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
2000ft! Wow. In the UK we can't go above 400ft. And we're really badly limited in transmit power for wireless airborne devices too which sucks for FPV.
APM2.5 v2.65
Graupner 12x6 folding prop
Hyperion ZS3025/8T Motor
Hyperion G3 45c 4s 3300mAh LiPo
Hyperion Titan 80A ESC with 4A SBEC
Spektrum radio gear
Hitec coreless digital metal gear servos
I have tonnes of power, and cruises about 20% throttle, if that. Didn't notice any torque roll when revving up. Folding prop windmills (surprisingly) with no brake for a shorter approach run.
Weather permitting I will get some flight data and maybe some video if I can get my raspberryPi working with my webcam and saving to the SD card onboard!
Glad to hear the settings worked for someone. I'm still playing with them. I'm using an APM.2.5 hardware and 2.65 software.
I ditched my folding prop for an APC 13 x 6.5 instead. Still using the brake on the ESC. Much more power now, and the same gilde. I think the folding prop adds unnecessary complexity.
Here is a video of a flight I did a while back. Manual for T/O and climb, stab for crusie, and when the video cuts out, I put it in RTL (which commanded a climb to 2000 feet) I put it back in stab mode when the video came back.
https://vimeo.com/50736654
I used the ones from a previous post:
Stabilize was absolutely perfect, FBW-A only got a little test but seemed ok. Didn't try any other modes. Why? Because I thought my select switch was knackered, manual felt like stabilize so I though something went wrong and I landed. Just downloaded the .log, the select was working fine! Turns out that the X8 is so stable, and these gains worked so well, I thought it was too good to be true!
Please share you PID settings
First flight done. Like a dream, in stabilize most of the flight, but manual was just as stable! Glides forever so you need a hell of an approach run, 100m as a guess
@ jeffbetts
Have you had a flight with the X8 on default settings, if so how was it ?
Please if you do an update post your results.
I am very close to fly my X8 and would like to know your findings
Someone tell me I'm wrong, but there is NOT a particular set of parameters that will work for all X8's. If we were all using the same servos, with same servo throws and arm lengths, and all had the control rods in the same slots in the control arms, mounted in the same position on the ailerons, and all had our planes balanced at the same CG location, then we could use very similar code with one another.
I was very thankful when Jerry Magie shared his parameters, and while they were flyable, they were way to high for my setup. I'm about to update from 2.40 to the current version of ArduPlane and I'm planning on using the default PIDs to start with. I've never had a problem with the default PIDs with any of the planes or multicopters I've build with my APMs. I've always had to make some fine tuning adjustments to improve performance for one reason or another, but as long as the APM is leveled correctly, stability has never been a problem.
When posting gains, please can you mention which version of APM you are running. I believe this matters, especially with the latest update where a couple of algorithms have changed.
My X8 is almost ready for a first flight, just trying to find some ballast. Currently the CoG is on the rear spar...even with a 4cell in the nose and a long power lead (dodge I know).
Thanks , will give it a go
Here is mine. It works pretty good.
John
http://www.fileswap.com/dl/4IpOkBHkHS/
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