Hi all, this is my last project in co-operation with Virtual Robotix which provided me a new autopilot board to test.
The plane is a Skyray from HK, and i can say the frame is very well dimensioned (loads of room inside the fuselage) and strong enough to withstand a 90km/h crash into a tree (just minor damages on the leading edge...)!
The provided engine has plenty of power but drains the battery in a heartbeat if you insist with throttle (2212 2300kv pushing a 6X4), so i decided, after initial test flights, to switch onto a 1000Kv pushing a 9X4.7 (prop clearance is not anymore a trouble, being supposed to always takeoff and land as a VTOL), which guaranteed a lot more flying time so far.
now let's have a look at my setup (this is rev.1 of the project, so many details have still to be improved and lightened a bit :-) ):
Autopilot board:
internal vane:
Rear and forward brackets for multirotor engine assembly:
the selected engines for quad mode are blackwidows 2206 2000 kV with integrated ESC, which proved to be extremely up to the challenge, managing even very strong winds.
Talking about performance i can say that with current setup and a 3S 3700 battery, i can fly vertical for a total of 4.5 minutes and 15 minutes in plane mode (which will become 17-19 with next main engine i'm going to install)
All up weight (including FPV camera pilotHD and 250 mW Vtx and 3S 3700 battery) is 1266 grams
Here some videos of manual flights/auto missions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voBad8JLAzw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4SjZLBG3ag
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw_IuR81LVE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFH5HN9dG-w
I would like to thank Roberto Navoni and his team who provided me full autopilot kit, and Andrew Tridgell for the initial debugging of PID's.
Replies
Have you seen any examples of Pixhawk programmed for Quadplane with an elevon mix after transition?
This is without elevon mixing so far, and no forward flight.
https://youtu.be/_GFR9OT30wI
some more details regarding the autopilot:
It's a VR Core, 32 bit, full Arduplane/copter support, featuring same capabilities of larger boards like Brain 5.2 or Pixhawk.
It weighs only 6 grams
Here attached the wiring diagram of the prototype: