Yay for Mexico.
Maiden voyage today - all went perfectly. After running for 15+ minutes at full speed, the 50amp breaker tripped. My ampmeter (shunt type) says I’m pulling just over 40amps at max speed, so I think it’s just a matter of overheating the breaker. I have a 90amp one I can swap in - main reason it’s there is to avoid a short & to act as the main power switch, which 90amp will do fine as well. The battery also has a built in short protection.
Not sure my speed, hard to tell on the water with a 60lb black lab also on the board, but surely at least 2.5-3x faster than I can full out paddle. I’ll take my GPS with me next time for a real speed check. After about 30 minutes full throttle, the battery was only slightly warm.
The wireless speed controller works well and cycles between the speeds to stop/neutral with only the occasional need to click again to get the next step. I did run a thin line of silicone on the remote case where it seals, so it looks like they should be air/water tight easily.
So, based on a total of $850 ($120 for powder coat), seems like a great success.
I also have thought of a few things I could simplify… put the shaft of the trolling motor speed switch trough the case sealed with an o-ring, then manually set the speed desired, then a 2 button wireless remote controls on-off at that setting vs. the complicated solenoids to toggle through speeds.
I used solar panel standard electrical connectors to connect the motor and battery, and those seem to be working well, but I’ll need to be sure I don’t submerge them in the ocean disconnected as salt water would get into the connectors with no real way to clean it out. But also easy enough to just pop on new connectors if/when needed.
I’m charging the 50ah LiFePO4 lithium battery by connecting to my RV batteries of the same type (but 4x100ah) and so charging off my RV solar system. This was convenient vs. needing a different charger to run off of 110vac. These LiFePO4 batteries have a Battery Management System (BMS) built into them, so it’s pretty brainless to charge but not overcharge (as long as the max voltage of the charger is for these LiFePO4 batteries - 13.7v). My RV batteries have a bluetooth app so I can review the charging state, etc., but unfortunately this 50ah does not, but I think it’s easy enough to determine the state by the current voltage with no load applied.