June 21, 2026
Description
A fully 3D printed RC harbour tug with a working azimuth stern drive. The two pods rotate 360°, giving it the same rudderless maneuverability as a real ASD tug — spinning on the spot, crabbing sideways, and full thrust in any direction.
Control is managed by a custom ESP32 set up - one at each end with NRF24L01 radio modules for communication and rotarty encoders on the controller to set the pod angles. Code for this is available on the Github repo.
The vessel design is based on a real ASD tug based at Port Otago, NZ called 'Arihi'.
I printed everything in PLA on an Ender 3 V3 SE
Layer height was 0.2mm for everything except I reduced to 0.16mm for the bevel gears and propellers
Probably good idea to add 1-2 extra wall loops for the hull parts to help prevent water seeping through
There are a few bits like the bearings and metal drive shafts that are not 3D printed. These and all the electronics for the vessel and custom controller are listed here:
https://sketchycircuits.com/projects/tugboat#parts-list
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License:
Creative Commons — Attribution
9
StuNZ
