No Ron, I have never thought of doing that. It would be worth doing a simple experiment to see if you can capture worthwhile energy. The extra panels would need to be connected in such a way that they don't effect the power of the main panel when they are not capturing much reflected energy. Perhaps they could be wired independently to just put some charge into the receiver battery only.

Yabbie1

The point is, you need to consider the type, number (and configuration) of solar panels you are going to use BEFORE deciding on the scale of the model, otherwise the chances are you will not have a good fit on the available area and the performance will be poor.

In your case, I looked at the overhead photo and saw there were eight roughly square solar panels. My first thought was that 150mm x 150mm panels looked a good candidate for a model, hence the 600mm x 300mm roof area for the eight panels. But there are many different sizes available and if you can find a size that can be arrayed to fit your roof area nicely then go for it, but more likely you will need to vary the size of your model to get an optimum fit.

I see there is a 136mm x 110mm size, eight would need a roof area 544mm x 220mm, that might suit your model better. The other thing you will need to bear in mind is the electrical configuration. These panels are rated at 6v 0.33A each, so 8 of them could wired to give 12V at 1.3A or 6V at 2.66A in series/parallel (16W) for which you would get a suitable motor. Note that in this case, even if you had room for one more solar panel, it would be unusable without another one or three panels to pair it up with.

See:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32905776528.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.42.1

Here's a LARC-V model built by a modeller in our club, Gordon.

Yabbie1

I hope you build that little fishing boat Ron, I found its story quite inspiring. I think the solar array would need to be something like 600mm x 300mm in size to make it worthwhile.

With enough interest there could be solar boat races and solar vs sailing boat races, where the solar boat would make up lost ground during the upwind part of the course. Different classes could be defined based on power generated or size of solar array etc.

Yabbie1

To return to the topic...

A trimaran layout would be a logical one, with the central hull providing propulsion via a conventional motor and prop without the need for the complicated gearbox or twin motors of a catamaran. The outriggers could be attached by struts running underneath the overhead solar array. A 750mm x 300mm solar array of ten 150mm x 150mm solar panels would provide around 30 watts for a really good performance.

Yabbie1

Thanks for the welcome, I only hope I will have the time to participate properly.

It seems to me a catamaran configuration is best for a solar boat - good stability while providing maximum surface area for the solar cells without the drag of a wide hull. Many full-size types are like this, but it raises the problem of propulsion in a model. You wouldn't want the power loss and complexity of a long drive shaft or outboard arrangement, so perhaps a slim brushless motor in each hull would be best.

I felt my ears burning so I thought I'd better join your forum and post a public reply.

As Roy has mentioned, my name is John Parker and I write a regular column for Model Boats magazine called Flotsam and Jetsam.

The solar powered RC boat I designed for the magazine took the form of an old wooden ferry with solar panels on its roof. It was designed above all with efficiency in mind - long slim hull for low drag, large propeller, 300 kV brushless motor. There are 15 solar panels on the roof, each rated at 2v 0.25A connected in series-parallel to give 10v at 0.75A (i.e. 7.5W). Scale is 1:25, size about 854 mm x 152mm and weight about 3.25 kg.

It has two modes of operation, solar powered only or solar with battery back-up. There is no problem in mixing with other boats on sailing days - the power is enough to drive it at 'hull speed'. On solar only I believe it would be able to keep moving slowly in light overcast, but be stopped dead in heavy overcast. Of course, the sun always shines in Australia so I haven't been able to test that out!

John