Sorry everyone but I have to announce the shipping date for techpod has been pushed back to march 15th
I received this in an email from my factory contact at world models
” The production would be completed and ready to ship by early March. It is longer than expected as our factory will be closed for three weeks starting from early February for the Chinese New Year holidays. Also, the carbon tubes (fuselage) will take about 20 days to order from our supplier and we need some time to work on the tubes when we get them. “
Well it looks like more time in the salt mines for me and my poor supporters are going to have to wait another month to get their techpods. Well the bright side is the production unit the factory sent me is awesome and going together nicely. I am waiting for some new lipos to come in so i can fit them in the fuselage.
Here is the new set up:
12x8 apc prop
Will be looking for 3+ hours flight time with this set up.
thanks everyone for your continued support and patience.
Wayne
Comments
Most of the time it's down to trawling through rcgroups and some trial and error, as was the case with my fpv raptor, but your plane is far better than just the usual Chinese no name brand with no instructions.
One other question. What holds on the top hatch? Is it magnets?
hey sorry i was absent last night! my internet was down probably due to trees falling .
@jason
yes as a matter of fact. using foxtech pancake motor.
@james
R_Lefebvre nailed it, also I would add that a large power efficiency gain comes from power diodes in the ESC. they are constant voltage devises meaning for a silicon diode you will always have a ~0.6 volt drop across the diode, @ 12V a 0.6v loss is a loss of 5%. At 24 volts 0.6 loss is 2.5%
@George
There is a vertical camera bay it has a clear lid which can be either glued in or you can install the cover as bombay doors using a inexpensive retract servo. I will have the bomb bay doors installed after I am done with the initial test flight. I flew the prototype @ 6lbs maybe an extra watt or two then 4.5lbs. max weight has not been tested giving the high expense of the prototype. The RG-15 is capable of extremely high CLs without huge drag penalty
@James, using as high of a voltage as practical is always going to be more efficient. The lower the volts, the higher the amps for a given Power output. And higher amps leads to all sorts of parasitic losses, such as the IR of the batteries, etc.
IMO, the Techpod is a clean-sheet FPV/UAV design rather than a re-purposed hobby trainer aircraft, and it deserves a well designed power system.
There is absolutely no weight penalty to a HV system, if you measure your batteries on a Wh/kg scale rather than an Ah/kg scale which is really not correct.
Yes, it might mean you need new batteries. Small price to pay, IMO. You could of course power it on 3S or 4S if you wanted.
Wayne,
I appear to have missed the Kickstarter, but this looks like a fantastic project and exactly the type of thing I've been looking for; a long endurance, efficient plane setup that doesn't cost an arm and a leg or use gas. I've got a couple of questions. In the CAD it looks like there's a second window in the bottom of the fuselage, but I don't see it mentioned on the website, is that correct, and if so, does it also have a clear cover like the dome up front? Second, do you have any data for how much additional power is consumed by additional weight? i.e. how much would endurance suffer if you added say half a pound of camera weight or another battery? Just trying to get a feel for when the diminishing returns kicks in. You said on the Kickstarter page that the loaded weight was 5 pounds, at what point does it start to not want to fly? I assume 6 pounds is close to the limit?
Hi Wayne,
Sorry to hear about the delay, I guess I'll just have to wait!
Any reason you decided to go for a 6S battery set up for your latest tests? Previously you had been using 3S batteries. I realise you will be able to cruise at lower amps, but there is a large weight penalty. 6S setups are also harder to manage if you are using the same batteries to power other devices like APM, cameras, video transmitters etc. Or do you have a separate battery for these things?
Can you use the multirotor pancake type motors on planes?
Congratulations on getting "Kickstarted.
You have an elegant and practical design and when I get back into things with wings instead of lots of props I will probably get one of your TechPods.
In the meantime, could you please tell me where I can get more info on the Aerodynamic carbon and foam quadcopter that you have 2 pictures of on your gallery at your website.
For a one man business dealing with Chinese companies is often difficult and frustrating.
They are organized to produce mass quantities of things and small (500 unit) orders are normally just fillers between high unit jobs. Basically it always takes longer than you expect.
If your prototype from them looks good, just make sure they don't compromise anything in the production version.
My guess is right now GoPro is having serious reservations about that particular issue.
By all accounts if you start shipping by March I believe you are doing really well.
@John
send me a pm
@Hooks
? not sure what you meant but it consumes about 65 watts to cruise @ 6lbs. the production unit will weigh 6 lbs with the 2x 5000 mah lipos installed giving 222 watt hours 222/65= 3.4 hours of flight,
@Brent
Thanks for understanding.
Delays are a part of business/manufacturing. It is always best to take the time needed and produce a quality product. Looking forward to flying it when it is ready.
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