Andersean

Im pretty new to rc stuff, so when i got my first plane i crashed it on its second flight. Anyway i took the edf units and all the other electronics and i plan on using them for a hovercraft. If anyone can help me please do. I have tried twice to make a hovercraft and the only thing i cant get is the skirt. i figured out my problems with the cushion of air(not the skirt) and i know that with the shirt will come stability, and less sliding. If anyone can help me with a skirt please do. I will have a basic plan of the hull, motor mounts, etc. later. I plan on making it decent sized;18" by9.5" or 24"by 13"Thanks in advance,

Sean

Andersean

If anyone can give me detailed plans of an lcac that will be greatly appreciated.

ISIRC10

Okay, here goes... got your pm...
I can't exactly call myself a hovercraft expert - I have not made enough mistakes to qualify myself as one yet. What I did with my hovercraft (in the airboat section of the forums) is I based the hull off of plans for the griffon 2000 on mark porter's website. You can scale them to whatever size you want. He also has the skirt layouts for the vehicle. Then, after you build the hull and skirt, and both are working, you can concentrate on building a LCAC-looking top. Since you have two ducted fans (of relatively small diameter, this could get interesting) You will need to build light, and relatively small. From my experience, the best thing you can use for your lift fan is a small diameter propeler in a duct - it's cheaper and more efficient than an EDF. For forward thrust, you can probably get away with the EDF.

About plans for hovercraft - not may people build them, so your best bet is to study photographs and plans of the real craft you intend to model. About your skirt problems - please post some pictures of your craft, they are worth a thousand words! (a good skirt helps with ground clearance, not so much stability and sliding) Sliding is an inherent characteristic of a hovercraft (think air hockey puck) trust me, its part of the fun of driving one. If you don't like it, use a gyro to dial it down. I am waiting for mine to come from hong kong and will post how things go in my thread. BTW, I think you will get more responses in the airboats thread... a few people down there have built hovercraft as well.

IMO one of the best rc hovercraft websites out there: www.model-hovercraft.com/2000tdx/2000tdx.html
his last craft has four ducted fans for lifting... quite an interesting design if you are interested!

Andersean

is there a way to move the thread to the other forum? and i havnt started buildig yet, i have too much hw

Andersean

I think i will go with the 18"x9.5" because of size. I have used google sketchup to get the general design layed out, i think i will go around to local garage sales and buy as many computer fans as i can to see which one suits my hovercraft. if i cant find any i will most likely be screwed. but i could take the design of the lift fans from your hovercraft(with your permission of course) and just attach them to a shaft and then to the edf's. also i will try to invest in some brushless motors and a lipo, if i can find money.

ISIRC10

now... your choice to go with the smaller sized hovercraft poses problems as well. Yes, it will be easier to lift, but overall clearance will deacrease and it will be harder to traverse anything rougher than, say a smooth blacktop. Computer fans are nice - but they run on 12v usually... a 3s lipo would be needed to give sufficient power. As I said, ducted fans are cool, but if you want to have a good hovercraft, start from scratch. Don't limit yourself to what you have. I have built hovercraft test rigs with trashbag skirts, insulation foam hulls, and nimh 6 cell packs powering brushed motors with 6" props. If you want to go cheap, no problem! But you will want to go with a bigger hovercraft (that is one of the things that I learned in my build process) As I said earlier, your best bet is making the griffon 2000... (cheapest way to do that is just taking a 3" thick foam slab and shaping it) It works VERY well with two 550 size brushed motors and two 6-cell nimh packs. Get two cheap brushed speed controls and you would be off to the races. If you go that route, lets see... $20 for both ESCs, $20 for both motors, $5 for the props, $20 bucks for two nimhs... about $75 if you count the glue, foam, and trash bags (gorilla tape works best for the seams) I can get that much money after mowing three-four lawns!

I would probably not recommend the lift fans... not nearly enough power for my liking... just use a normal prop.

one more question... your A10 wasn't brushless and lipo? I would have thought that it was... W/E

Andersean

No they hadnt come out with the brushless yet so i kinda got screwed with an underpowered plane which on the first flight only flew 100-200 ft until the wind died...i also lost 1 of the servos so i just dont know what im going to do...i dont do much on the work scale i just babysit every 1-2 months and watch my neighbors dog and cat once every 2-4months...but my birthday is coming up next month and i could arrange to get only money...but if i save my weekly lunch allowance($25) i could do that...also i would like lipo not nimh.