The most common and effective methods of waterproofing electric motors include specialized casing, which covers the motor in a specialized case to create protection against water damage. Specialized cases are expensive and can be difficult to install. Waterproof shaft seals protect the moving parts of an electric motor, such as the shaft and bearings, by creating an enclosed area for the motor’s inner workings. One way to do this is to enclose the motor and the inside end of the tube inside a small sealed box.
Water falling or splashing directly on the frame can work its way into the motor via the frame to bracket fits (openings in the brackets where the shaft extends out) or at the motor’s frame. If you have a motor application that involves operation in a wet or damp environment, it is essential to know the proper choice of motor enclosure and the correct method. Oriental Motor has developed the BMU and BLE2 Series watertight, dust-resistant brushless motors (IP66/IP67 brushless motor) that can be washed with water.
If a motor gets wet, follow these general steps: Disconnect Power: Turn off the power supply to the motor immediately to prevent further damage and reduce the risk of electrical shock. Inspect and Dry: Open the motor.
Submersible motors are designed to safely operate in and under water due to their rugged construction, secure sealing, and protective safety monitoring. To waterproof a motor, seal the entire stator in epoxy, and use marine grease to pack a layer of at least 3mm where the motor shaft will protrude. Wipe off any unnecessary grease from the internal housing and from the motor.
In summary, waterproofing electric motors is crucial for their longevity and performance in wet or damp environments.
📹 Waterproofing the motors
In this tutorial you will learn how to waterproof your motors for your underwater robot.
How to protect a motor from moisture?
The use of high-quality sealants and gaskets is crucial for the effective protection of motor enclosure joints, seams, and openings from the intrusion of moisture. In order to ensure the long-term integrity of gaskets, they should be manufactured from materials that are inherently moisture-resistant.
Can DC motors work underwater?
It is possible for the DC motor to operate within an aqueous environment; however, this may result in a reduction in speed.
How to make a motor waterproof?
Electric motors are often not waterproof due to their lack of necessity for specific applications. However, waterproofing can be achieved by covering the motor in a specialized casing, which is expensive and provides some protection against water damage. Additionally, waterproof shaft seals are used to protect the moving parts of the motor, such as the shaft and bearings. These seals create an enclosed area for the motor’s inner workings, ensuring they are protected from liquids.
However, waterproofing comes with added costs and limits overall performance, making it only worthwhile for specific applications like pumps, fluid handling, pool cleaners, and off-road vehicles. Overall, the most effective methods for making an electric motor waterproof include specialized casing and waterproof shaft seals.
Can electric motors get wet?
Open-type motors are not suitable for damp environments due to their lack of built-in waterproofing. However, they can be used in real-world situations when no other option is available. To keep the motor cool, a shelter around it is typically created, but this requires sufficient ventilation or a fan system. Louvered grills or adjustable grills can be used. The motor’s mounting position must also be considered, as the shelter cannot inhibit its operation. Ceiling-mounted motors should have ventilation placed away from moisture sources. A more closed enclosure with a better cooling system can be built.
How to waterproof a drone motor?
Two popular solutions for waterproofing drone electronics are silicone and acrylic. Acrylic coating is easy to remove and can be easily burned with a soldering iron. However, it lacks durability due to the heat generated by video transmitters in quadcopter components. Silicone coating is preferred for quadcopters or RC models as it can withstand higher temperatures. Flywoo offers a superhydrophobic spray that is easy to apply but not a complete waterproofing solution like conformal coating.
How to seal a DC motor?
To make your DC motor waterproof, seal the moving parts like the shaft and bearings with waterproof shaft seals. Rubber rings can be used to protect against water, but many waterproofing methods limit airflow to the motor, impacting performance. It is not recommended to waterproof a DC motor unless necessary. If you want to run your motor underwater, follow these tips to protect it from damage.
Are brushless motors waterproof?
Brushless motors are capable of functioning in an entirely submerged state, exposed to water, and without the occurrence of burnout or short-circuit. These products are available from a number of sources, including BR Distributors, service providers, research papers, 3D printables, and software documentation.
Are engines rain proof?
Heavy rain can lead to car breakdowns, especially in older vehicles, as damp weather can cause issues with engines and electrical systems. Even with advanced technology, cars are not waterproof, and driving through puddles of standing water can cause water to get sucked into the engine, causing long-term damage. Rain is also prone to car accidents, as the hydrophobicity of windshields makes it difficult to see through, making driving more challenging.
Additionally, rainfall is made up of harmful pollutants, which stick to the car and leave difficult-to-remove marks. Despite the challenges, driving in heavy rain is essential for maintaining safety and preventing accidents. Therefore, it is crucial to be prepared for potential car breakdowns and accidents during heavy rain.
Can a brushless motor go underwater?
Brushless motors are capable of functioning in an entirely submerged state, exposed to water, and without the occurrence of burnout or short-circuit. These products are available from a number of sources, including BR Distributors, service providers, research papers, 3D printables, and software documentation.
How do you remove moisture from a motor?
The drying of damp motors can be achieved through a number of different methods, including the use of hot air drying, bulb baking drying, AC electric drying, low voltage DC drying, and iron loss drying. A heat-insulating drying chamber with an exhaust port and inlet port is utilized, connected to a 3 kW (220V) heater. The heated air is introduced into the drying chamber via a blower.
Are DJI motors waterproof?
In a recent interview, a DJI expert clarified that the 100 motors are not waterproof and are therefore not recommended for use in rainy or snowy conditions. The Mavic, which is equipped with air vents, is better suited for use in inclement weather, including rain, due to its superior weather tolerance. While the Matrice 200 is water resistant, it is not waterproof. Furthermore, the brushless motors may malfunction in wet conditions. It is inadvisable to use either the 100 or 200 models in outdoor settings.
📹 Waterproof 3D Printed Brushless Motor… Will it work?
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Problems of heating: 1. Eddy currents, which might be heating the iron within the PLA, typically motors use laminated steel to minimise this. 2. PLA being a good insulator and not being able to dissipate heat generated from eddy currents or the resistive heating of the copper. 3. Friction from bearings Efficiency: Due to the lack of conductive material required for magnetic permeability achieving high efficiency will be difficult. Very cool though, I may have to print one 🙂
I can provide a little bit of insight into waterproofing your electronics pod, if that’s the thing you need to do again. It’s possible for water to infiltrate the pod between the insulation of a wire and the wire itself like a tiny plastic hose, so at the point where the wire goes through from the dry side to the wet side through the resin you want to strip off a bit of insulation, so there’s a short section of exposed copper inside the resin, then the resin will effectively plug the little pipe created by the insulation on the wire, and because the wires aren’t touching the resin becomes the new insulation that separates them inside the joint. It’s not too big an issue just to be rainproof, but when you’re dealing with water pressure it always finds its way in. You can also or additionally pressurize your electronics package, install a Schrader valve like on a tire to the PVC pipe or the cap on the opposite end and pump it up to pressure higher than what you’re going to encounter at the bottom of your operating depth.
For the stator, may be cut a metal strip into rectangles and then stack them up into several blocks. You could then 3D print a structure with iron-filled PLA to hold them together. Altenatively, insert holes in the existing stator so you can insert nails into them. They’d have to be inserted from the inside though so they don’t risk sliding out.
Ok, I’ve been planning on building my own small 3 phase motor and design is definitely a great starting point for me. As for improvements using a cnc laser cutter or similar device, cut out the stator from thin steel sheets and stack them in high temp resin. That is my plan partially, Ill end up tweaking your design a bit more but not for improvements but to fit my purpose. Dude thanks and keep up the work!
You need to have a iron (or steel) core. The 3D filament you use never works efficiently. Not only have I tried it but other YouTubers have tried it and we all have the same result. However you have your own milling machine. I think it should be possible for you to get some really thin steel sheets, and either cut them out on that directly and laminate them together yourself or, maybe cut squares quickly and spray some kind of insulating layer on them and stick them together one on top of the other until you get a thick piece and then mill out that thick piece to the shape you need. Either way you end up with a laminated core like all of them have. This will not only make it more efficient, but give the coils a heat removal path.
You did amazing Bruv I love the resin being used! I also love how you make it easy for everybody to understand. This is some innovative thinking! We need more inventors like you to progress in this world! I love it! we can make so much progress with bldc motors! Your design looks soooo well balanced! Personal bldc vehicles are coming!!!! Try tilting the magnets 25’. Looking forward to the next project! A/c free energy, LOL
I can recommend looking up on three phase Y and Delta connections for motors. Generally (if i remember correctly) you start the motor in delta connection and then switch over to Y connection after the motor is started. This gives the motor better stability at the start and becomes more efficient after switching to Y connection. The draw back is that the circuits become more complex. Additional notice: Tesla is just started working with six phase motors. But I speculate that they just drive both side of the coils instead of doing a Y/Delta connection.
I actually created a 3D printed Brushless DC, Areal flux Pancake style, 6 coils, 8 magnets, 15AMP ESC. I had the same issues you did with melting coils, so I “upgraded” to PetG, which helped to some degree. Issue is though, I couldn’t find any metal version of PetG, so I also experimented with core metal screws to clamp the coils to the stator, which helped some with the tork and the starting issues, that i saw you had issues with too. For heat dissipation I designed a version where the rotor assembly had small lamels shaped like wings to create airflow through the rotor and stator, in an effort to cool down windings… It kind of requires a pancake design to make room for the airflow in a direction that would help, and so now you can also get this in commercial BLDC’s, which I think is a testimony that it actually would be a way to go too… I however never had the tools to get this version “good enough” to run.
Regarding the heat dissipation problem there are many good suggestions in the comments. One less good suggestion: consider making a variation of the components which melted that can be actively water-cooled (i.e. there are empty websites through the hot parts which you pump water through). Or run your tests in a fish tank, at least.
‘ Will it work?’ Yes, of course it can basically work. The real problem is increasing gaps, etc to make a waterproof motor. You’re generally better off to have a sealed bubble for a dry motor, and then just a magnetic coupling for the shaft through the wall to spin the propeller. There’s very little gain in trying to make the motor itself waterproof, and so many ways to lose by trying to do it.
Really impressive that you’ve gotten a DIY brushless DC motor to work. And pretty cool that it can spin a propeller pretty well. I’m guessing this not intended as a practical use item – more of an interesting project right? It spinning so slowly means your kv is pretty low. The main problem here (besides efficiency losses) is that normal brushless dc motors can get up to 90 degrees Celcius. 3D printing the stator means that it melts way before that, thus you can’t get the amount of power throughput that you need. Making the stator out of metal would help…
Some people suggest eddy currents as a problem – this is most certainly not correct as the iron filings in the metal pla are separated by… pla (famously an insulator)… thus the eddy currents in the grains of iron are incredibly small and would not produce basically any heating. Having said that, the PLA with iron filings is not that good of a material to use for a core, as the magnetic permeability is literally not much better than just air and pla on its own. It basically just adds weight and lower temperature stability for no gain. You might want to use PP filament if possible next time, as it melts at a much higher temperature, but with low thermal conductivity, any plastic is going to be fairly poor as core (and casing) material in the end. I noticed the very low efficiency of the motor, a fair bit of it is probably to do with how large the air gap between the electromagnets and permanent magnets are. The larger the air gap the less of the available flux from permanent magnets you use. You definitely need to reduce it down by a lot, especially if you want to use a Halbach array. In addition, the motor looks quite wobbly with rather large bearings so there’s probably some friction- and other big mechanical losses there. You might also want to consider a back-iron for the permanent magnets as well. The winding configuration is probably fine, as the calculator uses the best practices. Another thing to think about is that because your core material is very much sub-optimal, then long electromagnets like radial flux motors often go for, are going to be less efficient.
I think the most obvious suggestion would be to use a higher temp plastic for the stator. I’m not sure how the windings work, will have to check out that website. If used underwater, that actually wouldn’t be a problem. – Try that same design, on your sub? No way it can overheat. You could probably overdrive it. The issue is heat, and you have an entire lake of watercooling.
Are you able to minimize the air gap between magnets and the stator? IIRC, the rate of field strength decrease is greater for Halbachs as you move away from the magnets vs a N-S-… configuration and/or standard magnet. If you’re going to put the effort into Halbach arrays, minimizing the air gap will be critical to utilizing the benefit provided by Halbachs.
It’s interesting that your stator melted, but while eddie currents are often cited as the cause, i’d wager it’s more likely to be simply the winding current you were seeing at full power. I think the more important thing to consider is what part of a BLDC motor needs to be waterproofed. With a bit of enamel or some manner of coating, the steel parts of a cots BLDC motor could be corrosion proofed. Making the stator out of steel laminates, and in fact making the rotor out of a steel ring, are very important to a motor’s efficiency as those materials and their shapes help focus the EM fields in the most optimal locations. The amount of incohesive iron or steel in the plastic is likely not very useful, and the plastic rotor will do nothing to focus the M fields inward. The biggest issue with waterproofing a BLDC that I can see is the bearings. That is where something that can withstand corrosive emersion at depth is important. in your motor, you used unsealed bearings, so you were able to wash them afterwards, but even then, they will struggle to retain lubrication and in your post-water test, you could already see rust forming on one of the races. Sealed bearings do a much better job of retaining lubricants and keeping out debris, but even they are not typically fluid proof, nor able to withstand hydraulic pressures experienced at depth. I still think this is really cool, and an awesome way to learn more about motors. I wonder how someone could make a BLDC motor with bearings that could withstand prolonged cycling in and out of water/saltwater.
I think I can give you some help with fluids, as that’s closer to my area of expertise. You should really avoid spinning parts from free waterflow and there’s plenty of effects messing the flow down the line, especially if the propeller comes after it, so put it in some casing with cooling ducts as necessary. You could also make the whole assembly smoother by making the cap fit perfectly to the propeller and have some rounded edges. Invest some time into CFD.
This is just ground breaking. There have been suggestions for the heating and balancing issues My advice is to make a metal housing for it (like a tube) which lets water through (for cooling) then plate the inside with a diamagnetic material to confine the magnetic field to the stator and maximize flux density
print the stator in thin layers,get some vinyl or something else that insulating and put between stator layers, you could use thin layers of insulating enamel used for winding wires, then epoxy the stator together, this will get cut down on the eddycurrents or just send your stator file to send cut send get sponsored, so its free and laminate it together with electrical enamel.
I’m not sure how similar electric motors are to solenoids (in physical & power calculations, but I think they are pretty similar) but I remember being amazed at the difference in force the solenoid could generate by reducing the distance (space) between the coil & the magnet/iron core. You want to do absolutely everything possible to get that gap as close to zero as possible and I’d suspect the same thing should be considered when designing the distance between the rotor to stator. IDK if you would be able to turn either on a lathe to make the fit as close as you dare, I guess even using a drill press & sanding the piece might be a substitute for the lathe. Would the motor benefit from any type of flux shielding?
You can’t really expect an electric motor to be efficient and powerful with all these magnetic loses. Not sure about the performance of this iron filled PLA in this application but the rotor doesn’t has any metal at all which leaves a big air gap (or plastic gap in this case) between the outer side of the magnets. The magnetic flux needs to run in a closed loop through a stator finger, the magnet, the rotor casing and then back via the neigbouring magnets and stator fingers. Every millimeter in this path that doesn’t run through a ferromagnetic material adds to the losses. It may be worth and try to print the rotor case from iron filled PLA also. But you would probably also have to change the mounting of the magnets because the slots for the magnets would create a kind of shortcut between poth poles of the magnets. I’m pretty sure it’s possible to improve efficency a lot but probably not to the level of a motor build from “proper” magnetic materials.
Ok, so you want to make an underwater propulsion system? Why not make a super duper rim thruster?! I’d like to see one DIY made. There are companies that already make them but I’d like to see somebody like you make a smaller version. I’d actually like to see somebody make a rim driven lens for GoPros to spin the water off of the lens of the camera for water sports. Have fun! Cheers, John
1. Quality of winding is crucial for efficiency – each deviation from wires going in paralel in same coil weakens magnetic field very much. Also make sure that centrifugal force does not mess up coil shape. 2. If possible – move magnets closer to stator. Magnetic field decreases by quare of distance, so each change, especially on small scales, makes big difference. 3. For heat – you can re-shape your rotating motor case holes so that each such hole acts as small fan blade that moves air inside the motor to cool it
My drone motors work fine in the water til the bearings give out from the lubrication being displaced. I dunno if this was addressed in the article no time to watch currently but yeah brushless motors are good in water generally as long as the power source itself isn’t being shorted which is a pretty easy thing to accomplish. So in reality I think all you did was make a custom motor that isn’t as powerful or durable as motors you can buy. Pretty neat and fun stuff to do though.
Electric motors have a little problem: magnets are double sided,not one sided. That means that an electric motors are actually not having a full power but around 50% depending on design. But,if you use bell electromagnets (they are used in electric cranes) you will get full 100% of magnetic field power. As a matter of fact,a 20 mm magnet with 100-200 rounds of 0,1 mm wire powered by 3 AA sized batteries connected in series can lift ~140 kilos.
efficiency will never be anything unless you use laminated transformer armature or stater as they will direct the magnetic field most efficiently to the opposing magnets… Also bearings will get damaged underwater as there are many particles which will wear the bearings out even if they are ceramic apart from the friction of the water in between all the motor parts which are very close together generally….
Hello, I am designing a similar motor entirely with composite materials, in the end the only thing printed would be the molds, the stator for its part to avoid suffering from these problems, first I chose to design a stator with a combination of epoxy resin and compacted iron powder in a silicone mold, this silicone mold would be made with a 3D printed piece of the stator, being a powder it does not generate Facault currents, but since the core is less efficient it produces greater heating of the copper coils, the epoxy It resists the heat generated much better, the casings of my engine will be made of forged carbon fiber whose mold to make them would also be a 3D printed piece, 3D printing is fantastic for testing but if what you want is precision and durability At the core you must opt for better materials, which is why 3D printing falls short.
Use a standard stator. It’s cheap, widely available in different sizes. The main reason of building a DIY motor is a precise optimization for your load. Otherwise a price (a chassis, magnets, wire..) is about a same to a motor from China PS People achieved 90% of efficiency with a pre-made stator. Of course all measurements were made on a rig, not with a propeller that might not match to a drive
Привет, если ты посмотришь через “магнитную бумагу ” то можно увидеть, что магнитные поля выходят за пределы мотора, это очень плохо скажется на его эффективности и тяге. Во второй версии, если она будет, советую между корпусом мотора и магнитами вставлять металлическую пластину, точно не помню, может ли она касаться магнитов или должна быть на расстоянии от них, лучше поэкспериментировать. Ее толщину нужно подобрать экспериментально, но я бы советовал использовать от 2 миллиметров, но, опять же, советую поэкспериментировать. Такая модернизация сильно повысит тягу мотора, что в твоём случае с и так не очень эффективным мотором даст ощутимый эффект.
I think the printed coil core could be a problem. I really do not know how good the printed material is in regards to magnetic flux. I also were thinking about how to make this Motor stronger (if the other problems are fixed) and would like to ask if a magnet configuration like it is used in a Halbach-Array would be benificial (increased magnetic flux from the permanent magnets side)? Or if the increased weight from the extra magnets makes it a net minus tradeoff?
When using iron-filled PLA to enhance magnetic permeability and increase the Lorentz force, its effectiveness is limited. This material tends to generate heat due to eddy currents induced by intersecting magnetic fields, much like the mechanism in induction cooktops. The majority of the magnetic flux travels through the air gap, interacting with the enameled copper wire within the stator slots to generate the Lorentz force. To effectively strengthen the magnetic field, strategies such as reducing magnet spacing, using larger magnets, or employing a Halbach array are more efficient. The primary source of stator heating is the current flow through the copper coils, which generates heat similar to heating elements like nichrome wire. For the stator, it’s advisable to use a heat-resistant material with a rating of at least 250°C, such as Polyimide (PI) or Polyetheretherketone (PEEK). These materials, processed via CNC machining, offer superior thermal resistance and mechanical strength. For the rotor, a thin-walled aluminum pipe can be used for the inner ring, encased in a 3D-printed shell with integrated bearings for optimal performance.
I don’t know if this is what is happening here, but, we have the heat problem at my job sometimes. Solenoid coils burning up (Doh!) has to do with a light load on an electromagnet from a stuck valve. It just roasts the epoxy casing in 10 minutes. I don’t know the science, I just service it. But I feel like something similar is happening here going by the comments. My semi-educated guess would be stronger magnets on the ring.
Unfortunately your lack of efficiency is from iron filled filament. I’ve read the datasheet, it states the relative permeability 5-8 and saturation at 0.15T. They are way tooooo low for motor – iron has permeability at least 2000-3000 and 1T saturation. That filament is close to ideal for some type of inductor cores. You need laser-cut transformer iron for the motor.
The magnet-pockets are too “deep”, making the air-gap to the stator too wide, that´s bad, maybe you use shallow pockets and glue instead of dowel-pockets next time. also, the gap becomes less aero/hydrodynamic with such pockets, slowing the motor. turning surfaces and other surfaces opposite of turning surfaces have to be as flat/smooth as possible and let water/air circulate without hinderance.
– doesn’t everybody in the RC space kind of realise (ok 5:28 you say that – making the title clickbait) that all brushless motors are electricaly sealed from factory… obviously steel components will corrode in seawater (or other non-fresh sources) use ceramic bearings – but what was achieved here?? For flooded operation – streamlining all the motor internals with epoxy could help with turbulence.. – ( for high pressure water resistance of electronics, simply fill the whole electronic enclosure in mineral (transformer) oil – a balloon or condom around the boards will keep oil out of barometers or other sensors which may need to remain dry (if that is actually any problem..) – or simply conformal coat – then fill with oil…)
I know I’m late to this article, however you’re really going to be doomed to very low efficiency as long as you construct your magnetic parts out of anything but iron/steel. Without that metal to properly develop a uniform, strong magnetic field, you’re essentially throwing away a lot of power. –And as you found out, it’s also going to self-destruct when the core heats up and melts your PLA. I’ve recently gone over the challenges in designing your own BLDC motor, and it’s rough. The stator material is quite expensive, and it’s very tedious to machine many layers of the metal and stick them together, being careful to insulate each layer to prevent shorting out the power that’s developed between layers. Ultimately, it’s possible, but it’s so much more expensive and less efficient than just buying one.
I’ve been thinking it might be possible to print a BLDC motor that has the stator water cooled. Its probably going to be the static part sandwiched between two rotors in an axial configuration. I’ve printed simple small axial motors that work and used the very same winding pattern generator you used in this article but used axial magnets instead of radial. I have bought a Bambu Labs Carbon X1 and can now print CF Nylon which is both a lot stronger and has a higher temperature resistance than PLA. Finally have a look at this fracture pattern forming on a vinyl disk spun at very high speed: youtu.be/n-DTjpde9-0 I suspect high speed rotors would break from the outside in, this makes sense since the forces are greater at the circumference, one solution would be to wrap carbon fibre tow around the outside edge…
It has been on my todo list for sometime, maybe you can do it given you have the time and skills. The idea is the propeller has no center hub, but a ring with the blades going towards the center. The stator is in the ‘duct’ or kort nozzle around the prop ring, so the prop blades also get the benefit of the ducting. This makes the whole thing water cooled, and the ring magnets hold the prop without any bearings required. There is a name for this setup but I can’t remember what it is. This is prop setup used on some really big ships, that use electric driven props and diesel generators to provide the power. OK, i think it is called a RIM drive prop, here is a pic en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rim-driven_thruster#/media/File:Rim-Driven_Thruster_(Swing-Out).png Here is a article, youtube.com/watch?v=Te_xejpriFM
Seems like your motor wants to spin faster, like maybe 10-15k rpm for high efficiency. You could give it lower load and balance it to let it run faster. Balancing might be helpful anyway. However the related problem is that the dissipated power would be larger at those higher speeds, and I think this motor would melt first. You could redesign it to be efficient at lower speeds and/or lower power, and reduce waste. Pick a few from: 1) use more windings of thinner wire 2) use a better stator eg low-hysteresis ferrite or laminated steel, you know good transformer materials 3) put a yoke around those permanent magnets so they’re not wasting field in free space out the back 4) smaller gap between rotor and stator.
maglev lorentz ac motor, with radial current thick wire, always rotates to same direction, with both ac current directions, the current wire functions as the copper maglev plate, no windings, possible only the induction loop at the current wire end. I hate BLDC pulse motors, no continuous force, has pulse gaps.
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:00 🛠️ This article is about a 3D-printed brushless motor designed from scratch. 00:17 🧲 Brushless DC motors work through electromagnetic fields generated by magnets and stators. 00:46 🖨️ The motor design is mostly 3D-printed, with parts made from standard PLA+ and iron-filled PLA. 01:19 ⚙️ Winding the stator with 22-gauge enameled copper wire is a challenging but crucial step in motor assembly. 02:04 🧲 Magnets are added alternately around the outer housing, creating a magnetic field. 03:05 📁 CAD files for the motor are available for free, thanks to the sponsor, Onshape, a cloud-native CAD platform. 05:50 🌊 The motor is tested underwater on an underwater drone, successfully operating at significant depths. 08:53 🌊 The motor reaches a depth of 99 feet underwater during testing. 11:15 🔬 A data-driven test rig measures the motor’s power output and efficiency, highlighting areas for potential improvement. Made with HARPA AI
Impressive build and testing quality, well done. Now, go and study magnetic theory until you understand ‘flux’ and how to guide it through your structures. Adding some ‘back iron’, a flux path to contain the magnetic field around the outside of the rotor magnets will be a big help. Next, look into the material of the poles under the windings, you need to balance ‘reluctance’ (how well the material carries flux), and ‘eddy current losses’ (electric currents generated in the pole material, related to conductive area, you don’t want that.). This guy shows what an analytical approach can achieve youtube.com/watch?v=yxZZ2M3gRyI
Sorry, on shape isn’t all that. And the fact that it’s more expensive then fusion makes it a no-go. The worst part is all of your CAD is public domain unless you buy a subscription. And don’t think for a minute that these guys are going to keep the free version like it is. Just ask anybody who started out free with fusion. It’s all about getting a big user base and then flipping the script and charging a minimal fee. I’m sorry but I’m not getting fooled again.
You are measuring efficiency with thrust from a prop? …well you aint measuring motor efficiency then. Jury rig a prony brake together or something. Your setup will not onlx include prop losses, its also going to be wildly inaccurate for any motor whose optimum characteristics dont match the optimum speed and torque needed for drivingnthe fixed pitch prop xou have.