NewBoatDrone Mk2: Wood It Work?

Intro

Mk2 of the the NewBoatDrone experiment, trying to use leftover whoop parts to build a tiny FPV airboat. You should go ahead and read Part 1 to see how we got here…

Mk1 proved to be a bit too dense, so I decided to go old-school and carve a basic hull out of a block of Balsa wood, which was rather satisfying and extremely easy to do with nothing more than a hand saw and sand paper.

Since Balsa sucks up water like a sponge I gave it a good few coats of acrylic craft paint to seal it.

A simple hull, carved from Balsa Wood.

A simple hull, carved from Balsa Wood.

The next step was to create a self contained “thrust pod” which holds the flight controller, two motors, goober canopy and 1s battery, all in one handy little package that can be easily moved around between hulls. This proved to be a smart solution, and was used well past the Balsa stage.

The thrust pod is attached to the wood base with a few M2 screws. You can see in the pictures below that I added a raised bow to (try) prevent nose-diving.

Access to the FC for tuning was a nuisance though, since it had to be removed to access the USB port.

The “thrust pod” which holds all the electronics in one module

The “thrust pod” which holds all the electronics in one module

Testing

This was… partially successful at best. The entire weight distribution of the boat is completely wrong, resulting in something that desperately wanted to flip on its face. As soon as the nose or front corner catches the water it becomes a pivot point and the props lift the rear, causing a disastrous cartwheel that tests the waterproofing to it’s limit.

The steering however does work well, and the boat scoots along with impressive pace while it is upright.

The parts used in this iteration where

Stay tuned for Mk3!

Jason Suternewboatdrone, fpv, beebrainbl, waterproof, water, boat, experiment, fail