4th of July Tube V4
Motorized! Added motorcycle batteries and slot car motors to spin propellers.
Overview
Knowing fully well that I had to up my game this year, I decided that I don't want to do any manual labor to move on the water. I want to be able to pull a trigger and move. That is exactly what I did.
Key Upgrades
- Motorized Propulsion Integrated slot car motors connected directly to propellers.
- Battery Power Motorcycle batteries powering the drive system.
- Modular Cube Design Easy to take apart and put back together
Full Wood Cube
The first step was to make sure I could take apart, transport, and put back the whole contraption easily. This year, everything was connected through bolts in a strategic way that allowed for easy assembly and disassembly.
Component Testing
One thing I haven't said which is kind of important is that with this tradition for some reason I added a rule for myself which did make things more difficult. I never wanted to test anything before the day it floated. I found it exciting to find out if the tube was a success or not once it hit the water for the first time.
This year I only slightly broke that rule and tested the motors in my bathtub. I custom 3D designed and printed pillow blocks, propellers, and drive shafts (Shout out Colorado Springs Library!). To find what propeller worked the best (if any at all) I made a rig that I could hold in my bathtub to see how much force each propeller made.
Final Build
Here is the final tube in all of it's glory! There is a video in the Additional media section below that goes over how everything works if you are interested in checking it out.
On the water!
Sadly I don't seem to have any photos or videos of the tube on the water this year... So I had my neice make me an extremely high quality render of what it looked like.
The motors worked just enough to actually push the tube which was perfect. I was able to buzz around slowly for around 15 minutes before my controllers began to overheat and I figured it was time to head in. Luckily I expected this and was able to easily take off many parts and comfortably float just like the previous year.
Additional Media
