WiFi Propeller Boat

myminifactory

Summer is winding down in Oklahoma yet the kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews and practically everyone we know are still at Lake Zumwalt cooling off. So for even more pool toy entertainment, I decided to design one final boat for the summer season, the WiFi Propeller Boat. The WiFi Paddle Boat is a twin hull, twin counter-rotating propeller boat controlled via Wi-Fi using a smartphone, tablet or other touch-enabled device. The WiFi Propeller Boat creates a Wi-Fi access point that you connect to via your Wi-Fi enabled device's settings. Then, using your Wi-Fi touch-enabled device's web browser, you simply navigate to the WiFi Propeller Boat web page and off you go! The controls for the WiFi Propeller Boat are identical to those of my WiFi Paddle Boat design, so it's familiar for the grandkids to operate. And in this version, I've added battery voltage monitoring to the display, hopefully preventing a swim from being necessary to recover the WiFi Propeller Boat when the battery depletes. To keep the electronics dry, the WiFi Propeller Boat uses 3D printed universal joints to allow positioning of the electronics above the water line. I've included a video of the universal joints in a test fixture to illustrate how they operate. A word of caution: I designed the WiFi Propeller Boat to be splash-resistant, not waterproof. If a rogue wave, grandchild, niece or nephew "submerges" the WiFi Propeller Boat, good luck is all you can count on. As usual, I probably forgot a file or two, or who knows what else, so if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask - I make mistakes in plenty. The design was created using Autodesk Fusion 360, sliced with Cura 3.4.1, and printed in PLA on both the Ultimaker 2+ Extended and an Ultimaker 3 Extended.