@rctestflight so pleased you got a sail boat to play with, a bit of help for you... set your close hauled jib boom to 12 degrees from the Center Line and main boom 2 degrees from CL, and regular sailing 15 deg jib boom to cl and 5 deg main boom to cl , this will make the boat sail really well. Make your sail stick get to 15 deg max jib boom then use a switch to get the last 3 deg of inhaul so you can switch in and out between close hauled and regular. Make the rudder and sail 100% expo , it helps you you sail much smoother and faster. also tighten up your jib luff so it doesnt sag so much. i have sailed rc for a long while and these are the fist things i do on any boat before it even touches the water. the rest of the fine adjustments are left to you.. Bon Voyage.
@@BroomAtoom so many examples of such practices , I wonder what manufacturers are not party to them , half or the origin of ali express / amazon is prob the same ?
After many years racing RC sailing boats, I learned that no matter how "waterproof" and sealed anything is, especially servos and control units, moisture will ALWAYS find a way inside. I ended up using the receiver sans the plastic housing. Some of the variable potentiometers corroded off their plating, but it meant a quick spray of water displacing oil shifted the short-circuit inducing water, and the IC chip was plugged into a socket, allowing for rapid replacement at the waterside when it invariable blew up. So those failed power units were to be expected, after getting dunked a few times. On the other hand, those grease-filled servo boxes were the first ever truly waterPROOF enclosures I have seen. The immersion in grease meant that there was no route for water to get to the servo. Great idea and execution.
At 15:42 did any of the silicon grease get inside the motor on the contacts? If so this might have caused excess resistance/heat leading to it failure.
You definitely have yaw and roll inversely affecting one another in this project. Differential thrust will only exacerbate this because of such a high center of gravity. If your vessel is rolled to the left with locked ailerons at neutral position, then you would need to apply right differential thrust to try to get counteracting lift on the left side, but doing this will move your center of gravity further off axis to the left, which is fighting the lift you are providing. The solution is likely to actively control roll and yaw, and possibly add some control surface for yaw control.
I’ve had that same issue with inexpensive motors. The ones I had didn’t have a metal bushing to support the back end of the shaft. When the motor drew too much power it melts the plastic around the shaft. We 3d printed a new end cap for the motor with a pocket to press a little bushing into and that fixed it.
The housing boxes for the servos could have a heat sink incorporated, making direct contact with the water with some kind of rubber o-ring or gasket between the metal and the plastic. If placed correctly, would give the servos more chance to release the extra heat without letting in water.
> 16:40 some thermal compounds are non-conductive and could be pressurized in the same way to form that watertight housing. that would help with thermal transfer (obviously). you can usually get fairly cheap tubes of thermal compound if you don't need them to be high performance, which in this case i don't think you do. maybe something to test?
Hey, Daniel To reduce aileron torq you can use very simple solution - so called horned aileron (no idea correct name in english) Just look carefully at Yak-52 tail and his rudder, you`ll notice that rudder has small part forward to it axis, this part significantly reduce applied force to it. Hope this helps Also to increase roll selfstability you can add positive V angle to wing, just look at any passenger airliner in front - wingtips are higher than wing root
Seventeen miles!? That's _crazy,_ dude. That's like, an entire day of chillin' out on the water. Well, more like _flying_ out on the water. Too cool, man.
You might be able to counter the wave/sonar interference by adding a third sonar at the bow/stern and averaging those inputs to generate the altitude value. Still use the port/starboard to control roll.
Can you switch to a single support in the middle instead of 2 on the outside? Could you add adjustable "winglets" under the water to help compensate for the roll? what about vectored thrust for the motors themselves or allow the motors to gimbal and put them each on the far corners instead of near the middle?
you can make the foils slightly into a u or v shape to counter the inverted pendulum problem. Leaning to the side would make the interior wing have a more horizontal angle than the exterior one which will create more lift on the inside thus stabilizing
I had an interesting idea. I understand as an armchair engineer my opinion doesn't mean much but i thought the 7foot wingspan with so much surface area is really holding you back because it is likely creating so much drag under the water line. One thing to consider that you are trying to make a hydrofoil boat but are attempting to use Hydrofoil boards as a start point. Perhaps looking at Hydrofoil Sailboats or other boats could be beneficial. Typically those use two "T" or "Slight Y" shaped hydrofoils on either side of the boat to create lift and using a "T" shaped foil on the rear to act as a rudder / possibly even an elevator. This separated design could allow you to have the desired lift while reducing the underwater drag associated with all parts being connected to each other. take a look at the "america's cup" sailboats they have a very strong an different hydrofoil design that could inspire your next design. Thanks for all the videos!
At 10:45 I'm reminded of part of a previous episode you talked about putting the sonar sensors on the sides instead of the front and rear of the board. With the sonar nodes on the sides, you've made a shorter comparative sampling distance than if you had them on the ends of the board. For really choppy water, maybe 4 sensors would be peak.
My thoughts: 1.) Model some balance tabs forward of the hinge line on those control surfaces, offset the load a bit. Might need more testing to see how big to make them. Smaller, neutral surfaces are also a good idea. 2.) I'd be tempted to make it a canard since you want the vertical stabilizers at the back anyway, better yet if the canard is elevated relative to the main wing it'll breach first even at shallow angles and give you that famous canard stall resistance. 3.) Heading hold gyros on the pitch and roll, use the sonars during takeoff then set the gyros for cruising through chop.
I think the multi-stranded wires might be acting as wicks that draw water into the box. I bet you can eliminate that problem by removing the insulation and soldering the core strands into a solid core over a short length. Then wrap it from the solid part back over the insulation with self-vulcanizing tape or use caulk.
Great video! That thing works well, I also got offered a Temu sponsorship but turned it down I know a lot of people don’t like it including me haha. Keep up the good work you are an inspiration!
I wonder if the biggest problem with balancing is the lack of handlebars. If you had a stationary vertical bar to brace against, you could move your weight more quickly and accurately in relation to the board's attitude, and would also have something to hold onto when you're leaning way over. Anyway. Can't wait to see version 2.
Couple thoughts: 1) sensor fuse the distance sensors with an imu to keep you level and at solid altitude. 2) vertical thrusters to maintain apparent buoyancy with heavy friends. Essentially an aqua vtol!
To smooth out chop, could you use a couple of infrared thermometers pointing forward, at different heights and angles, one above the board and one below?
I think the main problem, why you have no roll control is, that your Wing is straight. You need a bit of a V-shape to get roll control. It's the same on airplanes. The wings of an airplane are designed with a slight upward angle, a V-shape, to ensure stability. The V-shape allows the rudder to also influence the roll axis of the aircraft. When the rudder is used to yaw the plane, the V-shaped wings create a rolling effect, helping the aircraft return to level flight. This effect increases overall stability, especially in turbulent conditions, by enabling coordinated control between yaw and roll. Without the V-Shape the ruder only effects Yaw. Greetings from Germany Fabian
It looks like you have a couple of issues that you could fix on the current design relatively simply: - A bit too much wing for your power/weight - What you mentioned about control surfaces being too large and curved - No restoring moment for the roll - No Roll/yaw coupling If you trim the ends of your wings off and re-print them a bit shorter, with a little bit of dihedral and smaller ailerons that should a lot less stress on your servos, and the dihedral will help the roll stability. The lack of a rudder is ultimately the main issue with yaw - you are ending up in a sideslip situation like an uncoordinated turn in an aircraft. The vertical element might help, but you'd have to match the size of the surface to the moment of inertia about the yaw axis. I wonder if for the next iteration, instead of a tail for pitch authority, perhaps a leading element would help to couple the two movements (the banked leading element is ahead of the CG leading to a yaw moment in the same direction).
If a V-shape foil and a small center board is used instead of just a flat hydrofoil, the dihedral effects may improve the stability and side shift when doing turns. It is expected that the agility of the board and drag will be affected too. Excellent job & video. Thanks.
I'm wondering if you put the batteries (or extra batteries) into a separate foil board which uses the waves behind the main board and is connected by a cable to "glide" and use the energy put into the water by the first one, could you improve on the overall efficiency. Basically using the basic principles of wave soaring when gliders use standing waves to gain altitude
Dude. Beaver. Ever flown in one? If you haven't, do it. Somehow. A beaver on floats is like freedom in the sky to go wherever you want. When that 9 cylinder radial engine hits takeoff power, you feel it as much as you hear it. 450 horsepower. Wheels, floats and skis. Tipping the plane left to right to remove each float separately or doing a curved water taxi to take off from sketchy places. The beaver can do it carrying a bunch of cargo or humans. As the Rolling Stones say, "Do it, do it, do it, dooo it." If you can, sit in the second front seat. Pay extra if necessary. In terms of leverage, look into hiking straps for sailing. Allows you to throw your weight around more effectively. You may be able to apply that to manual control while sitting without falling off the board.
Daniel. I don't know the proper names of things but I do know of something that could help with the servos for the control surfaces. On a normal aircraft the rudder and elevators are just flapping around behind their hinges, but on sport and stunt aircraft there's part of the rudder and elevators that is Infront of the hinge, this makes it easier to control because the leading part acts against the surface. There's also the spade, could be useful. On video that shows what I'm on about is by Kevin Talbot "Idiot buys world's most extreme stunt airplane" and from about 15 minutes in you'll see a walk around the plane. You'll see the added part on the end of the Aileron and the spade underneath. Now to wait for all the corrections. 🤔 Hope this is useful.
@weatheranddarkness It's a very small wing that's positioned in front of the control surface on a bracket, it's in the video i mentioned. I know it's not rocket science but I couldn't find the video I was actually looking for, I'm doing my best. 🤣
A trim tab would be on the trailing edge to trim a control. What you are talking about is a spade. It is designed to balance the controls. So if he had a profile that didn't have the camber on the trailing edge that would reduce the load on the servos as it offsets some of the forces the water puts on the controls when they aren't in the neutral position. The problem is that the camber on the trailing edge that he has is acting as a trim tab. It wants to push the control surface up while the servo is constantly forcing it back into the "neutral" position which isn't the hydrodynamic neutral position. In aircraft terms the trim tab basically aerodynamically forces the control surface to have a different neutral position. Spades aerodynamically balance the controls surface so it takes less force to hold any given position. In other words, Balancing out the aerodynamic forces on the control surface.
Daniel, great work! the only things missing are: 1) attach a bucket seat on adjustable rail. 2) attach joystick controls to the arm rests, using arduino setup to emulate the radio control PCM signals. You can also use the arm wrests to control roll.
Did you waterproof the pocket radio? As for the servos, I think brushless is ideal and something a quarter of their size could be used, but cooling is a must. perhaps grease all around except the metal side with a seal or potted edges, then a heatsink that the water can run across.
Going in reverse, and then forward, usually takes any weeds off, I think what you have achieved so far, is nothing short of Legendary Love your videos !!!
22:40 I just realised in this shot that I think a big design issue could be the vertical struts between the board and hydrofoil wing. The struts are so far out to the sides that weight shifting will be hindered. If they were further towards the center of the board and you could lean out over their position, it would help with the weight distribution more.
Super awesome project ! So much fun and totally looking forward to what ever you get up to next ! Im wandering who's the worst influence....... You or Tailheavy ? Great job Daniel ♥️😉🙃😎 NZ
That's actually how self driving cars work. Elon Musk has a sweat shop in Thailand, with a load of kids with remote control radios and FPV goggles driving the cars when they go in to self driving mode.
would some dihedral on the main wing and anhedral on the elevator help reduce the need for roll control? I imagine it might self stabilize a bit better than a straight wing.
Since standing without servo control seems to be a no-go anyway, I think you're going to get much better results with a conventional stick and rudder setup with cables and pulleys rigged to the control surfaces. This has the added benefit of the possibility of rigging up an autopilot to drive the cables with fewer servos, with the servos located above the waterline on the fuselage. This would also solve the aileron asymmetry problem because the ailerons would be physically linked together. At that point, you should also fit trim tabs to the elevator so you can adjust for CG deviations. You've gone far enough out of the conventional RC world (since you're carrying a person) that you really ought to be playing by the rules of the conventional aviation/hydrofoil world. EDIT: Also, one word: dihedral.
I wonder if you could reduce the surface area under the water and still retain an acceptable amount of lift. I would think when you add the surface area of the foil both top and bottom, it is more than just the surface area of the bottom of the board and creates more drag by more area having to move through the water. I love the design and the idea, I just wonder how small the foils could go and still be effective. Maybe an idea for the next one
I'm really excited to see more hydrofoil content next year! And a side effect of the Temu sponsorship seems to be HUGE engagement numbers, which I hope helps your algorithm!
Suggestion for the next version of the grease filled 3D print would be to add a screw cap at the bottom center or two of them at about the 1/3 center marker of the servo so you can unscrew it and use a cylinder push it out instead of pulling. Good stuff tho mate.
I notice that foil boards tend to have wings that are curved downward as you move from root to tip. I wonder if that makes them behave beter vis-a-vis lean and turn? Isn't yours kind of straight? Also, do you have any washout? Maybe you are getting tip stall or something. It is actually a lot like adverse yaw, isn't it?
Regarding the water damaged ESC, I'm not sure if it would have prevented the corrosion, but it didn't appear that any of the PCB's were conformal coated. Perhaps first conformal coating the PCB's, then potting the assembly would help.
Would it be to complicated to adjust the design to use servo-tabs instead of tugging at the control surfaces directly, to reduce the load on the servos?
I think enough people have comment on the sponsor, so here is a real comment on the content of your video: Having grease around the servo helps conduct the heat to the casing. But the case is made of plastic which is a bad heat conductor. To had to this, you have a cover over it for hydrodynamic that would isolate the servos even more. I would suggest 2 solutions: - first easy solution: to make a water channel to get water flow between the casing and the cover. But this is not optimal. - 2nd more complicated solution: machine off as much plastic as possible from the servo casing and then glue in an aluminum plate machined in the shape of the cover. The ideal solution would be to have the casing made of aluminum as well as the cover, but this would be expensive. For the seat, you could cutout a seat out of a bloc of foam and fix it to the board. This way, you would be a lot lower and more comfortable. You could even make it to fit tracks to adjust postion. For your electronics, I suggest to seal them into a box. You could have a water cooling system going through an aluminum intercooler inside the box. Water could be picked up using the mast internal channels either with a self priming pump or using a venturi effect at the outlet. Inlet and outlet could be near the foil to prevent air pickup. Your project is really nice, but it could look a lot more professional with everything neatly tucked away. Such as have the wiring incased in the board (while remaining accessible), etc.
I wonder if adding a small heat sink that sticks in to the water that is silicone sealed for the case then maybe thermal pasted to the server would be good to reduce heat, and yeah I know I’m way over complicating it.
Put pads on the board and use them to control the control surfaces with your weight placement! So if you want to go really fast you basically have to stand on the nose of the board.
@rctestflight, just imagine getting two or three of these paddleboards connected to have ride with friends :) could be more stable, almost private boat ride
Borrowing from aircraft stability in roll, I would try giving the main wing a bit of dihedral. Keep the center wing panel flat, but give the outer panels a few degrees up.
For the roll control using your body, what if you put some kind of handlebar? you would be able to put more of your weight into it and further from the center
Now you know where the voids are you could drill in the side near the mosfets on the replacement and pot it some more, fingers crossed that would help the ESCs survive better!
If the wide wing span is causing shenanigans, could you get the same lift with a more narrow bi-plane type foil? What about using a slight camber for natural stability?
im not educated on this but im gonna suggest it anyway. wouldn't it be a feasible idea to put a floating sensor into/next to the masts of the hydrofoil? maybe this could output a more consistent height and roll value
I wonder if you'd get more passive stability with some dihedral from a short section of wing (like early autogyros) or just winglets at 45 degrees? It'd be cool to see a version based on something less flat like a canoe!
Now let's talk him into making a larger hydrofoil from 2 people maybe a 2 person kayak or canoe. Something you can actually enjoy with someone with a larger battery bank
I was extremely jealous for the minute or so I thought you were somehow piloting your board and the fpv (you had a dji looking controller and the gopro mount looked like goggles in the wide shots). Like those drone moves were crazy! I've been 'learning' fpv for like a year and I still have stupid fingers.
Do you think adding another foil wing to the board would improve the stability of it? A front foil and a rear foil setup connected to the board instead of a single point you currently have?
The year was 2090 and rctf built an autonomous foil board charged by solar with infinite range. Some say that he sat on his board and went out and will be circling the lake until the oceans boil dry.
I think you were actually exacerbating the roll stability problem by adding yaw into the turn. The big masts would cause a rolling moment if they were at a slip angle that would roll into whatever slip you added. You can see it when you're flying the small board and you yaw the board under yourself by twisting your hips.
Turning by leaning with 2 motors pulling equal in one direction is hard to offset. If you had only one centre propeller it would be doable but offsetting two motors pulling the same force side by side, that is harder. I have a two motor RC aircraft and even with rudder maxed out its more a suggestion then actually making the aircraft yawing.
I think you are on to something with the distance from front wing to mast. I know from interviews with the founder of Axis foils they started with the mast right over the front wing but had to move the mast further back due to problems with turning. Different brands have different distances but they are all in front. Drawback is increased stress on the mast to fuse connection. Anyway awesome project. Full size boat next?
Look at the U.S. Navy's MK-105 minesweeping hydrofoil sled. It has some really odd wings. It seems as though the center of the inverted V breaches a little bit if it rolls away from that side, so the fully submerged wings on the opposite side would self-right the sled. Yes, the wings stow vertically upward, so some of the photos look odd.
I saw a short from Chris Boden about an electrical component being submerged in oil for both electrical isolation and thermal management, so if anything I'd guess the grease around the servos should aid cooling, not harm it.
If inability to shift your weight enough is what keeps you from riding it standing, what about adding some "reins" basically a loop of rope, connected to the board, so you can hold yourself firmly onto it, and really throw your weight around without worrying about balance?
@rctestflight so pleased you got a sail boat to play with, a bit of help for you... set your close hauled jib boom to 12 degrees from the Center Line and main boom 2 degrees from CL, and regular sailing 15 deg jib boom to cl and 5 deg main boom to cl , this will make the boat sail really well. Make your sail stick get to 15 deg max jib boom then use a switch to get the last 3 deg of inhaul so you can switch in and out between close hauled and regular. Make the rudder and sail 100% expo , it helps you you sail much smoother and faster. also tighten up your jib luff so it doesnt sag so much. i have sailed rc for a long while and these are the fist things i do on any boat before it even touches the water. the rest of the fine adjustments are left to you.. Bon Voyage.
Big shame the boat was sent by temu though
@@BroomAtoom so many examples of such practices , I wonder what manufacturers are not party to them , half or the origin of ali express / amazon is prob the same ?
The rent cant be this high bru
After many years racing RC sailing boats, I learned that no matter how "waterproof" and sealed anything is, especially servos and control units, moisture will ALWAYS find a way inside.
I ended up using the receiver sans the plastic housing. Some of the variable potentiometers corroded off their plating, but it meant a quick spray of water displacing oil shifted the short-circuit inducing water, and the IC chip was plugged into a socket, allowing for rapid replacement at the waterside when it invariable blew up.
So those failed power units were to be expected, after getting dunked a few times. On the other hand, those grease-filled servo boxes were the first ever truly waterPROOF enclosures I have seen. The immersion in grease meant that there was no route for water to get to the servo. Great idea and execution.
My plans for a productive next 30 minutes have been foiled!
Noice 😂
I see what you did there
It's always like this whenever he uploads hahaha
First non Temu comment I came upon lol
It took a solid pun to distract from the temu hate.
How much are they paying you??? 😂
24:50 So those stranded wires can be an ingress point for water as it can just wick through the interior of the wire.
Can't wait for next summer's autonomous hydrofoil boat powered by solar
At 15:42 did any of the silicon grease get inside the motor on the contacts? If so this might have caused excess resistance/heat leading to it failure.
You definitely have yaw and roll inversely affecting one another in this project. Differential thrust will only exacerbate this because of such a high center of gravity. If your vessel is rolled to the left with locked ailerons at neutral position, then you would need to apply right differential thrust to try to get counteracting lift on the left side, but doing this will move your center of gravity further off axis to the left, which is fighting the lift you are providing. The solution is likely to actively control roll and yaw, and possibly add some control surface for yaw control.
I’ve had that same issue with inexpensive motors. The ones I had didn’t have a metal bushing to support the back end of the shaft. When the motor drew too much power it melts the plastic around the shaft.
We 3d printed a new end cap for the motor with a pocket to press a little bushing into and that fixed it.
The housing boxes for the servos could have a heat sink incorporated, making direct contact with the water with some kind of rubber o-ring or gasket between the metal and the plastic. If placed correctly, would give the servos more chance to release the extra heat without letting in water.
You should put a spring on the sides of your sonars so they have a bi-stable position.
> 16:40 some thermal compounds are non-conductive and could be pressurized in the same way to form that watertight housing. that would help with thermal transfer (obviously). you can usually get fairly cheap tubes of thermal compound if you don't need them to be high performance, which in this case i don't think you do. maybe something to test?
Hey, Daniel
To reduce aileron torq you can use very simple solution - so called horned aileron (no idea correct name in english)
Just look carefully at Yak-52 tail and his rudder, you`ll notice that rudder has small part forward to it axis, this part significantly reduce applied force to it. Hope this helps
Also to increase roll selfstability you can add positive V angle to wing, just look at any passenger airliner in front - wingtips are higher than wing root
Can someone explain how the roll to yaw coupling work? 20:31
How does the mast introduce a yaw from the roll?
You've _really_ created something amazing here, bud. This thing is *awesome!*
@@eamonia “blud” 😂
"Welcome to RCTestFlight where today we'll be flying my buddy Axel out on the lake..."
Seventeen miles!? That's _crazy,_ dude. That's like, an entire day of chillin' out on the water. Well, more like _flying_ out on the water. Too cool, man.
Many foil board fpils have negative dyhedral to help with roll control so it work more like a bike with counter steer
love how it's become the most dad project ever that you've done on accident, you need your trusty camper dad chair.
Have you thought about putting springs on the ailerons to try and help take some load off of the servos?
You might be able to counter the wave/sonar interference by adding a third sonar at the bow/stern and averaging those inputs to generate the altitude value. Still use the port/starboard to control roll.
I hope you spend some time optimizing it! There's always the rctestflight classic option of "throw solar on it"
To continue the aircraft analogy. You're looking for fighter-plane flight characteristics. From a stratofortress body design.
Can you switch to a single support in the middle instead of 2 on the outside? Could you add adjustable "winglets" under the water to help compensate for the roll? what about vectored thrust for the motors themselves or allow the motors to gimbal and put them each on the far corners instead of near the middle?
I miss the Factor sponsor ads. That stuff looked delicious af.
PCBWay ads are also interesting.
you can make the foils slightly into a u or v shape to counter the inverted pendulum problem. Leaning to the side would make the interior wing have a more horizontal angle than the exterior one which will create more lift on the inside thus stabilizing
I had an interesting idea. I understand as an armchair engineer my opinion doesn't mean much but i thought the 7foot wingspan with so much surface area is really holding you back because it is likely creating so much drag under the water line.
One thing to consider that you are trying to make a hydrofoil boat but are attempting to use Hydrofoil boards as a start point. Perhaps looking at Hydrofoil Sailboats or other boats could be beneficial. Typically those use two "T" or "Slight Y" shaped hydrofoils on either side of the boat to create lift and using a "T" shaped foil on the rear to act as a rudder / possibly even an elevator. This separated design could allow you to have the desired lift while reducing the underwater drag associated with all parts being connected to each other. take a look at the "america's cup" sailboats they have a very strong an different hydrofoil design that could inspire your next design.
Thanks for all the videos!
At 10:45 I'm reminded of part of a previous episode you talked about putting the sonar sensors on the sides instead of the front and rear of the board. With the sonar nodes on the sides, you've made a shorter comparative sampling distance than if you had them on the ends of the board. For really choppy water, maybe 4 sensors would be peak.
Bro I've been watching your videos for years and I love all the crazy stuff you design and create
My thoughts:
1.) Model some balance tabs forward of the hinge line on those control surfaces, offset the load a bit. Might need more testing to see how big to make them. Smaller, neutral surfaces are also a good idea.
2.) I'd be tempted to make it a canard since you want the vertical stabilizers at the back anyway, better yet if the canard is elevated relative to the main wing it'll breach first even at shallow angles and give you that famous canard stall resistance.
3.) Heading hold gyros on the pitch and roll, use the sonars during takeoff then set the gyros for cruising through chop.
I think the multi-stranded wires might be acting as wicks that draw water into the box. I bet you can eliminate that problem by removing the insulation and soldering the core strands into a solid core over a short length. Then wrap it from the solid part back over the insulation with self-vulcanizing tape or use caulk.
Great video! That thing works well, I also got offered a Temu sponsorship but turned it down I know a lot of people don’t like it including me haha. Keep up the good work you are an inspiration!
How much did they offer?
@@robertschnobert9090 usually it takes a few emails back and forth to negotiate but I declined before it got to that stage
I wonder if the biggest problem with balancing is the lack of handlebars. If you had a stationary vertical bar to brace against, you could move your weight more quickly and accurately in relation to the board's attitude, and would also have something to hold onto when you're leaning way over. Anyway. Can't wait to see version 2.
Couple thoughts:
1) sensor fuse the distance sensors with an imu to keep you level and at solid altitude.
2) vertical thrusters to maintain apparent buoyancy with heavy friends. Essentially an aqua vtol!
Hey, so that you have some numbers to compare to. My DIY efoil uses ~1.5kw at 30km/h and ~1kw at 25km/h with the total weight of 110kg.
To smooth out chop, could you use a couple of infrared thermometers pointing forward, at different heights and angles, one above the board and one below?
I think the main problem, why you have no roll control is, that your Wing is straight. You need a bit of a V-shape to get roll control. It's the same on airplanes. The wings of an airplane are designed with a slight upward angle, a V-shape, to ensure stability. The V-shape allows the rudder to also influence the roll axis of the aircraft. When the rudder is used to yaw the plane, the V-shaped wings create a rolling effect, helping the aircraft return to level flight. This effect increases overall stability, especially in turbulent conditions, by enabling coordinated control between yaw and roll. Without the V-Shape the ruder only effects Yaw.
Greetings from Germany
Fabian
It looks like you have a couple of issues that you could fix on the current design relatively simply:
- A bit too much wing for your power/weight
- What you mentioned about control surfaces being too large and curved
- No restoring moment for the roll
- No Roll/yaw coupling
If you trim the ends of your wings off and re-print them a bit shorter, with a little bit of dihedral and smaller ailerons that should a lot less stress on your servos, and the dihedral will help the roll stability.
The lack of a rudder is ultimately the main issue with yaw - you are ending up in a sideslip situation like an uncoordinated turn in an aircraft. The vertical element might help, but you'd have to match the size of the surface to the moment of inertia about the yaw axis. I wonder if for the next iteration, instead of a tail for pitch authority, perhaps a leading element would help to couple the two movements (the banked leading element is ahead of the CG leading to a yaw moment in the same direction).
I dont really care who sponsors him. I like Rctf videos any way.
If a V-shape foil and a small center board is used instead of just a flat hydrofoil, the dihedral effects may improve the stability and side shift when doing turns. It is expected that the agility of the board and drag will be affected too. Excellent job & video. Thanks.
How did you water proof your remote controller?
I'm wondering if you put the batteries (or extra batteries) into a separate foil board which uses the waves behind the main board and is connected by a cable to "glide" and use the energy put into the water by the first one, could you improve on the overall efficiency. Basically using the basic principles of wave soaring when gliders use standing waves to gain altitude
Dude. Beaver. Ever flown in one? If you haven't, do it. Somehow. A beaver on floats is like freedom in the sky to go wherever you want. When that 9 cylinder radial engine hits takeoff power, you feel it as much as you hear it. 450 horsepower. Wheels, floats and skis. Tipping the plane left to right to remove each float separately or doing a curved water taxi to take off from sketchy places. The beaver can do it carrying a bunch of cargo or humans. As the Rolling Stones say, "Do it, do it, do it, dooo it." If you can, sit in the second front seat. Pay extra if necessary.
In terms of leverage, look into hiking straps for sailing. Allows you to throw your weight around more effectively. You may be able to apply that to manual control while sitting without falling off the board.
Daniel.
I don't know the proper names of things but I do know of something that could help with the servos for the control surfaces.
On a normal aircraft the rudder and elevators are just flapping around behind their hinges, but on sport and stunt aircraft there's part of the rudder and elevators that is Infront of the hinge, this makes it easier to control because the leading part acts against the surface.
There's also the spade, could be useful.
On video that shows what I'm on about is by Kevin Talbot "Idiot buys world's most extreme stunt airplane" and from about 15 minutes in you'll see a walk around the plane.
You'll see the added part on the end of the Aileron and the spade underneath.
Now to wait for all the corrections. 🤔
Hope this is useful.
Spade?
@weatheranddarkness
It's a very small wing that's positioned in front of the control surface on a bracket, it's in the video i mentioned.
I know it's not rocket science but I couldn't find the video I was actually looking for, I'm doing my best. 🤣
Like on boat rudders, instead of just turning the whole rudder, the rudder has a smaller rudder on the trailing edge which requires much less force.
@@Slikx666 well ping this thread when you find it
A trim tab would be on the trailing edge to trim a control. What you are talking about is a spade. It is designed to balance the controls. So if he had a profile that didn't have the camber on the trailing edge that would reduce the load on the servos as it offsets some of the forces the water puts on the controls when they aren't in the neutral position. The problem is that the camber on the trailing edge that he has is acting as a trim tab. It wants to push the control surface up while the servo is constantly forcing it back into the "neutral" position which isn't the hydrodynamic neutral position. In aircraft terms the trim tab basically aerodynamically forces the control surface to have a different neutral position. Spades aerodynamically balance the controls surface so it takes less force to hold any given position. In other words, Balancing out the aerodynamic forces on the control surface.
Daniel, great work! the only things missing are: 1) attach a bucket seat on adjustable rail. 2) attach joystick controls to the arm rests, using arduino setup to emulate the radio control PCM signals. You can also use the arm wrests to control roll.
Did you waterproof the pocket radio? As for the servos, I think brushless is ideal and something a quarter of their size could be used, but cooling is a must. perhaps grease all around except the metal side with a seal or potted edges, then a heatsink that the water can run across.
Going in reverse, and then forward,
usually takes any weeds off,
I think what you have achieved so far,
is nothing short of Legendary
Love your videos !!!
Shakespeare in the comment section
22:40 I just realised in this shot that I think a big design issue could be the vertical struts between the board and hydrofoil wing. The struts are so far out to the sides that weight shifting will be hindered. If they were further towards the center of the board and you could lean out over their position, it would help with the weight distribution more.
I can't wait to see what you make for hydrofoil 2.0!
Super awesome project ! So much fun and totally looking forward to what ever you get up to next ! Im wandering who's the worst influence....... You or Tailheavy ? Great job Daniel ♥️😉🙃😎 NZ
Try balanced control surfaces like used on an aircraft rudder. That will reduce the control forces on the servos.
You might not have the most efficient boat on the lake but it's the coolest
That's actually how self driving cars work. Elon Musk has a sweat shop in Thailand, with a load of kids with remote control radios and FPV goggles driving the cars when they go in to self driving mode.
would some dihedral on the main wing and anhedral on the elevator help reduce the need for roll control? I imagine it might self stabilize a bit better than a straight wing.
Since standing without servo control seems to be a no-go anyway, I think you're going to get much better results with a conventional stick and rudder setup with cables and pulleys rigged to the control surfaces. This has the added benefit of the possibility of rigging up an autopilot to drive the cables with fewer servos, with the servos located above the waterline on the fuselage. This would also solve the aileron asymmetry problem because the ailerons would be physically linked together. At that point, you should also fit trim tabs to the elevator so you can adjust for CG deviations. You've gone far enough out of the conventional RC world (since you're carrying a person) that you really ought to be playing by the rules of the conventional aviation/hydrofoil world.
EDIT: Also, one word: dihedral.
I wonder if you could reduce the surface area under the water and still retain an acceptable amount of lift. I would think when you add the surface area of the foil both top and bottom, it is more than just the surface area of the bottom of the board and creates more drag by more area having to move through the water. I love the design and the idea, I just wonder how small the foils could go and still be effective. Maybe an idea for the next one
I'm really excited to see more hydrofoil content next year! And a side effect of the Temu sponsorship seems to be HUGE engagement numbers, which I hope helps your algorithm!
Suggestion for the next version of the grease filled 3D print would be to add a screw cap at the bottom center or two of them at about the 1/3 center marker of the servo so you can unscrew it and use a cylinder push it out instead of pulling. Good stuff tho mate.
I notice that foil boards tend to have wings that are curved downward as you move from root to tip. I wonder if that makes them behave beter vis-a-vis lean and turn? Isn't yours kind of straight? Also, do you have any washout? Maybe you are getting tip stall or something. It is actually a lot like adverse yaw, isn't it?
Regarding the water damaged ESC, I'm not sure if it would have prevented the corrosion, but it didn't appear that any of the PCB's were conformal coated. Perhaps first conformal coating the PCB's, then potting the assembly would help.
Would it be to complicated to adjust the design to use servo-tabs instead of tugging at the control surfaces directly, to reduce the load on the servos?
I think enough people have comment on the sponsor, so here is a real comment on the content of your video:
Having grease around the servo helps conduct the heat to the casing. But the case is made of plastic which is a bad heat conductor. To had to this, you have a cover over it for hydrodynamic that would isolate the servos even more. I would suggest 2 solutions:
- first easy solution: to make a water channel to get water flow between the casing and the cover. But this is not optimal.
- 2nd more complicated solution: machine off as much plastic as possible from the servo casing and then glue in an aluminum plate machined in the shape of the cover. The ideal solution would be to have the casing made of aluminum as well as the cover, but this would be expensive.
For the seat, you could cutout a seat out of a bloc of foam and fix it to the board. This way, you would be a lot lower and more comfortable. You could even make it to fit tracks to adjust postion.
For your electronics, I suggest to seal them into a box. You could have a water cooling system going through an aluminum intercooler inside the box. Water could be picked up using the mast internal channels either with a self priming pump or using a venturi effect at the outlet. Inlet and outlet could be near the foil to prevent air pickup.
Your project is really nice, but it could look a lot more professional with everything neatly tucked away. Such as have the wiring incased in the board (while remaining accessible), etc.
Can you use servos with some snail/screw gears? this may reduce required power to keep it in position under a force?
Great work! Owsome project! Love your channel ❤👏👏
Really enjoyed this series, thanks 👍💪✌
Adding some dihedral would help with the roll stability?
I wonder if adding a small heat sink that sticks in to the water that is silicone sealed for the case then maybe thermal pasted to the server would be good to reduce heat, and yeah I know I’m way over complicating it.
Put pads on the board and use them to control the control surfaces with your weight placement!
So if you want to go really fast you basically have to stand on the nose of the board.
@rctestflight, just imagine getting two or three of these paddleboards connected to have ride with friends :) could be more stable, almost private boat ride
Borrowing from aircraft stability in roll, I would try giving the main wing a bit of dihedral. Keep the center wing panel flat, but give the outer panels a few degrees up.
That's one way to generate viewer engagement
For the roll control using your body, what if you put some kind of handlebar? you would be able to put more of your weight into it and further from the center
Now you know where the voids are you could drill in the side near the mosfets on the replacement and pot it some more, fingers crossed that would help the ESCs survive better!
You need a rudder for yaw control. You could also add some dihedral in the wing so when it leans it will try to correct itself.
We need a DIY hydrofoil boat now built by Home Depot!
If the wide wing span is causing shenanigans, could you get the same lift with a more narrow bi-plane type foil? What about using a slight camber for natural stability?
im not educated on this but im gonna suggest it anyway. wouldn't it be a feasible idea to put a floating sensor into/next to the masts of the hydrofoil? maybe this could output a more consistent height and roll value
> master-level mechanical engineering for 98% of the project
> uses a brushed servo for a static load
dang
Next summer. A jet ski powered john boat hydrofoil
That is really cool daniel😂
I wonder if you'd get more passive stability with some dihedral from a short section of wing (like early autogyros) or just winglets at 45 degrees?
It'd be cool to see a version based on something less flat like a canoe!
Now let's talk him into making a larger hydrofoil from 2 people maybe a 2 person kayak or canoe. Something you can actually enjoy with someone with a larger battery bank
I was extremely jealous for the minute or so I thought you were somehow piloting your board and the fpv (you had a dji looking controller and the gopro mount looked like goggles in the wide shots). Like those drone moves were crazy! I've been 'learning' fpv for like a year and I still have stupid fingers.
1:08 "Your pinging my sonar bro" 😂😂🔧👍
Do you think adding another foil wing to the board would improve the stability of it? A front foil and a rear foil setup connected to the board instead of a single point you currently have?
The year was 2090 and rctf built an autonomous foil board charged by solar with infinite range. Some say that he sat on his board and went out and will be circling the lake until the oceans boil dry.
First comment without TEMU (I still hate TEMU, but just as a fun fact)
For the servos, maybe look into boron nitride grease, it should be electrically insulating but thermally conductive.
I think you were actually exacerbating the roll stability problem by adding yaw into the turn. The big masts would cause a rolling moment if they were at a slip angle that would roll into whatever slip you added. You can see it when you're flying the small board and you yaw the board under yourself by twisting your hips.
If the main wing had dihedral don't you think this would make it far easier to use?
dihedral is sweet for stability.
dude that thing is wicked, i can't get eough of it
i have no care at all for the temu stuff, just do what make sense financially for you
Turning by leaning with 2 motors pulling equal in one direction is hard to offset.
If you had only one centre propeller it would be doable but offsetting two motors pulling the same force side by side, that is harder.
I have a two motor RC aircraft and even with rudder maxed out its more a suggestion then actually making the aircraft yawing.
I think you are on to something with the distance from front wing to mast. I know from interviews with the founder of Axis foils they started with the mast right over the front wing but had to move the mast further back due to problems with turning. Different brands have different distances but they are all in front. Drawback is increased stress on the mast to fuse connection. Anyway awesome project. Full size boat next?
Look at the U.S. Navy's MK-105 minesweeping hydrofoil sled. It has some really odd wings. It seems as though the center of the inverted V breaches a little bit if it rolls away from that side, so the fully submerged wings on the opposite side would self-right the sled. Yes, the wings stow vertically upward, so some of the photos look odd.
I saw a short from Chris Boden about an electrical component being submerged in oil for both electrical isolation and thermal management, so if anything I'd guess the grease around the servos should aid cooling, not harm it.
oil will flow to dissipate the heat, The grease is fixed. High performance underwater motors are oil filled to pull the heat away.
Huh. Look at that. A new reason to stick around 'till next summer! Thanks for your hard work!
Have you considered using trim tabs to control the ailerons instead of trying to muscle the whole surface?
A idea: Hydrofoil kayak (manually powered), Also Temu is a low bar.
Link for temu huricane boat not working anymore, in video price 166 from 920 , price in description 218, exatcly same boat on ali ... 266 ....
If inability to shift your weight enough is what keeps you from riding it standing, what about adding some "reins" basically a loop of rope, connected to the board, so you can hold yourself firmly onto it, and really throw your weight around without worrying about balance?