Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by William on December 22, 2010 at 11:35am

Hey guys.  I made a photography telemetry bay.  And I am roughing out a DSLR camera bay.

What are your opinions about the structural integrity of what I am doing.

The other pictures are on my Page.

 

 

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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Nathaniel Caner on December 22, 2010 at 6:03pm

William, Thanks for your comment. My SR Telemaster was an ARF, looking at this picture It appears yours is from a kit? I found out the hard way that in the ARF the area between the rear wing saddle and the tail feathers is very weak (lightweight balsa). I had a bad takeoff on in a crosswind that picked up my right wingtip and cartwheeled the plan wingtip over wingtip, and split the fuselage in two just aft of the rear wing hold down. It's all back together now and flying as good as ever. One good thing to note is that the wing is very strong! If your kit is as lightweight in this area as my ARF, I would be very careful of reducing strength in this area. Some simple reinforcement would be in order and wont add much weight (the Telemaster could easily handle a few extra pounds without effecting it's performance that much!) Good luck with your project! Someday I'll post some video of the crash and photos of the damage and reconstruction. I plan to finish the build blog I started, with the addition of installation of the pitot tube in the wing, as well as alteration of the wing struts.

 

Regards,

 

Nathaniel

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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Nathaniel Caner on April 10, 2011 at 3:55pm

@Erik

 

This actually isn't a Sig Kit it's licensed and distributed by Hobby-Lobby.com, right now they have the Senior Telemaster ARF available in classic Yellow or the Red and White scheme as shown above for $209, or if you have the extra cash I would seriously consider buying the redesigned Senior Telemaster Plus $349. It has many improvements over the above design including a wider fuselage for increased payload and improved wing and tail mounting! Check out the video of the new Senior Telemaster Plus here. No matter what nothing flies like a Telemaster!

 

Good Luck, and if you want one act fast because they don't stay in stock long, and when they are backordered you can wait months for them to come back in stock!

 

Regards,

Nathaniel

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Permalink Reply by Curt Olson on April 10, 2011 at 4:22pm

I saw that new Senior Telemaster and I'm seriously tempted!  This winter I've been prototyping an autoland system in simulation (emphasis on the optimized approach aspects of the autoland system) and I'm hoping to be able to get that moved over into real hardware and do some real world test flying this summer.  The flaps on the new version are especially attractive to me.  The cabin of the old senior telemaster was about 4" wide so it's still pretty roomy compared to an easy star.

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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Nathaniel Caner on April 10, 2011 at 4:29pm

@Curt

 

I always seem to be a day late and a dollar short ($140 in this case),when it comes to this kind of thing. If I hadn't bought one just last year I'd be buying a "Plus" for myself this year! If you do make the jump I will eagerly await a report on your autoland system!

 

Regards,

Nathaniel

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Permalink Reply by Erik Hatch on April 10, 2011 at 4:52pm

I buckled,

After reading this entire thread, and Nathaniel's horror story, I bought the SR Telemaster Plus. I will let you guys know when I get it to share the details. I will need some help choosing the powerplant setup. I want to go electric. Any suggestions?

 

Erik

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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Nathaniel Caner on April 10, 2011 at 5:24pm

Eric,

 

I think you'll be really happy with this decision, I'm jealous! As far as a power goes on my Senior Telemaster I am very happy with the setup I have. I use a Great Planes Rimfire .80 Brushless outrunner $89.99, a Castle Creations Phoenix ICE 100 speed control $118.98, anAPC 15x6E prop $5.29, and6S1P 5000mAH 25C Venom batteries $199.99 each (you might try Hobby-King for some really great buys on equivalent batteries around $70 each!). This arrangement gives me around 24 minutes of flight time with a 20% reserve, and plenty of power for anything I would want to do. Average cruise current is around 14A with this setup. The speed control is overkill for this project, but I really like the CC Phoenix ICE line, they have a built in data logger that comes in handy when trying to asses performance, and the cost of the 100A version is only $17 more than the 75A version. The whole system stays nice and cool with the speed control mounted on the outside of the firewall. My Senior Telemaster came in ready to fly at almost exactly 10.5 lbs just like the literature states, so I imaging yours should come in pretty close to the 9lbs advertised weight. No matter what you chose I would say 100-120 watts/lb should give you good performance.

 

When you get everything together and you start flying the only thing I would say to be aware of are cross winds, I had a bad experience with a crosswind on takeoff and cartwheeled my Telemaster wingtip over wingtip! The result was a broken fuselage and motor mount. The fuselage broke in two right behind the wing saddle. Fortunately it was a clean break and I was able to put it back together good as new!

 

Good luck, let me know if you need any more advice.

 

Regards,

Nathaniel

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Permalink Reply by Erik Hatch on April 10, 2011 at 5:38pm

Thanks for the info Nathaniel. What kind og motor mount are you using? I have seen some pretty low prices at nitroplanes.com, however "cheaper" isnt always better.

Erik

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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Nathaniel Caner on April 10, 2011 at 5:49pm

Erik,

 

Take a look at the pics on my page here there are some good pics of the motor/spd control installation there as well as pics of my Ardupilot installation. I did a blog post here of my complete installation. It looks like your plus has a firewall extension which would eliminate the need for the nylon extensions in my installation. There are certainly many options for motor/spd control choices that will work just fine, just be sure you get more capacity than you need so everything runs cool and you should be fine.

 

Regards,

Nathaniel

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Permalink Reply by Erik Hatch on April 10, 2011 at 6:18pm

Nice job Nathaniel, and thanks for the advice. I plan on using another APM with mediatek gps and xbee's in the Tele. I have this setup currently installed in my Dynam HawkSky that im going to install in my Discus: http://www.nitroplanes.com/dics2arfrare.html

I also have a lawmate 1w wireless video system and a sn555 camera i will put in the telemaster. I doubt the SR Tele would have any problems carrying the payload.

Erik

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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Nathaniel Caner on April 10, 2011 at 6:36pm

Eric,

 

Your right the Tele wont have any trouble carrying a hefty payload. With the Plus you have a 1 1/2 lb advantage  according to the specs! Plus with the additional room in the expanded fuselage there is lots of room for that payload! An FPV system is something I'd like to add to my tele sometime. Where did you get your equipment? Do you have a telemetry system? What frequencies do you use for your FPV, control, and telemetry. If you had to change anything about the system you have what would it be?

 

Regards,

Nathaniel

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Permalink Reply by Erik Hatch on April 10, 2011 at 7:22pm

Nathaniel,

I got the video components from www.hobbywireless.com this is the unit i have:

http://hobbywireless.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&...

I currently use the xbee's for wireless telemetry to HappyKillmore GCS. The xbee's are ate 900Mhz, wireless video at 1.2Ghz, and my radio is at 2.4Ghz. Rite now I cant say I'd change anything. My hawksky suggest by chris anderson has been perfect. I have a lot of experience in RC, so going to a Tele will be easy. I got bored with RC until now. This is a whole new world to me and its a fantastic experience.

RErik

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