Installing Throttle, Display Unit for Throttle, and Charger

July 18, 2020

I set out in the cooler part of the afternoon to continue the path forward on the Torqueedo power plant and control systems.  Today it would be the throttle, it's display unit, and the battery charger.  Unfortunately, I overlooked taking a photo of the battery charger installation so I will briefly explain. In a previous work session I had fabricated a mounting board that in turn was epoxied to the interior wall of the port-side cockpit well.  Today, I then mounted the battery charger onto the mounting board, securing with washers and #10 wood screws.  The location was good for wiring runs to the battery itself as well as to make connections to the balance of the Torqueedo electronics.

Next, I turned my attention to the throttle.  Sitting in the cockpit, simulating steering the boat with the tiller, I located an out of the way yet accessible location for the throttle controls: just below the port settee locker.  This location also allowed for easy wiring access to the Torqueedo electronics box.  I applied a layer of protective tape, for the drilling process, and then oriented the template to remove the meat of the fiberglass and allow the throttle to recess in its final position.

I first drilled small pilot holes with a ver small bit in order to "lock in" the location of where I needed to drill for fasteners and with the hole saw.  With the template's drilling locations now transferred onto the wall of the settee I moved straight into using the 2.5" hole saw to allow the guts of the throttle unit to pass through the settee wall, and then followed with drilling for the mounting screws.

As can be seen below, the throttle unit went in without issue.  Next, I moved onto the display unit.  The display unit provides time left on the battery's kW usage, battery %, and other data.  I chose a location that was accessible and yet was not in a place that hurt the aesthetics of the cockpit well.

There was not a supplied template for this unit, so I took several measurements and transferred those onto the layer of protective tape that I had applied to the settee.  I used a hole saw again to remove most of the material that needed to go, and then cleaned up, further refining the opening, to allow the display unit to be installed.  I finished up the installation prep with drilling for the fasteners.

I seated all screws with a bit of polysulfide bedding compound, and then cleaned up any resulting squeeze out.  

Total Time Today: 2.25 hrs