So I have some vacations coming up and already have some quads and a hex I figured I needed a fixed wing to round out my aerial camera fleet. (for now) heh. So I took the plunge and picked myself up an X8 to fill up with electronics.
I'm running an ArduPilot Purple, with a Castle 75 esc waiting for Hobbyking to drop of my new Scorpion motor until then I have a 700W max 50Amp local hobby store motor to power the bird. I'm running 1.2 video feeding through MinimOSD with a Sony 720 line mini cam. I have a roll and tilt GoPro mount in the works that I'll post up some pics when I can get some play time on the router this weekend. Communication is done through a Futaba 10C 72Mhz and some 900Mhz XBees.
I've only made a few mods for now like adding a second motor mount plate that bolt through the foam to the outer plate.
I made some electronics trays and filled in the lower camera cut out with some foam and Gorilla glue.
I ended up bringing the control linkage up through the wing, leaving it on the bottom seemed like a bad idea for a belly lander. I have never flown a or built a fixed wing, but I said the same about the multirotors and DIYDrone's gear and community made it simple, awesome and enjoyable. Only crashes were ah-hem user error. So I'm hoping for the same luck with this bird. I do have tons of hours now on RealFlight sim just to make sure I feel comfortable with the controls. That being said any input from from you guys will be greatly appreciated. I'll update this blog as things progress and as I get the camera mount going. But for now heres some more eye candy. Be happy and safe all!
Comments
We're flying our X8 at 4kg total weight, with an E-flite Power 32 motor, Castle ICE 75 Lite ESC, 4x 5000 mAh 4S packs in parallel, 13 x 6 folding prop.
We put a GoPro on one wing tip today; it was too much weight, and we did not have enough control authority to correct the left-roll tendency. The wing crashed (twice) before we figured it out. We broke the prop. Won't be able to try again for at least two more weeks.
Awesome thanks. Im looking at the Hugin from fpvflying.com being more suitable for weight??
Simon, I know of a guy that put 24000maH worth of batteries in his X8, if a 5000maH battery is around 500g thats about 2.4kg alone, add in all the other electronics and whatnot I'd say its possible yeah.
Are you guys satisfied with the PIDs posted last?
Anybody with one think it might just squeeze 3kg payload with a bigger esc/motor?
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1555543 lot of build info
I'm just getting started with my build and wonder how y'all have dealt with the ailerons. I'm thinking of cutting them out completely, sheeting on the bottom with 3/32 basswood, installing some Robart hinges instead of taping them. The foam ailerons seem to be too flexible to work well with such a large plane w/o the reinforcement. The foam also seems too stiff for the aileron to move as far as it needs, unless the ailerons are dis-joined from the wing. Just curious what others have tried and what seems to work best.
I need some help with my APM X8 please. R/C controls operate the elevons correctly in Manual and Stabilise.
Stabilise operates the elevons in the correct directions. Pitch stabilisation works perfect with full control deflection, but roll stabilisation is too slow because the elevons are only deflecting up but not down for roll stabilisation
When you roll the plane left, the APM commands right roll, which mean the right elevon goes up, which is correct, but the left elevon only travels down to neutral position, it doesn't go down all the way like when you move the R/C stick to roll right.
focus is fine so long as you keep the speed down.
>what was the altitude above ground in that last link?
ummm - quite high :)
Great results Toby,
i placed a Canon in the front too, the circle size is exactly the same of the lens.
The IPhone handles well with the focus?
Curiosity, what was the altitude above ground in that last link?
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