Has anyone tried or tested or made available a prop for the T200, 4 bladed or much higher pitched for example, to make it more highly effecient at lower speeds for solar powered asv/usv? Thank you.
Hi @Solared, welcome to the forum 
I haven’t tried this kind of thing, but if you’re going to would recommend doing some CFD simulations to determine efficient shapes. Having a smooth surface is also likely important, so I’d suggest either using a resin printer to make them, coating an FDM print in epoxy/resin, or printing and post-processing a mould which you can then use to cast/set one (or several) props from with a suitable plastic.
Perhaps others in the community can chime in with any experience they have with making or designing custom props
I am similarly interested in an low-end optimized weedless prop that would be run with the T200 motor.
- Any thoughts on possible efficiency gains for operation in the 1-2W regime?
- Can you share motor performance data (torque and efficiency curves) vs. the motor plus prop data on the product page?
- Any thoughts on prop diameter limitations of the motor if also trying that design option?
Hi @Marianna,
For surface vessels and other un-shrouded propeller applications we would generally recommend our M200 Motor with our Weedless Propeller. Neither of those products existed when this forum thread was originally posted.
I can’t really speak to that because it’s not a range we have much test data in, beyond noting that the efficiency of our motors is highest at low powers, provided there is sufficient energy to start and maintain spinning, and a controller that can handle such low speeds.
We have efficiency plots on our thruster and motor product pages, with the propeller design they’re typically used with. We don’t have torque curves, which I presume is because we have so far performed our motor testing predominantly in propulsion applications, where they’re controlled using a speed controller that doesn’t give torque feedback. There is at least a theoretical stall torque of 0.5 Nm specified in our M200 technical details.
Propeller design is an art form I am yet to gain experience with, but as I understand it the maximum prop diameter is dependent on what the motor is capable of rotating, which means it’s in a tradeoff between the power you’re supplying, the pitch angle, the blade area, and the rotation speed. It may be helpful to search for propeller design tutorials and/or look into propeller design software.