Modular Hippo [Off-Grid Electric Sailboat Motor DIY Build - Ep.6]

My first, and most likely only, attempt to build an inboard electric motor housing/system to host 2 X 10KW BLDC (brushless) water-cooled Golden Motors. The hope is to be able to tap into re-generative possibilities to charge the sailboat Battery bank towards self sustainability and longer periods of off-grid living.
Blog containing useful links related to topics in this episode:
modularhippo.c...
Other useful links:
36' Aluminium Sailboat I am currently building:
bgyachtdesign....
Motors I am using for my project:
www.goldenmoto...
(Sales contact: [e-mail])

[@jimmylionstar4163]

Looks Amazing👍😉

[@modularhippo]

Thank You Mr Lionstar!! Currently in Scotland so will give you a call when back home next week. Hope all good your side:)😊

[@TheSoilandGreen]

Good stuff thanks for the brain food.

[@modularhippo]

Your welcome, thanks for watching:)👍🏻

[@Lagittaja]

The reason internal combustion engines for example in cars are mounted with compliant mounts is due to relatively large masses moving in a reciprocating motion or rotational motion. The biggest contribution are the pistons going up and down. But there's many things moving inside an internal combustion engine so if you want to learn more about it, look up the Wikipedia article titled "Engine balance". So if you hard mount an internal combustion engine, all those vibrations get transmitted through the thing it's mounted to. Things are going to break. Does the engine mind? I don't know, probably not good for it but it's probably not going to break anytime soon. Where as an electric engine just rotates. Though that doesn't mean it won't have any vibrations. Grab an electric drill and turn it on. You'll feel it has some vibrations. Sure the rotor is balanced (hopefully) but it's not a gyroscope going to space so it isn't perfect. The bearings aren't perfect either. But the vibrations will be higher frequency. But will the mounts be effective in reducing that higher frequency vibration? I don't know. Usually boat engine mounts assume you're slapping something more akin to a 500 kilo anchor on them that has secondary imbalances which the mounts need to resist. If the mounts were too soft, the engine would bang against the hard stops of the mount so they're made stiffer to ensure that doesn't happen. So perhaps it is overkill to have vibration dampeners with an electric motor. But then again, there's a shock load that happens when you put the transmission in to gear. With cars you have a clutch which you can feather to reduce the shock and you also have rubber tires that eat some of that shock. With a boat you just slam it into gear and the propeller bites into the water. Do you need vibration damping mounts for that? I don't know. Probably not.

[@modularhippo]

Thank you for the in-depth response on this subject, it all makes sense. To dampen the shock load from torque (start) alone, I feel it must be worth having them. I rather this energy partially being absorbed by the rubber mounds, then being a direct load on motor and motor-housing. I have a feeling that it would work fine without and would be interesting to compare outcome from both scenarios. Maybe even higher frequency vibrations would cause some form of unwanted noise/vibration? I hope you did not mind thanking you in video, in hindsight I realised that maybe I should have asked you first:) Hope OK?

[@Lagittaja]

@@modularhippo Sure, the possible higher frequency vibrations could be annoying. Spin a drill and hold the drill's housing against a table. But those noises might be drowned out by the motor noises. Depends on the motor controller what it makes the motor sound like. But since you mentioned in an another comment that you will be using an Aquadrive CV then yeah the engine should be isolated as well. If you hard mount either one, eventually something will get misaligned and bearings will take a beating. Either hard mount everything and deal with the vibrations and having to perfectly align the engine to the prop shaft. Or soft mount everything. It's okay, this is a public platform after all and I made my comments on a public comments section.

[@modularhippo]

​@Lagittaja - ​ Nice one. Although more exspenses upfront, I feel soft mount is the way to go. Perfect allignmemt work in tight space when 6'3 is not a winner:)

[@ericdelevinquiere9902]

Just wondering why coupling 2 motors? Also these motors will not freewheel ( definitely a drag on performance) so it would be nice to see a shaft disconnect of some sorts maybe for each motor so you could work or replace on the way. And another thought, most of these motors have peak efficiency at higher speeds so running them slow may get you in very inefficient territory. Better run a lesser power one at optimal speed with the ratios worked out and decoupled from the bigger one and use the later when you need it (kind of like what Tesla does). This could also improve your regen ability which really sucks at low speed.

[@Lagittaja]

The lower pulley is a double groove, motors single groove with their own tensioners so easy enough to work on either one. As far as RPM's and ratios goes, to me it looks like he has plenty of room to play with pulley ratios. Then there's also the propeller to play with. Plenty of opportunities to tune the system.

[@modularhippo]

All great points! Disconnecting one motor during sail may well be the way forward from a regen perspective. There are so many parts in play, and each have their own limitations and optimisations, so unless tested in real application, it is hard to know where to start. I have a feeling that there will be a lot of tweaks down the line:) Cost is also a factor. I could get a propeller for 4K that would fix a lot of regen questions, but as my budget is 1/6 of that, I will have to settle for something basic and work around it. The motors have an optimised area where I get the best output against the least amount of power, and that is my starting point. As soon as all hooked up, we can get some real life figures to play with:) - Like the idea of some form of quick disconnect as could come well in handy. Thanks.

[@SV_SheDevil]

It does look amazing and I am happy to see your progress. Have you given any thought to a thrust bearing plate on the drive shaft? Also I believe the antivibration mounts will be ok for a time. However the torque from them will eventually tear them up.

[@modularhippo]

Hi - The boat I am building have a thrust bearing plate as part of it's design and makes prefect sense to transfer the energy to that plate instead of the motor via shaft. The recommended part for my boat is Aquadrive CV Joint CV05 part# 607001 Thrust Bearing B10 part# 6110210 (but may substitute them for other brands if I find something equally as good but for less $). I agree, I will definitely keep an eye on the rubber parts of the mounds over time. :)

[@MonstroLab]

i don't know why Aqua/python Drives are so expensive when they are basically CV joints like from old Porsche/VW...maybe they are higher tolerance? also i would think they wouldn't be necessary on electric motors (lighter than diesel ICE) especially with precision fabricated steel mounts like in this video.

[@SV_SheDevil]

@MonstroLab cv joint is a cv joint if it can tolerate the torque and is the correct size I would use it especially if the cost is substantially lower.

[@MonstroLab]

@@SV_SheDevil i think read somewhere online where a guy used CV joints from old VW bug...im going to google these key words try find it

[@modularhippo]

​@MonstroLab - Not a bad idea! Anything with the word 'sailboat' seems to magically tripple in price these days, so we'll worth checking alternatives:)

[@TheSoilandGreen]

Google translate can help you with names

[@modularhippo]

@TheSoilandGreen Hi - as English is not my first language (I am Swedish), that is a good idea. Finding the time is more the issue thease days:) Hopefully most of it will make sense:)👍🏻