After two weeks of grueling work, We have completed our goal... Almost. We completely overhauled the drive system and replaced it in a matter of hours. Furthermore, we completely replaced the steering, added a liquid cooling pump, and cleaned the boat. It works beautifully. However, we haven't been able to push it to full capacity. The motor only draws 200 AMPs when the batteries are capable of so much more. Once we troubleshoot this problem, we can get the boat moving at our 25 MPH goal. 

We wanted to use this final blog post to thank our mentors for their help with this project. To my dad, Nathan Shenck, thank you for coming out to help me with some miscellaneous task whenever I asked. I appreciate you helping us throughout the prototyping and final design phase. To Ms. Wesley, I know we haven't come to ask for advice much, but we are appreciative of you helping us during our planning phase. WE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN. The boat will be moving by the end of the month.

The battery housing and charging setup is complete and ready to be mounted onto the boat. The adaptor to run a chain from the motor to the drive shaft has been welded as well. Everything is just about ready to be implemented and function as one system. Some more work to be done.

​

Although we are a bit behind our planned (although optimistic) schedule, there are few things that we still need to do. Firstly, we are going to contract Mitchell to weld together a final piece that will connect the electric motor to the prop. This will require a bit of time, I'm sure, but we have other things to implement in the process. We found the water proof case to store the batteries in so that they don't come in contact with any water as we are using the boat. Then we are hoping to figure out any cosmetic details that need tweaked. 

MAJOR updates for the past month! The battery setup is complete and the system works. We are excited to implement it into the boat as soon as the chargers and converters arrive. In order to connect it to the drive shaft of the boat motor, we removed the crank shaft from the old powerhead and had Mitchell angle grind the female adapter off of it... in the school parking lot. Still much to do, but the train doesn't stop, and neither do we.

After receiving feedback from our winter work review, we have worked to hash out a more concrete plan of attack for getting our project done. We have create a realistic yet hopeful set of dates to have part of the project in by. The idea is to have each step completed by a rough date (part shipment and weather cooperating), so that we can have the boat in the water by early march. Basically the only feedback that we received from the faculty that listened to our project was that we didn't have a firm enough timeline. We have worked to remedy this, but the nature of our project is such that we cannot know exactly when things can be done. 

We have some good news, our batteries have arrived! The 4 giant lithium ion battery cells have been delivered to Nates house, meaning that we are almost completely finished finding and receiving parts for all of our systems. It's true that we have not made a significant amount of progress in the last week, but future weekends hold a couple days that we plan to put our nose to the grindstone. Our first order to business will be to fit the motor to the engine and then mount the four battery cells into their prospective positions on the boat. More updates to come!

After our last excursion with Mitchell, Nate and I went to our respective locations for winter break. Throughout our vacations, however, we stayed in contact and were diligent in trying to make steps towards the completion of our project. I have been looking into the right gears and chain for our chain drive and Nate has been configuring how he is going to implement the four large battery packs into the boat. We plan on meeting this Sunday to put the motor physically on the boat and to create our final presentation. We are optimistic that our project will be completely approved and that we will subsequently become full fellows. We will keep updating with out progress. 

On Sunday the 17th, Nate and I met to put some time into our project. We took a trip to Home Depot to find steel plates for our motor mount. It was then that we realized that we had no idea what to buy or how to manipulate it. We ended up calling Mitchell Seaton, another Van Eeny Fellow. We ended up driving our metal and the motor to his house to use the metal shaping tools that he had. However, we didn't do all that much. In the 5 hours that we were in Davidsonville, Nate and I drilled a total of 4 holes into some steel. Mitchell was instrumental in our success. Regardless, our motor mount is complete and we are one step closer to completion of the project.