Gemini 4 blade propeller

I recently received a 4 blade propeller in the post to try out on my Gemini craft. Going from my experiences with my smaller craft it should be quieter and more powerful. Well it certainly seems more powerful but its a lot louder! There’s also another issue where its drawing so many amps that the ESC seems to be getting too hot and cutting out. I am not surprised really and even the wires themselves are getting hot! I think I will switch back to the 2 blade for now.

e-Gemini on the water

After a major downpour on Friday I stumbled across a flooded car park which I thought would be perfect for testing my e-Gemini on water. The craft performs remarkably well, hovering gracefully and turning on six pence. As you can see I am still getting used to the handling. 🙂

e-Gemini on its first run

Here is my first go at piloting the craft. It feels a bit nicer to control compared to the smaller craft because of its extra weight and size. I have not used it enough yet to know whether or not I need to adjust the center of gravity. It may look a little twitchy in the video but I was trying to keep it in a small area away from any cars so did not give it a proper straight line test.

Something I forgot show in my previous post is the electronics under the hovercraft seat.

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Here we have a 5000mah 3 cell Lipo so plenty of speed and runtime. This connects to a brushless motor ESC which connects to the brushless motor and receiver. The receiver is an ar600 aircraft receiver. Aside from sending control inputs to the ESC it is also connected to a servo at the rear of the craft to control the rudders. A servo extension cable was required because of the distance and the fact the cable had to be run around the duct in order to make sure it was safely away from the propeller.

Getting back to the e-Gemini

Funnily enough the e-Gemini was the first hovercraft kit that I brought way back in 2013. Unfortunately because of the space required to build it and the fact it looked a little overwhelming back then I have put it off till now.

The kit requires a lot of manual Continue reading Getting back to the e-Gemini

Fusion 400 takes to water

I finally plucked up the courage to take one of my hovercraft out on a lake. The thought of sending something out with all those costly electronics is bad enough but when its a model you have built the thought of losing it is even worse.

My plan was to make sure the swan peddle boat hire was Continue reading Fusion 400 takes to water

Bringing the fusion 400 into line

After having success with the X500 build I decided to look back at my fusion 400 which was not running so well. As you can see from the video below it is leaning to one side and not fully inflating Continue reading Bringing the fusion 400 into line

X500 Hovercraft test run 6 blade prop

I took my X500 hovercraft out for its first run on land at the weekend. Before I took it out some 6 blade propellers arrived. (Scroll down for videos)

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I was expected the motor to choke on these or something Continue reading X500 Hovercraft test run 6 blade prop

Palaform X500 Hovercraft

Now I have a more space to work I decided to build a hovercraft kit I have had lying around for a few months.

This is the X500 kit made by Palaform and electronics aside it is a cheap kit thanks it it being made out of correx.

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The hull arrives in pre cut sheets and theses are folder / glued together in order to build the structure.

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Putting the hull together requires a glue gun, Continue reading Palaform X500 Hovercraft