Hi all, I am having some success with my Skywalker and would now like to build a Hustler as my next Er.......... FPV... we will call it. I want to use a glow motor most likely an OS 46 LA. I wanting to know if the vibration will cause any problems with the Ardupilot as well as the fuel changing the C of G in flight. I have many year of experience in aero modelling and can get the vibes down really low. I was thinking of using a product called Zeal which is a double sided tape to mount the Ardupilot it is a green tape which is about 6mm thick and is like gel, we use it all the time in helicopters and it eliminates almost all the vibes going to the Gyro's.
Any thoughts.
P.S the reason I want to go glow is for the range. In a model that size A hobbyking 46 electric motor with 2 5000mah 4S packs I think I will only get about 30 minutes of flying.
Cheers.
Replies
My experience is that I mounted an APM 2.5 on a 4 strokes 10cc plane (zlin 41 from HK), and stabilisation and return to launch worked at the first attempt. In other words, the default parameters work. Though, I had a bit of oscillation in altitude (go down, suddenly increase throttle and gain altitude, suddenly cut throttle and losse altitute, an so on and forth.). So, I read the manual (http://plane.ardupilot.com/wiki/tecs-total-energy-control-system-fo...), and increased the TECS_TIME_CONST of 1. I am in the process of tuning the PIDs. Long story short : I encountered many troubles (about 5-10), and *all* solutions where in the manuals.
APM:Plane is not nearly as sensitive to vibration as APM:Copter is. Most of the development testing for APM:Plane releases is done on glow or gas motor planes. I fly with APM2 and PX4 boards on these planes with no special anti-vibration measures (I just hold the board onto the fuselage with velcro).
However there are 4 parameters that you should read up on carefully for good idle and throttle control on glow planes. THR_PASS_STAB, THR_SUPP_MAN, THR_MIN and THR_SLEWRATE. Read up on those parameters in the documentation and think about how you want to manage idle throttle and prevent the engine stopping in flight.
Cheers, Tridge