If you rebuild the solar array on this thing you should really give yourself some shade with those panels.

It's extremely difficult to explain to people why this is one of the best channels on KZfaq... *But it just is!*

Man, I was telling my Dad the other day about one of your videos, and then was trying to explain the channel in general and it cracked me up. It was like "he mainly does autonomous RC stuff, but he restored a Boston Whaler boat, made this crazy printed cyclone separator, made a super powerful underwater LED, made an electric land canoe, etc etc" This has definitely become one of my favorite channels, and I really haven't even messed with anything RC since I was a teenager. Please keep doing weird interesting stuff.

Daniel, FYI, I have a 12" boat with a hull much like the Whaler's. It takes close to 8hp to get that on plane with a total weight of 300kgs. That is the same as 6KW and 660lbs.

hey love your videos. for next time, instead of spending ages sanding and smoothing the props, you might want to look into ABS vapour smoothing. By printing a part in ABS and suspending it above some high purity acetone, you can get a part thats as smooth as one cast in resin with very little effort. idk how strong the finished parts are, and ABS is kind of a pain to print in, but it might still be worth looking into

Been using a 3d printed propeller on my diy petrol to 3KW electric converted outboard motor for a while now and works great!

in washington state most people on boats wave at each other, doesn’t matter if you’re in a tiny 15 footer or a big 50’ boat people are just friendly its kinda fun

I designed my own wind turbine props and to get the strongest 3D printed setup. I had the props fit into the hub, through male/female slots. That way, I only changed the prop blades instead of the whole prop, and could adjust the pitch angle to find the optimal. Also, I was able to lay the blade prints down on its length, to get the strongest layer direction. .

Having a drone is like having Minecraft Freecam in real life :D What great shots!

You're really great at being clear and deliberate with how you present the things you're doing, keep it up!

Always looking forward to the next videos, super interesting series and I can’t wait for the next one!

Thanks for posting this video! Have been looking forward to it and wondered if it had been ditched 😄

Since you have the 3D files it would be cool to send them to a manufacturer like PCBway to have them metal 3D printed, they would still need some sanding and balancing but you could make some pretty durable custom propellers!

Waving at fellow boaters is just a common thing. It's not limited to Boston Whalers. :) Gotta be friendly out on the water, because you never know when you'll need help. When someone needs help on the water, you do what you can no matter what, so I think the waving is just an extension of that. On the water, we're all friends? I've been on the first boat to show up to a sinking boat twice in all my years on the water, and you just do what you can until more help shows up.

Why not an overhead solar canopy? (14:30) For camping/cruising an overhead canopy (solar roof) would offer shade, and keep you dry if rains. Would offer at least 50% more solar area. Some used 60-cell solar panels could provide more power and voltage. Another alternative is vertical solar panel that could also double as a wing-sail.

Much like the rest of the people in this comment section, this is easily my favorite youtube channel. This was on of my favorite videos, I found the little side remarks really funny and cute (houses with boat garage, incoming seaplane, construction workers, college students, etc.). Love how this channel is technical, inspiring, humorous, and just has good vibes in general. Keep on it!

Current draw is directly proportional to torque. If you want to increase the voltage without increasing the current, you’ll need to change the prop to spin faster / with lower torque. There’s going to be a balance between prop size and pitch to strike.

I have the same problem on my underwater motor setup for windsurf board, my current limit is 30A (due to smaller motors) but it also pulls much less from the battery, VESC showed low RPM and high current, but low phase voltage so by reducing load on motors (fewer blades, less pitch props) I hope it will spin up faster and produce more power (also have higher phase voltage) for the same phase current. Will test it in a few days.

Thanks for the sneak peek at your long range journey in this rediscovered vid, looking forward to that one.

@rctestflight I was so happy to see the OPDS ship @ 5:24 - that is the USN MSC OPDS Ship "K.R Wheeler" If I'm not mistaken, at least the last time I saw that shark face amphib, thats the ship it was on! I last saw it in Buson, SK back when I was in the Navy! Awesome ship, and those big wheels carry hoses for moving fuel from ship to shore :)

For your safety, is it a wise idea to implement a killswitch, like they are implemented on an outboard (for when you fall overboard)?

The Makerbase 75200's are the best price I've found so far. I had the same problem with the flipsky 75100 overheating in my EZTR. @45A they can run continuous, 75A they will overheat. Also added heatsinks. Had to add fans as well.

for the props lifting out of the water issue, I used to drive a small boat like this as a kid, I had the same problem but even sitting at the back. We ended up putting extra weight at the back. Your batteries would probably do fine but I think we used our gas tanks and some heavy chains at the time. The boat doesn't really care, it's incredible really how much weight you can carry on the water.

instead of just a single pushrod, you should do 2 pushrods, one on each side of the pivot. Then, there is always one under tension, and you don't have to worry about the compression forces at all. You could even use steel cable instead of threaded rods at that point.

I love your videos! I just stumbled across you the other day and have watched videos all the way back to a few years ago! I love the nerdy content! Keep up the good work! I’d also absolutely love for you to release a video making a attachment for a underwater drone to clean up trash and things off the bottom of the ocean/rivers. I’m trying to figure out a way to design one that’s more cost effective that can be attached to nearly any ROV. Im taking the CPSdrone class and it’s very fun! I’d like to see you produce something like it in the future with other fun projects!

Best series ever Always waiting for ur videos

"for you hardcore rctestflight fans" yeah I can totally relate, thanks for posting the video

thank you so much for posting a video, i am always looking forward to a new rctestflight video

Cruising around on an autonomous boat with a drone and a submarine in a place with decent weather sounds so nice. Could you mod your submarine to be autonomous, and build some kind of launching dock for it into your boat?

Love your content. I even watch your commercials and outdated, unfinished episodes. Cheers!

Good work man , fascinating as ever

use a concentric interface pattern for the supports on the prop and you won't have to do nearly as much post processing

Hey Dan, just a point on motor voltages. Motors are not rated for a voltage. They are rated against heat buildup, which is caused by the resistive loss, I^2.R. Higher voltage does mean higher current for the same prop, but the voltage is not the issue. You could use the motors on 30S provided the prop was reduced to a smaller size.

Great video. Thanks for deciding to share it.

"For you hard-core rctestflight fans" I've never felt so acknowledged

I absolutely love how the boat looks with wires and batteries and sh*t everywhere, this isn't an insult or anything, I really love it

Haha. I knew something was missing between the maiden and the long range testing. Thanks for feeding us good content!

I feel like I have been a hardcore fan. I’ve been watching for years! Daniel, do you still paraglide? Also, I miss the solar plane!

It’d be interesting to see how well you could get a position hold working. Digital anchor. With reversible thrust and differential thrust I’d imagine it’d be pretty good. At least within the GPS accuracy limitations.

Thank you. This are the kind of videos I like you to post 😀

Adjust your duty cycle in vesc throttle settings. It's only reaching 50% by the looks of it. Also check motor current limit and battery current limit settings to get Max RPM. I have played with the throttle curve in natural setting seems to work best with 100% top end offset

You are such a Legend, daniel!

It's great seeing you enjoy life in so many ways :)

hardcore rctestflight fan here, thanks for the video!

Maybe try adding an aerodynamic nosecone to the front so the so the boat can cut through the water easier

Why does water get into closed containers? This is because there is a heating element inside the container. When it cools down, the inside of the container becomes negative pressure and absorbs water.

1. You need to use really thick cables and, at least, xt90 connector for 100 amps. Thinner cables limit amperage. 2. Try water-cooling ESCs. Or to use water-cooled out-of-the-box ESCs.

Motors are limited by Amos not watts. If you are pulling 100amps at less than max power, you need smaller props to get up to full rpm and hence full volts.

I always thought there was a missing video from the boat build and here it is!

Usually for BLDC motor the phase current is higher than battery current, especially at low RPM, as it's acting as BUCK converter. If the prop is too big or stip, you are loading the motor, requesting high current, hitiing the ESC treshold sooner. Also by keeping the same pitch on the prop and same diameter you will push the same amount of water at the same RPM, even with two fins.

I was watching a superfastmatt video about speed week at the Bonneville salt flats, and one of the EV teams there was running a 98s2p battery. I think you should give that a shot

As usual, a very good video ❤

Idea for cooling. What about a raw water cooling system where you use the water avalible where you float to cool down the controllers, as a outboard will do? This can archive with a small fishtank water pump or even using the movement of the boat to circulate water? Its actually simpler than it sounds, my small rc toy speed boat has a similar cooling system that doesn't have a pump and it works amazingly well and yet simple. It has a ventury nozzle on the bottom the hull to suck the water. Another very inspiring video on your channel

From the picture off the VESC tool, you have only 42% duty cycle/ about 20 volts going to the motors. Your propeller is way to big. If you get the duty up to 95% 48V ( max) and still push 100A phase amps you will have 2.2x the power. Is the Amps that generates heat. So if you motors can handle 100 phase amps eatch motor at 46V will make 3740W!.

It would be possible to further improve your installation by adding floats under the outer end of the solar panels, which would improve the stability of your boat and avoid putting too much force on the fixings, moreover it would allow to have a navigation a bit more energetic in the event of an emergency maneuver.

Waving is pretty common to do between boaters in various regions. The part of Massachusetts I'm from, everyone does it regardless of the boat. Other areas I've been, no one does it.

Try some car base filler spray. I was able to polish it to almost like molded plastic finish. Just using sandpaper and some water and going up in the grit (the next grit is always times two).

Hey, if you ever get bored which almost surely is unlikely I have an idea for a video you could consider. I've been flying RC planes since 1978 when planes were self assembled from kits and covered in Monocote, but I more or less quit around 2011 when FVP and programable flight controllers were at their infancy. Recently I got the RC bug again and would like to try out programmed missions, but I am very behind the eight ball on what aside from motor, speed controller, servos, and receiver is at minimum needed to bring about programmed flight. So, in the event of overwheming boredom a nice little tutorial for antique flyers such as myself to give us a good hint on how to start out with the kit needed beyond what simply flys the plane would be most welcome.

How about upping the wire size. They may help with the voltage sag. Like even the conductors from the vesc to the motor bullet plugs.

If you're having issues with the Flipsky 75100 overheating, consider changing from the ebike, to the aluminium shelled one, the cooling is much better. They also sell a water cooled version that would probably work pretty well for a boat.

Awesome Bro and I'm gonna watch the prop video 👍

Editing on final cut like a real man.. respect

I love your projects.

Sounds like a challenge! Getting it on plane with printed props and batteries.

always fun to watch, no matter the content

After the smoothing/sanding the props, maybe make a silicon mold and cast them in resin. You can really knock them out that way.

"Hopefully the fragrance doesn't dissolve the o-rings in the motor. We'll see!" -- That about sums up why I love this channel.

The boat wave is a thing. No idea why or what the history is but everyone waves to everyone else. Can be quite funny transiting through high traffic areas where you will get tons of waves

To reduse the cavitation from the props, put a cavitationplate over the props. That will "kill" the circulation cavitation from the props. That way you'll get a little more speed aswell.

Nice, for next set of props, you can use uv curing epoxy ( like the one you 3d print with ) to add the weight evenly and balance your props!

thanks for your content!

Interested in helping ya. I do understand the "electromagnetic stuff" you mentioned, and also embedded systems.

If I had spare money, I will give every penny to this guy for creating these contents.

All of a sudden I find myself wishing I was an embedded systems engineer. Actually, I've always wanted to do embedded systems, but I got a software engineering degree and have been doing pure software ever since. I hope you find your guy and I look forward to seeing the epic things you design and fabricate in the future.

You spend a lot of time reinventing the wheel, everyday. Mercury Kiekhaefer is a good starting point for efficient legs and props. It is great to watch you mature from models and toys, to usable machines. Painfully slow, best to check in every 6 months or so. The Whaler is a nice little inland waters cruiser. Not much use as a fishing boat or in 15 knot winds. Waiting for you to keep going, scaling your system up?

You should get one of those laptop mounts they have for desks.

Have you ever considered a solar panel T top or bimini? Would give you some shade and keep your panels further from the water.

try casein graphene plastic, diy, heated milk vinegar mix in blender with graphite into graphene plastic, dry out, melt at 350C press cast

Just seen a vid, "make you own ESC" introducing a ATMEGA382P. Please make some awesome simple beastie DIY ESC's for the motors!

Hmmm... ...in such applications i would give a shot to high hardness TPU as it has way better layer adhesion, and stands up better to repeated stress.

Can you make some sort of simple water cooled heat exchanger to keep your motors cooler ?

"Hun wake up RCTESTFLIGHT dropped another video!"

13:30 you wont be able to get more power by just increasing the Input voltage. This way you only gonna end up with the same 100A Phase current but with like around 25% duty Cycle. If you want to maximize the Power output you gotta decrease the load on the props by a smaller diameter and/or smaller pitch so that they meet 100A at the highest possible duty Cycle, like 90-95%. And my guess is that you would need around 15 kW to get this thing to plane 😄 ps you can Control the vescs over adc with a normal ebike throttle or just a simple poti. Great work!

I totally dig your content, it’s geeky but smart fun. Flowery mineral oil is fact of life. lol

In my experience, its generally safe to go a little beyond the "max voltage rating" of the motors. So 24cell is probably OK, if that means you can just throw 2 12cell packs in series instead of a custom 20 cell pack. Also make sure your ESCs can handle that voltage too. But, its always a risk to go outside of spec. That also means you will likely have less loss due to resistance through wires.

bro this is the coolest thing ever

Those solar panels look awesome !!

Your li-po tote battery looks very safe! Definitely very safe, not going to screw you over and catch on fire when the charge controller malfunctions 😂 Then again you probably know more than me

See if you can throw on or model a torqueedo prop, they are super efficient, but want a lower rpm to avoid any cavitation.

wonder if you could use the lake water to cool things by like scooping it up with like a pump and some tubing

You should get yourself a radio-controlled airplane prop balancer for balancing your props

I agree with the one guy, you should give yourself some shade. Some pvc pipes and a tarp or something

You should build a convertible canopy for the boat to get out of the sun. Or turn it into a tiny houseboat. That would be sick!

"I used fairing compound!" is going to end up being your "micromesh with its own grit system" isn't it

I'm wondering what the relation is between engine power and propeller surface. There is a sweet spot somewhere where the drag and pushing force are optimal

your boat is very cool, quite big

I really wish he would wear a life jacket. Trouble happens fast and when you least expect it and trouble on the water can be deadly.

Those VESC 75100s have issues with performance. Apparently there may be an issue with the regulator chips in them which causes them to heat up rapidly. My friend tested 8W draw from the STM chip. An aggressive cooling solution or an electric reverse engineering solution may do the job. Most people I've known to try them cap at 2kW, any higher blows them out. Old video, I know. Kelly Motor Controllers, or other VESCs besides the 75/100 are pretty good options for better performing motor controllers. In the 2-12kW range, I think Kelly is pretty solid. Above 12kW Sabvotron, BAC, and Votol have been pretty well represented. There are some people who make low-production high-performance motor controllers, but they're typically for electric motorcycles.

Would be interesting to see how your design compares to market products, e.g. from Torqeedo

Very cool. Btw what was that funky song that was playing? I'd like to hear the full track.