The T500 Thruster has a maximum operating voltage of 24 V. The T500 can also be powered using a 6S Lithium-ion/Lithium polymer battery (maximum). Continuous full throttle use should be limited to 1 minute or less when the T500 is operated at 24 V or with a fully charged 6S Lithium-ion/Lithium polymer battery to avoid overheating the thruster.
This suggests operating the T500 at its max 35.5lbf thrust for only 1 minute.
Question: What is the maximum continuous thrust the T500 can safely operate at?
Our thrusters are controlled using speed controllers, which do not technically directly control thrust.
I’m not sure if we have a definitive value for the maximum continuous speed command when using a 6S battery, so I’ve asked about that internally. Given the limiting factor is the thruster temperature, it likely depends on the temperature of the water it’s running in.
For some extra context, in our initial development testing we did successfully run a sample set of T500s at full throttle for an hour in 27℃ water, with a 22V power supply, but there were some issues with extended-duration full-throttle tests at higher voltages (hence the warning about extended full throttle at maximum operating voltage), and we don’t have statistically significant samples for longer full-throttle durations, or for extended durations in higher water temperatures.
There is some additional context and discussion about thrust at speed in this post, if you want to know more.
