Just Li'l Ol' Me again,
I forgot to include that another incremental option will be upgrading the prop from the existing two-bladed, shallower-pitch standard model on the Ranger 29 used with the Atomic 4 ICE, to at least a three-bladed, larger-diameter, deeper-pitch prop that has forward and aft faces optimized/traded-off as much as is possible for both propulsion (pushing the boat) and regeneration (the prop being pulled through the water under sail power). An underway-adjustable-pitch prop might be even better for achieving the differing propulsion/regeneration characteristics, but, that would definitely be an even further incremental option that could only be explored after the upgrade to the larger, increased-blade-number, deeper-pitch prop, unless an unknown relative leaves me a treasure chest in their will (I've been working on getting Warren Buffett to adopt me, but, so far, I haven't seen the paperwork come through :)
All the Best,
Jim
--- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, jim_ranger_26 <no_reply@...> wrote:
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> So, as I'm continuing my scan to the horizon of the Internet (you know what, that thing is HUGE! :) it occurred to me that one can build an e-drive system in a very incremental way. My basic need is to get in and out of my slip (and, if the wind is typical, really only on the way back in) to/from the harbor channel, which is less than 100 yards. If I can find the right direct-drive motor (my calculations are suggesting I need around 500 RPM, but, my napkin has become quite illegible :) then I can add:
>
> - batteries (not sure if I can get away with one, or have to start with two, based on what the controller wants as a minimum voltage for reliable operation - obviously, two batteries would provide highly-desirable redundancy, especially if the controller can run on 12 volts)
>
> - chargers on a per-battery basis (not clear whether multiple individual chargers would work, or one of the multi-charger units is needed)
>
> - wiring (for power, display, and control)
>
> I'm pretty sure that I'll need to either put in a controller that will have large enough capacity for the heaviest load I can foresee, or I'll have to upgrade a lower-capacity unit, as I'm almost certain that it's not possible to feed one motor with output from a bank of batteries via more than one controller (i.e., in parallel), as there would be contention between the controllers' output (and "contention" doesn't even _begin_ to describe the ensuing chaos! ): Based on what I've seen from others' experiences, having controller redundancy would probably be a Really Good Idea, which the upgrade path would automatically satisfy.
>
> It would be very difficult to incrementally upgrade an ICE! Score another advantage for e-drives :D
>
> Back to the drawing board while coordinating seeing some local e-boats.
>
> All the Best,
> Jim
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