BlueFlyer's Skywalker 1900

BlueFlyer · September 25, 2015, 10:50:48 PM

Today I finished work early, so took the opportunity to take the walker for it's maiden.

I had initially planned to run this off a 5000mah 4S for a while before I start loading it up with bigger 8000mah and eventually a 10000mah but even with the 5000mah as far forward as I could get it, the skywalker was still a bit tail heavy.

This meant I had to go straight to the 8000mah 4S for the maiden... even then it was barely balanced.

So I gave it a few clicks of up trim, throttle to the max and launched it... WOW. I only gave it about 3 clicks of up trim but it shot up like a rocket.... I'll remember to not bother with the trim next time lol

Once up in the air, no drastic roll tendencies one way or the other... happy man... but it was very blustery and it was getting thrown around a lot. Also, I forgot how "tall" the fuselage was and how this makes flying side-wind a bit tricker than usual... it just wanted to weather vane all the time (point into the wind) which made trimming the damn thing tough as heck.

The main cause of concern now was how pitch twitchy it was... the slightest bit of up elevator caused it to just point right up and almost stall, a little bit of down elevator and it just wanted to kill itself... time to bring it in for some adjustments.

I wasn't able to tell in the windy conditions if I needed any aileron pushrod adjustments... but the elevator travel was far too much, I moved the clevis to the second furthest hole on the horn away from the elevator hinge to reduce the throw by half. I also had to put a 2200mah 3S in the nose in order to make it a bit less tail heavy. For now, the original foam canopy is being used with just the FPV cam, so there's not much weight up front... but once my ply canopy arrives it will have the GoPro 3 in the protective casing, along with the FPV cam, so should be able to get rid of that 2200mah 3s dead weight.

All my adjustments worked a charm, and I was now confident enough to put the goggles on and took it for it's FPV maiden, video coming soon :)

Lola · September 25, 2015, 11:00:22 PM

Nice one matey! Glad it went well. Looking forward to the video. Rg's Anthony.

Coyote · September 28, 2015, 08:51:34 PM

Nice Chris glad it went well :)

BlueFlyer · September 28, 2015, 09:11:01 PM

cheers guys, I posted the video in the FPV videos section, but I'll pop it in here too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yUWJ2O8VEs#ws

BlueFlyer · October 03, 2015, 06:49:01 PM

Well yesterday I found out that the torque of my motor/prop combination on my 1900 is enough to throw my Vector's stabilisation out of whack.

I can set "level" on the ground but once it's flying, I need roll trim to keep it level. When I come off the throttle and glide a short while, the trim I've put in to counter the torque roll then rolls the plane in the opposite direction.... If I put more throttle on the torque roll gets worse and I have to put MORE trim in.

I thought the Vector would be able to compensate for this when in stabilisation mode but it doesn't... because it doesn't like the trims, effectively the trim on my tx is telling the vector to stray away from level. But if I recalibrate the Vector to accept my current trims as being "neutral" then when I throttle up or throttle down, the trims needed to fly "neutrally" differ... it's doing my head in that Vector can't just intervene and level the damn thing.

Brucey · October 03, 2015, 07:19:48 PM

I would of thought that it would of compensated, bit disappointed if I can't. Sure it's not a vibration problem throwing the vector out a bit?

BlueFlyer · October 03, 2015, 07:29:26 PM

Quote from: Brucey on October 03, 2015, 07:19:48 PM
I would of thought that it would of compensated, bit disappointed if I can't. Sure it's not a vibration problem throwing the vector out a bit?

VERY disappointed, considering the price of the Vector.

Another thing I was noticing whilst flying was that I would be slowly adding my own roll input with the stick... trying to bring it to level... it would get to a certain point getting closer to properly level, then quickly flick over to being off level but on the opposite side. As if there was some kind of dead band.

Thinking this might be a problem with my transmitter, I've completely deleted the model memory and started from scratch... to be honest I was a bit lazy and used the same model memory that was the Skyhunter and just renamed it... so there were probably some subtrims and expo kicking about in there.

Along with that, I've now re-flashed the Vector with the latest firmware and moved the unit further away from the motor mount. It's now in the belly of the skywalker on the "floor" so to speak.

lets hope this will at least make things a bit better.

wgt40w · October 03, 2015, 08:23:37 PM

Quote from: BlueFlyer on October 03, 2015, 06:49:01 PM
Well yesterday I found out that the torque of my motor/prop combination on my 1900 is enough to throw my Vector's stabilisation out of whack.

I can set "level" on the ground but once it's flying, I need roll trim to keep it level. When I come off the throttle and glide a short while, the trim I've put in to counter the torque roll then rolls the plane in the opposite direction.... If I put more throttle on the torque roll gets worse and I have to put MORE trim in.

I thought the Vector would be able to compensate for this when in stabilisation mode but it doesn't... because it doesn't like the trims, effectively the trim on my tx is telling the vector to stray away from level. But if I recalibrate the Vector to accept my current trims as being "neutral" then when I throttle up or throttle down, the trims needed to fly "neutrally" differ... it's doing my head in that Vector can't just intervene and level the damn thing.

Would the Vector work with a throttle / aileron mix ?

BlueFlyer · October 03, 2015, 08:50:15 PM

Probably not, I'm hoping the changes I've made will make a difference.

FPVSteve · October 03, 2015, 11:27:19 PM

Chris I have the same issue with the Tornado with the Skywalker and it gets right on my nerves.... I have balanced the plane wings with a weight and it STILL does the same thing when throttle is on. It *does* compensate, but in PA + Heading Hold that makes the plane porpoise left and right ... super annoying!! It's much better at higher speeds though, I assume that the torque is less of an issue once the airframe has some tougher forces acting on the surfaces.

BlueFlyer · October 04, 2015, 12:09:39 AM

Glad I'm not the only one... make me feel less like it's ME doing something wrong lol

BlueFlyer · October 04, 2015, 12:10:16 AM

Sorry, I didn't mean I was glad you're having problems lol

AdamG · October 04, 2015, 10:42:39 AM

Quote from: Steve W on October 03, 2015, 11:27:19 PM
Chris I have the same issue with the Tornado with the Skywalker and it gets right on my nerves.... I have balanced the plane wings with a weight and it STILL does the same thing when throttle is on. It *does* compensate, but in PA + Heading Hold that makes the plane porpoise left and right ... super annoying!! It's much better at higher speeds though, I assume that the torque is less of an issue once the airframe has some tougher forces acting on the surfaces.

What version of the software you on? that was meant to be fixed in 1.10

FPVSteve · October 04, 2015, 11:20:56 AM

I'm on the earliest version, I have the updater tool but I couldnt be bothered digging the OSD out of the fuselage :laugh:

AdamG · October 04, 2015, 01:30:11 PM

Quote from: Steve W on October 04, 2015, 11:20:56 AM
I'm on the earliest version, I have the updater tool but I couldnt be bothered digging the OSD out of the fuselage :laugh:

I know how you feel :laugh: I went to the effort of doing it and mine flies perfectly straight in PA and all other automated flight modes now :D if it really annoys you it could be with the effort... also means you get a few other nice additions like loiter mode.