Autonomous Hovercraft

scmiller

I looking for guidance to put together a simple, small, autonomous hovercraft. I have looked at many websites and I am wondering if I could use a Mind Motor C,·with carrier board,·and BS2 to control one motor and one servo. While I know I could use sensors and GPS for control and guidance, I am looking to keep the programming simple to begin. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

·

Dgswaner

I guess small is subjective. have you seen the Myth Busters where they build a hover craft out of Vaccume motors and leaf blowers. would be very simple to adapt down a little, and a lot easier than having a maned hover craft.

2¢

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
A complex design is the sign of an inferior designer. - Jamie Hyneman, Myth Buster

Post Edited (Dgswaner) : 10/3/2007 9:23:12 PM GMT

LoopyByteloose

I love hovercraft. There are a little hard to build from scratch. You need to get a lot of power into the right propeller and they need to be well balanced. I am not sure that you absolutely need a motor controller for the lift power with a conventional brushed motor unless you need to prevent overheating of the motor. This is a steady thrust and usually the motor is running all out to· drive the prop that is matched to the motor.

There are some hovercraft that use only one motor for everything. But then if it stops, the failure is immediate and complete. Forward motion is created by diverting some of the downward thrust out a tail pipe. A better set up is to have a second motor drive the forward motion and have it be controlled by a tail fin that determines direction.

Weight begins to quickly become an issue. So it must all be built out of very light materials [noparse][[/noparse]this also helps if it float if you plan to go over water] like styrofoam and use the lightest of batteries with the most powerful motors available. Those are likely to be the brushless 3-phase motors used in R/C airplanes. These require a special 3-phase controller. You can easily spend $150 for the combination of lithium battery, brushless motor, and control. If you don't have R/C control, that adds to the bill.

Try the R/C web pages for a kit or ready made hovercraft. That will at least give you some idea of proven designs.

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
"Everything in the world is purchased by labour; and our passions are the only causes of labor." -- David·Hume (1711-76)········

···················· Tropically,····· G. Herzog [noparse][[/noparse]·黃鶴 ]·in Taiwan

Post Edited (Kramer) : 10/4/2007 4:14:01 PM GMT