Reichard Proxima II electric glider

I finally managed to fly with APM on Sunday. Here are some photos and a video of loitering. Well, it was flying a pattern which first looked like a figure 8 and then the olympic rings. Any idea why? Will check everything again and fly a real mission when I can.
Preliminary conclusions: Manual mode is good, stabilize is very convincing, FBWA and FBWB work, loitering must be checked. PID parameters appear to be reasonable, no sudden movements.

It was awesome to have the model fly with me hands off for the first time!

The setup:
Reichard Proxima II glider, 2,78 m wingspan.
HS82MG AIL and FLAPS, HS65HB ELE and 9g cheap servo for RUD.
Dymond AL3548 outrunner 630 watt, 900 Upm/V and 60A Dymond regulator.
11,1 V 3300mAh LiPo battery
13" x 6,5" folding propeller

Radio:

Futaba T8FG with RH6008HS RX
Ch1: AIL with Y-cable
Ch3: Motor
Ch4: ELE
Ch5: RUD
Ch6: Flight mode control
Ch7 and Ch8: Flaps, not connected to APM but directly to the RX.

APM:

APM, IMU, Mediatek GPS MT3329, XBee 900MHz wire. Powered by a separate 1000mAh LiPo at 7,4 V (solder jumper removed).

Portable PC ASUS Eee 1000H with XBee 900MHz&duck antenna and HappyKillmore's GCS (that I can't look at when I'm flying anyway).

FlycamOneIII

Next improvements to be done are:
Connect the airspeed sensor.
Find a better way to mount the APM and associates under the hood whilst maintaining access to buttons, connectors and view of LEDs (transparent hood, holes).
Sort out the chaos of servo-cables in the fuselage.
Variometer based on a high precision pressure sensor, I2C/SPI.

Other issues:
Flaps are controlled manually on two separate channels to slow down for landing. It would have been nice to have differential ailerons, but I understand it's a matter of priorities. None of the other mixes (e.g. butterfly) will work because of the y-cable so we might as well accept to live without them in the APM domain, for the time being.

The model is quite beaten up, it has 55 hours of flying on it and a few crashes too. A brand new copy sits in the basement and will be used to build a perfect Proxima with APM when all tests and trials are completed. I will come back to you to discuss particular technical issues in the appropriate sections of the forum.

Cheers from
Parapendioper, Italy.

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Comments

Kim Skatun March 11, 2011 at 9:18am

You can use all 7 servos directly on the apm, you just need to change the code a bit...
DaveyWaveyBunsenBurner March 10, 2011 at 8:11am

I cant watch the video on my device but it probably means your PID gains need tweaking. Im guessing probably turning them down a bit will helo. The wiki tells you about tuning.
Carlos March 10, 2011 at 5:42am

Yes, congratulations! I too had my first successful flight last weekend and it is a very rewarding feeling when it all comes together and works, huge thank you to all for making this all possible.

I did also notice that the loiter pattern was a bit strange, but as long as it doesn't fall out of the sky and stays where it should then i'm not too bothered, but I would be interested to find out why.

Kindest

C
Greg Fletcher March 9, 2011 at 7:49pm

Congrats to you!!! It's a great feeling of accomplishment when you get everything to work. With winter almost over on to top side of the planet I hope to see more success stories, mine included. Remember, be safe and thorough, this is a tough, but rewarding endeavor.

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