but neither is this thing fiberglass and epoxy are expensive i learned um i think it's holding up doing all right there's the center for wooden boats how much power is that put out at 25 50 watts more than that it's uh it's doing 15 amps at about 13 volts maybe close to 200 or above that i don't know bad of math wow thanks that's pretty cool oh that boat was in the way he had to go around again those look very old and he's up sick that's pretty cool so we just turned a big right-hand turn in front of uh south lake union now we're gonna head up the west side of the bank here and then go down the canal i don't know what it's called but down towards the west more oh he came around again oh yeah sick oh it's more boats imagine that [Music] wow boat garages oh they better move because i'm coming in hot okay i had to do manual override because we got a few boats up ahead including a hot tub boat hello wow that person's playing the violin boats boats boats boats boats boats boats so many boats boats the next bridge we're gonna go under is the aurora highway 99 bridge over there catamaran buddies yeah oh i think they're gonna put the drawbridge up for us yep there it goes wow that's pretty cool the bridge just went down so there's gonna be a lot of boat traffic coming through and i just took a hard right turn to cross the canal now so hopefully we don't run into anyone i think we'll be good i'm gonna increase the speed a little bit there oh we'll be fine that's a nice looking tug boat wow it's so tall oh here comes some waves oh wow that was a big one the computer's hanging on wow so much metal amazing now we gotta go underneath the fremont bridge up ahead the ballard locks did luma had the boat hauls painted also red solar panels pumping amps and brass propellers turning so many rusting ships ice cold water perky nips daniel needed to go pee but you stop would be a travesty yoho the boat did sail through the channel over a whale daniel's crappy laptop froze but the mission onwards still did go dance right through the rowing team like an heated seam oh but little did they know the course was set in stone ah we cut it pretty close to the edge here precision gps technology wow we're gonna drive a boat under a dump truck oh wow and we got a pirate ship we're fighting a pretty good headwind going up this canal here so i brought this foam cooler as like an emergency bale device if i start to sink i can throw all the electronics in here we're making great progress despite the headwind we're just paralleling the running path here so i just set the boat to loiter mode so it's using gps position to try and actively hold itself in the same place oh it's fighting me wow powerful little guy i'm gonna just put it in hold mode actually oh wow we're blowing down wind pretty quick oh yeah there's definitely some water in there look at that oh boy and we're drifting into the rocks oh i gotta put this thing back in drive mode i'm gonna make sure there's no seaweed on the props oh that one's good this one's good all right we're back in business let her out nice and easy nice and easy there we go okay back in auto mode it'll turn back to stay on the right side of the waterway we're incoming of in the middle of the channel hopefully this guy doesn't mind yeah thank you wow they have a pretty big solar panel there too nice they got two solar panels that's awesome wow look at this big old barge that thing is chunky mungus so we just exited this channel and now we're kind of going into this uh industrial area research i wonder what that place is interesting this barge was probably not here in the satellite imagery when i was planning this mission so i'm lucky we're not too close to it the western provider i'm kind of like a barge right now and that's my tugboat oh yeah it looks like they do gravel here oh there's another barge over there oh what's this we got some metal boats it's getting more wavy out now we got some beastly tuck boats wow that looks like a big tug boat sort of thing i don't know i thing is giant wow we're cutting it pretty close to this one wow look at those cables back there gatorade bottle for reference so many tug boats oh my god oh there's a chunky boat wow we got some dry docks over here oh boy look at that smokestack holy cow western titan oh yeah oh boy that one's in dry dock wow oh i wonder what that thing is i saw a torpedo looking thing over there a second ago it must be some sort of like underwater cable laying device or something i don't know it was cool oh that's adorable there's all the big crab fishing boats or something that's more over here i can hear people in the hole working grinding and welding and stuff this one looks like a fishing boat maybe yeah wow this might be the biggest one yet i don't even know what this thing would do but it's got a crane on the front this thing is huge icicle seafoods oh it's a fishing boat or something that's a big ass fishing boat geez i've never seen one that big they're checking out my boat yeah i know automatically yeah it's on a gps waypoint mission right now there's a funny little house that's a funny-looking boat this thing better turn because we're heading straight for that barge uh that all these boats might oh there we go we just turned wow we're killing them pretty close this stuff might not have been here when i was planning the mission here's some dudes oh i wonder what that thing is [Music] ah it's opening i think that's the ballard bridge we'll see if the waypoint mission can go through this without any manual intervention i believe this is the seattle maritime academy or something like that the vulcan oh that's an ominous name i don't know what that thing does oh it just turned off why did my boot turn off oh wow look at that there's a boat going through the bridge oh oh we just completely died now i'm getting blown into the main shipping canal i power cycled it and now i'm going to try and arm again oh we're alive okay now i gotta connect to it and resume the waypoint mission i have no idea why i just died like that that's kind of scary okay i'm gonna put it back in auto mode hopefully this works i don't know if it's going the right direction finally okay now we're back in business now let's see if it can autonomously go under this bridge oh wow look a lifeboat i might need one of those pretty soon if this arty rover keeps dying on me [Music] there's a nice boat garage oh we got a lot of fishing boats coming up those are like the deadliest catch boats so our final destination is now in view the ballard locks are up ahead if we go through there we'll be in the ocean so we're going to turn around right by the ballard locks and then it'll be downwind unless the wind changes which i would not be surprised so the battery voltage is now down to 12.8 which is really not that low considering how far we've gone but it's not nearly as low as i would have expected considering that we've been going into the wind this whole time but uh worst case scenario we just lower the speed a little bit and then they charge back up that's the beauty of a solar boat hello [Music] no i do want to be pulled by it it's my tug boat yeah yeah i know i know oh wow there's a big sailboat that looks like another gravel barge or something got some more interesting looking boats up on the left oh boy there's another big one there's another big catamaran pretty sweet look at this grungy old thing the coast angel that boat looks like it's getting hauled off to the boat junkyard and i'm going right into it i don't know oh okay we're turning now good good the ocean guardian sick look at that big bulbous bow common misconception about bulbous boughs they do not work at this scale the bow wave is way too long relative to the hull bulbous bows only work for big boats here's an empty dry dock so look at the computer here yeah we're pretty close to the end of this mission uh where it turns around at least i wonder what that thing does we got another lifeboat over there it looks like so right on the other side of that barge is the ballard locks um you can see a boat going into it there sailboat mast wow that's pretty cool okay we must be getting pretty close to turning around here it's like a another crane barge all folded down over there oh wow look at all those old boats that must be the boat dump damn i should take one of those and make it autonomous i'm just going straight for the end here i didn't remember planning the mission to go so far back okay there we go now we're turning wow why is it going okay it's just really scaring me it's turning last minute and this is the army corpse of engineers and we are cutting it very close to the end here holy cow all right we just turned around heading back [Music] oh wow that's a firefighting boat i bet this is all just crap that they pull out of the water this must be one of the pump houses that drives the locks or something like that i don't know oh there's a drudging bucket dredging drudging i don't know grand princess that's a funny name for a lifeboat this barge might not have been here when i planned the mission uh okay buddy are you gonna turn nope okay i'm turning you oh geez got so close oh there's the pirate ship oh good it just hit a waypoint and now it turns to go to the other side of the canal here conveniently right in front of that boat wow the high wind the light look how grungy this thing is it's got a dinghy up there nice dinghy so with the tailwind the motors are like barely even on because we're already reaching the target speed with so little power so i can kind of influence the throttle a bit higher there you have some influence on the target speed set point so i'll just increase that so the motors are actually running as we're going back with the wind and we'll just be cruising let's see what our speed is looks like we're doing about 1.5 meters per second looks like there's a fire or something going on over there here's some nice looking yachts oh i'm taking waves look at this sailboat holy cow a manga that thing is tall wow i like that color that's a nice color here's a nice cluster we already saw all these from the other side oh looks like our boat wants to go see them uh-oh those might not have been parked there when i planned the mission oh wait it's turning oh we might be lucky oh yeah i think we're lucky it turned oh i thought it was going to go in there [Music] hmm i'm getting hungry what's for lunch today mmm some mush here we are coming up on the ballard bridge let's hope that this doesn't run into a pillar oh they might open it [Music] 16 850 it's almost like an 18650 okay i'm about to go back through the canal but first i think i need to do a little bit of housekeeping check for seaweed on the props oh there's a little bit pump away okay well now that i'm right about to drift into a barge i should probably put it back into auto mode got some sandbag moving going on over there these little houseboats are just so cute look at that that one's got a little outboard motor adorable oh that's so cool yeah it's solar powered oh boy oh boy there's another boat coming i didn't see that i'm gonna dodge all these damn boats there you go wake jump oh that was a lot of water on the solar panel kind of turn turning turning into the wind is very hard okay going back into auto mode [Music] wow seaplane flying right through the canal [Music] pirate ship again yeah they just program in a bunch of waypoints and then it just follows them oh we we're getting pretty close to the edge on this one and this is the fremont bridge wow here we go about to go under the 99 bridge yeah that's real cool thanks it's solar-powered [Music] thank you yeah it's uh solar powered all electric [Music] hey look that's my same kayak pretty much uh we got some crowded waters up ahead looks like we might be lucky and just shoot the gap right through the middle rfd 900 gleaming telemetry data it was streaming mission planner it was freezing this computer sucks drawbridge is tilting up people riding on a sub saw daniel wasn't paddling so they called him lazy little did they even know the fact that they just thought he should row didn't make any real sense cause rowing is archaic manual labor is dumb to technology we succumb tech companies are already reprogramming our brains uh-oh uh-oh we just turned to cross to the other side because now we're gonna go by gasworks park but this boat is coming in so i'm gonna have to put it in hold mode for a sec okay it's far enough along i think we can go back into auto mode there we go so it's going to turn hard left pretty much right into that boat but it's going to be gone by the time we get there but hopefully we don't get run over by that one okay now it's going in a weird direction i think it we might need to go back to manual okay back to auto and that guy's going over there okay we're good except now this guy has to watch out okay we've successfully crossed to the other side it is a bit of a smoky day that's how it goes with late summer these days i am just so glad that we have this awesome tailwind pushing us along it's definitely helping quite a bit the this computer they must be like thermal throttled right now because it's just so slow the water is definitely starting to get a bit more choppy all around but oh well oh boy did we cut this one close i can almost touch it it must not have been there when i planned the mission oh look at those big old bald tires oh boy very impressive there's gas works park in all its glory all the little sailboats are out there going around wow there's so many gooses holy shizzle i think we got pretty lucky with the crossing there's uh no other boat traffic coming just the hot tub boat but it doesn't go too quick uh-oh we might be on a collision course uh-oh police boat incoming full throttle i bet i can outrun the cops oh yeah yeah thanks those are some nice houses damn there's a hot tub boat i don't know why you're doing a hot tub right now though it's pretty hot outside [Music] huh i wonder what that boat does all right it's autonomous look out ladies there's a tugboat going it's not tugging anything though oh wow that's a big boat garage here we are back to the i-5 bridge this would be a noisy place to live with the bridge right there so when i was coming through this bridge this morning i went through the pillars over there but now i'm going through the main channel that one looks a little bit tight oh big bird oh so [Music] okay yeah it's solar powered so pretty soon we'll hit another waypoint and then it'll be a straight shot down the mount like cut i've gone about probably 15 miles so far today yeah colin is supposed to meet me along here somewhere if you have a sea shanty stuck in your head right now and you have him to blame oh it's a solar powered tug boat yeah oh wow this tree fell into the water damn oh it's taking a lot of waves over the solar panels right now oh what's up colin not a lot how's the boat going uh the boat's going it's uh it's taking a lot of waves over the bow but that's all right how's the battery voltage um it's kind of low but every time i stop for a little while it recharges you're moving along pretty good yeah dude it's moving it's almost faster than you can walk oh boy look at that thing make room make way the emerald sea is coming through that thing is huge it looks like this is the college kid hangout spot [Music] what's happening ladies freaking hooligan on a jet ski gonna capsize my boat i'm still chilling though can't knock my laptop down hello hi what a day i'm going to stretch my legs i've been cooped up in this little kayak since 8 30 in the morning or actually 8 a.m this morning and now it's 3 30. we probably have another hour to go just about tour de la seattle is going well [Applause] [Music] living life right let me tell you here's a big boat it's autonomous party boat slow down i'm not trying to wake surf here bro i'm taking a little shortcut and going through the construction zone here instead of over there wow it's a crane on a barge probably better i stayed out of that channel okay this is gonna turn right and then we're on the home stretch sailing out upon the lake almost swamped by big boat wake rich people are trying to flex but their boats can't self-direct as he passed the nice big yachts the bikini bays were looking hot he started to feel like a dork his confidence did waver then again those big boat owners risk suffering from foreclosure daniel's kayak only cost 50 bucks on craigslist two drone motors amps of burning brass propellers were a churning holes were slicing through the sea without so much efficiency i've been going at full speed ahead for so long which is like 1.4 meters per second um and the voltage is only down to 12.6 or 12.7 which is very impressive it seems like the solar can just almost keep up with full throttle power consumption so that's awesome means i have unlimited range with unlimited sun this is it we're coming up on the end i am so excited to go swimming and finally pee only peed once all day i've been going for eight and a half hours and i've covered 20 miles better look out [Music] okay i'm gonna manually drive it right back up to shore powered yeah cool you can talk to him about it in a minute here after a full day on the water i was pretty happy to finally get out and stretch my legs then go for a swim with colin the boat performed pretty well and i was happy to learn it was capable of cruising continuously at a fast walking pace using nothing more than the power from the sun that's all for this video don't forget to subscribe and if you want to support the channel on patreon there's a link in the video description thanks for watching bye

Channel: rctestflight

Views: 416,979

Rating: 4.9480181 out of 5

Keywords: solar, tug, boat, ardurover, waypoint, seattle, RC, model, catamaran

Id: HFhsh4V8SZA

Length: 36min 26sec (2186 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 12 2021