ArduPilot Purple + Skywalker X8 + FPV = Summer Loving
So I have some vacations coming up and already have some quads and a hex I figured I needed a fixed wing to round out my aerial camera fleet. (for now) heh. So I took the plunge and picked myself up an X8 to fill up with electronics.
I'm running an ArduPilot Purple, with a Castle 75 esc waiting for Hobbyking to drop of my new Scorpion motor until then I have a 700W max 50Amp local hobby store motor to power the bird. I'm running 1.2 video feeding through MinimOSD with a Sony 720 line mini cam. I have a roll and tilt GoPro mount in the works that I'll post up some pics when I can get some play time on the router this weekend. Communication is done through a Futaba 10C 72Mhz and some 900Mhz XBees.
I've only made a few mods for now like adding a second motor mount plate that bolt through the foam to the outer plate.
I made some electronics trays and filled in the lower camera cut out with some foam and Gorilla glue.
I ended up bringing the control linkage up through the wing, leaving it on the bottom seemed like a bad idea for a belly lander. I have never flown a or built a fixed wing, but I said the same about the multirotors and DIYDrone's gear and community made it simple, awesome and enjoyable. Only crashes were ah-hem user error. So I'm hoping for the same luck with this bird. I do have tons of hours now on RealFlight sim just to make sure I feel comfortable with the controls. That being said any input from from you guys will be greatly appreciated. I'll update this blog as things progress and as I get the camera mount going. But for now heres some more eye candy. Be happy and safe all!
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Comment by james sowell on July 28, 2012 at 10:24pm -
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1555543 lot of build info
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Comment by Simon Howroyd on August 4, 2012 at 4:19am -
Anybody with one think it might just squeeze 3kg payload with a bigger esc/motor?
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Comment by Chad Frazer on August 12, 2012 at 4:02pm -
Are you guys satisfied with the PIDs posted last?
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Comment by Chad Frazer on August 12, 2012 at 4:04pm
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Simon, I know of a guy that put 24000maH worth of batteries in his X8, if a 5000maH battery is around 500g thats about 2.4kg alone, add in all the other electronics and whatnot I'd say its possible yeah.
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Comment by Simon Howroyd on August 12, 2012 at 4:05pm
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Awesome thanks. Im looking at the Hugin from fpvflying.com being more suitable for weight??
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Comment by Rick M on August 12, 2012 at 5:55pm -
We're flying our X8 at 4kg total weight, with an E-flite Power 32 motor, Castle ICE 75 Lite ESC, 4x 5000 mAh 4S packs in parallel, 13 x 6 folding prop.
We put a GoPro on one wing tip today; it was too much weight, and we did not have enough control authority to correct the left-roll tendency. The wing crashed (twice) before we figured it out. We broke the prop. Won't be able to try again for at least two more weeks.
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Comment by Toby Mills on August 12, 2012 at 6:53pm -
Simon, forget the Hugin, I went from a Hugin to the X8.
The X8 can carry far more payload and is also much stronger, my Hugin only lasted half a dozen flights. The X8 has 40+ flights on it and is still going strong.
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Comment by Johnny Yu on August 12, 2012 at 10:57pm
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Anyone tried enlarging the control surface?
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Comment by Martin Szymanski on August 12, 2012 at 11:08pm
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Very good Vampire looking plane. :-)
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Comment by Simon Howroyd on August 13, 2012 at 2:12am
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Cheers Toby. Chad sounds great, thank you. Will make some mods to strengthen it up. Launching it is going to be an issue if it's pushing 6kg though.
What is the empty weight of the X8; airframe, motor, esc, rx, servos. No battery or APM?
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