I’m looking at making a seafaring solar powered boat. It will be limited in the power it can provide so I’m looking at around 12v/1A to the motor/thruster. The T100 puts out 1lb of thrust at this level of power supplied to the motor.
What does 1lb of thrust equate to. Is it enough to push against the sea? I’m not really concerned about overall speed of the craft.
Hi Ekosynth,
It’s hard to say exactly what 1 lb of thrust will do without knowing more about the design of your boat. A very small, sleek boat may travel fairly fast with 1 lb of thrust and larger, draggier boat will travel slower. If you can tell us more about the size and shape of your boat it will help.
Best,
Rusty
As Rusty said, the answer depends on a number of factors. Here’s a simple boat propulsion calculator that might help you: http://www.psychosnail.com/boatspeedcalculator.aspx
The idea was to use a boogie board with a 25W solar panel place on the top, then attach the T100 thruster with a weighted keel and rudder underneath. Solar panel size is 620 x 360 x 26mm. I’m guessing the drag might be quite high.
Ekosynth,
Okay. 1 lb would definitely move the board alright in calmer waters but it would have trouble with rough water or currents. Also, keep in mind that most solar panels only get their rated power output under ideal conditions, like sun directly overhead with no cloud cover. You also have to operate them at a specific optimum voltage to get max power. That’s what an “MPPT” solar controller is used for. If you connect it directly, I would expect 50%-70% power output in most situations.
We ran into a lot of these issues on our SolarSurfer vehicle.
-Rusty