I finally have a prototype of the molded epo Techpod ! i will have it in my hands in a couple weeks .
when i receive it I will test fly it and if everything goes well I will launch my kickstarter campaign . I need $40,000 for the first run and molds . I have pored my heart and sole into this design for more then 3 years . I did it because I believe the UAV community and society deserves a high performance no compromise airframe that does not come with a $10,000 price tag . it will go for ~ $225 $180 for the kit including everything in the top picture .please keep me in mind and consider supporting this project . I also have a new home on the web http://hobbyuav.com/featured/uav-kit/
here are some links with more info and background on the project
http://diydrones.com/video/techpod-alfa
http://diydrones.com/video/techpod10-remzibi-osd
http://diydrones.com/video/705844:Video:46848
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/techpod-epo-foam
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/techpod11-1
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/techpod10-ready-to-ship
thank you for your support
Comments
Ya that's the idea .
@ everyone
I have received the prototype . I have pics up at hobbyuav.com .I will be building it tomorrow and posting a build blog .
I read that you were going to use Kickstarter?
The prototype was hung up in costumes for the last couple weeks . My partner in the bay area has picked it up amd has shipped it to me in Seattle.It should me here on Monday.will be posting lots of pics !
Thanks , with 2 x 2500 mah lipos it balances perfect .who knows mabe HK will be selling these in the future . lol
andrew ,
here is what i have used a little but like you said , steep curve http://www.caelinux.com/CMS/
they a have a great open foam , ubuntu based ISO and live cd .
Thanks Wayne. I knew CFD was computationally intensive, but I didn't realise that they would take that long! I am playing with OpenFOAM to hopefully eventually do some runs on my airframe designs, but so far the pre-processing is a steep learning curve. I'd buy SWF if I was made of money - I may still do if I can monetise it somehow. I presume you consult with it or work in a CFD environment?
re: the tooling, I guess you're getting a bunch more than I first thought so $40k isn't so bad in that case. I'm interested to learn how you get on with your commercialisation. Do keep us all informed.
andrew ,
xflr5 uses aethena vortex lattice method , its best suited for lift and moments of low Rn airfoils , it doesn't do drag well or high Rn. i have used it over the years with many planes and find it very close to test flights . predicted speeds and stall point are always very close to test data .
SWF uses navier stokes. its better suited for drag estimation in low Rn ranges . mostly because of the calculation time . an xfkr5 run may take 20 min to iterate 30 calcs at 30 different AoAs , SWF takes 10 hrs for 1 iteration at 1 AoA . I found it very accurate but very time consuming . and yes i did find correlation where things are known to be accurate .
ill throw you a PM about the tooling . the 40k also includes the dome and other parts all packaged in a box ready to go .
Nice work Wayne! I hope your flight testing goes well.
Did you do any correlation work between XFLR5 and your CFD work? How well did the XFLR5 calculations you originally did on the old Techpod correlate with the real-life flight characterstics of the first prototypes?
BTW, $40k for tooling and the first run sounds quite steep to me. I have been guestimated locally here in Melbourne, Aus up to circa $25k for EPO tooling, but perhaps it's due to the size of your beast, which to be fair, is quite large! :) I think the guys I talked to sub-contracted their tooling to China though.
here are some specs http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/techpod-epo-foam . i use a Epower 10 and 3 s 5000 mah
for 45 minutes safe flight with camera gear -osd -tx with its predecessor . my original techpods had room for 11 inch prop this has room for a 12 and its much slicker so flight time should go up some . I found my previous protos to be highly stable and hands free when trimmed yet not suffering from as much crosswind roll and up pitching in headwind associated with your "trainer" type with dihedral and high CL foils . I gave it 2.5 deg washout for drag reduction and tip stall prevention . finished all up ? under 4.4 lbs ;-)
I like the forward looking camera lenses cover to protect the camera on landing and the drop down belly cam What type of propulsion system and finished flying weight are you aiming for with all the goodies installed ? It looks like
a plane for the masses and should be very forgiving to fly Excellent
james,
Thanks , it has an rg-15 airfoil for good wind penetration and with the cfd work i did i estimate the drag to be about .8 lbs @ 60 mph . it features a pan and tilt for a small video camera in the nose and a spot for a vertical looking digital pocket camera and doors that open under it for an unobstructed view powered by a cheap retract servo .
here is the time frame
~june 15 receive prototype and begin test flights
~ june 20 begin kickstarter project
~sept 19 kickstarter project ends ,order kits from factory , order ships in 100 days
~nov 27 order ships
~dec 18 container arrives
after that i will be shipping them asap
Good news , I just received word we were able to get the price down to $180 usd ! im going to change my original post to reflect.