Depron Vulcan Goes FPV

[ASBO]

Vulcan FPV Conversion
My web site shows the previous builds and plans to download
https://deprondesigns.wordpress.com/vulcan-fpv-conversion/

I now have three Vulcans, my first build was well used and a lot heavier than my revised versions so it was time to rework it and as I have moved my interest to FPV the vulcan as a large winged plane is an obvious choice. As the nose was so heavily weighted to get COG I thought it would be good to substitute the weight with a larger battery and FPV gear.

It was a gut wrenching start as I hacked into it to removed the nose section. The photographs show the progressive build.












Simple construction using using carbon fibre rods and some 2mm slats left over from some Ikea venetian blinds
I shaped a round balsa wood nose section to bond it all together and worked out to be very strong. I sized the battery bay to take a 4000mAh 3s battery with some extra room for olderpuffy batteries.











I created two covers made from used soda water bottles and painted the inside to get a nice shiny outer skin.

The camera is a Runcam 600tvl on a pan and tilt system and was not very discreet. I managed to install an Aomway 200mW VTX in the access panel and with a BIGNOSE13 skew planar antenna should get a reasonable range.

The first test flight was a real handful as the extra overall weight was a struggle for the NTM 28mm 2200kv motor running a 6×4 prop. It was back to the workshop and work the figures for more power and aerodynamics.

The motor was replaced with a NTM 35mm 1800kv motor running an 8×6 prop. I also ordered a smaller Runcam Sky 650tvl camera and mounted it to the pan servo and opened for a fixed tilt.







Maiden flight all loaded up
http://youtu.be/-0Iv4xJ2oos
This was its actually its second test flight but first with FPV enabled and flew LOS with two volunteers viewing the flight from the onboard camera. I also included the tarrot GPS OSD from Banggood UK which worked really well.

The new motor and prop provided ample power and the stability was greatly improved. I was really pleased with the way it performed and the next opportunity I will record the flight video.