About the boat .3 (Electronics)

I'm in a little over my head on some of this.

If you look over to the right under the heading "Some older projects"

you'll find links marked TV2 and TV3.

You'll see I have some skills with basic electronics, but I'm going to

need help with a couple of components.

The plan is to have two wind powered generators on masts at the

front of each pontoon and two solar panels, one mounted on each

side of the canopy roof. There will be a total of four deep cycle 12v

marine batteries powering two 1/3 or 1/2 horsepower 24vdc motors,

one in the stern of each pontoon spinning belt driven propeller shafts.

First of the issues is: I have no idea what I need in between the solar

panels the turbines and the batteries, and I'll need 2 of them because

I plan on dividing the components into two separate isolated systems.

One turbine and solar panel charging 2 batteries and driving one

motor. This way if one side fails, I still have power to maneuver.

The other issue is the ESC.

I think I'd be better off with some sort of electronic speed control for

the motors. I know rheostats eat up a lot of power and I've been given

to understand that they are hard on DC motors.

But I have no idea how an ESC actually works, what sort of ESC I'd

need for 1/2 horse motors, and if it's something I could build or if

will double the budget for the drive.

I will have rudders for control, so the ESC's wouldn't have to be too

high-tech, but I would like to have at least 3 forward speeds and 2

reverse. I'd also like to be able to control the motors independently,

being able to run them at different speeds for additional steering.

I'll need power for navigational lights. I plan on using LED clusters for

them. The spot light will have to have an incandecsent bulb, but it

won't see much use and most of them run on 6-12vdc. I'll need a way

to recharge the various electronics I'm planning on bringing along.

The cameras all run on AA batteries, I could probably pack enough of

them and I can use the car charger on the cell phone. The laptop runs

on a 10.5v battery so I'll have to figure out a way to re-charge that.

None of this seems like a major obstacle. But that ESC has me worried.