Drone Buoy Project

This past Sunday we had the first Drone Buoy in the water and working as the boat end of the line.

After speaking with a couple of other users at other clubs, I decided to buy the kit form and home build this project for customization purposes.

The simple idea of making the buoy taller and more visible was not quite so simple to execute. I had offers from lots of people to help build this. To be honest, actually building the thing was not too hard. It took a lot of thinking and staring at it to get it right. Building the first one slow enough to work out the kinks is tough to do in a group setting.

The original buoy design required a 30" tube. The unit we used this past weekend uses a 40" tube. Above the water we had approximately 15" of the buoy showing vs the original design that has around 10" showing.

The main issues were:

1. Rewiring parts as the original wires were not long enough
2. Finding the right amount of ballast to keep the buoy steady in the water but gain maximum exposure above the surface.
3. Recalculating the height of the thrusters as they have to be thrusting close to the center of water resistance.
4. The original spec also required a 5000mAh battery. In theory this should last 6 hours. I found the highest capacity battery that would fit inside the tube. We are now at 8000mAh.

Buoy number two should be a fairly swift build. Once we get to use two marks for a couple of weeks, we can look at what we want to do for the remaining marks. I am planning on building a set of six for all marks on the course.

The app for controlling the buoy is able tell the mark to drive to a waypoint and virtually anchor there. Also you can then set a home waypoint so the marks would travel there after racing. The instruction booklet also mentions pivoting the marks around a distant waypoint. Lots to discover and play with.

Money wise we have raised $2550! Plus donated lead shot from Jamie Hilton and resin from Will Musler.

Thanks to Matt Ward for modelling with the buoy in the pics below