RC Air Boat Using Parcel Tape

Hi

In this project, I have made an RC AIR boat. The hull of which is made out of styrofoam sheet and as you know that those sheets are bit porous and water enters inside it easily making it difficult for the boat hull to keep it buoyant in water. So I used the parcel tape to make it afloat. I hope you will love to make one during the rainy season. I am telling rainy season because I live in a relatively dry area where waterlogged land is hard to find for some fun like enjoying this RC boat. Anyways I have tried to cover all the details of the project step by step as below.

I took two styrofoam sheets of 1inch thickness and about 35 cm in length and about 18 cm in width. Then I draw a basic shape of the boat hull and cut it to the shape of the boat.

I took a wooden bar and cut a slot on one end of the wooden bar. Then I took an RC motor with a broken arm of one of my quadcopter. Then I fixed the broken arm holding the motor on the wooden bar as shown in the picture. Then I marked the size of the wooden piece on the boat hull and cut a square hole in place and fixed it with the hot glue. The motor is a 1400kv BLDC motor.

I am using the flysky FSTH9x transmitter which is highly modified and using opentx Frsky XJT module. An associated Frsky receiver is used which will give me PWM output. I have used it in the AETR ( Aleron Elevator throttle and rudder) configuration. I used channel three as my throttle and channel four as my rudder. Throttle will propel the proportional speed of propeller and channel four will control the rudder; which in turn will control the boat direction with the servo. Now coming on to servo I am using 9g small servo to control the rudder of the boat. The receiver and transmitter are bound beforehand. The PWM out of channel 3 is given to ESC ( Electronic Speed Controller) input for throttle. ESC is Simonk 30 Amp 4s capable for BLDC it's very generic. Channel 4 output from the receiver is given to the servo input to control the rudder. This completes the electronics part of the project.

Then I took a wooden strip and a piece of cardboard to make a rudder out of it as shown in the picture. After making the rudder by hot gluing it to wooden strip it was covered with the parcel tape to make it bit strong and waterproof. Though it's not going to be submerged in water still to save it from any splashes and maintain it's structural strength. Then the entire assembly of the rudder was fixed on the boat hull by making a slot in the hull with a cutter and then hot gluing it along with supporting wooden strips. The servo was mounted and tie wire for the movement of the rudder was then installed. Then to make the entire boat waterproof and making it buoyant it was necessary to prevent any water ingress into the styrofoam sheets. So I generously used a parcel tape to cover entire hull with the parcel tape. Finally, I also made a square shaped battery holder form the styrofoam sheet and covered it too with the parcel tape so as to save the battery from any of the water splashes. This was the final step for the completion of this project.

The boat remained buoyant very well holding the entire weight of battery and electronics. It was fun to spin it around during the last monsoon in some clear waters that were accumulated in and around the city. I had a lot of fun with it. I hope you have enjoyed this instructable. Your appreciation will be a great motivation for me. Thanks for your time and interest.