The crafting of a hovercraft. (56K, stay away)

[Sebas]

For a school project, I am building a hovercraft with someone else. Last week, we got the opportunity to dedicate the entire week working to it, and although it is for school, it turned out pretty cool. So, have some pics and a video of it:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v158/adarklingcalledsebastian/IMG_7134.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v158/adarklingcalledsebastian/IMG_7135.jpg

This is what it looked like on tuesday morning, before the day's work started.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v158/adarklingcalledsebastian/IMG_7137.jpg

The means of steering. We have a double means of steering: The cardboard flaps behind the propellor steer the back, and the buttons on tghe side activate fans on the front. When steering extremely to the left or right, the button is pushed, and the appropriate fan goes on, making sure it steers very sharp when rounding a curve. However, because the buttons only activate through extreme steering, you can make small corrections without blowing the front end the wrong way.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v158/adarklingcalledsebastian/IMG_7139.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v158/adarklingcalledsebastian/IMG_7147.jpg

Before and after installing various battery packs and such.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v158/adarklingcalledsebastian/IMG_7169.jpg

This is a 3-way switch, allowing us to reverse the polarity on the propellor, so we can go forward as well as backward.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for (Or not), see the hovercraft in full action here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLdKLrJlsVA) and here! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awM-6CxDO98)

Since this video and those pictures, we have put a lot more work in it, so it looks better now and works better, but I haven't got the pics of thet yet. They might follow later.

[keios]

good work fella!
I'm assuming from the size of it that this is not a full-sized tearing about like lunatics-styled hovercraft. Make sure that you drop plenty of hints that it's just a scale test-rig though. After all, who doesn't want their own hovercraft?

[Sebas]

Well, we are thinking of building one capable of holding a person. It is doable, when you use the engine from a vacuum cleaner or something, but it'd involve even more work than this one, and there's over 60 man hours in this already. So, if we have a lot of time left by the time it's finished, we're going to give the person-sized one a try, but no promises.

[kuwong]

Granted its small, but its very difficult to make one full sized to support a human. Looks great though! Makes me want to make one, but i cant as im under skilled. Ahh well, still looks really nice. :)

[Dyakson]

Very very cool!

If you like home-built things with blades that spin ridiculously fast, see this:

http://www.rcdon.com/html/experimental_projects.html

[Mittwoch]

I cannot describe how infinitely cool that is. You should chase people about with it.

Also, is that you holding the camera and talking your crazy moon language sebas?

[Sebas]

Yus, I did the filmings on these ones. There's some footage with me driving and someone else filming, but I haven't got that yet. Also, we tried filming from on board the hovercraft, but it was too heavy, so the hovercraft's balance was upset and it didn't work. We'll see if it works with a lighter camera soon.

[Bisyss]

Out of interest, have you tried it on water yet?

[Sebas]

No, that is incidentally the next step we are planning to take. However, we have autumn holidays now, and I am working the entire week next week, so that'll have to wait for a bit.

[Erskien_Parkour]

That is so awesomely cool I think I wet myself.

[Corn_Fest]

Last year I went to a science fair and for one of the projects someone had taken a really powerful vaccum cleaner (Dyson or something), put it on reverse,
then stuck it in the middle of wood circle with plastic around the edges.

Held 2 people. Anyway, nice hovercaft.

[Youlikeyams?]

That's awesomely awesome, Sebas =D
and I'm somewhat hypnotised by your Dutch moonspeak.

Great job on the whole thing :D

[Sebas]

Haha, it's not like I'm saying anything interesting :D

[Zhyl]

You have a nice voice :)

That hovercraft is sooo cool. I want one. Any chance of sending it over for Christmas?

[Sebas]

'fraid not, got to give a presentation about it and the research and stuff we did for it by then. Nice try though ;)

[xmenthingybobo]

id laugh if it didnt work :ultra:

[Sebas]

id laff if it didnt work :ultra:
I'd "laff" if you learned proper English, and perhaps thought of something coherent to say.

[Sebas]

Right, slight update. I'm afraid the water test has not yet been performed, but what we did do is build a relatively simple circuit to test the steering, handling et cetera. At the end, it also zooms in on the hovercraft, showing the progress we made since the first pics in this thread. I believe I am justified in saying it was worth the time.

However, enough of this banter, so go HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gp6Jr78WD0) to watch this much fabled driving footage!

[T-Bear]

Wow pedro, that was a totally sweet jump.

Also, mega cool.

[Sebas]

Yeah, it has to have a bit of a runway leading to the jump though, if done from standstill it slides back just before it goes over the edge. However, we might fix that later with stronger batteries, if we can keep the weight down.

[Midget]

Wow pedro, that was a totally sweet jump.

Also, mega cool.
You got like three feet of air that time. :p

Pretty good sebas, you can use it to smuggle some of your cakes over to england for me. :D

[Sebas]

Pretty good sebas, you can use it to smuggle some of your cakes over to england for me. :D
I'd smuggle myself to England with it, but that'd take loads of battery packs, and more batteries = more weight :D

[piemanmoo]

so where are the lasers? you did include them, right?


....

oh dear, sebas. that's not very good, is it? I can just image your teacher going "Hmm, the steering unit seems easy to handle, and I'm very impressed with the 3-way switch you've installed! But.... you don't seem to have any lasers on it. Tsk tsk tsk" *takes out red pen and writes on clipboard*

[Dyakson]

so where are the lasers? you did include them, right?


....

oh dear, sebas. that's not very good, is it? I can just image your teacher going "Hmm, the steering unit seems easy to handle, and I'm very impressed with the 3-way switch you've installed! But.... you don't seem to have any lasers on it. Tsk tsk tsk" *takes out red pen and writes on clipboard*
...

He's right.

Sebas, how could you forget the lasers?

(Come to think of it, you could use the lasers to show exactly which way the thing is facing...)

[The Grim Reaper]

Argh, cant find mythbusters episode on this. They managed to get one going by using 3 cheap leafblowers.
Somehow if your using case fans, i dont think thats going to work...

[lachie 7]

Amazing, so is your dutch speak. ^_^

[Sebas]

Argh, cant find mythbusters episode on this. They managed to get one going by using 3 cheap leafblowers.
Somehow if your using case fans, i dont think thats going to work...
Dude, didnt you watch the film footage I posted? It works.

Also, lasers sound good. Now to figure out something to supply the power...


1.21 GIGAWATTS?!?!?!

[CodingTim]

You must spread some rep. This is really cool!

[TX_101]

May I be the umpteenth to say: Cool !

Where did you get the idea of making a hovercraft from ?

[Sebas]

Brainstorming session. Int involved nothing even remotely hovercraft-y, until someone dropped the idea and we decided to go for it.

[Mr stabby]

I like, I like, reminds me vaguely of a robot I built by buying a week-by-week magazine. But this is a million times cooler.
Also, all that sticks out from those videos is the first one, where im sure you shout "DJ!"

[SlaughterDog]

I am thinking about making one useing a shop-vac. All it will do is hover, though.

[Youlikeyams?]

I like, I like, reminds me vaguely of a robot I built by buying a week-by-week magazine. But this is a million times cooler.
Also, all that sticks out from those videos is the first one, where im sure you shout "DJ!"

RealRobots? Eurgh, that was an utter ripoff!
You spent way too much money on something that cost a fraction of what you paid for it to produce, and if you broke any parts it cost about a tenner to get a replacement one.

Never again will I buy a magazine like that. :(

[The Grim Reaper]

RealRobots? Eurgh, that was an utter ripoff!
You spent way too much money on something that cost a fraction of what you paid for it to produce, and if you broke any parts it cost about a tenner to get a replacement one.

Never again will I buy a magazine like that. :(
Oh yes, i stopped at 40. Then the remote and robot refused to connect and its now worthless.

[Sebas]

I like, I like, reminds me vaguely of a robot I built by buying a week-by-week magazine. But this is a million times cooler.
Also, all that sticks out from those videos is the first one, where im sure you shout "DJ!"
"Spin that shit, DJ" to be exact ;)

[GorillaBearBear]

Brief question - Do the fans for forward propulsion run together or independantly, because it seems to me that if you could control them sperately, you wouldn't need that ugly-as-sin rudder system on the back, no? Obviously, you're the expert though. It's pretty cool, can't wait to see it on water.

(Brmmm)

[Sebas]

There is only 1 fan for forward propulsion, so I'm afraid not. And you should have seen the first version, THAT was ugly :p

[Sebas]

Bumpety-bump update time!

At last, long delayed due to stuff and things, we tested it on water. Don't get overly excited, as it's quite a tiny pond, but it's still pretty neat. Look HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GacqV-6c-e4) and HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPZ5LpO3JjA) for footage of this testing. As can be seen by the inferior filming (and the inferior driving, okay :p ), I am the one at the steering wheel in the second clip.

And no worries, the small size of the testing pond was on purpose, Should something have gone wrong, we thought it was probably a good idea to be somewhere where it could easily be fished out. Now that its sea-worthyness has been proven, we have planned a ride on a rather larger pond for one of these days. So, stay tuned!

[shroomhead]

oh man, you do this at school? nice work, i would have gone crazy while doing this...

[Sebas]

It's back, and wetter than ever! The promised test run on a large stretch of water can be found RIGHT HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBF8kkX_XT4).

Also, we were clowning around with it a bit afterwards, however, the vid to that hasn't processed yet, and I want to go to bed really, so I might post that later on if you're interested.

[Sebas]

Right, last update for a bit now. We've had the presentation at school, which went quite well. I believe one of the school people shot some footage of that, so that might be posted later as well. However, if you go HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A63nf6vK-Uk), you can see the vid of us playing around a bit with the hovercraft. We were bored, and frankly a bit fed up with all the seriousness.

[midas22]

Does it work on water?

[Sebas]

Does it work on water?
Bumpety-bump update time!

At last, long delayed due to stuff and things, we tested it on water. Don't get overly excited, as it's quite a tiny pond, but it's still pretty neat. Look HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GacqV-6c-e4) and HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPZ5LpO3JjA) for footage of this testing. As can be seen by the inferior filming (and the inferior driving, okay :p ), I am the one at the steering wheel in the second clip.

And no worries, the small size of the testing pond was on purpose, Should something have gone wrong, we thought it was probably a good idea to be somewhere where it could easily be fished out. Now that its sea-worthyness has been proven, we have planned a ride on a rather larger pond for one of these days. So, stay tuned!
It's back, and wetter than ever! The promised test run on a large stretch of water can be found RIGHT HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBF8kkX_XT4).

Also, we were clowning around with it a bit afterwards, however, the vid to that hasn't processed yet, and I want to go to bed really, so I might post that later on if you're interested.
I know it's hard, but please try to read more than 3 words before asking questions which are, frankly, plain dumb.

[rubberfishy]

i got a good question(or not):

how did you set up the remote control, did you just smash open a remote control car or somthing?

[Sebas]

Nah, that was really the only thing we had to buy. The rest is just stuff you can find lying around the house and such, or in your computer, but we ordered a professional remote control with 2 servo's, one for steering and one for forward/backward control.

[GorillaBearBear]

You can buy Servos and controls and stuff in Model shops, normally.

EDIT: Can it, however, go from water to land without being picked up?

[Sebas]

Yup, that's where we got them. Some internet model building shop which I forgot.

[archbishop_josh]

i saw one of these on tyhe gadget show which the bald guy off it made a while ago. He used a big petrold leaf blower! i wanted to make it but my dad wouldnt let me rip apart his leaf blower:( nice model though:)

[Fissh]

hayseus that's one mega thread-bump there

[Boxman]

Mega mega bump, for I finally redeem my credits for being the "someone else" as stated in the topicstart. Took me a good 2 years to find this thread.

Sebas can confirm that I really am ^^

[Scribbly]

Good stuff! Also, Hello to you, fellow Dutchpeople.

[Sebas]

Heh. Bump. This shit brings back memories :p

[MileyPink]

Wowwowwoowoowo

How long did that take?

How fast will it go?