Hendo Hoverboards - World's first REAL hoverboard

[nitro2k01]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/142464853/hendo-hoverboards-worlds-first-real-hoverboard

A real hoverboard that works?? The catch? As The Verge put it in their review of the product:

"The future may be here, but it's louder, harder to control, and way more dependent on a metal surface than we originally dreamed of."

Quote source:

[FrankT]

It's a start. 

We can use it until the US Government releases the alien technology we need to make it work properly.

[Hade]

If they do create a full skatepark lined with aluminium, i'd imagine it could be a success.
Provided the technology is what they say it is of course.

[tom66]

If they do create a full skatepark lined with aluminium, i'd imagine it could be a success.
Provided the technology is what they say it is of course.

Haha, in Leeds that wouldn't last 10 minutes...

[a210210200]

If they do create a full skatepark lined with aluminium, i'd imagine it could be a success.
Provided the technology is what they say it is of course.

I see a big problem with all metal parks. The sheeting is going to be copper (as they use in the video) which is very valuable or some other relatively valuable metal. (For scrap that is).

Metal thieves are going to ruin those parks very quickly.

[Alexei.Polkhanov]

I am not getting where the noise coming from? It is not just cooling fans - they have to have mechanical, moving components for it to work?

[nitro2k01]

I am not getting where the noise coming from? It is not just cooling fans - they have to have mechanical, moving components for it to work?

The electromagnets in the thing are alternating their polarity in a closed loop to maintain levitation. This is causing the board itself to vibrate, which is causing the sound. That is my interpretation of it, anyway.

[pickle9000]

How long do the batteries last?

[Alexei.Polkhanov]

I am not getting where the noise coming from? It is not just cooling fans - they have to have mechanical, moving components for it to work?

The electromagnets in the thing are alternating their polarity in a closed loop to maintain levitation. This is causing the board itself to vibrate, which is causing the sound. That is my interpretation of it, anyway.

Perhaps if they use "softer" magnetic cores like METGLAS they can increase the frequency of switching and vibration/noise will be above 20KHz threshold. Again just a guess.

[PA0PBZ]

I am not getting where the noise coming from? It is not just cooling fans - they have to have mechanical, moving components for it to work?

The electromagnets in the thing are alternating their polarity in a closed loop to maintain levitation. This is causing the board itself to vibrate, which is causing the sound. That is my interpretation of it, anyway.

AFAIK the magnets are mounted on spinning discs, the sound is the motors driving these discs.

[LukeW]

Aside from the need for a surface made of Cu/Al/etc plate, the biggest killer here is going to be the power needed, and practical battery size - you won't get much runtime out of it.

[a210210200]

Aside from the need for a surface made of Cu/Al/etc plate, the biggest killer here is going to be the power needed, and practical battery size - you won't get much runtime out of it.

Use RF beamed power and turn the whole area into a big wave guide. (probably wouldn't be very safe).

[ludzinc]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/142464853/hendo-hoverboards-worlds-first-real-hoverboard

A real hoverboard that works?? The catch? As The Verge put it in their review of the product:

"The future may be here, but it's louder, harder to control, and way more dependent on a metal surface than we originally dreamed of."

Quote source:

[loneoceans]

AFAIK the magnets are mounted on spinning discs, the sound is the motors driving these discs.

Yes you are correct on this one. I'm almost certain that the 'hoverboard' is simply made using a collection of 4 halbach arrays (basically a smart arrangement of magnets to increase the field on one side) mounted on spinning disks spinning like a quadrotor to cancel torques. The sound is made from these motors spinning at high speed. Directionality can be controlled like a quadrotor, by spinning some motors faster than the other. Therefore, no expensive semiconductors for high power switching (which I believe is what most people think, i.e. using an electromagnet). This is not a particularly novel method though, and has been done by many people (a search on youtube should give lots of videos over the past few years).

What I think most people are not aware of is how dangerous this can be considering the large number of strong magnets at the bottom of the Hendo board. For example, any small magnetic object would get attracted to the bottom of the board immediately. If this object is larger than the 'hovering' distance, it could seriously rip up the bottom of the magnets. In addition, putting this anywhere near any magnetic surface would cause it to stick, making it almost impossible to remove safety, and crushing any fingers that got in-between during the process. Not to mention all the other impracticalities like transporting a really strong magnet around, and the extreme cost of a copper floor (this would work on aluminium as well, but the motors need to spin significantly faster since it has about 50% higher electrical resistance.

I always thought this would be some sort of fun physics demonstration most EE engineers played with before though, like spinning a magnet or a conductive disk and making it levitate a magnet / disk, and I encourage you all to have a go playing with a setup like this. However, the reasons why this product (a hoverboard made using this method) has not been made a long time ago are due to these inherent and obvious dangers.

[vk6zgo]

This is bit like the electric car I invented:-
Runs forever,is fast,& light----only problem is the cost of the power cord!

[Alexei.Polkhanov]

I found this MIT physics video and I just had to post it on this thread.

MIT Physics Demo -- Levitating Magnet

[Psi]

If they do create a full skatepark lined with aluminium, i'd imagine it could be a success.
Provided the technology is what they say it is of course.

I see a big problem with all metal parks. The sheeting is going to be copper (as they use in the video) which is very valuable or some other relatively valuable metal. (For scrap that is).

Metal thieves are going to ruin those parks very quickly.

If you nailed the sheets to concrete and then covered them in a thick layer of asphalt it would be very hard to rip up the sheets and steal them.