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
can i use X8 PID, to starting tune my Phantom FPV Flying Wing EPO Airplane 1550mm?
Alexander, when I load your parameters the ground station changes from Arduplain to Arducopter settings???? really strange. Im going to try other parameters.
Ah I tried the wrong one, it was also for the X8 but that one didn't work for me I think it is for an older version of the software. I will try your this evening. Thanks a lot. Next weekend im going to do my first flight. I never flown a plane one helicopters (Mikrokopter)...
Did the one I posted not work for ya?
Can someone that achieves good results with the tuning in all weathers, send me the parameter file?
Yeah that would be good. That is pretty much my PhD lol. Propane ones are called Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC), and can run on any short chain hydrocarbon, and the hydrogen ones are Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC).
Ah, so there are fuel cells that use propane directly. I didn't realize that. Wonder where I can score one…
For sure, there will be batteries involved. We might design a complete power management system (I'm an EE by training) to manage charging the batteries properly. Perhaps something like an online UPS design.
Yes Horizon are an option but only on H2, which is a bugger to store and fuel tanks get big and heavy for very little fuel. H2 fuel cells degrade badly with time, but you can buy one now. Propane ones don't. Fuel cells have no moving parts, correct!
Do some research into Horizon if you want a solution now, and do some calculations for how much fuel you need therefore where you can get a fuel tank.
A point to note, 0% to 100% throttle on a fuel cell may take a few minutes (go-arounds would never happen!). The most simple solution is to have a battery in parallel, which gives you the instantaneous response, and then gets recharged (albeit unbalanced) when the fuel cell has caught up.
Sure, it's fuel, but it's not internal combustion, with all its attendant issues (weight, noise, vibration, need for a generator, etc.). Plus, the fuel cell is just cooler. Maybe we can put one (or more) of these Horizon Fuel Cells into our plane. I suppose they don't operate well on unreformed propane, so we'd have to use H2. I wonder if we can loft enough H2 to do the trick.
...or take the weight penalty and put a small nitro/petrol generator onboard and make a hybrid? A hybrid will far outperform nitro or electric on its own.
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