Arca Space Corp Unveils Functional Turbine Powered Hoverboard (hothardware.com) 48
MojoKid writes: If you're a fan of the Back to the Future series, the past few months have been fun to watch. We've seen Lexus unveil its take on the "hoverboard" with a maglev-based creation and today we're learning of yet another company that is revealing its spin on the hoverboard concept. Unfortunately, like some of the other hoverboards that we've seen in the past, this one looks a little like vaporware rather than something that will end up finding a market with consumers. The Arca Space Corporation ArcaBoard makes use of 36 ducted electric fans that work in tandem to provide 430 pounds of downward thrust, which should be enough to move just about anyone. The $19,900 ArcaBoard also has a built-in stabilizer which ensures that you won't be tossed of in an embarrassing fashion as you attempt to impress your friends. If you're feeling lucky, you can forgo the stabilization system and shift your weight around to steer the ArcaBoard in any direction.
frost clibcait psot (Score:3)
Wouldn't downward thrust anchor you in place?
Re:frost clibcait psot (Score:4, Funny)
It could be worse. Imagine how embarrassed we'd be if we'd read the article.
Re: (Score:1)
Thank you Anon. Merry Christmas, belatedly, to you too. Fun fact, those things on the right, the goats in trees, those are some Moroccan goats. I've seen them in real life and they do exist - I have never seen them in a tree but the trees they did have were mostly stubble and stumps. I have a neighbor who has fainting goats and they hate me. I was told that if you scare them too often that they stop acting like that so I don't scare them often but, when I do...
There's no hell for me to go to, I'll be all go
NOT Turbine Powered (Score:2, Informative)
Ducted fans are not turbines. They are essentially shrouded propellers. These are electric, powered by batteries.
Not Yet (Score:2)
Lets see it go faster than a crawl. There is no way to push of and get back on the platform. No significant movement. No steering. This just proves that given enough power anything can get off the ground. It is far from doing anything useful let alone fun.
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Yeah, they always do that with flying machines, putting in some stupid narration and horrible music. Each one of those itty bitty fans have to be able to absorb about 7.5 horsepower. Your neighbors will be very unhappy.
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FTFA: "flight time of six minutes. ... an excruciating six hours to recharge the batteries."
The ArcaBoard supposedly has a software-limited top speed of a leisurely 12.5 mph, and you’ll only be able to enjoy a flight time of six minutes. That’s right; after six minutes, you’ll be sitting back on solid ground. And if you want to recharge for another six minutes of flight time, you’ll have to wait an excruciating six hours to recharge the batteries. However, if you’re simply willing to simply throw money away, you can purchase the optional ArcaDock, which will set you back another $4,500. The ArcaDock reduces charging times down to a mere 35 minutes.
Re: Not Yet (Score:2)
BTTF2 showed a world where gravity can be countered directly. Hoverconversions, Hoverboards, etc. It was fun. Kids could probably have their own for $2-300, probably in the low thousands for the power models (graphics card vendors would face competition for teenage allowance money). Betcha a full car hoverconversion is north of $8 grand, but who wants to be groundbound?
Despite loving the films, all of this pretence with fans and magnets seems to me like a childish malinvestment.
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Lets see it go faster than a crawl. There is no way to push of and get back on the platform. No significant movement. No steering. This just proves that given enough power anything can get off the ground. It is far from doing anything useful let alone fun.
In other words, the perfect kickstarter product!
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While I doubt this is a real product, if it can lift 400+lbs, then you could easily strap on a leaf blower and get plenty of trust in any direction you want. Surely, there are better and more efficient ways to do that, but horizontal thrust is not a significant problem once hover/lift and stability are solved.
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Because blowing dust in everyone's face from all that thrust will be sure to make you friends and look cool.
And yet, leaf blowers have been selling quite well.
430lb ? (Score:2)
430lb downward thrust, no good for americans then...
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Not turbine powered, minimally functional (Score:2)
Arca Space Corp Unveils Functional Turbine Powered Hoverboard
Maybe you should have looked up what a turbine is before using the word in your headline just because it sounds kinda cool and engineery.
As for "functional," well... that's in no way an understatement. Of any kind.
And the ad, jeez... you won't see anything this pretentious unless it's to sell perfume. "Freedom...!" Yeah, freedom to wobble about uncertainly on a massive slab ("not much bigger than a skateboard" - bollocks!) of plastic, continually staring down at your feet in sheer panic, from the looks of t
Drone (Score:2)
So are you going to have to register this as a drone? That's basically what it is, a tridecahexacopter, that you can stand on.
Overdone (Score:2)
The video is so overdone/overblown it is laughable. Too much drama, not enough function. $20K for 6 minutes of maybe 12MPH "flight" on something likely to be deafeningly loud. Since he wants to "create a product for the masses" I think he has to start with something else.
Oh, and there is no "turbine", just fans. At least it really is hovering.
$20k? (Score:2)
Sheet of plywood, plastic sheeting, and a couple of leaf blowers.
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As has been done with hundreds of middle school science projects, this can be done for $200.
Sheet of plywood, plastic sheeting, and a couple of leaf blowers.
Right.
It's a hovercraft, not a Hoverboard.
And a crappy one at that. It's inefficient – in too many ways to bother listing any of them.
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We used a couple of old vacuum cleaners and the tubing from a couple of truck tires with rubber cement and hand stitching. Which, of course, reminds me of a joke.
Little Johny and his friend are out building a Go Kart one day and they can't find a gas powered engine so they take the washer apart and use the electric motor from that. Little Johny's mother comes home and yells at them and tells them to put it back together. They put the washer back together and are sitting outside board when Little Johny jumps
Bullshit (Score:2)
272 horsepower is about 200kW. A 6 minutes fly is thus around 20kWh of stored energy. That's about 60kg and 25L of the best currently available lithium batteries (conservative estimation), which doesn't really look that much on the prototype of the video. So either the board is huge and impracticable (mind you, 6h of charge and carrying a 60kg thing for 6 minutes of flight), or it's complete bullshit.
My bet is on on the second option. There's only something like 5kWh of batteries, which makes a reasonable b
How many? (Score:2)
How many idiots are there with $19,900 to blow on a gadget that they'll be bored with after the battery runs out the first time?
And more importantly, how does an idiot get $19,900 in the first place??
vaporware - and entire headline above wrong (Score:2)
First, the original poster describes that aren't quite there.
- It's not a turbine. There are 36 ducted electric fans.
- It can lift 430lbs, but a large portion of that is batteries, followed by motors and the unit itself. Don't expect your fat cousin to soar to new heights
- Specifically the video only shows it hovering in ground effect (IGE). That means it BARELY makes enough thrust to lift the 180lb guy just high enough to hover. The restriction that "it can't hover over water" reinforces that it only h
Physics, unfortunately, works.. (Score:2)
The voiceover on the video is LOL bad... (Score:1)
Learn to write, you dumbass (Score:2)
1) Unless it pays premiums, it doesn't insure anything.
2) That should be "off", not "of".
3) Huh huh. Heh heh. Been there. Yeh.
Sober up and give it a rest till Monday already.
What are the benefits (Score:1)
What do you get out of this over the common wheel? What is the problem they are trying to solve?
LOL cringworthy video (Score:2)
For a bunch of fans and batteries they don't half talk a bunch of BS... "a revolution" and "so that you can achieve your dreams", i'm honestly not sure if this is form onion news or something from southpark.