I am trying to design a similar project to the surf board project , which was a great inspiration.
Instead of using a surfboard i want to use a larger platform canoe or kayak size. The purpose is to capture some basic oceanic data and then transmit this with location (lat/long).
I need help with an electrical schematic im having a hard time trying to work out the best way to wire this up for the T200 thrusters . Is there a jpeg of the surf board electrical layout with the solar panel anywhere online ?
We don’t have a wiring diagram available but I’d be happy to answer your questions.
The thrusters are connected to ESCs which are connected to a lead-acid battery. The battery is charged from the solar panels via a solar charge controller.
Thanks for taking the time to reply, and your answer is just what i wanted to know. However, I would like to ask a further question regarding over heating of the battery and over charging ? Did you incorporate anything to monitor this ? Did you place any sort of current limiter or voltage limiter inline to protect the ecs ?
Can I also ask about the steering system, the thrusters don’t rotate about a vertical axis but remain static. How did you manage to arrange a steering system, coupled to your autopilot please ?
We did not monitor the battery for overheating or overcharging because we always charged at a low charge rate and lead-acid batteries are safe to overcharge at the voltage we used. We maintained a voltage of 13.2V on the battery during the day, which keeps it topped off. We regulated that voltage by changing the speed of the thrusters.
The steering was accomplished with skid steering. One thruster’s speed is increased and the other decreased to turn.