Tiny Whoov
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You can go either way, but so long as you mount the motors in the right places (front power the skirt, rear left on the left, rear right on the right) the stock flight controller works beautifully from the left stick -- throttle to lift and left/right rudder to yaw. right stick can impact the float a bit (helpful at times slipping over obstetrical), but it's impact on turns is so minimal better to use your rudder.
Re-programming the controller for the proper motor mixes would put the control on the sticks of choice and probably firm up the control a bit (sharper/stronger yaw, hover without forward drift), but for getting up and running, stock gear works just fine
I tried adding a skirt to ours - in some ways it helps a little...in others it hurts.
I can see it inflate and lift up a bit which does help it get over slightly larger cracks.
But on it also tends to catch gravel and sand which is abundant in our area and quickly builds up in the skirt weighing it down.
I like the low friction plastic shoe that FT uses on their kits...I may try and do something like that instead. But I'm not a fan of including the ducts for the motors and the extra foam - sure it makes it a little more robust...but it adds weight. And I suspect one of the reasons ours floats so well after big jumps is due to the low weight.
I also ended up smearing a bit of hot glue across the front since it was getting pretty beat up - and that seems to have given it a lot of extra strength when she rams it into things
I can see it inflate and lift up a bit which does help it get over slightly larger cracks.
But on it also tends to catch gravel and sand which is abundant in our area and quickly builds up in the skirt weighing it down.
I like the low friction plastic shoe that FT uses on their kits...I may try and do something like that instead. But I'm not a fan of including the ducts for the motors and the extra foam - sure it makes it a little more robust...but it adds weight. And I suspect one of the reasons ours floats so well after big jumps is due to the low weight.
I also ended up smearing a bit of hot glue across the front since it was getting pretty beat up - and that seems to have given it a lot of extra strength when she rams it into things
Playing with the skirt some more I have to say that inside on clean surfaces it really does seem to help. I don't get stuck as much when I hit things - because it stays elevated on it's cushion of air better and I can wiggle left/right to get free again.
But outside...where I had hoped it would help the most by helping us get over bigger obstacles - it's definitely more of a liability at this scale. Picks up too much junk and tears apart too easily. (I used a disposable shopping bag from the mega mart to cut my skirt out of.)
So if you're looking to run inside on cleaner surfaces - skirt is probably worthwhile. But if you're going to be outside or anywhere with lots of dust/dirt/grit/grime...skirtless seems better.
But outside...where I had hoped it would help the most by helping us get over bigger obstacles - it's definitely more of a liability at this scale. Picks up too much junk and tears apart too easily. (I used a disposable shopping bag from the mega mart to cut my skirt out of.)
So if you're looking to run inside on cleaner surfaces - skirt is probably worthwhile. But if you're going to be outside or anywhere with lots of dust/dirt/grit/grime...skirtless seems better.
donalson
Active member
the e010 stock comes with a 150mah battery and will fly with a 220 mah with some work (because of how the bracket is made and where the power plug is it takes some work... also the motors are soldered to the board... not a big deal but just something to keep in mind...
Grifflyer
WWII fanatic
Awesome!
Yep, ours is a e010...I got a few of them on sale for $12 each shipped after thanksgiving 2016
I personally prefer the soldered motors since it's lighter and on something this small it sure seems that both as a quad and as a hoov saving weight makes a big difference.
Speaking of the hoov....I just did a little upgrade on ours.
Last night I sat down to watch some youtube and saw that Tom Stanton had made a 3D printed hovercraft with a 2204 motor:
Neat design and I do want a bigger hovercraft...but I don't want to spend that long printing it. I really want a separate lift motor, and I'd rather have either dual fans or dual rudders for better control (though his triangular rudder seemed to work quite well!)
After I watched it Youtube suggested Peter Sripol's hovercraft build from last February:
Which I have to admit I had completely forgotten about. But again...I don't want to do that much printing...
But after that one Youtube suggested the one Peter built while he was with FT:
And after watching all three I started rethinking the skirt I had made on our tiny hoov:
It was a real quick and dirty attempt at a skirt. And very poorly thought out. Which I knew when I was doing it. It didn't seem like it would hold in much air but it only took me 5 minutes and did make an improvement over some surfaces.
But knew I could do better. And after watching those three videos last night I had a good idea how to do better. So I fired up onshape and did a little skecthing:
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/b...7edf245f2f558b6307/e/0338feea5bc9cc8c6d86fb65
While I waited on my hot glue gun to warm up I loaded it in estlcam:
Realized I had made a tiny mistake in the drawing...but was able to correct it in CAM by creating the cut path manually instead of using the auto tool.
Fired up the needle cutter and before my glue gun was even warm enough to use I had this:
Test fit looked good...without even trying I actually wound up matching up to the motor mounts with my center holes:
Since my glue gun still wasn't quite hot enough I decided to also make a template for cutting the skirt. I just took the outline of the skirt retainer and enlarged it 130% (Though having tried this now I'd go 140% or maybe even 150% if I do it again) then cut that out with the needle cutter:
Ignore the mess in the upper right....this was some foam I'd "ruined" with a mistake on my machine previously and figured I'd re-use it for this non-structural part.
By now my hot glue gun had warmed up so I put a little bit around the inside of the center section of the retainer and glued it down to a shopping bag - then put the cutting template on:
Then using the techniques Peter explained with his two hovercraft I glued the skirt up, glued the retainer to the craft, and cut out the two center holes for lift air:
This works MUCH better than my previous skirt attempt! I can now transition from our tile floor to the rug about 90% of the time. Outside it doesn't pick up dirt like my previous attempt did. And it can now move over dirt and gravel far better. Still can't get over grass...but doesn't get hung up on as many cracks and gaps in the pavement.
Top speed is reduced a bit. It's probably partly the extra drag, and partly the extra weight...but...one of our lift motors is also dying so that likely plays a role as well.
You can actually see the skirt inflate and the craft lift up now with this. However...the skirt doesn't inflate as well as I'd like. As I mentioned previously it should be a little bit bigger than I made it. Also i should have left more holes along the front for air to inflate the skirt as that part is both less baggy and what is there doesn't inflate well - and that's the bit that would really help it over bumps best. I'd probably also modify the center section a bit so more air can get into the cushion easier.
The big problem is durability:
After only a pack and a half or so of hooving the skirt is showing major signs of damage already
I may try a garbage bag next...just not sure what else I may have around that would be light but strong for this use.
If you have an original hoov (I don't know if this would fit the FT version or not) and want to give it a try the Onshape link above is public so you can duplicate it and modify all you want....or just right click on the sketch feature and select export to get a DXF. Or to make it really easy I uploaded the DXF to my google drive where I also have the original hoov plans converted to DXF and setup in estlcam for CNC:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1OJNH5VJLjsLLE05RE_Rumx-KN34DW2i9
Guess I better go track down some replacement motors....
Or start drawing up a bigger one. I'm leaning towards an 1806 lift motor with a 2204 drive motor and dual rudders both sized for 5" blades. But I also have some spare 1103 motors that may make for a fun smaller craft...but I'm thinking 5" blades sounds like the most fun....
I personally prefer the soldered motors since it's lighter and on something this small it sure seems that both as a quad and as a hoov saving weight makes a big difference.
Speaking of the hoov....I just did a little upgrade on ours.
Last night I sat down to watch some youtube and saw that Tom Stanton had made a 3D printed hovercraft with a 2204 motor:
Neat design and I do want a bigger hovercraft...but I don't want to spend that long printing it. I really want a separate lift motor, and I'd rather have either dual fans or dual rudders for better control (though his triangular rudder seemed to work quite well!)
After I watched it Youtube suggested Peter Sripol's hovercraft build from last February:
Which I have to admit I had completely forgotten about. But again...I don't want to do that much printing...
But after that one Youtube suggested the one Peter built while he was with FT:
And after watching all three I started rethinking the skirt I had made on our tiny hoov:
It was a real quick and dirty attempt at a skirt. And very poorly thought out. Which I knew when I was doing it. It didn't seem like it would hold in much air but it only took me 5 minutes and did make an improvement over some surfaces.
But knew I could do better. And after watching those three videos last night I had a good idea how to do better. So I fired up onshape and did a little skecthing:
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/b...7edf245f2f558b6307/e/0338feea5bc9cc8c6d86fb65
While I waited on my hot glue gun to warm up I loaded it in estlcam:
Realized I had made a tiny mistake in the drawing...but was able to correct it in CAM by creating the cut path manually instead of using the auto tool.
Fired up the needle cutter and before my glue gun was even warm enough to use I had this:
Test fit looked good...without even trying I actually wound up matching up to the motor mounts with my center holes:
Since my glue gun still wasn't quite hot enough I decided to also make a template for cutting the skirt. I just took the outline of the skirt retainer and enlarged it 130% (Though having tried this now I'd go 140% or maybe even 150% if I do it again) then cut that out with the needle cutter:
Ignore the mess in the upper right....this was some foam I'd "ruined" with a mistake on my machine previously and figured I'd re-use it for this non-structural part.
By now my hot glue gun had warmed up so I put a little bit around the inside of the center section of the retainer and glued it down to a shopping bag - then put the cutting template on:
Then using the techniques Peter explained with his two hovercraft I glued the skirt up, glued the retainer to the craft, and cut out the two center holes for lift air:
This works MUCH better than my previous skirt attempt! I can now transition from our tile floor to the rug about 90% of the time. Outside it doesn't pick up dirt like my previous attempt did. And it can now move over dirt and gravel far better. Still can't get over grass...but doesn't get hung up on as many cracks and gaps in the pavement.
Top speed is reduced a bit. It's probably partly the extra drag, and partly the extra weight...but...one of our lift motors is also dying so that likely plays a role as well.
You can actually see the skirt inflate and the craft lift up now with this. However...the skirt doesn't inflate as well as I'd like. As I mentioned previously it should be a little bit bigger than I made it. Also i should have left more holes along the front for air to inflate the skirt as that part is both less baggy and what is there doesn't inflate well - and that's the bit that would really help it over bumps best. I'd probably also modify the center section a bit so more air can get into the cushion easier.
The big problem is durability:
After only a pack and a half or so of hooving the skirt is showing major signs of damage already
I may try a garbage bag next...just not sure what else I may have around that would be light but strong for this use.
If you have an original hoov (I don't know if this would fit the FT version or not) and want to give it a try the Onshape link above is public so you can duplicate it and modify all you want....or just right click on the sketch feature and select export to get a DXF. Or to make it really easy I uploaded the DXF to my google drive where I also have the original hoov plans converted to DXF and setup in estlcam for CNC:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1OJNH5VJLjsLLE05RE_Rumx-KN34DW2i9
Guess I better go track down some replacement motors....
Or start drawing up a bigger one. I'm leaning towards an 1806 lift motor with a 2204 drive motor and dual rudders both sized for 5" blades. But I also have some spare 1103 motors that may make for a fun smaller craft...but I'm thinking 5" blades sounds like the most fun....
PsyBorg
Wake up! Time to fly!
What I had thought about when adding a trash bag skirt was to simply try running say an inch of material around the perimeter of the craft that hangs down vertically. It will trap the air but get the craft to lift a touch higher. It would also be flexible enough when crossing rough terrain to form to what ever it contacts thus keeping most of the air holding it off the ground trapped to keep up the lift.
Andrew
G'day Mate
Two days ago Peter Sripol showed this little tinywhoov on his Instagram account, hopefully he will do a build video on it. The skirt on works very well.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfzX74eAlA7/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfzX74eAlA7/
It's hard to see, but that's what I tried first on my quick and dirty skirt. I then added a second piece of material over the bottom to try and direct the air better based on some other "skirts" I'd seen on the FB hoov group (that don't really look anything like a proper skirt to me.)
The problem with it is it doesn't trap air effectively, it snags on things and tears easily, and my biggest complaint - it can trap sand and dirt and drag them along killing performance.
A skirt that's sealed and inflates by itself is really key.
On a related note...making progress on ideas for a 5" hovercraft:
Most of it is foamboard - though I'm still trying to get a feel for how big it needs to be / should be. The lift fan shroud is 3D printed and my first test print came out just about perfect (but I ran out of filament 1/2 way through and my attempt to swap to a different filament without ruining the print failed - so it's printing again now.)
Still need to design the thrust shroud and rudder assemblies, as well as some kind of electronics cover, and since my daughter wants to drive it I better design a TPU bumper for the front as well
I built a Skid boat for "my kids" last year. It uses a cheap 2212 with a 10" prop and set it up with a Camera and had fun running it around the neighborhood. We had a lot of fun. I taped the bottom the bottom, and reinforce it as the head on collisions with the head wall took it's toll on the foam board.
Eventually It took flight off a wood pile and it didn't survive the landing. I've been looking to rebuild it with a more rugged design but haven't had the time. I keep looking at these Tiny Whoovs and I saw Tom Staton's video thinking how either/both might translate to a 10" model.
Don't get me wrong. I will be building Tiny-Whoovs.
In my mind the hope is to get my boys out there with their rc truck and the hovercraft and race.
Eventually It took flight off a wood pile and it didn't survive the landing. I've been looking to rebuild it with a more rugged design but haven't had the time. I keep looking at these Tiny Whoovs and I saw Tom Staton's video thinking how either/both might translate to a 10" model.
Don't get me wrong. I will be building Tiny-Whoovs.
In my mind the hope is to get my boys out there with their rc truck and the hovercraft and race.
I remember seeing yours before foamtest, either in a different thread or earlier in this one. We don't have snow here, just lots of rocks and sand So being able to get over a wide variety of terrain is pretty important for me.
I did make some progress yesterday:
Still not sure about the size/scale. But feels "about right" so far. Since I want my almost 8 year old daughter to enjoy playing with it I didn't want an exposed blade (she's still not good at remembering to throttle down before recovering things) so the 3D printed duct/guard was pretty important to me - both for the lift fan and the thrust fan(s) (which I'm still debating the design of.)
The skirt seems to inflate fairly well (I just pulled it through the air to inflate it since I haven't wired up the thrust fan yet.) - but I'm still trying to figure out the best way to attach it. My initial thought was to just hot glue it on...but I want to be able to replace the skirt easily when it wears. So I may work on some kind of clip-in system instead.
And while I'm building this out of DTFB for now I eventually plan on making it a little more permanent. I have some nice light but strong ripstop nylon I plan to use for the skirt, and some strong but light PVC sheet I plan to use for the skirt retainer. I may stick with foam board for most of the body - but will be adding a 3D printed TPU bumper around the sides for protection (and possibly to double as a skirt retainer.)
Tonight I hope to glue in the lift fan, wire up and ESC and see how it hovers even without a thruster - just get it up and floating and push it around a bit to see how it does.
If it works out decently I'd like to build two of them so my daughter and I can race
So being able to get over a wide variety of terrain is pretty important for me.I did make some progress yesterday:
Still not sure about the size/scale. But feels "about right" so far. Since I want my almost 8 year old daughter to enjoy playing with it I didn't want an exposed blade (she's still not good at remembering to throttle down before recovering things) so the 3D printed duct/guard was pretty important to me - both for the lift fan and the thrust fan(s) (which I'm still debating the design of.)
The skirt seems to inflate fairly well (I just pulled it through the air to inflate it since I haven't wired up the thrust fan yet.) - but I'm still trying to figure out the best way to attach it. My initial thought was to just hot glue it on...but I want to be able to replace the skirt easily when it wears. So I may work on some kind of clip-in system instead.
And while I'm building this out of DTFB for now I eventually plan on making it a little more permanent. I have some nice light but strong ripstop nylon I plan to use for the skirt, and some strong but light PVC sheet I plan to use for the skirt retainer. I may stick with foam board for most of the body - but will be adding a 3D printed TPU bumper around the sides for protection (and possibly to double as a skirt retainer.)
Tonight I hope to glue in the lift fan, wire up and ESC and see how it hovers even without a thruster - just get it up and floating and push it around a bit to see how it does.
If it works out decently I'd like to build two of them so my daughter and I can race
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