iwan_canobi's Mini Talon

iwan_canobi · April 29, 2016, 08:29:03 PM

I was in the hunt for something small, stable and that had decent duration, so I've ended up with a Mini Talon. It ticks all the boxes and should be nice an efficient for longer range sorties. I was going to go UHF and 1.3GHz but I've decided just to keep it simple and stick on the L9R and 5.8Ghz video.

Ordered from banggood for just over £50. Took about 3 weeks to arrive and looked like it had been kicked most of the way here from China!

Thankfully there was no damage to the foam though, so all is well. Ordered some MG90 servos, a 5A BEC and a 180 degree servo for pan on the camera. Will be running with 5200mah 4S Multistars which should hopefully be a good spot for performance and decent flight times. Some people are flying them with 2 of those batteries! :O

Anyway, started the build tonight by checking everything over, centered all my servos and decided to give it a lick of paint. Just had a quick brainwave for a scheme and masked it up and gave it a spray using cheapo spray paint from B&M bargains. Only £1 a can and it works well. Hitting it with the heat gun drys it quickly and it seems to stick well to the foam. Gave it a quick blast with clear lacquer spray to try and seal it on, then had to retire from the loft before I passed out from the fumes! Really should do it outside next time, had a mask on but by the end it wasn't good!

Still, happy with how it turned out, I'll get some RAF roundels to go on to add some colour and its done look wise!

Next up will be laying out the electronics, will have a Tornado OSD going in, 40A ESC and 1100kv Turnigy motor swinging a 9x6 prop I think to start with!

There's so much room inside, looking forward to getting on with it!

FPVSteve · April 29, 2016, 08:35:39 PM

Nice, looks the business already.

mutley2 · April 30, 2016, 12:05:39 AM

Heard a lot of good thing about these, might have to slip one of these in before my MFTwin build.
Subed

Lola · April 30, 2016, 08:20:33 AM

Looks nice mate. I reckon you'll get bored of the 2.4 and 5.8 quick though so going back to your original plan ain't a bad idea seeing as those things cover ground quick and can carry a huge capacity for their size.

bignose13 · April 30, 2016, 09:24:28 AM

Ignore the CG stickers on the wings Ewan, they are wrong, ask me how I know
Hit for just behind the servo cables and you'll be in the ball park
Good luck

FPVSteve · April 30, 2016, 11:02:19 AM

TeamFTP has/had one of these and it flew brilliantly. Might be worth pinging him a message asking what setup he had on it (I can't remember).

iwan_canobi · May 02, 2016, 03:32:12 PM

Cheers guys! Looking forward to getting further with it but away with work this week so won't be able to progress till later in the week.

Quote from: bignose13 on April 30, 2016, 09:24:28 AM
Ignore the CG stickers on the wings Ewan, they are wrong, ask me how I know
Hit for just behind the servo cables and you'll be in the ball park
Good luck

Cheers Simon, I remember you said that before. Did you cut a channel yourself for the servo leads? Could only see the channel for the spar which is glued in.

Quote from: Lola on April 30, 2016, 08:20:33 AM
Looks nice mate. I reckon you'll get bored of the 2.4 and 5.8 quick though so going back to your original plan ain't a bad idea seeing as those things cover ground quick and can carry a huge capacity for their size.

I know, I'm just trying to keep the costs down at the moment, don't really want to buy another UHF system since selling on the EZUHF. Thing is, I'd be happy with the ~5km range of the L9R, its just the 5.8ghz video that lets it down. Did anything ever happen with the 3-4ghz systems that came out a while ago?

bignose13 · May 02, 2016, 06:09:10 PM

Cut my own mate, why they glued the spars and foam covers on is anybody's guess, still a good plane though
I got a 3D print for the front in stead of the ply plate if you want on, I can do this week sometime
needs a mini servo, can do pics if you want

iwan_canobi · May 02, 2016, 10:21:11 PM

Got any pics? I got a 180 degree mini servo for some pan action so will need a mount! I've got a printer though so could just print it if you have the stl?

iwan_canobi · June 06, 2016, 10:22:19 AM

Got most of this completed over the weekend, laid everything out and tried to figure out the best way to fit the Tornado and gubbins that were already all wired up from my Z3, there is tonnes of room in this thing! I stuck a bit of balsa on to the spar cage so that the Tornado could sit on that, then stuck the current sensor, BEC and 12v regulator on to the bottom -

Works quite well and leaves plenty of space for the receiver and battery etc. I glued the fuse together with gorilla glue and left it overnight to set. I was going to 3D print a canopy for the pan servo (thanks to bignose for sending me one), but I decided to just cut a slot in the plywood canopy that was supplied. I need to make a mount for the runcam 2 and HS1117 camera to go on, but hopefully should work ok!

Last night I glued on the vertical stabilisers and slotted the wings on. I think I'll just run some clear tape down the join so that I can easily separate them whenever I need to, gluing seems too permanent.

All together -

Need to do some wire tidying and print a pitot tube mount as well -

As mentioned in jt's thread I used the stock servo rods and adaptor things, but they bend under load and I don't trust the screw tightened onto the rod, so I will probably swap those out. Hopefully can get it finished this week, although we have a heatwave in Scotland just now so working in the loft where I have my desk and stuff is a proper sweatshop so it's really uncomfortable! Need to hurry up and build my workshop in the garden!

jt · June 06, 2016, 12:39:53 PM

Looking good ;D I'm going to put a 'floor' into the support cage in mine too, it seems to be crying out for one to mount an AP, strange that they didn't make it a tray in the first place?

iwan_canobi · June 07, 2016, 06:12:57 PM

Yeah, I have no idea why they didn't as it's such an obvious place for one!

So my build is 99% completed, just need to decide on whether to use the stock horns or not!

I knocked up a camera mount for my Runcam 2 and HS1177 board camera using some existing models from thingiverse and joining the two to give:

It took a few iterations on the printer but the final result is:

and fitted to the servo on the plywood camera tray:

Pretty pleased with it, I had to cut away some more of the plywood tray to allow it to rotate freely, but it works really well with the 180 degree Turnigy servo. I now need to figure out how to use the head tracker on my skyzones, anyone done it before?

Also did some wire tidying and taped the wings on. Anyone know the final concensus on the cog? Seems a lot of conflicting information out there! I also printed out a pitot tube holder and fitted that, so it's almost there, just in time for crappy weather to come in! :(

GlenJacob · June 07, 2016, 06:38:56 PM

Could you please provide an STL for the file or upload the STL directly to thingiverse?
Would love to get one of those printed for another model of mine :)

iwan_canobi · June 07, 2016, 07:01:20 PM

Sure, I'll stick it up on thingiverse just now.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1613388

There you go! I should point out that the camera case is 32mm wide.

mutley2 · June 08, 2016, 11:43:12 AM

Iwan, that Runcam2/cam mount is brill, soo clean and simple, this is just what I want for mine.
Just got to buy a printer now lol.
Really look forward to seeing this in action, the Talon has now just jumped over the MFT build.
What pan 180 servo did you use?
Great build, keep the pic's coming ;D