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!
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We have our batteries very far forward, and even so we have to fly with a GoPro camera in the very front.
Sadly, our UAV decided to fly into SF bay over the weekend. We had telemetry all the way down. We had to buy a cheap inflatable boat and paddle out in the shallow waters to get to it, against an annoying wind. The nose section with batteries and GoPro HD Hero 2 were nowhere to be found, but the rear fuse and wings were bobbing on the surface against a breakwater of grasses. The APM2, Spektrum receiver, Castle ICE ESC, Castle BEC, motor, and RFD900, after a thorough washing, were all still functional, despite having soaked in salt water for several hours. Not sure of the state of the Align digital servos in the wings.
No idea yet what went wrong.
Mine should be up towards the end of the month too! Very excited. Initial balancing looks like I'm going to need a hell of a lot of lead in the nose. Where is everyones CoG with relation to the front spar?
Cheers,
Simon
Congratulations, Gustav... I'm looking forward to finishing mine in, hopefully in the next 30 days or so...
Hi guys,
Finally flew my X8 this past weekend.
What a rush !
Running a Turnigy 3548 motor, 10 X 6 Taipan prop, 8000 mAh 4S battery.
Handlaunch, and landing in tall grass.
APM not fitted yet.
It's all about the power of the 2 engines, isn't it ? :) And if i use full throttle at those 2 engines, it may be able to lift the wing 1-2 meters for a direct full-forward by the main engine directly. A kind of jump from the ground.
I can see the pitch challenge, but if i set the prop-center a few mm in front of the CG, i can use the main engine to push the wing forward an take-off.
This may work actually! Anyway it's a funny idea :)
If you compare how much thrust a system like that would be capable of outputting vs the weight of the x8, I think you would see why it would not work out. There is also no real good way to control the pitch in VTOL mode if it were configured as pictured.
If i make a hole in the wing. Small enough to not loose much wing area. Use a 4 blad high pitch, small diameter prop and install a low profile enigne like this: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=...
What about modifying the X8 to a VTOL like this ? Full trottle on the small props to lift from ground before you engage full throttle and fly into the sky :)
Yes, the pitot tube has to protrude 1.5-2” from the leading edge or fuselage.
Don’t you guys afraid of damaging the tube every landing?
The X8 arrive today; I really like to start the building session.
In the spirits of the open source, can someone that achieves good results with the tuning in all weathers, send me the NAV PID parameter file?
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