Dear reader,
We are now live at www.skycat.pro. The development project continues, and updates are added to this blog in random intervals.
We have parachutes launchers available in many weight ranges; optimal 1 - 6 kg and these could be extended with higher impact level up to 11 kg. For larger up to 23 kg multicopters we have XL - series with pilot chute principle.
For those who wants to digest all information available of products, we have left this blog as it is. This blog follows closely main steps we have gone through while developing parachute launcher. Blog might feel like Do It Yourself kind and to be honest, in the beginning it was.
After hundreds of hours thinking, designing, prototyping and testing our patent pending launcher turned to be the most reliable parachute launcher for professional use. We have searched all possible boundaries of technology and from this blog you'll find results of these successful tests but also not so successful tests.
You never know where The final limit of technology is without experiencing it. That's the reason why we have done tests for scenarios which might not be even realistic on flight.
For production versions of Skycat we could proudly to say that we have experienced zero mishaps, never failed a single eject and parachute has deployed every time. This includes rescue scenarios with every imaginable scenario copter could face in air. Check this out as one sample of our test sessions!
Skycat parachute launcher has been tested beyond all imaginable abuses copter possibly could experience in flight. We have sink it to water, it has been heated hours to 90°C and exposed to extensive moisture, we have frosted, defrosted and frosted it again, it has been in mud and snow and still it has worked. Same overshooting tests we have done also for electronics. This is not promise you can use our products outside of submarine but we have tested it so :)
This blog will still be updated as well our Facebook pages www.facebook.com/skycat.pro and Twitter at https://twitter.com/skycatpro
Fly safe - Let's keep our copters flying!
Henri
Skycat.pro
DJI Inspire 1 / Skycat X55-CF parachute integration by www.remotevision.ch:
Other documentary videos:
OPENTX for parachute eject and 6POS switch
DUAL spring loaded switches - single RC channel for parachute eject, OPENTX
Ground eject demonstration in slow motion
Aerial test No 2 for Opale Paramodels 2.5m^2 parachute
Aerial test No 1 Opale Paramodels 1.8m^2 parachute
Manufacturers contributed to this project:
- http://www.opale-paramodels.com/
Replies
Updates:
Copter had maiden flight today. It flew nice and everything is still in one piece. It is ready for aerial test when I get a polycarbonate tube and assemble deploy system. Everything else from mechanical and electrical side is ready.
I tried also to use APM for triggering a relay. There is something I didn't manage to do and a little help would be nice. I used output 9 as Randy suggested earlier and I also tried to config as help files instructed.
Question 1: Should relay be connected between + and - or between signal and -? Both of those were 3.5V all the time when APM were connected with USB cable
Question 2: "camera gimbal" screen don't have "write parameters" button and I didn't manage to make APM remember my selection (relay) for "shutter", how settings should be saved for this selection?
Attached PDF represents settings I used. CH7 works in radio calibration but output 9 doesn't change its state.
While assembling a copter I got new idea which gives some degrees of freedom for implementation.
Idea before for was that hanging rope was designed to go through tube which is common with other principles also. If rope is wanted to be on center of gravity, should tube be there as well.
New principle allows to have rope attachments in the middle of copter and tube itself could be installed wherever it is wanted. My test copter has tube in the middle although it might not be optimal anymore. But this is a way to go for testing anyway.
Setup.pdf
Here is a short video from test I did today. This tube is for 1.8m2 parachute. Copter in video is made just for drop tests which I'll carry out perhaps late this year.
Friction reduction material you might see in video is normal baking paper. Parachute has one round paper around. It helps squeezing parachute in to tube and also reduces the pushout force.
Today I found perfect solution for reducing friction between parachute and tube by watching my wife baking.
Idea has following characters
- we all have it in kitchen
- it costs pretty much nothing
- it doesn't dirt
- it could be reusable
- it is made for lowering friction
You'll see it when I do next test video with 1.8m2 chute. Tube print was succesful today.
On the code side we've made one small step towards supporting the parachute which is to make control_roll, control_pitch and control_yaw always hold the desired roll, pitch and yaw angles. So the next step will be to compare those to the actual angles at some reasonable interval (like 20hz or 50hz) and recognise when things have gone badly. That work won't take long so when the hardware mechanism is ready we can whip that out fairly quickly.
New test update:
This time I tested different about double force spring for large parachute tube. Large 6m2 parachute seems to require a lot of power for making sure it really flies out. All heavier objects I shot flies meters with that force as you can see in video where ice hockey puck takes some air. This time spring force was about 240N.
Spring force test video link
Here is video which demonstrates 6m2 (2.8m in diameter) parachute tube triggering. Next tube size to be done is for 1.8m2 parachute. It is planned to be installed on multicopter and tested in air.
Here are two links, one embedded and one direct link. For some reason embedded video was visible only with Opera Next I used for making it and IE/Chrome shows only embedding code.
Parachute trigger test video link
This project has one unsolved what if scenario which is going to be a challenge soon.
What if parachute goes off for any reason by itself? This scenario unlike but possible.
One thing is sure: motors has to stop immediately. But how?
What has come in my mind so far are:
The sooner indication the better. Best timing is when trigger is activated and piston is not moving yet. Easiest method is to take power to any switch or tear off cable from piston. But then it is few fractions of a second too late.
Any idea out or in of the box is welcome.
Today I received some equipments and succeeded on my second attempt to print cylinder which required 5 hours to accomplish.
Today I made also first electrical deploy test on table and cannon worked just perfectly. Tomorrow I should receive a relay and then it is possible to test APM controlled deploy. First I'll try it using just a mechanical switch simulating APM output.
But, my relay is going to be 12V car light relay and smaller doesn't work; how do I control 12V relay using APM? Do I need some lower voltage relay for controlling 12V relay? Or something else?
Improved version is now coming from printer within few hours.
Very nice Henri! Congratulations, keep it going ;)
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