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
very easy to make your own parachutes to, on youtube look up experimentalairlines
Emery,
That's interesting way to manufacture parachutes at home and very fast way to do it.
Anyway, gluing and parachute doesn't sounds most reliable combination for heavier flying machines. For dropping smaller items from a plane as they demonstrated might be fine.
Hi Henry, So for my calculations that is 2.6"D x 7.9"L. The volume is 42 cu". Our IFC-60-S chute will fit nicely into this and it is rated at 4Kg load at 4.1m/s (69J). It seems equivalent to the 2.5M chute, or maybe just a touch larger.
I understand what your saying about the liner paper and frictioin. For all out CO2 systems we provide a cloth liner cut to protect the chutes from abrasions. It's important to protect the chute material from the friction forces or the canister.
-Gene
Gene,
This image series represents how we have packed Opale Paramodels 2.5m2 parachute in to our eject tube. I guess 4.0m2 parachute might fit if we use only four folds on final stage instead of these five. 6m2 parachute did fit using three folds but it was way too long packet.
Would you try how your IFC-60 packs if you follow these steps and use four final folds?
Cloth liner you use made of proper material might be better than paper because it could be used for tightening a packet. Paper tears easily if it is used for tightening.
How far off is "parachute" library? Will it be available for fixed wing?
I hope to have the parachute library released as part of AC3.2. That's the next big copter release but we don't have an ETA on it yet. It'll be up to Tridge & Co on the plane side about when to incorporate it into plane...Tridge certainly has his hands full with many things.
Gene,
These dimensions are taken from 2,5m2 parachute:
63"/160cm
30"/75cm
Great photos. So the chute is 10 gores. Can you measure very accurately the distance between two shroud lines? I can then calculate the number I'm looking for.
Can you tell if the canopy sections (aka gores) are curved at all, or are they straight? They look straight telling me this is a conical shape that is then pulled down.
It would be good to see the line attachment points up close, the bridle where all the lines come to, and the top pull down connection. It looks like they do not reinforce the connections.
Thanks for doing this!
-Gene
Gene,
7.9" inch is about 80mm more than tube free space is now. I'm wondering if it is too much. 4kg-4.1m/s is very close to Opale 4m2 (4kg-4.0m/s) parachute. It would be perfect to have this size parachute to this tube because it results about 5.5m/s descent speed for 7kg multicopter (DJI S800). This was speed that our test copter experienced when we dropped it seven times in one day.
When parachute has first folds and is like a long rod, how many times you fold it then? We have folded 2.5m2 parachute five times so that packet is about 120mm long. Four folds require less diameter but longer tube. All folds we made were Z - folds.
I think I converted the length wrong;) It's 4.72" which sounds better. Z-folding is the right way to do it, and you adjust the number of folds to get the proper length. That is exactly correct.
-G
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