Hi All
I would like to have a Quadcopter that would carry a GoPro (preferably with a brushless gimbal) and try and get close to the hour mark in flight time.
Does anyone have an airframe/spec that get even above 30 mins and would they mind entering into some Long Distance R&D with me to try and spec something up.
Tried a lot of innovations with frames, props and motors but not got past 25 mins mark myself
Thanks for any replies/specs
Cheers
Ewen
Replies
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/46min-loiter-on-3d-printed-hexa...
so we have achieved 46 min of stable flight using 490kv motors 15x5 propellers and a 16ah 4s lipo we have since reduced the frame weight from 640g to 480g we have not run another endurance test we are retuning we replaced the apm 2.6 with a pixhawk so we can actually get a full log the 2.6 wont hold that big of a log file
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzRBlqkKB4R7BMgb5T-hphg
there are some videos of it flying on our YouTube channel
we are nailing down the supply chain right now but we will be offering a ready to fly version in the very near future
I'm wondering what is the range that you are flying. If not too far maybe a power tether would work, i.e. trade your battery weight for a power converter and cable and you get infinite loitering. And if you can move around with your ground power source, you probably would still be able to cover a decent size area.
I'm thinking to a hybrid solution. If low kv suffers of instability and high kv suffers of endurance, one might think to a mixed configuration. Some large props for hovering and others only for enhancing the attitude control
I used eflite motors and they all have lasted through 5 crashes. The bearings look replaceable.
They also list honest numbers for ratings on the website so you can match the esc to the motor, or just go with 20A or 30A and 3S. The brushless gimbal makes it heavier so I say 30A and get a motor that will not heat up so the max rating around 28-32 A. 900-1500 kv.
Consider the battery and camera setup as two separate things that increase and decrease in size together.
if you have a bigger camera, more battery, bigger motors.
Then the battery weight should be a multiple of the other payload., depending on the battery density.
There should be an easy way to swap batteries quickly that is the only way to keep weight down and time maximized.
It takes less than a minute to swap batteries for another 10-15 minute flight, or whatever, but the range is reduced.
I'm working on a project that solves this problem from a different perspective.
It's called HivePort and it's basically airports for drones where they can safely land and recharge, so you can fly your drone much further. Once there are enough HivePorts (or Hives for short) you should be able to fly from SF to NYC!
We have 10 Hives up and running in the Bay Area and each week we are adding more and looking for more folks to add Hives so that we can all fly further, if this interests you let me know.
Hi Ariel, can you please tell me more about the Hives? I am really interested because I am developing automation technologies for multirotors to increase mission persistence. Thanks
Sure.
Here is a bit more on the project http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/hiveport-airports-for-drones-so-w...
We are actively working on the software (connective tissue) to bring together the people who want to use the Hives with the Hivekeepers.
- Creating your Hive
- Scheduling / Discussing flights to/from the Hive
We have the core of it working on Android and will release shortly.
Have to chat more -- send me an email at ariel at hivemapper dot com
For long endurance I use RcTimer 5010, 360 kv with RcTimer CF 15x5.5 props all in a small quad using a Warthox frame with alu tube 10x10x1 mm arms.
With 5000mA,4s i get close to 1h. Stability its an issue, mainly with wind, so I need to use Autoquad and ESC32.
Slow turning propellers are a pain on quads lol!
what kinds of problems have you had with slow turning props?
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
of 5 Next