Continuing Work on Drivetrain and starting Planning for Solar Panels

This Saturday we continued work on the boat, we made the hole for the drive shaft and started planning on how we will layout all of the components. We are planning to put everything as far forward as possible to keep our center of gravity balanced. We will be placing the motor so it is as close to the bulkhead as possible. The batteries will sit along the sides of the boat, next to the motor with the speed controller below the motor.

The strut and drive shaft mounted loosely why finding where to put the motor mount.

In order to mount the motor, we are planning on using a hinge to connect the motor mount to the boat, that way we will be able to adjust the angle so that it is perfect, and we will be able to lower the motor to access the wiring behind it.

We also started work on laying out the solar cells for our panels. We order two boxes of 40, 6x6 inch cells to use for our panels. We are planning on using corrugated plastic as the backing of the panels to save weight yet remain strong. We plan to use multiple layers laminated together 90 degrees from each other to prevent buckling. Home depot has a box of 10, 4ft x 8ft x 4mm thick corrugated plastic for $110. Here is a link to the description.

The layout for our panels using 6x6 pieces of paper to represent cells.

Underneath our plan is the solar panels from a few years ago. Those panels were too powerful and over the 320 watt limit by over 150 watts. The panels had an extra 19 cells and, by removing them, we reduce weight and make it easier for the driver to see where over them.