RE: Project - hovercraft?
<meta http-equiv="CONTENT-TYPE" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><title></title><meta name="GENERATOR" content="OpenOffice.org 2.4 (Linux)"> <style type="text/css"> <! @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.</style><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000">Well, after my long hiatus, I have returned, with some goodies if I may add. When I did some test runs with the craft on asphalt, the rear end dragged A LOT due to the heavy 550 motor. moving was VERY slow (walking pace at best) and I was left with a dilemma. Should I keep it like this and use it as a slow show-boat, or should I stick brushless power and make it work, regardless of appearance? Afterwards, I hooked up my 540 mamba 5700 motor to the craft and speed was a bit better, although the skirt seemed to drag significantly more (my guess is that the more powerful motor was directing most of its thrust downward, causing the nose to be pushed down). A bit discouraged, I let the project sit on the shelf for a few weeks... which turned into months with the start of school. Since then, I have brought a jet boat into this world, and have messed around with my airboat. Then, prior to Christmas, there was a house-wide clean up, where I re-discovered my hovercraft. Seeing it hover again was quite awesome and ignited my interest again. Afterall, I was so close to finishing it before I ditched it! Or so I thought...
After reassessing the state of the craft, all of this feeling went away. The motor mount had to be redone to accommodate the greater thrust of the brushless motors, and the puny little 380's driving the fans had to go. A week before Christmas, I made a dual order for presents... and let my parents choose what they thought would be a better gift. It was between an upgrade for the airboat, or the hovercraft. Knowing that the answer would come after Christmas, I waited patiently (the package was coming from Hong Kong and paying an extra $20 isn't worth the week it shaves off of transit time). Today, they arrived! It was the hovercraft motors and speed controllers. I installed them quickly and did some lift tests. This is where the good news ends.
Sadly, those fans which I made were not balanced at all... this wasn't as evident at the low rpms of the brushed 380's, but the high rpms of the bl setup shattered one.
Now I have a decision to make... I have two 3500 kV motors and two 40 amp speed controllers sitting around, as well as a servo driver. Do I try to fix this hovercraft somehow, or do I just use them somewhere else and terminate this project? I really hate to see it go, but I am at a loss of ideas right now... I could just shelve it again...
anyways, some pics:</font></font></meta></meta>