I plan to have a powered glider and I'd like it to be stabilized but not guided.
I'd like to do this based on flight time and I'd like to vary the desired angle of the nose relative to the horizon. while I'm on the subject... an Angle of attack gauge would be really cool for ardupilot.
Anyway... During the first few minutes of the flight while the glider is powered I'd like the nose held up xx degrees above the horizon. After this time period has passed I'd like to have ardupilot hold the nose at a lower angle that will be close to best glide. I think it's possible to mount two sets of sensors set to show level at the appropriate angle relative to the horizon but this seems clunky at best.
Hopefully my question makes sense and thanks!
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This is his schematic: http://www.charlesriverrc.org/articles/asfwpp/lelke_alb1electronics...
This is his AoA Sensor: http://www.charlesriverrc.org/articles/asfwpp/lelke_launch.htm
Pressing "Back" and "Next" on his site will reveal additional info.
His AoA sensor is a low friction vane with magnets exciting a HoneyWell 91SS12 Hall Effect sensor
providing an analog output voltage to represent angle of attack.
It wouldn't be too much work to replace his PIC microcontroller with this sites autopilot hardware
(of which has a lot of goodies that would be useful).
if you target an ideal cruising speed, and pull up when faster or drop the nose when slower, you should be able to use the existing airspeed indicator to hold an attack angle. A two-sensor solution might react more quickly?
This reminds me of trying to find community support for the gumstix computers.