RC Airboat Made From Trash Moves Surprisingly Well!

While it’s great to have fancy tools to make whatever comes into your mind, as this boat made from water bottles and a recycled CD/DVD-ROM…

Jeremy Cook
5 years ago

While it’s great to have fancy tools to make whatever comes into your mind, as this boat made from water bottles and a recycled CD/DVD-ROM carriage shows, a lot can be done with a little creativity! This little airboat gets around quite well in the video below, under power from a pair of coreless DC motors.

Control is via an RC transmitter and receiver, and it uses a uChip Arduino-compatible board to translate between input signals and motor response. How it translates between Tx input and Arduino output for motor/servo control is outlined here. A lithium-ion 18650 battery provides power for the boat, and counter-rotating motors/propellers keep things even steering wise. The boat is held together by four cable ties, and the motors just so happen to be a perfect fit in the carriage’s silicon rings.

Notably, the motors are driven by a half-bridge, meaning that they run in only one direction. It’s definitely something to keep in mind when operating such a boat, or you might consider adding this functionality if you build your own. Creator Antonio Rizzo apparently has first-hand knowledge about getting his contraption stuck in a pond without any way to reverse it, so be sure to keep that in mind with your own aquatic RC projects!

[h/t: Reddit]

Jeremy Cook
Engineer, maker of random contraptions, love learning about tech. Write for various publications, including Hackster!
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