Scratch built foamboard snow vehicle/skimmer

[basslord1124]

I decided to hop on the "scratchbuilt foamboard snow vehicle/skimmer band wagon" as I'd like to have something fun to mess around with in the snow when it gets hard to get out and fly. I have not drawn up any plans for this, just complete off the top of my head and away we go! I think most all of my scratcbuilds will be like this as I still haven't sat down to learn those programs used to make plans nor do I have a laser cutter.

But anyways, I am using the main guts (motor and ESC) from my crashed FT Super Bee to create a dual motor snow vehicle where rudder/yaw is controlled by differential thrust...so no servos needed. Also using some suggestions from @Dante to help create this. I am going to use 2 tupperware boxes...one will hold ESCs and receiver and the other will be the battery compartment. It will be flat bottomed with sides angled inwards...figure this will help prevent it from tipping over. Then it will have a top deck over top of all that with motors mounted on each side at the rear. I will also create a decorative cockpit area to go over top of the top deck/tupperware boxes...this I can then of course remove to access the electronics and battery. The front will be much like the front of a boat (or maybe even like the FT Seaduck).

Below is a pic of the "start" of it. Not much to look at now, but I will be adding more pics soon.

 

[mrjdstewart]

why not just waterproof your electronics and save the weight?

laters,

me

 

[basslord1124]

why not just waterproof your electronics and save the weight?

laters,

me

I probably still will add some waterproofing to the electronics just to be on the extra safe side. I had seen a lot of others putting their electronics in tupperware for these snow vehicles so I went with it too. Seemed like a good idea.

 

[kdobson83]

Tupperware seems like a little over doing it. Take your elecronic, put them into a bag of some sort, like Ziploc or something, maybe even double bag it, then seal around where the wires come out of the bag with a zip tie and some easily removable hot glue.
I'd imagine once you get your electronics all wired up and tested, you wouldn't need to mess with them again. But if you do, the bag is easily removed by cutting the zip tie, and peeling off the hot glue. This is considerably lighter if you plan to fly the snow vehicle, and probably just as easy as the Tupperware. Plus it should be a lot easier to hide your electronics in the vehicles body, not having to do your design around the Tupperware.

I use to tuck my phone into three Ziploc bags when I went Creek fishing, phone never got wet.

Just a suggestion. Might keep you from having to water proof electronics if you don't want to.

 

[Paracodespoder]

I’ve built several, all you need to waterproof the esc is some duct tape around where the wires come out, the receiver just needs a little packing tape. That is unless you plan on getting this really wet, then I’d do some more than that. Everything else should be fine as long as you don’t drop the battery in a big puddle.

 

[basslord1124]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'll check the current weight when I get a chance just to see where it stands. To cut down on it I may remove one tupperware box (one that houses the ESCs), but still may keep the one for the battery.

 

[basslord1124]

An updated pic. Got some work done to it tonight. Decided to do just 1 Tupperware container for the battery, figure I'll wrap the ESCs and receiver up in plastic bags.

 

[Brett_N]

Unscrew the servo's and fill them with white-lithium grease. 5 minutes a servo.

Receiver - wrap it in doubled up balloons, and zip tie the end closed.

ESC - if it's already shrink wrapped, just glob some silicone caulk or even hot glue along the end-seams.

 

[basslord1124]

Thanks for the suggestions @Brett_N . Luckily I don't have any servos to worry about.

 

[T-Richard]

Made this micro airboat snow thing, it performed poorly. I'll make another one, I think I warped the bottom and it made it pull to one side pretty hard. I used conformal coating on esc and BEC and left the servo as is. I fly planes and drones in the snow and conformal coating works, corrosion x as well but it's smelly, even used silicone and heat shrink, all seems to work. Never bothered with doing anything special with servos and haven't had issues.

Maybe I'll post up v2 here if it's any

good

 

[basslord1124]

Here's my first video on it...

I've gotten a lot more done to it since then.

 

[basslord1124]

Hey all, I managed to take the "mostly complete" snow skimmer out for a test run on Friday...one of the rare times we have had snow this season. It did ok but it was very sensitive in terms of its yaw control. Like even just taking off it wanted to go in one direction or the other. And it wanted to do donuts most of the time.

I'm thinking seriously of just adding a rudder to it anyways to make steering easier. Actually I had thought of keeping differential thrust, moving it back to the left stick, and still use a servo controlled rudder on the right stick. I figured I could just turn on the differential thrust with the flick of a switch and just use it only when I wanna do 360s and stuff BUT leave it off other times and just use the rudder for main steering.

I'll post some videos here in the next couple days.

Oh yeah, towards the end I did manage to make it go airborne. It flipped over and broke one of the motors off the mount. It was pretty funny...and it'll be a quick fix.

 

[basslord1124]

This is my Part 2 build progress video. I'm going to be editing the actual "maiden test run" video probably today and tomorrow...so hopefully have it up here soon as well.

 

[Paracodespoder]

Yeah, you’re definitely gonna need some vertical stabilizers , good work though.

 

[basslord1124]

All right, here is the maiden test run video. Did a mix of footage with my phone on a tripod and an action cam on the snow skimmer. Crash is all within the last minute of the video.