ONERCBOATER
Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2010
- Messages
- 536
I put this in the pontoon section because, it is going on a pontoon, and it it most applicable to houseboats and pontoons.
The modifications to my 20ft pontoon continue as does the work. A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to get a pair of Minn Kota trolling motors,4 swivel seats, and two deepcycle batteries for $70. The trolling motors each had something wrong with them, so I took the newer model endura (less than a yr old) and removed its broken bracket, and replaced it with the good bracket of the other trolling motor, it went to my jon boat.
That left me with two trolling motors...each with damage to the head units but perfectly good lower units and shafts ea with 36#s thrust...
I got to thinking 36x2=72 hmm 72 lbs is enough to push a pontoon boat around nicely.
So a lil research later I found a DC motor control unit that would allow for differential operation of 2 brushed DC electric motors up to 50A continuous and 100A spikes for each unit. the controller can be found here. http://www.dimensionengineering.com/Sabertooth2x50HV.htm
What I am going to do with it is hook 1 trolling motor up to each channel, and place one each behind each pontoon, use a throttle joystick pulled from an RC airplane controller because it has a ratcheted action which will allow me to set it at whatever speed i like. The differential portion of the motor controller will allow me single joystick control...full fwd, reverse with both motors, and tank like turning without moving fwd or backward by reversing one and driving the other in FWD or any combination of the controls. This method should give me a high degree of control at low speed, and as a bonus feature with the flip of a switch I will be able to utilize a radio control system and operate my boat remotely should the need arise such as loading on trailer, or unloading and docking on a busy ramp. The system will have multiple fail safes built in, one for the motor controller (bad, corrupted,or absent signal shut down) one for the radio system (FHSS=frequency hopping spread spectrum, also signal failure or corruption of signal) shutdown of motors to preprogrammed positions. I am also going to fabricate a rack and pinion system to raise and lower the motors automatically when the system is armed/disarmed.
So what do you guys think?
Sean
The modifications to my 20ft pontoon continue as does the work. A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to get a pair of Minn Kota trolling motors,4 swivel seats, and two deepcycle batteries for $70. The trolling motors each had something wrong with them, so I took the newer model endura (less than a yr old) and removed its broken bracket, and replaced it with the good bracket of the other trolling motor, it went to my jon boat.
That left me with two trolling motors...each with damage to the head units but perfectly good lower units and shafts ea with 36#s thrust...
I got to thinking 36x2=72 hmm 72 lbs is enough to push a pontoon boat around nicely.
So a lil research later I found a DC motor control unit that would allow for differential operation of 2 brushed DC electric motors up to 50A continuous and 100A spikes for each unit. the controller can be found here. http://www.dimensionengineering.com/Sabertooth2x50HV.htm
What I am going to do with it is hook 1 trolling motor up to each channel, and place one each behind each pontoon, use a throttle joystick pulled from an RC airplane controller because it has a ratcheted action which will allow me to set it at whatever speed i like. The differential portion of the motor controller will allow me single joystick control...full fwd, reverse with both motors, and tank like turning without moving fwd or backward by reversing one and driving the other in FWD or any combination of the controls. This method should give me a high degree of control at low speed, and as a bonus feature with the flip of a switch I will be able to utilize a radio control system and operate my boat remotely should the need arise such as loading on trailer, or unloading and docking on a busy ramp. The system will have multiple fail safes built in, one for the motor controller (bad, corrupted,or absent signal shut down) one for the radio system (FHSS=frequency hopping spread spectrum, also signal failure or corruption of signal) shutdown of motors to preprogrammed positions. I am also going to fabricate a rack and pinion system to raise and lower the motors automatically when the system is armed/disarmed.
So what do you guys think?
Sean
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