Comment by Carl La France on July 11, 2012 at 7:32pm

Form follows function! Very ingenious!  Have a Good Day!

Comment by Rory Paul on July 11, 2012 at 8:44pm

Hein

Where are your lipo  batteries situated above the camera? To get the CG on my Skywalker correct I had to put the lipo all the way forward and then still add a couple of hundred grams of weight.

Comment by Hein du Plessis on July 11, 2012 at 11:18pm

@Carl indeed it does, Thanks!

@Rory The batteries are behind the camera to the rear of the fuselage. It's hard to get the correct COG on the Skywalker with less than 5000mAh of batteries. I'm flying 4S 10000mAh.

Comment by Hein du Plessis on July 11, 2012 at 11:20pm

@Rory - remember the COG is 30mm behind the SERVO LINES, the manual's recommendation is incorrect!

Comment by Mike on July 12, 2012 at 1:30am

Nice Hein! I use a Canon compact so can use CHDK. I set the script to take photos continuously for a predetermined period of time after which the camera shuts down and the lens retracts. This lets me mount the camera under the wing so it takes photos in landscape format and gives wider coverage.

Cheers,

Mike (in Milnerton...)

Comment by brakar on July 12, 2012 at 2:12am

Mike, could You upload a photo of your camera mount? It would be interesting to see since I am running a similar configuration.

Comment by Hein du Plessis on July 12, 2012 at 2:28am

@Mike, I haven't been so successful getting the timing perfect. It happens that the camera runs end of sequence before it's done with the circuit, or I need to make an unscheduled landing because COG is not right, or something else is wrong. This way I can let it take pictures indefinitely, allowing me more freedom. Enough can go wrong as it is!

I'd love a picture too! Please pop in for coffee? E-Mail me on hein@cde.co.za.

Comment by Mike on July 12, 2012 at 5:50am

Hi Brakar,

here are some pics - as you can see it is minimalist! I don't think it shows here but I put a thin piece of bubble wrap between the camera and the wing to reduce vibes and avoid the wing pressing the buttons on the back of the camera. The camera is located around the longitudinal CoG so doesn't need balancing and the velcro strap goes through the wing and the spar is within the loop so gives a greater sense of security. The lens is located inboard so that it provides a mechanical stop to prevent the camera falling out and the lens surround does this even when the lens is retracted. I originally put a coin on the tip of the opposite wing to balance laterally but one day I forgot to put it there and it made absolutely no difference...

I will tidy up the CHDK script and post later.

Comment by Rory Paul on July 12, 2012 at 7:08am

Hein

In the manual I received there was no information about the CG. I read on one of the forums that the suggested CG is 70mm from the leading edge. If I make it 30mm behind the servo wires this put is about 100mm from the leading edge.

Attached is a pic of my setup. Even with CG moved behind the servo lines (about 90mm from leading edge) I still have to have the battery where you have put your camera.  I do have my telemetry antenna mounted in the tail but that is a couple of grams.

Comment by brakar on July 12, 2012 at 9:28am

Mike,

Thanks for uploading picktures. I was thinking of integrating the camera into the Wing, but your solution is certainly simpler. I might try this first with my next installation.

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