Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Andrew Rabbitt on June 9, 2011 at 4:13pm

Yes, of course you could, but when the Z-gyro shits itself like it has on my APM IMU board, you will have a big(ger) problem on your hands!

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Permalink Reply by Chase Hall on June 10, 2011 at 9:57am

Haha yeah I doubt the $20 IMUs here are quite up to Millitery Standard 1553b which requires a shit-ton of failsafes and dual redundancy capabilities.

 

But I was thinking (on behalf of my job at an engineering company) of putting an IMU on one of the parts, and then sending that data to an appropriate flight control computer. Haha just wanted to see what people thought about scaling up these things

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Lussier on June 10, 2011 at 12:10pm

On something like an ultralight or glider it has already been suggested, just need to beef up those PWM outputs ;)

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Permalink Reply by Chase Hall on June 10, 2011 at 12:55pm

Okay, on a serious note.

 

When you say beef up the PWM output that means increase the signal strength to the servo (in this case full blown engines) or beef up everything in general?

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Rabbitt on June 12, 2011 at 12:56am

you can already buy autopilot servos that are man enough to fly full-size aircraft (see www.dynonavionics.com and http://www.trutrakap.com/.  As far as I understand some of them can still take the standard RC-style PPM inputs.

Having said that, even on light aircraft they are only really powerful enough for flight stabilisation (autopilot duties) rather than full-deflection flight control.

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Permalink Reply by Ritchie on June 12, 2011 at 2:32am

Without faults occuring and a powerful enough means to move the control surfaces (or the control surface controls) it should be possible once you mount the hardware correctly.

Although APM is basic controls only on aircraft from the basecode so flaps and any other fullsize additions would need to be coded in. I would presume the helicopter is the same and needs a couple of extra things added to be fully up on control (never flown a helicopter).

If you had the money for a light aircraft and wanted a ridiculous publicity stunt you could risk your life and your aircraft for that one perfect run.

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Permalink Reply by Chase Hall on June 13, 2011 at 2:28pm

Haha well I just want to send control input data to a fly by wire computer, not the actual flight controls, but yeah that would be quite a stunt

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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Sgt Ric on June 13, 2011 at 2:37pm

The APM IS a fly-by-wire computer!

 

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Permalink Reply by Chase Hall on June 13, 2011 at 2:59pm

Back to my statement then. . . What's saying the APM couldn't talk to the flight controls of any FBW system?

 

lol I want an RC F-16C. No a real F-16 with a Rx/Tx on it :) :)

 

Now that would be a show stoper

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Permalink Reply by Ritchie on June 13, 2011 at 3:26pm

Yes the Sgt is correct. If you the helicopter is Fly by wire rather than mechnical linkages with some hacking you could use it much more easily :D

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