Category Archives: FPV

Brittany RC field, FPV, FPV Components, FPV Howto, Projects, Scratch-built

Project SBSW (update 11) Take off!

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The new wings I’ve been working on for the last couple of weeks was well worth it.

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Here it is last night, with the skin on:

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And finally, this morning ater a successful flight:

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And:

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The 1.4kv turnigy aerodrive motor, 10×6 prop and 5000mah battery gives ample thrust.. the plane can fly really fast.

Stall speed is low.. even lower (it seems) than my 1.4m hitec skyscout. No doubt the airfoil (as close to NACA 4412 in case you’re interested) made a huge difference.

However throttling up causes the plane to pitch down negating the lift.. nothing which some up elevator cant fix though. It looks like I need to put in some more down angle to the motor now that the CG is known.

The elevator also needs to be secured more firmly to prevent it from rolling (wagging really) which affects the flight characteristics somewhat specially when banking.

Will post a video soon!

FPV, Projects, Scratch-built

Project SBSW (update 7) installation of fuselage

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Did some work on the plane tonight and was able to finish installing the main fuselage section with the wing base on top and added some “strengthening” PVC at the  back and front.

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At another angle:

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Update: a few hours later..more panels..

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I have 4 more days to finish this for the maiden. I reckon I can finish the fuselage tomorrow.. the wing attachments on wed, the electronics and servos on thursday and friday.

Crossing my fingers!

FPV, FPV Components, Projects

Project Scratch-built Skywalker (update 1)

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I began making a scratch-built Skywalker (SW) rc plane based on plans from rcgroups.  “IF” it flies and wont weigh a ton from my usual over design tendencies ill be using it for long range.  My target is it should have a base, empty weight (sans ALL electronics) of not more than 600g 800g*. Or a total flying weight of not more than 2.2Kg fully loaded with all the RC, Servos, 5000mah 4S LiPo,  APM2.6 and FPV gear etc.

So far I’m done with the cutting of the main wings and tail assembly (rudder and elevator) which took a ridiculous  amount of time: I couldn’t decide whether to put the elevator on top of the rudder (like the pre-CF tail 2013 SW) or below the tail (somewhat like the 2013 SW). Eventually decided to do the latter so i won’t have to strengthen the rudder too much. The downside is the elevator will now be more prone to landing (or crash!) damage.

Here’s the tail section:

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A closer look at the the attachment points: the end of the tail spar on the right end is a ballpoint pen casing where a barbeque stick glued to the CF spar can be inserted. This is secured by PVC/plastic strips glued to the elevator and secured to the base of the rudder with a screw and nut.

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..and attached to the base of the fuselage last night:

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Target Empty Weight:  600g 800g.
Weight at this stage: 175g

Balance left: 625 g

* found out that the 2012 186cm SW is 700g empty.

FPV, FPV Components, FPV Transmitter

Compact FPV Ground Station

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With the addition of the EzUHF transmitter, my LRS FPV portable ground station is complete:

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Components:
1) Spektrum DX6I
2) ezUHF Transmitter
3) 7″ LCD monitor
4) CF mounting for monitor
5) 12V UBEC for powering all the electronics
6) 5.8GHz Video Reciver
7) Portable DVR (on top of the monitor hood)
8) 3S 1600mah LiPO (temporary setup, I’ll eventually use a 4S 1600-2200mah to get good 12v)
9) Acrylic plastic for the EzUHF mount.

I’ve tested this setup more than week ago and was very happy with the FPV. However, the test flights were not that far, not more than 300m from home-base and the ezUHF was only transmitting at ‘LOW’ power.  So now that works.. the next is to integrate APM2.6!

FPV, FPV Components, FPV Ground station, FPV Transmitter

EzUHF out of the box

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I got the  ImmersionRC EZUHF transmitter and diversity receiver a couple of weeks ago. The transmitter package includes:  the antenna, the transmitter box, head tracker cable, power cable with an open wire, and a transmitter to rc controller cable (in this case for a futaba).   Obviously, since I’m using a Spektrum 6i I have to replace the futaba plug with a 3.5mm mono plug for the 6i’s trainer port.

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The receiver comes with a data cable (for EzOSD which I didnt get) and the two diversity antennas.

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The first thing  I did was upgrade the firmware of the BOTH (must be the same FW version) the transmitter and receiver to v1.43 which includes their ‘Extreme Hopping’ mode (ie frequency hopping in a larger 20Mhz band instead of the default 2Mhz).

 

Brittany RC field, FPV, FPV Components, FPV Transmitter, Hitec Skyscout

FVP using 2W 5.8Ghz VTx

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Finally got an SD DVR recorder to record some FPV videos over Britanny RC airfield.  The setup has a 2.8mm lens on a 700TVL camera and a 2W 5.8Ghz Video transmitter.

The camera gets totally washed out when it’s pointed directly to the sun (I understand some cameras automatically superimposes a black dot of extremely bright objects like the sun).. not really a big issue.

The stock Yagi Antenna’s on the VTx and VRx are good enough, although once the plane is directly overhead and goes through the ‘donut hole’ video signal is lost.  Simply shifting position / angle of the receiver or the Video Receivers antenna easily fixes it though.  Circular polarized antennas a.k.a. Cloverleaf should give better performance.

Here’s the vid:

Brittany RC field, FPV, Uncategorized

IcarusFPV takes to the air! First FPV flights.. check!

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The long holiday gave me enough time to finish the assembly of the video transmitter and portable ground station.   The $9 Carbon Fiber holder mount bracket  from AliExpress.. was all the scaffolding needed to screw or tie up everything.

 

Made 2 flights yesterday.. the first saw the plane go into a stall.. making a beeline for mother earth from 100 ft.. recovered just in time and land behind some trees. Fortunately the plane and electronics were practically undamaged.  The 2w VTx proved its worth, and continued transmitting from the ground.  The second flight was better and your professional crash pilot was able to FINALLY fly real FPV (and enjoy the view!).. could not have been possible without the invaluable help from club residents Kevin, Bryan and Emil who provided the spotting and FPV flying tips!

What an excellent FPV day!

Here's my FPV training platform =) 25% glue!
Here’s my FPV training platform =) 25% glue!