Thank you Range Video for sponsoring our Wildlife Conservation UAV Team!! We will be announcing our other sponsors as they come on board. The team is rounding out as well. We will be introducing ourselves as we get things organized over the next couple of weeks. Our team is being fielded from here in the states and we have a member in Australia. We are still forming and have room. The team is representing The Lankford Group and our aeronautics research division, Aerial Vista.
For those unfamiliar with the competition, it is a design build challenge to come up with a UAV for anti-poaching operations in Kruger National Park in South Africa. It has to be able to sense weapons on the ground, identify individual animals, ward off poachers till rangers arrive, and of course provide the location of the poachers with GPS. It is an interesting challenge and I feel that we already ninety percent of the way there.
I wish to use the RVJET platform because I feel that it is a well designed and well rounded platform for a variety of missions. It has the capacity to hold enough batteries for extended flights and the camera pods can be fitted with different configurations for day, night, or even mapping missions. I had planned to detail the first RVJET that I have in a build blog but we will actually blog about the entire build for the competition. So the blog will providing multiple purposes. We can't wait to get into this one. I will try to begin introducing the team over the next week and any design developments that we come up with to share. Thank you again to Range Video for being our sponsor and thank you reader for taking the time to peruse our blog.
Comments
I will blog about CG next. I was going to blog about the gimbal or the groundstation but it seems that lots of people are having trouble with this. I have the solution for my personal RVJET and I have a better solution for the Wildlife Challenge drone. You are on exactly the right track. The modification will actually be a dual hatch essentially. I will cut off the back part over the motor of the top section of the fuselage. The front majority will then be bolted down with three or five nylon bolts. That way we can cut the bays just wide enough to set in the batteries but then can take them out as well. What I think will happen to achieve 20000mah is that three 5000 mah batteries and the current sensor will be in the back bay and a single 5000 in front of the spar. That way I have almost the entire front bay for radio equipment and sensors. I think this will also have the effect of the battery wires only being near the currents sensor and the two aileron extensions. That should keep that EMI controlled to the back as well. I believe that your solution of one in front and one in back will be ideal for you.
I would be interested in seeing how you achieve the proper CG. I am just finishing a build with the long wing configuration. I have a GP3 in the nose, the RV Power Pack, and the RVOSD.
My plan was to put two 8.4Ah batteries in the battery bay, but just placing one in the bay (seated lengthwise butted up to the spar) requires 4 ounces of lead on the motor mount to balance! Forget putting in two batteries. I have to put the single battery in sideways which makes removal complicated, just to get a reasonable balance.
If I had to build this plane again I would put one battery behind the front spar and the other in front of the front spar. The electronics would go in the battery compartment just behind the gimbal. This would require a modification to the hatch for battery removal.
If there is a better way to balance the plane please let me know.
This is VERY easy using Taranis radio, but shall also be no problem with any high grade TX...
That is not a bad idea. I am not sure how complicated that would be in the mixing. It is an interesting idea.
Given that you have two props could you use those to control yaw instead of rudders?
There is also a typo in the end of the manual regarding the CG. The picture is correct and CG should be where the fins meet the wings. The text in the example setup mentions the CG being 25mm in front of this. That is incorrect. The RVJET is designed so that the CG remains in the same position no matter how the wings are configured. I would also think that in the double fuse config the CG will remain the same, where the fins meet the wings.
The manual is amazing. I think that it is about as clear as one could hope. Aside from the magnets I have not noticed anything else lacking. In my build I noticed that the carbon fiber rods were a little stiff bringing the wings all together. The spars bit into the foam on one side or the other. I glued in some pieces from a used gift card to make backers on either end of the spar cutouts in the wings. That has worked wonders. I will be noting it in the build blog for the competition plane. I will also probably make a latch lock as well so that it is an added safety to the hatch.
Ah, yes when I typed the manual I didn't know the strength of the kit magnets. A new manual is in the works and this should be fixed if we use the same magnets. Added to the to-do list. :)
The manual said horizontal or vertical so I chose vertical. I should of had tape on it anyways. I figure it was my silly mistake
Hmm, that is strange. How had you glued the magnets? The supplied magnets should be glued horizontally. in both the hatch and the fuselage.
Contact RV for a replacement hatch.
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