CurryKitten's Mini Talon build

[CurryKitten]

More progress tonight, although as per usual, not massive amounts.  I glued the wheel into one half of the fuse



..and then glued the cage/tray in place... I post this purposely to drive Coyote's OCD crazy as I'm mixing printed PLA with wood, and that's a no-no :)



I seem to have spent the majority of my evening messing around with the motor mount.  I have a SunnySky 2216-8 1250kv and the supplied motor mount isn't a fit.  If I line up one of the holes, you can see how far the others are out





So I found a nice looking one on thingiverse here (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1727842) and printed that out



This was quite nice in that it had a space to put an m3 nut in which you could screw straight into



So motor fitting in well (note extra nuts as spacers)



Which fits in quite nicely



Few more small bits done, which I'll update in the morning as I promised to be in bed by 11.30pm - as I'm being told late nights is not good for my health.

[CurryKitten]

Ok, where was I.  Oh yes, some more printing.  First up is the tail skid - which I keep hearing that people are breaking there's left right and centre.  It does feel a touch on the flimsy side, so I printed this one http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1479065 which looks the same, but is thicker and I've 100% infilled it, so hopefully will skid along rather than just break.





I was wondering what everyone did about the fuse cover.  Nobody seems to enjoy the idea of putting those long screws in each time.  I went and got myself a little hatch lock thingy, and printed out some bits that I might use http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1665248 These are from Vortecks, so does that mean he designed them, or just "borrowed" them from elsewhere :)



The idea with these - and what I was generally going for anyway (just without the printed bits) is that you have carbon fibre rods/wooden dowels/whatever in one end of the cover, and the hatch lock on the other.  Make some holes to stick the dowels into and the hatch lock obviously goes into a hole as well and you are good.  Looking at the cover it has a very obvious weak-point that I notice some people have reinforced, although I was quite tempted to put a deliberate break in there and tape it as a moveable surface.... if that makes sense.  Opinions ?

Also, while I have your opinion-giving head on, what's the verdict on these two bec's I found in my parts drawer.  Needs to run 5 servos - so I would say the bigger one, but didn't know if anyone had any experience with noise issues from it ?

[dp106]

Maybe it's because I don't have a 3D printer but I do think people over engineer things because of them  :D For the motor mount.. it's plywood... So I just drilled 4 new holes in it and used self tapping screws to mount the motor. I've had my share of crashes but never had an issue with the mount.

With the tail skid in my experience it's not the skid itself that breaks but the foam holding it in. If the plane twists on landing the sideways force as his the skid can rip the prefer of ply straight out the foam.

For the hatch.. I made a hinge at the front with fibre tape which is still going strong. Another piece at the other end to form a tab for me to open, velcro to hold it down if necessary but mine is a tight fit do not needed.

Lastly you might want to lose the front wheel, mine got ripped out on the third or fourth landing taking pieces of foam with it.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Lola]

looks good Ck, I use the same turnigy SBEC and have had no issues..

[CurryKitten]

Trust me, I could over-engineer this a whole lot more, but then I'd never finish :)  Point certainly taken, although printing out bits for something still feels space-age, and gives me immense satisfaction - so I accept that it's not *really* needed, but it's very much wanted.

Yep, the part where the skid glues in isn't very substantial, so I can see that not lasting... however, for some reason I feel a compulsion to finish it with skid and wheel in place, so I can see it looking as it was (broadly) intended before it obviously gets smashed up a bit and we start customising things around.

Did you hinge your hatch at the weakpooint (where it goes onto the smaller cf rod) ?  I wasn't totally sure from your description - got a pic ?

[Loopdreams]

That's what I'm planning to do and then just put magnets at the other end.

[dp106]

I'm just jealous because I don't have one so have to come up with some other way of bodging it. For instance I've seen people print fancy skids that cover the foam and ply on the tail. I had to make do with using some polymorph and mild it by hand  :D

Don't have any pics to hand but essentially what you do is.. Put the hatch on.  Tape across the join of the front of the hatch to the fuse. Then open it up and put some tape on the underside as well.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[dp106]

That's what I'm planning to do and then just put magnets at the other end.

Glad I'm not the only one  :D

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[mutley2]

When I build another I won't fit either the skid or the nose wheel, the tail I will just tape and the nose has some plastic car bumper repair strips taped and its much better for rough field landings.
As far as over engineering goes, if it make ya smile and you enjoy it, fill ya boots, its our hobby and supposed to be fun  :P

[Andy Sayle]

I didn't even bother with a skid at all on the back end of mine.  Just a bit of tape to protect the foam, and left it out completely.  It's not broken yet, although I do only really land on grass.

Nice build though, makes me want to do another and improve the things I don't like about mine (mainly the rats nest of wiring! and the annoying ply cradle in the middle of the fuselage).

Andy

[Jake Bullit]

No tail skid here either,just some split silicon tubing,and no wheel either .I used a 5 litre detergent bottle cut and heat shaped to protect the nose and front skid.

Here`s one I made earlier :laugh:

[FPVSteve]

CK I use one of those smaller 5A BECs on my Skywalker which basically powers everything including lights. I've not had any issues on 3s or 4s.

I turned the weak point of the cover into a hinge by putting some tape on the underside, then securing the rear to the plane with some cocktail sticks into the foam. Then I just use an elastic band on the front. I should probably have done the reverse and secured the front but .. meh, it works.

[FPVSteve]

On another note, how hard are people landing in order to smash the wooden bit at the REAR of the plane? I've had some enthusiastic arrivals with my mini talon (including completely ripping the tail off by flying it under my car!!) but the wooden piece is still holding strong with hotglue.

[dp106]

On another note, how hard are people landing in order to smash the wooden bit at the REAR of the plane? I've had some enthusiastic arrivals with my mini talon (including completely ripping the tail off by flying it under my car!!) but the wooden piece is still holding strong with hotglue.

I've found if the nose touches down first the tail can tend to come around then you get a sideways force hitting the skid

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Andy Sayle]

I've found hitting the massive tufts of grass and bushes, instead of landing on the flat bits helps me avoid damaging the tail skid.

Not so good for the nose, however....

Andy