From the drone world (not sure how applicable to water), flat edged bullnose propellers are used with ducts to minimize the gap between the duct and propeller to improve efficiency. But when used without a duct, they have much worse efficiency than a standard propeller - but more thrust because of the larger area. You should collab with rctestflight! He's been testing 3d printed propeller designs for his autonomous boat.
If he's gonna use a naked prop then 100% should be chasing down toroid designs to remove cavitation and turbulence, which increases efficiency. It is very much worth it to try at least one toroid design before switching over to jets 😀
As several people have pointed out, @RCTestFlight is awsome on custom props and seems like a real chill guy, would love to see you doing a colab! Stay cool Edwin!
I love your palpable excitement at seeing your first self-designed part come to life on the printer! A 3D printer is honestly one of the best investments you can make for prototyping and experimenting like this. Fantastic video! You definitely inspire me to get a cheap e-foil and start tinkering myself.
A thing you might try to help with drag or stability on your hydrofoil, adding 'vortex generators' might help. These are small ridges or bumps that create tiny swirls in the water, keeping the flow attached to the foil longer and reducing drag. This can lead to a smoother and more stable ride. It’s a technique used in aviation and racing that could potentially enhance your hydrofoil's performance. Might help.
Just a few printing tips. You shouldn't need any support for a cone, each layer should print on the last which makes its own support. I would also suggest you use ABS for strength and UV stability. PLA will break down in sunlight and is more brittle than ABS.
I was surprised how well that prop worked considering it's squared off to work with the shroud. If you haven't seen his channel already, @rctestflight has done a lot of research on 3D printed props.
It's awesome watching ppl realize how much potential they have & the great thing is... this is only the beginning! I say keep going until you can't take it any further with this board. 🏄♂️
Great start! Take it from someone whose done hydrodynamics and prop work for numerous marine manufacturers and world champion race boats. Perfect your foil and all the running gear in front of the prop first. Save the prop optimization until last. Also, only change one element at a time. Otherwise, you'll be chasing your tail. Just found your channel and subscribed...looking fwd to seeing your progress. Keep going on this one until your optimization is complete. You'll master both your project and your 3D printer. Plus, what you learn aid you on whatever project you choose next...
Wow, you switched out one part that you made with your 3D print and now you’re getting almost 15 miles at 23+ mph. Now it’s time to improve your wing. Do that and you might hit 18-20 miles efficiency at 27 to 30+ mph. You made your board so much better, congrats to you.
I guess it depends, but you've got the 3d printer already. Personally, I love to mix one hobby with another. As long as you're enjoying the mods, and the time you're spending tinkering with your board isn't taking away from the time you'd spending riding it, it can be really rewarding. I say ride it until you can't fix it anymore.
Great video! It’s nice to see your board is still working good and the fact you are improving it is awesome 👍 I definitely would like to see more updates on your progress on this board 😊
Oh man - this looks like a total blast. I’m afraid to start looking at boards cuz then I’ll spend a month scheming and ultimately end up having a fight with my wife who has spent too long putting up with my endless pursuit of cool toys. “I promise hon- this will be it for sure this time!” 😚
I'm here for the numbers. Your overall increase in performance (battery efficiency, speed, distance, and volume) is astounding. I would only continue to tinker if you absolutely need to. If not, I can't wait to see your next project. Congrats and thanks for sharing.
Should have modified it from beginning. Good to see the difference yes prop and wing would make big difference. Changing the pitch of the prop will effect speed and distance. Good luck.
I’m in the market for an E Foil and I just found your channel. Super cool setup you got with the 3D printer. I say take it to the next level and print your own prop!
Brother it’s the same thing. People will order in bulk from alibaba for discount, wait for the shipping and then sell them at a profit when they land in the states.
Your prop is not designed to run without a shroud, you could print another prop using the B series prop generator. I printed a prop for my 7.2kW(!) outboard and it held up very well! Just printed with pla+
Magnets may not be the issue, it's could be the cord length. That cord type tends to stretch over time, if so it may drag on occasions, and might just need to shorten it a bit.
Yessssss! Finally some 3D printing content! If you need any help let me know! Been in the hobby for 10 years, and currently have two X1Cs that are absolute units.
Shrouds or ducts around ‘propellers’ are there not for propulsion but for a secondary purpose ( such as safety or directional flow) so are Always going to cause a loss of efficiency compared to an un-shrouded prop. As for stability, drag is proportional to stability
Great video, thanks for experimenting and showing the world. It just goes to show cheap isn’t always nasty. You could shim that wobbly foil mast with some pieces soda can and resin. 👍
Reading other comments, it looks like the majority would like to see you continue to mod it as best you can and share that journey. I mean, like GHP it's the journey of the thing that is interesting. Personally, I'm the one guy that wants you to hop on the top of the line, completely sorted e foil and enjoy miles of smiles with it. I want to watch you push the envelope with a better design that already exists but I get it, it's probably boring content compared to the improvement process with what you have. Either way it's good stuff man. Fun video and I applaud all your effort to make el cheapo fly. Looking forward to the next update of your e foil journey. Cheers.
That was really interesting and exciting. I would love one of these boards and you have shown us you do not need to fork out thousands of dollars to have a go.
Keep going with what you have. The improvements/enhancements that you make that work for you will show you what to look for if you decide on a new board as well as improving many skills. New subscriber here.
Never watched your stuff before, saw the title and was impressed! Only released 6 days ago yet you’ve had it a full year, I like that style 👍🏻 Hope it’s a good video………?
You could try hanging a weight under the middle of your printer/plant table, if you don't want to get a new table. ;) Thanks for the update! If it's worth it for YOU, it'd be cool to see what you can come up with to make the ultimate upgraded cheapest efoil. Maybe get (or rent) an off-the-shelf nice-one first to get another baseline for upgrade comparisons.
The original set up requires the flat prop blades because they're designed to work with the shroud, but that shroud needs improvement, perhaps carbon fiber and a more defined airfoil shape? Print a prop for it...
Yeah it works like a ducted fan (like a fan for a computer case for the computer guys) but that shroud was big, bulky and I'm guessing made of some cheap cast metal so it was a virtual lead weight and not very optimized (likely a copy of something cheap from 40 years ago)
Good stuff Bro !!! You should finish this one, there is more to improve for sure, showing how you fix the stability issues is worth the time. The 3D printer is really interesting as well.
wow, cool, make the cheap one better, I hate cold water but love snowboarding, I actually might get a wet suite and buy an e-foil after watching this , snow board year round
edwin, the "shroud" from the prop is actually a nozzle and like others have mentioned you dont wanna delete the nozzle without changing the propeller geometry with it
Thanks for the project, You did all the things i have wanted to do but i didnt have the time and money to do. Great i can rest easy that its already been done. Really fun video, well done. I can see E-foiling becoming popular like kayaking. PS. What do you think about putting a sliding chair on it. lower center of gravity and less squirrely maybe. Control would be joystick/handles on your sides and sliding chair back and forth and leaning. I am into distance not short jaunts. Thanks again.
Personally I would be more interested in seeing you upgrade this board because I feel like there would be more to learn that way even though I don't have a board. I fly fpv drones as a hobby. It was cool when I realized why I knew your face (grind hard). I always wondered who was doing their fpv footage (I'm guessing it was you). Your editing of this video was smooth. Well done and thx for the vid. Fun watch.
Yeah, use a better prop and a more progressive taper on the cone. The cone can be pretty thin and it can be taped on with vinyl tape carefully. I put vinyl tape over the screws on my F4 and it is so silent. Of course I'm using the sail for power. I reassemble my foil every time because I'm in saltwater
I was watching a random 5k sub channel about 3D printing scarf seam tips for my P1S and guy was wearing a Grind Hard shirt. Made me think you guys must have some use for that occasionally in the shop.
I think the holes below your new white chaulk is just screwholes for the bulky stock cone end and if the motor is sealed than that seal should be more inside. I would like to see you combine your new end cone and the stock one into one optimized part.
I have the similar board combo and would love to see how far you can push the limits on this thing. I am thinking about doing something with the angle on the wing myself as its super strange to go any faster than 80% thotle with the nose pointing down as you mentioned in you video. Keep up the good work with your videos, really enjoying them 🤙🏻
Always been intrigued by this as a Onewheel rider. My only issue is E-foil is that its seasonal. Not gonna spend 5-7K on something that I can only ride for 3 months when eMTBs and Onewheels can be ridden almost year-round in CA.
I would like to see a prop design competition for your sub's with a leader board in the back ground. Who can make the best designed prop that will provide both speed and stability for the board.
Cool channel, new subscriber here... Pro tip on working with silicone: Use an ice cube to smooth over. Silicone obviously doesn't stick to melting ice, and water doesn't affect/mess-with silicone (wet or dry).
I would very much like to see how you re-angle the foil to raise the board nose, and see how much better the performance is with a prop with proper tips for use without a duct.
To change the pitch of your aerofoil you can perhaps try what the guys at Veem are doing with propellers. They make props with plastic inserts which change the pitch and also for these revolutionary Sharrow props. Perhaps you mightn't need to make a new wing, just add a slot and a piece of plastic.
I *think* you could avoid all the supports if you simply printed that model upside down. It takes a while designing stuff before you get into the mindset of designing supports out of your prints as aggressively as possible, but it *really* helps once you decide to graduate from PLA to PETG and it always saves a bunch of material.
Thank you for this follow-up video! If you take off the prop guard, you should really wear al least shoes. I always wear light diver's shoes and also a Long John suit. And in a few occasions it was good I had them. For stability I'd say you could start with bringing your back foot more forward. Your weight should be equally distributed to both feet when flying level. From the footage it looks as if your rear foot was way too far back. So my recommendation is to first play with your position on the board. There are mount kits that will vary either the angle of the wing to the fuselage or the angle of the mast to the board. But I would try that only if your board really doesn't fly at all or has a very hard time to do so. Concerning the prop I'd really be interesed in how you'll do that. In an ideal world all the components of all the boards would just fit. Just like it is in wind surfing. In the old days there was a huge number of fin and mast mounts and now there are at least some standards. Maybe this will happen when more people get into this sport, so thank you again for promoting it.
As others have said, ask rctestflight if he can give pointers regarding the prop. I'm jealous that you started your modeling/3D printing with a X1 though 😂. Look forward to seeing how far you can max out the board!
Thats some impressive gains and its still not 100%, I'd carry on Edwin, push the boundaries, Thats what 3D prototyping is all about. (Be warned, V1.0 soon turns into V10.2, Ive been building another 3D printer, but as you go... you see improvements that need a reCAD/slice/print. Ive a large draw full of pre-runners that got shelved before use, Bambu's a good choice though)
