Ligmax
The build · Deep dive

Built from parts, not kits

Every subsystem on Ligmax starts as raw material or a bare component. The hull is 3D-printed in sections and hand-laminated in carbon fibre; the 144-cell battery pack is welded in-house and enclosed in its own fireproof box; rails, belts, actuators, drivers and compute are wired and integrated by the team. This is the hardware it all starts from.

All major project components laid out and numbered before integration: hull sections, battery cells, thrusters, lidars, actuators, rails and electronics
The majority of the project hardware, laid out before integration. Each number identifies a component in the legend below.

Component legend

  1. 01 PLA hull components
  2. 02 Battery management system (Daly 150 A)
  3. 03 Main thrusters (Flipsky 5085)
  4. 04 Carbon-fibre cloth
  5. 05 Epoxy resin
  6. 06 Epoxy hardener
  7. 07 Li-ion battery cells (Samsung 35E)
  8. 08 Linear actuators (roll trim)
  9. 09 Lidars (Slamtec RPLIDAR)
  10. 10 Aluminium TIG weld sticks
  11. 11 DC-DC buck converter, low voltage
  12. 12 DC-DC buck converter, high voltage
  13. 13 Battery for system testing
  14. 14 5G router
  15. 15 Pixhawk power distribution board
  16. 16 Holybro Pixhawk 6C (flight controller / IMU)
  17. 17 VESC 6.7 FOC motor controllers
  18. 18 Sonar
  19. 19 Lidar gimbal motor
  20. 20 IMU vibration-damping mounts
  21. 21 Dual-shaft Nema 23 with belt pulleys (battery shift)
  22. 22 Idle belt pulleys
  23. 23 Screws
  24. 24 Pixhawk cables and PWM breakout
  25. 25 Gimbal structural part
  26. 26 Stepper-motor driver
  27. 27 Raspberry Pi 5 (companion computer)
  28. 28 GPS antenna (u-blox M9)
  29. 29 CAN communication Pi 5 HAT
  30. 30 Linear rails (battery shift)
  31. 31 Emergency-stop button

Not pictured: stern thruster, 2040 aluminium profile beam, lid locking mechanism, lights, battery aluminium plate, and mounting hardware (belts, bolts, misc.).

The battery, three stages in

The pack is the heaviest thing on board and it is also the trim mass, so it gets built to move. Note the notch in its bottom front corner: it lets the battery run all the way forward with part of the pack sitting over the Nema motor that drives it, buying travel that a plain rectangular block would give up.

  1. The 12S12P pack part-way through assembly: bare 18650 cells held in spacers with nickel strips spot-welded across them
    01

    Cells and nickel

    144 Samsung INR18650-35E cells in a 12S12P block, spot-welded in-house across nickel strips. The step cut out of the bottom front is deliberate.

  2. The finished pack wrapped in kapton with a Daly battery management system and main power leads fitted
    02

    BMS and leads

    Wrapped, then fitted with a Daly BMS for per-cell telemetry and protection, plus the main leads and an Anderson connector for the propulsion bus.

  3. The completed battery inside its carbon-fibre enclosure, with an orange cable drag chain running off the lid
    03

    Into its own box

    Sealed into a fireproof enclosure that carries the same notch. The orange drag chain feeds power and BMS data along as the whole box slides fore and aft on its rails.

Want the full engineering detail? Hull geometry, power architecture, control loops and test results are all in the technical report.

Read the technical report (PDF) Explore the vessel in 3D