Hi All,
Finished the Z3 a couple of weeks ago but haven't had chance till now to post a pic, and still waiting for chance to maiden.
Everything seemed straightforward with the build. The MFD AP has been and still is a little challenging at times. Problems with the GPS lock and solution were detailed in the MFD thread here on the hub and were eventually sorted by Charles at MFD.
Still got a niggle with the headtacker initiating a "set Home" ( I think, haven't looked for a week :+) menu option when I look far right/ left. Will leave the headtracking till I've sorted that.
This was the first time I'd used CPPM on an RX and all went fairly smoothly. The most trivial but niggling problem I had was getting the lost model buzzer to work correctly. It would beep at the flick of a switch as intended but insisted on beeping at random intervals too. I farted round for hours and hours over several evenings and got really frustrated with it. Finally sorted the problem by adjusting the timings on that channel and now it works fine.
I'm using an similar motor to the one I use on my Z2 which I've been pleased with. I may try something with more grunt later too.
The Plane is pretty heavy with the two 3300 mah lipos, around 2.5kg but balances perfectly. Hopefully it can handle a bit of weight as well as the Z2 which is a real heavy lump but flies beautifully.
In my Z2 and funjet I use the mobius as the fpv cam. On bright sunny days I get good results, on overcast days the pic isn't so good so, quite grainy . I decided to try a board cam again and am using the sony 960 effio. I have a runcam in reserve, the little one in the aluminium case... whatever it's called. It's a bit more streamlined so I may try that too, maybe set into the nose if I drop the head tracker. I'm running the cam, mfd and vtx on straight 4s voltage with no probs which is a handy feature of the 960. If I use the runcam I'll have to drop the voltage down .
VTX is mounted on the underside for neatness, laminate removed for cooling. I pinch various bits of my sons lego (pictured) to allow light from leds inside the fus to be visible outside.
Inside :-
MFD AP
2x 3300mah 4s
NTM 3542 1000kv 700W motor
immersion 5.8ghz 600mw vtx
Turnight 5a Sbec
Turnigy 60A esc
RX - D8R-XP
Lost Model buzzer
Sony 960 effio 800 tvl
Laminated, with vinyl also on the upper side.
Skews by bignose
AUW 2.4kg
Various bits of lego.....
Looks really smart! really liking the carbon stuff :)
Im using the same FPV camera on my F450, works great!
Wow. That's perhaps the best looking z3 I have seen.
With the long nose allowing a range of flying weights/battery combinations- are you perhaps tempted to maiden it with just the one battery in the nose?
I have read the z3 nose is surprisingly strong- but it still looks like it would take the full force of a crash and probably misshapen a bit?
Nice one Mark.
Looks the Dogs.............
Thanks Guys. I'm looking forward to seeing how the vid from the sony effios turns out.
I went with the 3300 batts as they're the same as I use in the Z2..... I'm just trying to save a few quid and use batts I can swap between planes where poss.
If I drop to 1 bat now though I'll have to do quite a lot of rebalancing.
I think that nose could be a real weak point of this plane. The Z2 looks a much more resilient...... I'll just have to get past the initial launches and then not crash it !
Looking forward to the Grass growing nice and long when I fly ..... :D
Thanks Mike....... feel up to launching it for me ??!
Hopefully we'll get out soon. :D
Nice idea with the Lego!
I seem to be using more and more of it..... :D
Zephyr 2 fpv..Guy sh*ts his pants. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljg7wh-NnRs#ws)
Quote from: MarkLloyd on March 29, 2015, 02:38:44 PM
Thanks Guys. I'm looking forward to seeing how the vid from the sony effios turns out.
I went with the 3300 batts as they're the same as I use in the Z2..... I'm just trying to save a few quid and use batts I can swap between planes where poss.
If I drop to 1 bat now though I'll have to do quite a lot of rebalancing.
I think that nose could be a real weak point of this plane. The Z2 looks a much more resilient...... I'll just have to get past the initial launches and then not crash it !
Looking forward to the Grass growing nice and long when I fly ..... :D
Fair enough mate :) I assumed that with its long nose moving a single battery right to the front would be enough to hit CG?
Also, again a bit of a guess, but if it's the same weight as your z2 but has a 7" shorter wingspan isn't it likely to have a higher stall speed?
Feel free to tell me to mind my own business, but if you already have a z2 known for its huge speed envelope and being a massively capable wing, imo it's worth keeping the z3 as different as poss. Keep the z3 super light for gentle cruising or build a carry case for it so you can take it everywhere and fly more frequently than you would the z2, or load it up with 3-4 batteries and fly like a bat out of hell with a stall speed of 45mph :D
Am sure you will come up with a plan after a few dozen flights. I have an old, surplus to requirements 60" wing that I'm converting to 6s, running with a single 2700mah battery and I'm going to fly it like an absolute lunatic for 7 mins before the battery is dead.
Hi Billy,
No don't ever mind your own business ! It's always good to hear other people's perspectives and ideas. That's why I come on the hub. :D
No, it's me not thinking really or still thinking more Z2 than Z3.... :D yeah, of course there's lots of room to slide a single batt forward and I may give that a try. I like the idea of extra Mah just to have longer flight times.
If it'll launch and fly ok with the current setup I'll be happy.
Out of interest I just got the Z2 on the kitchen scales to check out it's AUW - which is 2.8kg.
I really just want my Z3 to be my easier to store and transport Z2. I'm hoping it will still have a pretty wide speed envelope. I want a plane that will be my easystar, Z2 and funjet all rolled into one....... how tricky can that be ? ;D
I've found my funjet which feels like a house brick relative to it's small wing area can still fly pretty slowly without stalling .... hopefully this will be the same.
I just looked at my last funjet post and you did enquire about stall speed but I never got back to the thread. I'll post up a vid on that thread of the last flight which was around november I think. My last trip out with it in around January resulted in 3 failed launches but no bad damage.... just 20 mins looking for the camera.. >:(
It is about to rise again ..( I hope)
Ah interesting mate
You may find the z3 capable of adopting the personality all three of your planes at least 80% successfully......
Load it up with the mah and it was be nearly as long duration as the z2
Run it with just one batt up front and it may glide and float around a bit like an easy star
Run it with a lightish 6s up front and a smaller prop and it may be nearly as quick as your funjet. This is a feature of the happy flyers wipeout and I think it's great.
Will look forward to seeing what you do with it :) I did actually buy one but sold it before I built it, I have too many planes and it wasn't really different enough. It was a beautiful bit of kit though!
Lovely build Mark, looks really nice. How are you finding the flight times on the NTM ?