[PSUBS-MAILIST] Oil Compensator

Wed Apr 5 23:54:23 EDT 2017

Alan/ Cliff,
That's interesting- but I don't understand why it's better than a good working second stage? This is what I did-
Three trolling motors (one vertical and port/starboard pushers) had clear vinyl tubing connected to the tube/pipe where the wires come out. Each clear piece of tubing ran to the "inlet" side of a small water filter housing (the kind with a clear plastic removable sight glass). The water filter housing served as a junction box so each motor could be removed individually. The tubing them came out of the "outlet" side of the filter housing and went to a "T" fitting. One piece of tubing carrying the wires went from the "T" to a penetrator in the hull. The other piece of tubing went downward to a set of two "T" fittings that served as a manifold connecting all 3 pieces of tubing together. Finally one Large piece of tubing went to a scuba second stage mounted low on the hull (connected where the mouthpiece usually goes).
When the sub descended, air was "inhaled" into the motors. When the sub ascended, the air in the motors "Exhaled" back out of the reg. Very simple.
The only reason I went to oil was that it seemed to be all the rage at that time.  Having used both methods, I have to say that I like the air better. It was easy to set up and take apart without a lot of mess and best of all- no worries about a leak.
Greg C

      From: Alan via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs.org>
 To: Personal Submersibles General Discussion <personal_submersibles at psubs.org> 
 Sent: Wednesday, April 5, 2017 8:58 PM
 Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Oil Compensator

Greg,Cliff's regulator is not a divers second stage reg. It runs direct from the first stage& you can dial in the overpressure you require. The excess pressure above setpressure escapes through the handle of the regulator but only in the "relieving" model.They go for around $150-I contacted the guys from Fugu sub a few years ago. http://www.fugusub.com/fugusub.htmlabout compensating, am pretty sure they use Minn  Kotas. They preferred air compensation. They operate out of Florida, so warm shallow waters.Alan

Sent from my iPad
On 6/04/2017, at 12:24 PM, hank pronk via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:

Cliff,What is the cost for a air compensated set up?Hank 

    On Wednesday, April 5, 2017 6:12 PM, hank pronk via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:

 Steve,Yes I need a bushing (bearing) that holds the prop shaft in the water.  It would be like a cutlass prop shat bearing on a boat.  It would have to be long enough to hold the prop strait and true.  Also it would need to act as a thrust bearing.Hank 

    On Wednesday, April 5, 2017 6:00 PM, Stephen Fordyce via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:

 Hi Hank,By "finding a bushing for the propeller shaft that is lubricated by the water" do you mean the bearings which will sit outside the pressure housing?
I started looking into ceramic bearings for just this application, and they were interesting - ie. some of them have no metal parts and little need for lubrication.
Cheers,Steve
On Thu, Apr 6, 2017 at 9:47 AM, hank pronk via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:

Sean,I think one of us should develop a magnetic coupler in kit form.  Maybe if there is an interest with potential sales it could become a reality.  I have come close to starting and even bought the magnets.  My stumbling block is finding a bushing for the propeller shaft that is lubricated by the water.Hank 

    On Wednesday, April 5, 2017 5:29 PM, Brian Cox via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs. org> wrote:

 I've decided to go with the   PSF - 20 cSt Silicone Bath Fluid for my motors. http://www.clearcoproducts. com/pure-silicone-low- viscosity.html  Brian

--- personal_submersibles at psubs. org wrote:

From: Alan James via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs. org>
To: Personal Submersibles General Discussion <personal_submersibles at psubs. org>
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Oil Compensator
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2017 22:48:50 +0000 (UTC)

Jon,I don't know whether you have followed, but I have made a brushless 2000W thrusterwhich I trialed in a pool for 30 hrs. The glue on the hall sensor board melted& it stopped because the timing went out. Apparently the glue was designed to meltso people could adjust the timing. The thruster got hot because the compensating oilwas being forced away from the motor through centrifugal force, & up the wiring tube.If I had an overpressure on the system I could have prevented this, but didn't think itwas needed in a few feet of water. I was running this motor with 2 lip seals with ambientpressure in between, but have purchased a mechanical seal for the next version.   It had a comparable or better thrust to Watt ratio than a lot of the advertised ratingsof commercial thrusters.   I think it is a matter of time before Minn kota put out a brushless thruster if they haven'tyet. Most of the commercial ROV & submarine thrusters are now brushless.   If there was enough room to fit a mechanical seal on a Minn kota it would be a bigimprovement. The white paper suggests grinding the Minn kota shaft to a specificfinish, with matching bearing & seal, however a mechanical seal is more tolerant ofthe shaft surface finish & you could avoid this.   Re the heat; one concern is transferring heat off the windings, which oil compensatingwill do 100 times better than air. However Minn kota motors would have large gauge windings that can cope with the heat.Below is a 2010 thread by Carsten dealing with expansion.AlanAlan and the other gentlemens, 

our expierence with oil filled motors, batterys or even propeller shafts is that the oil expand if the motor is runing longer time. 
Simple because its warm up. We had that problem on Eurosub on the first dives. 
And on Euronaut we filled the bladder complet up and the get pretty hard in the hot summer just by sun heating the sub. 
A full filled bladder with over pressure creates a lot of interal 
pressure in the wrong direct - a lot of force for the bladder itself and hose work. 

Therefore our bladder are only half expand during the filling. But still free of any air. 
An other point is that the bladder has to be not to small.

To create a slightly overpressure on the motorseal you just install the bladder below the motorcasing. 
But we found out that on trolling motor (electric outboards) this is not nessesary. There seals are good for some 
douzend feets at least - so you can install the bladder else were. 
Filling is simpler if the bladder is slightly over the motor - you can vent the system direct on the filling point.

Another point is that we install now one bladder per motor  - in the earlier sub (Sgt.Peppers) we install a central
one for all motors. Hard to find a leak after a dive with all the T-crossing piepings and motorseals.. 

vbr Carsten

      From: Jon Wallace via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs. org>
 To: Personal Submersibles General Discussion <personal_submersibles at psubs. org> 
 Sent: Thursday, April 6, 2017 8:31 AM
 Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Oil Compensator

 Hi Alan,

 Yeah, that white paper pretty much just states fill it with oil and you're good to go.  It doesn't address some of the issues that have come up on the list regarding heat and expansion, inter-seal cavity, etc.  I understand the drive to find a perfect solution and that minn-kota oil compensation is not perfect, I'm just trying to understand the real-world ramifications of using it as that white paper suggests and most psubbers have implemented.  Given that water is such a good heat sink, are the heat and expansion issues of the oil really that serious?  I know Alec wrote something about his experience with this some time ago but am having a hard time finding that thread.  Pretty sure SNOOPY is still using simple oil compensation regardless.

 Jon

 On 4/5/2017 4:02 PM, Alan James via Personal_Submersibles wrote:

   Jon, Cliff has been doing a lot of work on Minn kota modifications & has the hands on experience. If he's not tuning in it would be worth contacting him privately. The Minn-kota seal set up is not ideal, with the gap between the two seals meaning one or the other seals will fail when their pressure rating is exceeded. The outer seal seems to serve a double purpose, being the first line of defense against water ingress & also a sacrificial seal that will see all the abrasive muck stirred up by the prop. Noticed in this kit that the outer seal has a shield to protect it.  Historically in deep diving set ups they have had dual seals, but with either ambient pressure between them, or a cascaded pressure system, and normally mechanical seals. The outer seal was regarded as sacrificial.    Maybe you could pack between the seals with grease to reduce the air gap.  I am not sure whether you could simply reverse the inner seal or not as they need a shoulder that the pressure will push them up against. Cliff is using a small relieving air regulator to compensate his motors. The regulator is fed air from your tanks & is set at an overpressure of about 4psi. The regulator is orientated upside down as the relieving air feeds out through the handle portion & the orientation will stop water entering when this valve opens. This system was suggested by Hugh, & Cliff is trialing it. It has the advantage that you could either air or oil compensate. If your motor ran out of oil it would just be replaced with air above ambient pressure. I am not sure at what pressure the relieving valve opens.    There is this very good Psub resource from an expert in modifying Minn kotas for underwater use.  

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