This is the Vladimir models Graphite 2e. It is a fairly typical skinny, lightweight, efficient fully moulded motor glider. Despite its 3.1m span there is not much space for anything.
THE CHALLENGE - HOW TO FIT AN AUTOPILOT AND TELEMETRY SYSTEM IN A GRAPHITE 2E
The removable nose section is filled with motor ESC and battery. It just fits a 36mm diameter motor.
The receiver, rx battery and BEC is mounted somewhere under the wing.
No room for servos up front, they are mounted in the tail fin.
There is plenty of space in the hollow wings. Access to that space is limited to the 4 servo hatches.
The compact UDB2 is now looking like a tight fit at 38*70mm.
I do not own an APM but that is looking like a 40*75mm double decker. No hope!
Am I expecting too much? Is this skinny super-model just too needy?
Should I stick to my trusty Cularis with its middle age spread, healthy dose of cellulite (foam) and numerous surgical implants?
If you wish to see more pictures and a video have a look here
http://www.hyperflight.co.uk/products.asp?code=GRAPHITE-2E&name=graphite-2e
Comments
How about something along these lines... a sleeker version of the pod.
@marc, No need to make evil holes. The fuselage is radio friendly kevlar.
There is carbon strengthening in the fin, battery bay, main spar and wing joiners.
Not a bad idea to put the radio telemetry out on a wing. It would help to counterbalance the pitot-static in the other wing.
@Michael, GENIUS! I knew it was worth asking.
It should not take much effort to re-write the drivers. The MP32 code is well written.
There are ways and means of expanding the servo I/O.
Have you built any boards built yet?
also:I believe it is best to have an independent failsafe device that can route radio inputs directly to the servos when the autopilot fails (as it has and will do). I know this adds an extra board but believe me it has been worth it.
This one may have potential for you then....It uses the same STM32 processor that is used on LeafLabs Maple. Due to the pinout selection it may not work with MP32's code base directly possibly due to pin multiplexing conflicts...but it's go poetential..it has all the goodies you need..only 25mm wide, 7 rc inputs, 5 rc outputs (may have to get creative with ailerons here) but I like the size of this one:
http://code.google.com/p/flyless/
http://flyless.wikidot.com/hardware-hart-stm
the idea of using a spectrum satellite and feed it directly into the AP could be a start. But for this and the GPS think about the structure, which is most likely to be built from carbon fibre. So you need to get both antennas ouside (evil holes in a beautiful skin :-(
Probably you can cut a bigger hole in the wing where its joined to the fuselage. Its not clear, how much spce is there from the pictures...
The coming Lisa/M of Paparazzi looks like an option considering size, but it´s not clear, when it will be ready :-( (http://paparazzi.enac.fr/wiki/Lisa#Lisa.2FM)
Marc
@Michael. I forgot to mention, these aircraft have 6 servos plus ESC. The old ArduPilot is not the way to go.
Launching a new project on an old platform lead to disappointment.
@Doug,
Not sure I can get anything other than servos into those hatches. The servos are 30*30*10mm and fill the hatch space.
Was it you that connected a spektrum satellite rx direct to a serial port? This could be a real space saver.
Do you have a link to any information on this?
@Hopper,I had a project last year that fell between the chairs, also due to an unforeseen system change.
My main goal of a sailplane is to fly for longest with the least power. This means accurate airspeed and altitude measurement and well controlled turns in the centre of the lift. Radio telemetry is essential.
I would like the autopilot to ofload me from flying duties so that I can do more of the co-pilot duties.
The femto is interesting but I fear for its limited capacity. A mini version of AP32 might hit the sweet spot.
Thanks for all the comments, Matt
I couldn't agree more, Matthew. I purchased the ardupilot board and a razor. Then noticed that everyone was running down the ArduPilot-Mega route. Didn't want to lose out on all the great stuff that was happening over there, so I switched. Maybe one day I'll put that ArduPilot board in a Roomba or PowerWheels or something.
I would think that doing FPV in one of those Vladimir's would be pretty interesting.
These aircraft are quite amazing. They are capable of everything from air tearing speed to lazy floating through thermals. Caution: like some other beautiful creatures, it is easy to get addicted and they tend be hurt the wallet.
It gets pretty lonely doing those one off board developments. It is all too easy to branch off into an oblivion of code hacking.
UDB2-3 has been pushed to the raw raggedy edge of its capacity. What the team has achieved with 2Kbyte RAM is stunning.
UDB4 is on the way. That design has been shrunk to a slender 31*65mm which is promising.
Maybe I will just have to wait for it...
You should ask yourself "why" you would want to do this. "It would be fun" is a good answer. But imagine you've got it working. Now what would you want to do to it next? If it involves piling more stuff on (camera, video, etc.), then consider other platforms.
Certainly a beautiful bird.
The narrowest solution I can think of is using the standard original ArduPilot mated with an ArduIMU+ V2. This will get you all the basic functionality you need. It can control 4 rc channels with some slight mods. The maximum width with this two board combination is 30mm. For the cleanest installtion, avoid the 0.1" headers on the boards, use direct wires with inline connector disconnects for the lowest profile, you may be able to use double sided sticky tape to mount the two boards back to back for a pretty low profile solution and it will keep your board to board connections very close with short wires and less mess. Remotely mounted airspeed sensor and gps will let you take advantage of the some of the room in the wings. All these are in the diydrones store too.
http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot/wiki/ArduIMU
ArduPilot it is really quite tiny, be sure to read the whole ArduPilot for the necessary modifications:
http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot/wiki/Ch4
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