Haha! Well I thank you for bringing this idea to my attention! Tubeguy and Killjoy, do you think this will a work well?

 

I am currently working on a hovering car powered by 7 DC fans. There will be 2 on the bottom to provide a lift, and one of the back to provide a forward thrust. The other four are going to be placed on the body, one in each corner, to provide a method of steering. For example, as the top right fan and bottom left fan are turned on, the car will be turned left.

I want to control all of these 7 fans remotely, either with radio, or IR. I plan to have all of these fans running on a series of 9V batteries. However, my experience with electronics is that I know how to pronounce electricity, and I can barely solder without burning myself.

Can you guys help me figure out where to even get started? I am clueless about electronics.

the lift will depend on the air pressure you can generate. perhaps you'll be able to generate more lift if you can somehow increase the air pressure beneath your craft. Please refer to other websites on hovercrafts. And for the steering part, have you tried steering the craft by varying the speeds of the rear fans (like if you want to steer left then make the left fan slower) instead of using four extra motors for that?? That should give a lesser load on your power sources.

 

the lift will depend on the air pressure you can generate. perhaps you'll be able to generate more lift if you can somehow increase the air pressure beneath your craft. Please refer to other websites on hovercrafts. And for the steering part, have you tried steering the craft by varying the speeds of the rear fans (like if you want to steer left then make the left fan slower) instead of using four extra motors for that?? That should give a lesser load on your power sources.

Or one propulsion motor with a rudder controlled by a RC servo.

 

the lift will depend on the air pressure you can generate. perhaps you'll be able to generate more lift if you can somehow increase the air pressure beneath your craft. Please refer to other websites on hovercrafts. And for the steering part, have you tried steering the craft by varying the speeds of the rear fans (like if you want to steer left then make the left fan slower) instead of using four extra motors for that?? That should give a lesser load on your power sources.

I have actually already changed my original plans. I decided to use 4 fans in the bottom and 2 fans in the rear. I was already planning on steering with the method you suggested. However, I don't really know how to set up the circuitry or the control mechanism. I am planning on keeping the lift the same (non-changeable), and being able to change the thrust with up/down bar and the steering with a left/right bar.

I also don't know what battery I should be using for 6 fans with the specs:
Test Voltage: 11.1v
Test Current: 18A
Thrust: 470g
Power: 199.8w

http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__6566__EDF55_with_H300_Motor_Assembled_199_8W.html

Some good ideas for how to control the speeds of these motors would also be very appreciated.

 

Most real life hovercraft do what you are trying with one or at most two motors. If you do some research on hovercraft you may get a better idea of how they work.

 

Most real life hovercraft do what you are trying with one or at most two motors. If you do some research on hovercraft you may get a better idea of how they work.

Yep. I did some googling. Found lot's of info on real and model hovercraft.
Looks like 1 or 2 lift motors are all you need.

 

Ah. I did some research to and I found that 2 motors should be enough for my application. But, I still plan on using 2 separate thrust motors. Any idea on how to control the speeds of motors independently?

 

The reason other people are/have done it the way they do is, what you are asking. Why try to reinvent the wheel?