David F's Kayak Enhancements
Executive summary:
First video/first launch:
https://youtu.be/nVNyoxXOODU?si=kxFVWQZLi4CxFKQP
I recorded footage for a 2nd video but haven't gotten around to editing and uploading it; The 2nd video I tested out the (1) improved steering, (2) solar panel, (3) drone landing pad.
Here are some clips of the 2nd launch:
Customizations:
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Here's a not-so-brief summary:
The background/motivation:
I studied food science and engineering at Cornell and have worked in manufacturing of vitamins and nutrition bars, in addition to working in corporate banking. I have a small business and I do dehydrated foods. I built one of the largest self-build/DIY/from scratch food dehydrators in the world.
I've kayaked here and there in my life, and I typically found the range (distance) I could travel very limited. It required great upper-body strength, and I'm not particularly weak.
My business/factory is located on banks of the Passaic River, in Paterson, New Jersey. Upstream from me is downtown Paterson. The city of Paterson was built around the "Great Falls", which are one of the largest on the east coast. The site for the city was selected by Alexander Hamilton's Society of Useful Manufacturing, in order for the fledgling United States to be indepedent from foreign powers, such as England, France, and Spain.
video about my business:
About K9 Bros / Gourmet Magic / Bubble ScienceDownstream, the river runs all the way to Newark, and New York City.
Taking breaks and sitting out on the river-bank, I'd see, surprisingly, lots of wildlife. Many different birds. You wouldn't think you were a dense urban/suburban area when you're on the river, since the river is tree-lined on both sides of the Passaic River. These trees appear to be sanctuary for the smaller birds, but also larger birds-of-prey including bald eagles. Ducks, geese, and cranes with masssive wingspans roost on the banks and in shallow stretches of the river. Because my section of the river is so shallow, I have a very large number of ducks and geese to bird-watch.
There are also otters, beavers, opassums, deer, and other animals. It's not the Serengeti, but it's interesting, especially for a city-slicker.
I had the idea to get into kayaking the river and went into action of buying the kayak after about 2 years of thinking about. I was originally going to try TIG welding an aluminium craft, but my TIG welding skills need work, and I figured it would be cheaper to just buy a plastic kayak and modify it. My main hobby is to build FPV-drones, so I planned to leverage some of my electronic skills, especially by building a lithium battery to power the motor.
I had never worked with solar before, so this was my first foray into learning how solar works. I bought one of the least expensive solar kits, designed for a mobile-home.
The first part of the project, after buying the used-Pelican sit-in Kayak from Facebook Marketplace for $60 (great deal!), was adding a "transom." A transom is a mounting point for a "trolling motor." Trolling motors, as it sounds, are motors that generate gentle thrust. Most are designed to run off a standard "car battery." But I wanted something lighter (and something I could DIY, since I already had a lot of lithium ion cells for my drones.)
Anyway, the transom was tricky, since I used scrap lumber and threaded rod I had, and it needed to be very securely attached to the kayak. Once the transom was attached, and I clamped on the trolling motor, I began working on the steering. Here's a summary of the steering system, which was very tricky. I absolutely wanted steering like a steering-wheel, but I didn't have a wheel lying around, so I machined an aluminium stick on my metal-lathe.
Steering:
Total Cost of things I had to buy specific for the kayak
Next improvements:
Next tests:
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