DeX's Ghetto Hovercraft

me and some mates got a mad idea to make one...a real one...

we *ahem* aquired a flat bottom boat from a certain authority... bought a 2cv engine and had everything we needed, but its still in my mates garage.... nover got round to finishing

 

i hear that they are a pain to controll...

 

Well I pulled my little one out of the bin (luckily I didn't crush it first) and hooked up the fan again and tried it in the bath. It worked a treat The bottom sheet did get wet, but it also floated very nicely. I thought maybe it would just float switched off too... I was wrong... it filled up with water

 

Nice one ..... couldn't you get some pics ?

 

Didn't manage to, sorry I used almost exactly the same design as DeX's at the start of this thread. I made the skirt a little more elegantly though and made the bottom piece of card smaller than the top one. For the skirt I essentially made 4 trapeziums (because the top and bottoms were different sizes) but made the ends bulge out so they fitted together a bit more nicely.

 

Cool I might try that skirt Idea. Those vantec tornados are pretty powerful though, I don't think I'll be testing my heavy and weak fan on water just yet espcially since it's still attached to my motherboard.

 

Yeah, the Vantec's powerful. It was powered with a standard 9V battery so it wasn't at full power. Was looking for another 9V battery to over-volt it to 18V and see how well it did on the floor then, but I couldn't find one.

I tried it with a much lighter but much lower-powered fan and it didn't lift at all. I think it's better to have more weight and more power when it's this small.

 

well.. my design won't have the bottom plate.. i'll make a pillow that is smaller at the bottom than on the top and have it rounded so that it will shape itself... hard to explain.. but this will make nothing of the craft tuch the ground... only air... this will (in theory) make the craft friction-less...

one thing is for sure.. it will have a fangrills on it.. i don't want to get my fingers in a fan spinning at 30000RPM at high power...

 

Yeah, that's how proper ones are made. The skirt has to be hard-wearing, flexible but also keep it's shape, which is why it's kind of hard with a plastic bag

 

how did ya make the craft? I don't quite understand how you crafted the bag to blow up.

I used a normal 80mm case fan and a tescos bag - no go

 

Did you look at the diagram? There should be two peices of cardboard, the bottom one smaller than the top one. They should be fixed at a set distance apart somehow and around the edge of both peices should run the skirt. Both peices of card bord should have a hole around the same size directly in line with each other. Look at the diagram and ask if you still have questions.

BTW NiHiLiST I don't quite get that other design you and Smilodon are talking about, could you explain it or draw it or something?

 

I think this article would be right up your ally.

 

to get the skirt to keep its shape try putting a loop of string around the inside fold the plastic over it and tape it down.

 

That's a quick mock-up.

*n

 

the whole point and challenge is to make a good "pillow"..

my design will only use the bag itself.. if cut exactly it will suport itself perfectly..

this will actually give a cool effect when running it.. before start it sits on the ground.. once you power up the whole thing will rise and then move forward...

this actually makes my design have a backside.. to hover you will also move forward.. you can't stop without making the underside rub the ground.. that's a bad thing...

penski (and many other): you won't need that plate as the ground itself will act as that plate.. it's the air PRESSURE that should hold up the thing.. not air SPEED! got that?

 

DeX, I meant like Penski's idea but without the bottom layer of cardboard. That's how proper crafts work.

 

me too.... only that the bag will go almost straight down.. not in a curl (??) inn and up on the inside..

 

you could mount the thrust fan on a servo and get your turn and straight on like that...

 

i just found a nice 60mm fan to use as trust.. i might need a voltage doubler or something as it don't blow enough at 8.4 volts... (barely enough @12.. )

i might aswell use the 60mm to make the thing hover and then use the powerfan as thrust... that could work...

the main project right now is to mount the motor on the fan somehow...

 

apparantly it does, i have a friend who made one for his control c/w. However im a bit unsure about how much mor friction that would cause with the extra weight tilted one way! :-/