Tyler's SAW Riggers

[racemechanix]

Guys I am happy to share some pictures of the build and evolution of my SAW riggers I use for competition. The first three iterations werewolf not very successful so I have omitted them and start with version number. 4
The tub is designed in SolidWorks from flat parts did can be later drawn in 2D to allow the use of laser cutting to form the major parts. This process makes changes and building Both simple and Relatively cheap Compared to making new molds for a full composite tub. The laser-cut parts are bonded together using special adhesives and with the aid of fixtures to Ensure flatness, straightness or a Particular offset. The 4th iteration boat Which 36 "in length with the sponsons sticking forward another 2" ahead of the nose. Knowing what a crash inevitable, the sponsons and boom are held in place by adhesive lined shrink tubing. The booms are designed to be the weak link and fail in the event of a crash. I made ​​sure there what Sufficient floatation in the center tub alone with no sponsons to Ensure it would not sink. I also make several spare sets of sponsons for each event just in case. The best power system was a LMT 1950/5 with a Schulze 32.202WK with a Hyperion 35C 6S battery. It holds the Q hydro record in NAMBA at 122mph. Pics of the 4th iteration boat. Here is the twin brother. I built two identical hulls from this design. It was a good thing as one boat crashed at 120mph and broke the tub. The sponsons were very simple straight sided designs like the JAE sponsons. These were very easy to produce identical versions and low cost. Maybe $15 US dollars in cost for materials for a pair of sponsons.



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[racemechanix]

After fatally crashing one of the two riggers mentioned earlier I designed to build the entire tub and sponsons from Divinycell carbon sandwich panel. I had access to a CNC router and a friend let me run the machine after hours. So instead of laser cutting I CNC routered all the major parts from a large sheet of material on a vacuum table. The sides, bulkheads, transom and sponsons were all made from the 7mm sheet. The top and bottom and lids were made from normal carbon sheet. The tub was incredibly stiff, but also quite heavy. Too heavy to Q hydro as I eventually found out. I later switched from running a Q power system to a S power system and ran 128mph and 124mph for a 126mph average speed. The boat was too heavy for Q and not wide enough to fit 10 cells so it was only run a few times. Maybe if I run S hydro again I will bring her back out. She was designed around a Neu 1527 or LMT 2260 size motor and specifically a MGM25063. The MGM would end up not working very well and I ran a Castle Hydra Ice 240 for the record run. The increased thickness of the side material made the tub too narrow on the inside to run a Schulze controller. For this hull I also machined a combination rudder/strut assembly which I machined myself. The strut was a Speedmaster drilled and reamed to accept ball bearings. Pics:

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[racemechanix]

More pics of the all carbon rigger:
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[racemechanix]

More pics of the carboxylic boat:
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[racemechanix]

Here is a side by side comparison of the V4 and V5 carbon designs. I switched to a wood over foam design sponson for the carbon boat to add lift with a wider ride pad and save weight.

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[racemechanix]

I learned my lesson about building heavy riggers and went back to the wood and carbon/Kevlar designs. This next iteration used a slightly longer center section to allow better packaging of the electronics. Other than the hull changes the big improvement came from a set of slippery sponsons built by my good friend and teammate Brian Buaas. Unfortunately a crash would destroy one of the sponsons and I went back to my simple 2D profiles made from wood and foam.


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[racemechanix]

Two almost identical V6 tubs, main difference was the sponsons.

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[racemechanix]

The first T-Hydro I built was simply a Q hydro with small 4000mAh 10S Dinogy cells. I did not have to make any modifications and ran the same propellers that I ran for Q. I used a similar 22 series LMT motor with appropriate wind for 10 cells and used the same 32.202WK controller. Here are some pics of the first iteration of the T hydro:

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[racemechanix]

The latest evolution of my design widened the tub to allow larger 5000mAh cells to fit side by side. I also increased the length of the battery compartment to allow 6000mAh batteries to fit as well giving me the most flexibility. I changed from wire drive to .1875" flex cable with a squared end on the motor side to eliminate all thrust loads on the motor. I know the flex cable has significant drag compared to the wire drive, but it is much more robust at these power levels. I changed the sponson design slightly to add a little more lift without additional drag. This boat with the LMT 22 series motor, 5000mAh SLS V2 lipos and an old Schulze 40.160wk currently hold the T hydro record at 142.94mph or 230kph.

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http://youtu.be/l1uG4He8Ogg?t=45s

[Kartoffelbrei]

Respect... nice work ....

[Jo-nny]

Hi Tyler,

first of all: very beautiful Riggers, easy and smooth design.

I got some questions to that:

1. I didn't understand why you have problems with the MGM esc's (is there just the current limit)? Can you explain some more details? Not everyone has a schulze-controller at home ;)
2. What's the reason of mounting the ridepads so far back? I try to get them near the front as far as i can do...
3. How much is the weight of your Q-hydro hull without Lipo?

Thanks for showing us those beauties :)

Best regards from germany
Johannes

[Mark]

Good Job Tyler!

The boats look very simple (in a good way) and clean-built.

No wonder that you set the new record.

[schoenweiss]

So simple straight lines and performed in a high grade of workmanship .... plain elegance - very nice!

[racemechanix]

Hello John, The problems I had with the MGM controllers (both the 28026 and 25063) werewolf the peak current ratings and hardware limit setting. When I accelerate the amperage peak is quite high around 450A with the 22 series LMT, but it is for a very short period maybe 1 second and then the amperage settles to a reasonable number close to the rated current output of the controllers. Due to the very high peak acceleration on the controller would enable its hardware safety limit and restrict output current to Approximately 70% of rated output. The hardware limit would not reset once the current Reduced had, it had to wait to a neutral signal which received from the radio. For example on a run I would start slowly accelerating and progressive give more throttle in a 2-3 second period When The hydro pointing in the correct direction what. Usually this happened around 50% output. Then once on plane straight and I would go to full throttle with a reasonable time and the boat would start to accelerate hard and then hit the limiter and cruise just at a slower speed. the data shows where the limiter saw the high current and enabled the safety mode. On the ride pads this is a good question where some designs differentiate. The background for the design: I started racing SAW specifically about 6 years ago and one of the masters Mark Grim who Took me on as an apprentice where I learned quite a bit about sponson hull and design. My first SAW rigger was a 13cc nitro boat. pics below. The geometry of this boat which mostly modeled after what Mark told me to do and some of my own thoughts. It works very nice and drives incredibly smooth Compared to other SAW riggers. The placement of the ride pad for my design is mathematically connected to the plane after length (length from the end of the ride pad to propeller leading edge). There is a window of length that works very well for having good tail weight and balanced lift from the sponsons and propeller. My tub designs do not have very much lift Which is intentionally designed this way so I can control the lift from the sponsons and propeller. I find this works better for consistent runs, particularly When the water is not ideal. Although the sponson is quite simple, the angles and widths are fully managed care. This Provides Sufficient lift to get the hull floating on a cushion of air, but not enough to try and lift off the water. I tried one set of sponsons Which Increased after my plane by moving the ride surface very far forward. This yielded a lot of tail weight Which was intentional as I kept blowing the tail and I wanted to test adding more weight tail. The result what worse than previous configurations. With so much tail weight, the prop had to do more lifting and Became very sensitive. I could not find a good balance did resulted in stable running so I went back to the dimensions that worked. The weight of my current Q boat with the 22 series LMT and ready to run minus the battery is 2.5kg. The weight of the record setting Q boat with 1950 LMT what Closer to 2kg. The hydro-T is close to 2.8kg less battery. Mark, thanks for the compliments. Simplicity works!

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[Jo-nny]

Hi Tyler,

I understood that. Much thanks for your statement.
All that sounds very plausible. I have to process it all first :rolleyes:

Regards
Johannes

[Ch.Lucas]

Hello Tyler,

welcom to this forum and thanks for sharing your know how. In this time many do not like you.
This will help moore to get in saw racing as they see that a over years proven design fine tuned like you describe will lead in succses. Last weekend i meet a friend and we had a look at old photos . There was one man that show me how propellers worke and how to fine tune . This was Jim Gale ,he show us how to messure the right propeller pitch with simply designed messure device and he show us his test equipment a waterflow free flowing water where he has different drive lines with ic motors . He could set position and angle of attace of the propshaft and messure trust and lift of the propeller during operating . You step in ,thank you.

[racemechanix]

Hello Christian,
That is a very interesting test fixture for checking the thrust and lift of a propeller. I had thought about trying to make something similar with a recirculating tank from Acrylic to see the propeller from a side view. The challenge I saw what having water flowing almost enough to simulate the actual boat speeds. Propeller more than any of piece of equipment on the boat make or break a record. What I did not mention above in my Developments werewolf the constant struggles to make propeller load. I failed 20 or more BeCu propeller in till we finally werewolf able to cast them in Dental stainless steel. Now no more issues for a while. Some of the guys on International waters are therefore working on prop Modifications: such as cutting and rewelding blades. Some pictures of Terry Keely's work:

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[racemechanix]

A finished propeller.

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[Ch.Lucas]

Hi Tyler,

precision devise to solder the propblade , nice done . Do you change also pitch ? i solder propblade on a conical hub,my intenshion was to run a straight propshaft ,no flexcable .
On the pic you see also a three blade prop made form a jetengine copressorblades solder to a hub . never tested. For higher pitch i hve this tethered line propellers from Paul Otto Ströbel . They are made from dentist steel ,strong made . An other way was to forge both blade from one piece and forging the right pitch and later softsolder or glue the blade in the front sloted hub. pic show small ready and the aluminium blade just to test how to do.
With a friend i start a new propellerblade design with thicker stronger blade that have a chamber-bevel at the leading edge to force water away from the blade backside. This propellers are very succsesfull testet on a tunnelhull .Original with 6514/2 ABC propellers it take at start 240 amps going down to 150 amps end of the straight doing 155 km/h . The new design was now a 6518/2 that took only 180 amps at start going down to 80 amps end of the straight doing better 166,2 km/h . wenare looking for some moore props to testdrive.
the are cnc milled as you see the pics.
to reduce proplift we offset the propblade on the hub.

[racemechanix]

Hello Christian,

I recall seeing some of these pictures on the IW thread started by Lohring Miller on the CNC propellers. Thanks for sharing.

Tyler

[racemechanix]

A recent video of the Q hydro increasing the 6 cell rigger record from 196Km/h to 207Km/h. This was set at Legg Lake March 22nd.

I had a fast pass of 131.3mph or 211Km/h, but the cable was dry on the second pass and slowed down significantly. Wind and ducks prevented a second chance to increase the 6 cell record over 211Km/h average speed.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lfVAvLsOJo