What We Did
We decided to do our hybrid car, only as a boat. We decided to have it electric powered and for the motor to be above the water. We decided to have it electrically powered as to not pollute the water, so it would still be hybrid.
Some Problems We Had/ Design choices
One of our biggest problem was the size of the original 1 volt motor. It was able to spin the oars out of the water but did not have enough voltage to cut through the water. We then decided to change the size of the motor to 18 volts. That motor was strong enough only when it was running on a full 18 volts of power to actually move thru the water.Our paddles with four oar on it helped the boat move through the water because that meant their was always an oar in the water at any given time, so then the oars would not spin to fast above the water and slap the water when it came around again. We also had issues with our water proofing. We only put the sealing spray on the bottom of the boat, so when the boat flipped over, water got through the styrofoam and settled on the bottom. That then caused all the paint and sealant to peel off. We purposely chose the paint we did because once applied, it hardened to an enamel finish. We wanted that so the sealant wouldn't melt the styrofoam, but we needed the sealant on top of the paint because the paint was water based,meaning it would dissolve in water. This did work until the boat flipped over.
Final Blueprint
Video of boat working
Reflection
This project wasn't easiest group wise. As it was the end of the year our entire group was getting stressed with each other including me. We could have done a lot better of a job of planning out design so we wouldn't have had to rebuild it multiple times which contributed to our stress. I feel like our planning would have gone better had we not been worried over the due date. In the last few days of this project we had a hard time planning on the days we could go to the pool to test the boat. That caused myself and another group member to have to go without the others to the pool to test it and to make some of the final repairs/ remodels by ourselves at home.
I did have a lot of fun in this project. We did accomplish our goal of having the boat go five meters. I was able to control my stress and I made sure I never took it our on other group members, which was what I wanted to improve upon from a previous project. I also made sure we all agreed on the same project since we all had different ideas originally.
I did have a lot of fun in this project. We did accomplish our goal of having the boat go five meters. I was able to control my stress and I made sure I never took it our on other group members, which was what I wanted to improve upon from a previous project. I also made sure we all agreed on the same project since we all had different ideas originally.