Hi,
My T100’s are working beautifully on my surface vehicle, until I suck up some seaweed. So now I need to figure out how to fix this, since I want to be able to pass over shallow waters, where seaweed is inevitable.
So before inventing the wheel, has anyone done this successfully already?
Thanks!
Andreas
I don’t know how practical it would be, but have you considered putting a mesh screen over the intake of the thruster? In addition, if you created a sensor to tell when the mesh is starting to clog, you could try a reverse thrust burst to blow the screen clear.
Just a crazy thought.
Harold,
I have thought about putting a mesh there actually. But not doing the sensor thing. One of the things that have bothered me with the mesh approach is just that - how to get rid of the seaweed once it’s stuck there?
It’s definitely a crazy cool idea with the sensor and reversing 
I’m afraid however, that it’s one of those ideas that might just be too complex to work when it’s needed. But I’ll definitely give it some thought!
I’ve also been thinking about putting some kind of deflector / thin guide bars that should steer the straws away from the thruster inlet, rather then block them. But then there’s this thing with drag…
I’ll try some ideas during next weekend!
Thanks a lot!
Regards,
Andreas
Andreas,
i have been working on these. I have designed a boat to do soundings on dams and weed has been a problem. This design deflects the weed well but my first design gave a bit too much drag. I have redesigned them a bit, notablely removed every second rib from the innermost ring, and moved the outer ring to be inline with the dividing line of the nozzle.
i have designs for the T100 Std ESC and T200 Std & Blue ESC. I get them printed up by a local guy here. They aren’t the easiest thing to print but my guy does a great job.
Forgot to add…
Just unscrew the original nosecone, feed the cable up through the guard and just screw the new guard which includes the nosecone.
@Spally, that is pretty stinking cool! What did you use for a print material … ABS or something stronger?
ABS. We have had our issues printing as there is a lot of support material. Original design fitted against the curve of the nozzle but that made it difficult to print. Strength is good. The cone effect is self supporting and the blade thickness makes them more than strong enough. Don’t get me wrong, if you push hard enough you will break them but if I hit something in the water strong enough to break them, you would damage more than just the guards.
Attached is the t200 blue ESC version. I thought about making a ring to just go around the ESC but that would reduce it cooling.
OMG!!! I’d love to try these out. Please take my money!!
I’ll PM you.
Thanks!
Andreas
Those look awesome. Can you post the stl files for printing the guards?
Love it! Now I might have to go buy a 3D printer of my own. Spally, do you have a link somewhere to your ASV project?
Andreas,
Those look great! What 3d printing method did you use to make them? They look like they were made with a very high resolution print.
-Rusty
Rusty,
They are very nice quality indeed! I got in contact with Spally here on the forum (designer of the guards) and he helped me getting them printed. No idea what method was used I’m afraid.
Give him a shout and I’m sure he can provide more details!
//Andreas
G’Day all,
I have had numerous requests for the STL files of late so I have decided to post them on here. The are free to use by anyone for personal use. If you want to use them commercially, please let me know.
They do cause some drag but I have tried to minimise that with these designs. I also did look at making them to fit between the original nosecone and the main body of the thruster but I wanted to maximise the deflection. A square face to the direction of the water flow only captures the weed against the guard blocking water flow. By taking the grill angle out to the nose tends to push the weed to the side rather than building up in front.
Anyhow, enjoy and I am open to design suggestions/alterations.
And here is a T200 Guard that can be retro fitted to units already installed. There is no need to pass the power cable through the guard to fit this one.
Congratulations Spally, these guards offer a fantastic added value. May I suggest you make an arrangement with Blue Robotics in order to have them added to their product list. It would be even better if we could buy the T200 with this guard option pre-installed. Great job, thanks
@Kristiaan - That’s a good idea. I would really like to find a way to design a guard so that it will work on the T100/T200 with and without the BlueESC. Then we could invest in the tooling for an injection molded part
