Hi,
I want to upgrade my BlueBoat from the m200 to the T500 or better the M500. I saw the 3d printed T500 Adapter and the M500 weedless propeller from Tony and would like to know if they are already available? Since I am on a short time schedule and my boat needs to be build be end of October, how would you suggest to print those parts, if they are not available from BlueRobotics yet.
Thanks for helping out,
Yannic
Hi @yheyer,
The Thrusters and Motors section of our website covers all our current thruster and motor related products - we do not yet sell an M500 motor or related boat-style propeller.
If you’d like to request something like that then please fill out our requests form, so we can add your feature/product request to our internal tracking 
If there’s a product you know is in development (or out of stock) then sales-related questions should be directed to sales@bluerobotics.com, so you can get up to date information, and potentially get informed when a product you’re interested in is released/available.
From a forum search, I assume you’re referring to this post? Tony has linked to a 3D model there for the propeller. From a quick look at the other models in his printables profile, there’s also one available for the BlueBoat mount.
Blue Robotics employees are also part of the marine robotics community, so we welcome and encourage running tests of cool ideas, and sharing interesting designs, but that doesn’t mean our personal projects are officially developed or supported Blue Robotics products.
I’d recommend following the manufacturing/assembly instructions Tony has provided in his Printables pages, and if you have further questions you’re welcome to raise them in this forum, in which case hopefully somebody will have a response or idea that’s helpful to you
By the way, private messages mean the community can’t see or respond, so tend to result in slower responses than public posts. I’ve made this public so it can be engaged with and valuable to the community.
Hi,
I would also be interested at some point to add that M500 modification to my Blue Boat.
@tony-white Is it possible to buy only the T500 rotor, T500 thruster core and the Basic ESC (not ESC 500 because I am running 4S batteries) offered by Blue Robotics as spare components and use the 3D printed propeller and adapter you designed, without having to buy the complete T500 thruster thus saving 110$ ?
Hi @renanm -
You can order just the T500 rotor and core as spare parts, yes.
Hi @Tony-White,
We would like to test your 3D printed options for the mount and rotor with the BlueBoat. Is there a specific 3d printing method you choose to make the rotors more robust? It seems to me that the rotor blade is quite thin. Can a 3D print of that thickness withstand the power of the T500?
Hi @yheyer -
I FDM printed the propellers, and they are indeed fairly fragile. They handled running the T500 at full power on 6S voltage, the bigger issue is they are quickly destroyed when they come in contact with any objects. This wouldn’t seem a big deal, but since they are the lowest point of the boat, below the keel (unlike the standard M200 propellers) running aground will cause them to fail.
Blue Robotics will eventually offer these or propellers further optimized for the M500 motor, that will be more robust - however the risk of hitting the bottom with them will remain until a different mount is developed!
I’ve also found hat painting a layer of 2-part epoxy on the blades can make them a bit stiffer and increase the top speed they will travel at.
Hi @tony-white ,
It has been almost a year since we started using your CAD files to print the T500 weedless propellers. We also applied 2-part epoxy to make them stiffer, and they work fine—until small debris gets into the propeller, at which point they break fairly easily.
Will BlueBoat be offering a T500 / M500 propeller in the near future? We are really looking forward to it and are currently considering an aluminum version, which might be more stable and reliable than the 3D-printed parts. Do you have any experience with aluminum propellers?
Hi @yheyer -
So sorry for the delay. We are indeed still working on releasing an M500, and shortly afterwards an injection molded prop for it. However, when used with the BlueBoat I’d expect you to still have issues with props breaking, as the propeller can strike the ground as it protrudes beneath the BlueBoat keel…. I’d be shocked if it is actually debris that are breaking your printed props, and not just hitting things?
I don’t have experience with aluminum propellers, but would be concerned with the potential for galvanic corrosion. We’ve tested stainless steel props, and while more durable, they negatively impact performance, as they are much heavier and have more inertia, and so can strain the ESC if some tuning to make things less “touchy” is not done.
We’ll be sure to update as soon as we have a solid launch date scheduled!