THE PADDLE BOAT THEST! (Patreon)

Hi everyone! This week I tested the paddle boat, check the video before continuing reading so you don't get any spoilers.

I'll run you through my thoughts after a test like this so you can peek into what goes in my mind while planning for the next iteration: 

It worked well, it didn't sink and not much water entered the hull, mostly through the holes that I already did. In this new version the hull is one piece with no internal extra cavities. The hole that I did last week to be able to maneuver inside it was done in purpose on the 3D print this time, once I was done putting the cables inside I just put some aluminium tape and then red duct tape for consistency and I was done. 

The top cover had some rubber window sealer installed (The one I had left from the big garage door) to improve on the seal and it seems that it worked too. I hot glued the connectors in place which seemed to do a great job too. 

The motors worked perfectly while being soaked so it seems that it is true what people say, brushless motors are indeed waterproof. 

As you can see in the video, the paddles were half way in the water while being completely in the up position so I didn't see the point of trying bigger wheels as those would have been more than half submerged in the up position.

In hindsight, using an M8 rod as an axle for the motor brackets was extremely overkill, a piece of ptfe tube would have been enough and would have saved lots of weight in the back. 

The servos took their fair share of water also and seemed to work perfectly so I don't know what to think anymore about waterproof servos...

The paddle wheels had straight paddles, now I think that's no good, most of the water came up and even forward, I'm thinking on trying outward curved paddles that can throw much more water backwards. I know that intuition seems to ask for "scooping" paddles but I think the reverse design would throw more water backwards, you can see in the video that whenever I accelerated heavily the back went down due to the massive amount of water being thrown upwards.

The hull design didn't help much with floatability, I left a fancy hollow channel through the middle but at these speeds was useless and it would had help with buoyancy if it wasn't there.

I need to invest more time in a cover system that is both easy to lock and unlock and helps make a good seal so water does not enter the hull. 

I did cheat and sprayed the entire hull with conformal coating after printing because I didn't want to risk water ingress as I was going to do the test far away from the workshop. I don't think it was necessary but it didn't hurt either. 

Hot glue does seem to do a good watertight fit but it does not stick very well to PLA so? what???

Adhesive aluminium foil makes covering holes a breeze, makes very good watertight seals but mechanically is a disaster so it almost always requires a second layer of something more resistant, for example, duct tape. 

And I think that's all, please let me know your thoughts in the comments because there's going to be another iteration. 

Thanks!!!