User:Neilp/hovercraft

Problem/project Goal
To create a working Hovercraft that can be controlled remotely.

My First Task
We decided to do some preliminary planning and figure out which fans to use for propellers. Two working fans were found and we modified them for use on our project.

Summary of actual work over first weekend
Researched different hovercrafts that had already been constructed. A design like this came up It is a pretty good example and gives us an idea of the layout of the fans. I also looked into previous hovercraft designs to see what different shapes/fan placements worked for them. It turns out a square box isn't exactly the best choice.

Week1 Narrative
Week 1 our group did not meet up, as we were all busy. However, we all did our own individual research and managed to come together on Monday and get ideas going. I managed to find some links on hovercrafts, such as this one: http://www.xinventions.com/main/hovercrafts/hov_sc.htm. I found that site to be fantastic as it has plans and user submitted photos of their own custom built hovercrafts.

My Second Task
To find a working power source for the fans. Each fan currently demands about 12V of power, while regular batteries only use 9. And to find a definitive design for our hovercraft.

Summary of actual work over second weekend
9/24/12 12:34a.m. NP Found multiple batteries to use in project, tested some and they seemed to work fine. Although when we brought them in to class to test the voltage, they were giving out about 10V max. Still trying to find a better psu.

9/26/12 6:32p.m. NP Me Adam and Myles met up in the engineering room after class and began to test out the hovercraft. It was built according to Adam's rough sketch design, and seemed to be looking good. After running a few tests it turned out that the design was flawed and that the plastic bag which we used as a skirt began to just increase in size until it was continuously touching the floor, preventing any "lift". We decided to come up with a new design, but mainly give it a better skirt. In our next design we will make the plastic bag (if we choose to use that) much much tighter so that it does not have much room for expansion.

This hovercraft was made simply with what looks like the plastic base of a couple pieces of chicken, and a little propeller at the top. Even a design as simple as this works, so we may need to stop thinking so complexly and more practically.

My Third Task
To redesign the hovercraft and make it a working model. Also, figure out the wight distribution.

Week2 Narrative
9/26/12 6:43p.m. NP I helped to figure out what power supply would work best, given the necessity for lightness in this project. Batteries so far seem to be the best choice if we can manage to get the right ones. 9/28/12 8:53p.m. NP As it turns out we may only need one fan to propel the hover craft, and one to keep it in the air. We had originally planned for four fans keeping it in the air, and one pushing it. This as we know now is way to much weight and just unnecessary. I played around with different designs today and managed to make one stay in the air on battery power. Getting the propeller fan and extra power for that will add weight and we will experiment with that in our next class. But it seems right now we need to settle on a final design and put it into production.



Week3 Activities




Summary of actual work over third weekend
10/3/12 3:27pm NP During class we (Me, Adam, Myles, and Kyle) continued to brainstorm a good design. We decided to stray away from the "square/box" design we had been using in our previous prototypes. This time we decided a more circular shape would be better. In fact, we decided to use a Frisbee. In our previous models we had been using a plastic grocery bag as the skirt. This time we decided bubble wrap would work better paired with the Frisbee, and ended up with a successful hovercraft. Building the final model of our hovercraft can be broken down into these steps.

1. Drill a 1 and a half inch (circumference) hole into the top of the Frisbee, to allow airflow into the fan which had a one inch (diagonal) opening for intake at the top.

2. Tape over the cracks in the Frisbee caused from the drilling (minor mistake but easily fixable)

3. Super clue around the perimeter of the fan and fit it into the Frisbee.

4. Stretch the bubble-wrap tight around the bottom of the Frisbee, making the skirt.

5. We noticed that the fan was thicker than the Frisbee, and therefore still touched the ground when the Frisbee was placed flat on the table. To handle this we super glued a 22" (same circumference as the Frisbee) rope around the edge of the Frisbee. Because of the ropes smooth texture, it provided a great surface for gliding.

6. Holes were poked in the bubble wrap, and after a few tests we found that the more holes were poked (to an extent), the more the hovercraft "hovered".

We are continuing to work on the project, most likely painting it to make it look more neat, and other minor "tune-ups".

10/5/12 1:36p.m. NP Today I was messing around and made a different design for the hovercraft. We were using a Frisbee before, I just replaced the Frisbee with a Styrofoam plate to test the lightness. it turns out it was able to hover pretty easily. I used a 12V RC battery pack to power it. The Frisbee is definitely more stable though but it's good to know that the shape/design itself is pretty solid.

Week 3 Narrative
After many many failed designs, we finally found one that works. It turns out it didn't require being built from scratch like all over our first models. We simply used a Frisbee and modified it to suit our needs.

At first we were using square shaped designs, which after failure, turned into a more "box" shape. Looking back this step was not only illogical, but also a huge waste of time. The Frisbee has a circle shape and utilizes the space around the fan a lot more thoroughly than the box shaped ones did. It turns out that a plastic grocery bag, our original skirt, was actually a very bad thing to use. It kept expanding and would always be touching the ground, whether or not we had many holes or none.

With the Frisbee we decided to also change up what type of skirt we would be using. Bubble-wrap was what we chose to go with, and ended up working marvelously. Only one layer of bubble-wrap was used in our final craft. But let me make it clear that when I say "final" in reference to our hovercraft, I mean final in the sense that the design is final, but not necessarily the physics craft I speak of.

After testing out the hovercraft, we managed to get it to hover without any friction. The fan itself was a 12V 1.3AMP type, so even a regular battery could power it. Although we are planning on using an RC battery pack one of us has from home. We are also not yet sure whether or not we will be adding a propeller in the back to push it forward. If so, we will have to recalibrate the weight and most likely use an extremely light-weight fan due to the lack of friction making it so easy to be pushed forward.

My Fourth task
We are now in the final stages of production, and have a few more things to do. These include:


 * Finding a proper power supply unit (most likely a battery pack)
 * Choosing whether or not to use a propeller on the back of the craft
 * [If we choose to use it] Finding which propeller to use, taking into account the weight, and power needed.
 * "Clean Up": We need to make the hovercraft look pretty. It looks like scraps in a junkyard right now due to all of the Duct Tape.

Summary of actual work over fourth weekend
10/9/12 10:12p.m. NP

The battery holder was mounted on the fan, we did some testing and it works out well. The hovercraft has absolutely zero friction, and even with he addition of the battery's weight it still glides smoothly across a hard surface.



Week4 Narrative
Tell a detailed story describing what you did for your team over the weekend.

Team Page
Hover Craft