At the moment, this is only going to have some pics in it. When I have time, I will post some info.
So this is my Build Log timeline thingy.
Decem. 2010 - Got Wot 4, packaging is a nightmare, when you remove the back of the plane, take out the piece of cardboard or you end up snapping of the rudder mounts :(
March 2011 - Decided to stick a Mobile phone in the cockpit of the aeroplane:
Will post video soon...
April 2011 - Local model shop person showed me his recent work, a UAV for the MOD to use as target practice for their jets :P
June 2011 - Found this forum, began researching to convert my plane.
Late June and July - Began building my FPV plane :)
July 2nd - Test flight to get used to new COG and performance, nothing was working at this point.
July 9th - First flight, I switched between the FPV Video feed and LOS flying.
At the moment, this is only going to have some pics in it. When I have time, I will post some info.
Some of the pics are not up to date.
(http://s2.postimage.org/2duolsbtw/small001.png) (http://postimage.org/image/2duolsbtw/)
Elogger V4 and 30 Amp ESC
(http://s2.postimage.org/2dutkedb8/small002.png) (http://postimage.org/image/2dutkedb8/)
OSD Pro, 40MHZ RX and reinforcing carbon spar
(http://s2.postimage.org/2dv555sro/small004.png) (http://postimage.org/image/2dv555sro/)
Plane with Camera and GPS
(http://s2.postimage.org/2dv8g8hr8/small005.png) (http://postimage.org/image/2dv8g8hr8/)
GPS Module with Ferrite Choke
(http://s2.postimage.org/2dva3ru90/small006.png) (http://postimage.org/image/2dva3ru90/)
Camera - KX171 from Simon
(http://s2.postimage.org/2dvdeuj8k/small007.png) (http://postimage.org/image/2dvdeuj8k/)
10MW Fatshark VTX
(http://s2.postimage.org/2dvf2dvqc/small008.png) (http://postimage.org/image/2dvf2dvqc/)
Side of plane
(http://s2.postimage.org/2dvk0zx7o/small009.png) (http://postimage.org/image/2dvk0zx7o/)
Basic Ground stuff
(http://s2.postimage.org/2dvnc2m78/small010.png) (http://postimage.org/image/2dvnc2m78/)
40MHZ Futaba Limited Edition Ripmax FF6
(http://s2.postimage.org/2dvqn5b6s/small011.png) (http://postimage.org/image/2dvqn5b6s/)
Screen and VRX, all held in with Duck Tape :)
Specs:
Basic Plane
Airframe - Ripmax Wot-4 Foam-E
Motor - 3536 820KV Stock Brushless
ESC - 30A Stock
Battery - Lightspeed 3 cell 2200MAH 35C with 60C Burst
RX - 8 Channel 40MHZ Futaba
FPV Equipment
VTX - Fatshark 10MW until I get a HAM License
Camera - Simon's Sony KX171
OSD - Eagle Tree Systems OSD Pro Expander + 100A Elogger V4 & GPS
Battery - 6.0V Ripmax-Eneloope 2000MAH NiMh
Ground Station
Antenna - 3dcbi Rubber Ducky until I sort out my Pan and Tilt with my 11dcbi Dual Polarized antenna.
Pan And Tilt - Eagle Tree Systems Pan-Tilt mount
Servos - Hitec 645MG and HS485 Deluxe
Diversity - EagleEyes FPV Station on re-order, my first one fried itself :(
Battery - 7AH (7000MAH) Yuasa 12V Lead Acid battery
Screen - Tevion in car DVD player :P
TX - Futaba Ripmax Ltd. Special Edition FF6 @ 40MHZ
Issues:
Controls:
Problem: Having assembled the plane with all FPV Gear, I was getting Servo jitters when I held either the plane or the TX near dense, metallic objects.
Cause: Previously, all the servo extension cables ran through the space under the carbon rod in pic 2 as well as all the VTX and Camera Cables. This was causing high levels of EMI that were interfering with the video feed and the controls.
Solution: I rerouted all the Servo Cables on top of the OSD Pro, and all the Video and camera cables around the back of the RX and in general as far away from the servo leads as possible. Now I have no Jittering, although I haven't flown to far away from myself yet (Still in LOS)
Looks pretty good so far :)
Well done you have the basics not bad..
Thanks :)
Will hopefully get a few flights tomorrow, I snapped the balance leads off my battery and have spent all evening soldering them on again :(
Looking good apart from using 40MHz for a plane, I thought that frequency was reserved for boats or cars??????
It is, But I bought the TX back in 2004/5 when it wasn't. Ian told me the other day, plan on getting a Futaba 9C 35mhz.
It is however, a higher power TX than car and boat ones so I get more range :)
Hi Badwolve
I don't think there be sending you to Mantalamo for that one, the build looks sweet.
regard G
Thanks and lol :P
Ok, time for an Update.
I have finished my Pan Tilt Mount. In the end I just bought the ReadyMadeRC one, and it works well.
It has my 2.4GHZ Patch and is pretty steady with a HS-645MG on the pan and an old HS-322D on the tilt.
I have also rejigged the locations of the batteries, to move the COG a bit further back than it was before. It is now gliding better and is rolling without make a jump for the ground :P. I am also experimenting with running the VTX Etc from the balance cables'
As several people have mentioned in this thread, I am using 40MHZ gear which needs to be replaced, so I am picking up a 35mhz JR 7CH TX tomorrow.
Most significantly, I have disconnected the OSD Pro from the RX, I have been getting minor blips of interference which are no issue when flying but on Sunday, one of these blips activated the "Test return to Home" feature. This has not been configured and the plane began to nose dive, there is a 10 second delay before the OSD would allow me to take control again. Just managed to recover it but lesson learnt, leave autopilots alone
I will post updated pics later
Thanks for reading
BW
Quote from: chrisbrit81 on July 26, 2011, 08:46:11 PM
I would have soiled myself if that would have happened to me. I'm assuming you were at a decent altitude when it happened?
I was at 100~ feet, flying LOS at the time. My spotter thought it was gone, luckily its a stable slow flyer so was quite easy to recover once I had control again :) By the time i levelled it out, it was at about 10 feet. I've had worse, on my 4th/5th flight ever on this plane, I was flying along quite low at my airfield and I'm not sure what happened, but the motor on the plane just cut out. Between me and the plane was a fence, hedge and a road. I managed to just about glide it back, skimming the top of the fence. I reckon that was the worse :P
Having spent the majority of 2 years crashing my Easystar, I've figured that the only thing to worry about is panicking, and I'm not saying ignore safety, just don't panic when things start to go pearshape, just recover it and continue flying.