Hobbyking Brushless EDF Hovercraft Racer Thing.
 

essentially a rebadged Axon Razorback from a few years ago.

Looks like this in full flight (not my vid)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WEBqtYoH78

Power is from a 2225 2000kv Outrunner on a 10A Esc for Lift and a 2225 3650kv Outrunner on a 20A Esc for thrust. Both run through 55mm EDF Fans

Takes a Lot of getting used to, not advisable for confined spaces, in a big open area it drifts well, almost impossible to keep a straight track. The RTR has the two ESC's running off Channel 2 and Channel 1 powers a tiny servo which moves a rudder behind the thrust fan.

I ended up changing the Lift ESC to Channel 3 so it's either off or on, this allows me to do a few more low speed passes without sacrificing lift.

A few vids on Youtube show the Axon going on grass, jumps etc, I find that the slightest bump can stop this thing in it's tracks, doesn't go up curbs, or grass at all, simply doesn't have the lift to do it.

Have a spare 20A Esc and 3650 outrunner, tempted to put them in as lift but not sure if I'll run into issues having the same power for lift and thrust.

run time is around 15 minutes with a Zippy 2000mah 20C Lipo.

As this is light weight, impacts are not really an issue, the foam chassis absorbs crashes well, body shell is made of a cheap lexan which is very brittle and cracks quite easily.

Any ideas on increasing lift welcome!

COOL :) I know what I'm getting my dad for fathers day!

I'd be thinking more along the lines of a gyro'd mini helicopter for fathers day :-)
Have had a real blast with mine and am going to upgrade it to a larger model for my fathers day...

Nice. What about running it on 4S?

It uses a basic 20A and 10A Esc, from what I can see they have a 2-3s Lipo limit, also a very basic BEC 1 Amp @ 5V, tried running some led's on it, they barely light up.

Still wondering if increasing the lift from 2200kv to 3650kv will help or hinder it.

Would deffinately be interesting to mod that. Maybe put the thrust electronics into the lift position and get a bigger motor and ESC for thrust. A motor like this wouldmake it scoot: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...dProduct=10989

Yeah it would, but the Amp rating would mean I'd have to upgrade the Thrust ESC and funds don't really permit that right now.

I do have a spare H300 Outrunner I could use, 18 Amp rating, 4000kv and looks to be a longer can than the 2225 Motor

How does the fan attach to the motor shaft? Can you put any motor into a ducted fan?

The motors have a 3mm shaft, an Impeller mount slides onto the shaft and is held on with a grub screw, the Fan (55mm) screws onto that.

Motor mount holes are 18mm and 20mm

How much room is there inside for larger batteries or ESC?

Next to none.

Your looking to upgrade the lift right? I would think upgrading the lift only will make it more difficult to control. I know double the kv is not double the power output but would it start to lift the front since it's light anyway?? I remember seeing these a while ago too, I also remember you could get upgrade ducted fans to make it go 50mph. Those were probably the ones running on grass. If you don't want to (or haven't got) the funds to sink into it then I would probably not change anything.

Hi.My dads just bought a 1 1/2 foot long copter for me and himself :yipi:.He's not flown his yet,it just buggers off in the slightest wind:rofl:.We've got a research base nearby too,they throw out all kinds of radio signals,I couldn't use an FM radio within 10 miles of it.

Yeah may just end up leaving it as is, gave it all a liberal dose of liquid electrical tape so I can do some puddle runs etc, bought a cheapy Gyro for it which ended up being DOA and the seller is being a right tosser about it too!

Looks like fun! As a kid I used to have a Tyco hovercraft that actually had a rubber skirt and could run on water, loved that little thing. But the batteries sucked and the skirt eventually got tore up and no replacement available.

Gyro should help a lot, good idea to try that (if you can get a working one!)