Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Robert on June 4, 2012 at 8:27am

I am also interesing in doing something similar to this with a nitro plane. I plan to use the APM 2.0. board though. I would sure love to hook an autopilot up to the nitro plane. I also plan to use GO PRO HD camera with it. I was wondering. Can you post step by step instructions, or better yeta youtube video (similar to the one below) on you get the APM into the fuselage, installaiton of bigger fuel tanks for ranger and how it worked.

I am plannin to use the Nextstar select trainer. I am not sure if i can fit a bigger fuel tank inside. But i would like to check the space inside the fuselage to see if i can setup the APM.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUfm5j57arY

• ▶ Reply

DeveloperPermalink Reply by R_Lefebvre on June 10, 2012 at 9:38am

Well, I've got this thing prepped using my APM2-Rx all-in-one.  The APM2 is mounted on rubber vibration dampers.  I had to redo some of the wiring as the connectors had corroded.  At first I thought the servos had gone bad, but I did some troubleshooting and that was it.  

I'm a little nervous about flying this thing with Arduplane, as I'm not sure how it will go.  The setup seems SO much simpler than a Heli, I feel like I'm missing something!

• ▶ Reply

DeveloperPermalink Reply by R_Lefebvre on June 10, 2012 at 12:32pm

Success! She flies beautifully, and the stock params aren't too bad either.  I guess I need to figure out the navigation.  The loiter isn't great, but I think I just need to open up the radius.  But so far so good!

The engine is running fairly well, but I wouldn't try a long distance mission until I get the onboard glow driver working again.  I had one flame out.  

The 4 stroke vibes seem to cause a bit of "leans" on the ground, but don't seem to affect it in flight.  I'll go to softer mounts.

• ▶ Reply

DeveloperPermalink Reply by R_Lefebvre on June 10, 2012 at 1:56pm

Just back from the field.  A few more notes while I remember:

I can't remember how big the tank is, probably 11 oz or so.  But it just goes on forever.  I would come down after 10 minutes of flying and guys were laughing because it only used about 1/3rd of a tank.  So 20 minute missions would be no problem at all.  And I was using a 2S 2200mAh pack, through a MegaBEC 8A linear regulator, and seemed like it could go all day.  I had the system turned on for... 2 hours or more and still had TONS of charge left.

The FBWA mode was perfect with the stock PID's.  Maybe a bit slow, but I don't know if that's the way it's programmed.  I'd call it "scale-like" in the rate that it did things.  Is that too slow?  Should I turn up the PIDs?

The Loiter mode didn't work so well, it seemed like it wanted to do more like figure 8's.  It also seemed like it wanted to go WAY too slow.  Kept throttling back and just flying too slow.  I was just about to start working on that when the Xbee crapped out mid-flight.  Not sure what the problem is.  Not sure if it's just bricked (strange to happen mid-flight).  Or did the vibes kill it?  We'll see.

Anyway, it was an enjoyable experience compared to Arducopter as, for the most part, it just worked.

Oh, and the all-in-one didn't work as well as I'd like from the perspective that the range seemed fairly short.  I was getting RSSI warnings just about the distance I'd normally fly at.  I'm not sure if that's normal, but I wouldn't think so.  Actually, I wonder if it's because I was using a transmitter tray, and the Tx antenna ended up kind of pointing right at the aircraft, which IIRC, is not good, it should be vertical?  I also have the higher gain Tx antenna I can try.

The plane flew just beautifully.  I asked the club pres if he'd take it up for me on the first flight, as it'd been so long for me.  But he was nervous flying a Cub.  They have a reputation for being sloppy fliers.  Anyway, so I went for it.  No problem at all, just like riding a bike.  After a few landings, they just beautiful.  Not 3 points, I could never really do that with a taildragger.  But the big plane flies SO much better than the little foamy I was messing around with.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Robert on June 15, 2012 at 9:41am

Whats the difference between APM 2 RX all in one and just regular APM 1 or APM 2.0 , 2560?  Also could you post step by step photos of your plane and how and where you mounted the autoplot. How you loaded it , e.t.c. I would eventually like to repeat this :  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spirit_of_Butts_Farmwith with a go Pro camera to record this nice trip.

if you did a video and put on youtube that would be great. I know there is one guy that did a video using the APM 1 setup. But it would be a nice dream to watch an DIY gas rc plane fly on its own. I have not bough the plane yet, I am looking at the nextstar select but might use your cub if a 50 oz gas tank can fit in it.

• ▶ Reply

DeveloperPermalink Reply by R_Lefebvre on June 19, 2012 at 6:34am

Well, there's not really much difference between a regular APM and the APM2-all-in-one, other than the obvious fact that the Rx is mounted directly on the APM2, feeding CPPM into it so there are no Rx wires at all.  The range with this setup appears to be quite a bit shorter than I would like.  I'll be trying to improve that.

Man, your link to Spirit of Butts led me down a rabbit-hole yesterday, ended up doing a lot of reading on the Aerosonde UAV, with particular interest in the fact that they used a modified hobby 4-stroke engine, not that unlike the one I have on this airplane!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by james sowell on June 19, 2012 at 8:23am

awesome Im going to pick up a big cub so i can fly on windy days chould you post some pics of your setup thanks

• ▶ Reply

DeveloperPermalink Reply by R_Lefebvre on June 19, 2012 at 10:06am

James, I wouldn't necessarily recommend picking up a Cub as it's not really ideal for the role.  I just used it because I had it.

There are plenty of more modern designs available that would probably be suitable.  This one is interesting:

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=...

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by james sowell on June 19, 2012 at 10:34am

no I was geting one allready 8foot wingspan with 2 cly 4 stroke 300 bucks Ive got radians skywalkers ogar x8 easystar 40s 60s helis quads they do not like the wind I want somthig I can fly on less than ideal condtions thanks though 

• ▶ Reply

DeveloperPermalink Reply by R_Lefebvre on June 19, 2012 at 12:31pm

Ok, sounds like you know what you're doing. ;)  Just didn't want any newbies to think this was a good first airplane.  It's not, really.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by james sowell on June 19, 2012 at 9:15pm

I dont know about that ; ) if I crash this one they will haft to shut down the airfield to clean up the mess

DeveloperPermalink Reply by R_Lefebvre on June 20, 2012 at 9:51am

I think one thing that is very important is soft mounts for the APM.  I had good results with my ring-mount dampers, but if I try it again, I'm going even softer.

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next ›
• Page