HydroBreeze in the making

[nikono]

I'm visiting my folks next month. There's a lake behind their house so I bought 2 Parrot MiniDrones to prepare for some fun, The Parrot MiniDrone is the kind that got a detachable small drone to fly by itself or user can latch it on to some foam floats so the whole thing can glide on water.
I am looking into some ways to attach the two big brown floats to the Breeze, one float on each side so the Breeze can take off, land on water
There's a chance I'll come back from my visit without the Breeze if it flips and sinks in the middle of the lake for I don't know how to swim to save it

 

[Scott_in_Colorado]

I did something similar. I extended the legs down with a small 1/8" dowel - used heat shrink to attach it to the legs. At the end of the dowel I attached a swim 'noodle', one on each side, extending from the front to the back. This was easily enough for flotation but it interfered with the lift as the noodle was in the air path. I was going to make the legs longer but decided to abandon the project and not land in the water. I like your idea.

 

[nikono]

I may have the same problem with "lift" as the floats are only 8 inches from under the props. When I'm able to attach the floats securely, I'll take off from grass to see if that works.
On the water, too much contact with the floats may also be another problem. Water holds the floats. We can feel the pull with our hand when we lift something from water.
This setup balances well on floor, before finding a way to securely attach the floats. Anyway, $150 is at risk on the water.

Each float is 23g.

 

[nikono]

FAILED!
It rocked wildly upon taking off then flipped with "Motors stalled". Luckily, the soft grass saved.

It might work if each Breeze's leg got a round foam ball to float it. I'm blindly trying to build a hydrodrone

 

[DoomMeister]

Nikono,

I’m wondering if you could modify your setup to turn this into a Breeze powered airboat?

 

[nikono]

I thought about that but most drones detect uneven surface or non horizontal position and the software won't let the drone fly.
The Parrot MiniDrones got two modes to set up in the app to fly. I must tell it which way, to fly as drone alone for to ride as powerboat. It's a cool little toy that has altitude hold, but it's just a toy. Battery life is not that good.
For the hydroBreeze idea, I'm going to try with foam balls at Dollar Tree store. The setup should look something like this so the props' downdraft won't be that much interfered.

 

[DoomMeister]

Looks like a good plan.

 

[nikono]

This setup with super light plastic baseballs hovered above grass, turned, flew OK only in zero to near zero wind condition. I dared not take it up higher than 8ft. I strongly doubt that it can survive over the lake where I'm going for vacation.
In gentle wind, it drifted wildly (This Breeze can't stand light Wind ).

 

[ravell]

Are the cross members metal or bamboo sticks? I have a feeling the Center of gravity is off quite a bit on this setup or if metal is affecting compass hence the squirlyness in any sort of breeze. I may at some point do a version using 1/8 carbon fibre rod from rc hobby store and styrofoam balls. Your end goal is to have it float in case it ditches?

 

[ravell]

Decided I’ll expedite this and make some progress on my version today. Going to lake house in August I need at least some surety that it could float should it ditch but hope it never does Anyways these are 1/8” carbon fiber rods, with aluminum 90s to cable tie to landing gear and possibly heat shrink tubing should it fall from height in hopes it would not detach. It’s all very light! Chose aluminum because it’s non ferrous and should have little or no affect on the compass as it’s non magnetic. I used silicone tubes to keep it all together as they stretchy enough to have a tight grip on rods. Styrofoam pads I cut up some extra Styrofoam I had laying around and used epoxy and silicone tubes for attachment.

Will update whenever I do test, may possibly mount and test this weekend. The longest rods are 20” hoping far enough away from propellers down wash to not affect the breezes flight characteristics. I will weigh and balance the water landing gear after some initial testing.. will update when I get to it!