AH-6Z Littlebird Night-Ops build project

[Zeeflyboy]

Frustrating afternoon, but promising...

So I finished off my vacuum former frame stand.. I won't win any industrial design awards here but if it works it works eh! I just used the offcut from the centre of one of the frames and some short standoffs to create the stand.




I then proceeded to blast through 4 sheets of plastic before finally getting a usable pull. The first pull went great, but was ruined by all the dust. The problem Was that the moment you pull the protective sheet off the thing becomes static heaven and every single molecule of dust and crap in the room comes flying to attach itself to the sheet...

After seeing that, I decided to give the sheet and the plug a good spray and wipe with anti-static house cleaning spray. That worked a treat at removing the static charge and stopping the dust, but the next two pulls didn't go so well - I think I let it heat up too much and with the sag it became difficult to lay it down without crinkles.

however, 4th time lucky... a good pull. Even the little panel lines came out in the plastic which is helpful. I then of course proceeded to mess it up by not cutting it out quite right.... a which point I decided to call it a day lol.










Anyway, progress... looks like it can be done, but I only have 3 sheets left here to do both the upper and lower pieces. I have more at home in the UK though so no biggy. For those interested I am uploading a short video too - check back later as I'll add it once it's uploaded.

[Zeeflyboy]

Here's a shot from inside taken with my iphone with the top window in place, as you can see its not perfect but pretty good. A little distortion in places but overall not bad. You get a lovely view of my apartment's rubbish fridge and oven lol.

I'll be interested to try my friend's bigger vacuum, see if it can do any better.




And here is the video of my hillbilly style vacuum former in use

Vacuum forming

[g.collins]

Well done bud, that is looking the business, I know where you're coming from, I have a Vack former and static is such a pan for gathering dust, Im surprised Dison hasn't painted it.
;) G

[Zeeflyboy]

Thanks mate!

Once I started using the anti static spray that was a big help. I think I need to give the apartment a really good clean and then use the anti static spray and see how that goes lol. I'm just glad that for once a "machine" I needed didn;t cost an arm and a leg lol... my CNC machine was what, about £800 iirc, 3D printer was £1300 or so, vac forming machine about £20 in parts lol.

So my 3 days off are coming to a close... I'm pretty happy with the progress made the last 3 days! This week is fairly light work wise so hopefully I can continue to make some more progress.

However, I felt it was time to stand back and take a good look at how she is coming along. I included another favourite craft of mine for scale - a QAV500. As much as I love the QAV I think it's safe to say the AH-6 is a slightly meaner looking FPV rig...

[lupowarrior]

wow there both really nice builds  :)

[Zeeflyboy]

hah thanks... the QAV was a little quicker to put together.


Anyway I've been quietly beavering away on the mechanics and while it doesn't provide glamorous updates it is important work... I've now basically finished the mechanics wiring, just waiting for another toroid to arrive so I can wrap the second BEC output and then it's complete.

So firstly I pulled the side frame off and finalised my internal wiring. All servo extensions got covered with heatshrink to prevent them coming apart, connections to the Naza got a line of hot glue to make sure they can't come unplugged, and ESC wires got braided to reduce RF emissions.




I also set about tidying the wiring underneath and hooking up connections to the eLogger, and also installed my mechanics-fuselage locking connectors. The big grey wire is a firewire cable which carries ppm to the decoder, power back down to the fueslage, and the tracking telemetry audio wire.  The braided black wire carries the OSD-eLogger connector plus RSSI. The braided wire that runs along the outer edge of the battery tray carries Rotor rpm info to the elogger and along side it runs the auxiliary power connection that stops the eLogger from overheating when trying to power the GPS from HV packs.




Then I set to work making a new GPS holder and a case for the PPM decoder... I needed to move it slightly further in to prevent fouling on the fuselage... at the same time I installed my Skylark convert module which takes the GPS data and passes it through to the eLogger but also generates a telemetry signal for the audio channel to provide tracking information so my antenna tracker can follow the aircraft as it flies.






Next up I printed some covers for the front section of the fuselage, which you can see fitted here. The centre section will be removable so as to allow easy access to oil the motor bearings.




And finally, I made my Naza door locking mechanism, simple but works a treat!






And filed under the category of "because I can" I made some simple labels for my newly cased components. It isn't entirely superfluous, the labels do act as a reminder as to what should be plugged where!






The other day I rivetted and painted the centre console, so decided to just finish off the middle panel with the screens etc too. Just like on the eurofighter I used the special back-lit paper to print them out on. I've taken a pic with it held up to the light to give an idea but of course the LEDs that will be providing the backlight are a pure white.






And together with the rest of the cockpit, creepy disembodied hands and all. On another note I finally ordered my secondary display screen so hopefully that will arrive soon and I can start finishing off the Dashboard.







With the mechanics nearing total completion it's time to get around to tackling the channel wizard install that will take me from 12 channels to XX channels by muxing 8 inputs into the 12th channel. I have already started by installing the minigun and rocket switches, camera toggle switch and 6 position lighting switch already. I will most likely add another switch to control the exhaust mounted cooling fan (though I quite like the idea of having this automated if I can... hmmm...) and maybe another to kill all power to the dash for low light flying where the screens etc will reduce visibility... but now I have started to install the channel wizard itself into the module bay. All I need to do now is run wires from the various additional switches to the inputs on the wizard and program it accordingly.

[Zeeflyboy]

I was trying to find/build a temperature controlled circuit for a fan, but everything small and light I turned up was a design that varied the speed of the fan, but not the on/off function. Sircana pointed out, in his usual non-patronising (but somehow still subtly inferring "you clucking moron") way that all I needed was a temperature controlled switch. Duh. Sometimes I think it's a wonder I manage to tie my own shoe laces.

Anyway, net result, I'm going to have the fan in the exhaust hooked up to an automatic temperature controlled switch. Temperature exceeds a certain amount, fan switches on until it drops below a certain amount... the only thing that will likely generate any particular heat in this heli is the BEC... the motor and ESC should stay relatively cool, and when I finally change the 5.8ghz furnace for an icy cool 2.4ghz (sander? yes, you... come on now) that should remove another heat source. So The temperature switch will probably be fitted to the BEC casing...

I'm looking at these two different possibilities. First is a simple Bimetal switch... you can buy it normally open or normally closed and at a variety of fixed temperatures. Cheap and simple.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10x-KSD301-NC-Thermostat-Temperature-Switch-Bimetal-Disc-40-150-C-/400311926279?pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Components_Supplies_ET&var=670038683071&hash=item5d34733e07




My second option is a little larger and more technical, but extremely cheap too... the advantage of this one is that the little probe will be easy to position and the thresholds are adjustable by means of a trimmer pot.

http://www.goodluckbuy.com/1-single-channel-thermal-relay-control-sensor-module-temperature-switch-5v-12v.html



So, of course I just ordered both and will have a play. However, I will be running this off the external 3S auxiliary missile/guns pack and so since this will be an automatic process I am slightly dubious about running the battery entirely flat... however, the fan draws a measly 150ma or so - with a 600mah 3S pack that I was intending to use that's 4 hours continuous run time for the fan on it's own. Even with use for other things it's not going to be a problem over a few 12 minute flights.

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My decals arrived today, and here the missiles are receiving a first flat coat to seal them in. Too clean of course, will need to be air brushed a bit more over the top!



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so here are some more pics of the hellfire's, I will probably be painting the tip to simulate the dome. Perhaps the v2 missiles will have a proper dome ;)






Lil' Bird is coming to get you...



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So, something I've been putting off because it intimidates me lol - the control side of things... I have wired up my Channel Wizard in the module bay and so it is finally time to try and understand how to use this thing.





I have to give a huge (massive, enormous, GALACTIC) thank you to Sircana (from circular wireless) without whom I would barely even know where to start... He is guiding me through what I need to do as I am at best a programming noob and he has a brain the size of a small planet. This project would be more limited without his assistance for sure, so please give him a virtual round of applause!

Anyway, I've discussed before the general idea but this is now the finalised connection table... It's actually fairly straightforward, but helps me visualise what is going where and to what. It's fairly self explanatory I think. The only thing that might not be obvious is that PPM 1 is the mechanics PPM decoder and PPM 2 is the cockpit PPM decoder (consider that this is merely the control connections and that on top of this you have power, video, audio, RSSI, gps, LEDs, Power system etc etc wiring and you'll get a hint of how much freaking wiring there is in this thing lol)




With that out the way I have also been playing with FTDI cables, drivers, com ports and hyperterminal... I could cope with the first 3 fine, but I am clueless when it comes to command line stuff as I've never dealt with it before. Sircana to the rescue of course and if anyone is interested this is the programming of the channel wizard mux and demux (I should say initial programming, failsafe behaviour of muxed channels is still on the to do list).

MUX COMMAND LINE
o.frame=28000
codelimits=1024-2004
a.type=a
b.type=a
c.type=a
d.type=a
e.type=a
o.src=i1 i2 i3 i4 i5 i6 i7 i8 i9 i10 i11 (a b c d e)


DEMUX COMMAND LINE
demuxInput=12
a.pwm=m1
b.pwm=m2
c.pwm=m3
d.pwm=m4
e.pwm=m5

After programming that, it is a case of setting up the EzUHF and Trinity HT channel mapping. This is fairly straightforward and simply involves setting EzUHF to output Muxed PPM on channel 1 and CH12 on channel 2, and to take the HT inputs from channels 7 & 8 via the HT port and inject them as Channels 8 & 9 in the PPM stream.

In theory all that should now be done, but testing will have to wait unfortunately because work gets in the way. Sircana has done a LOT of the troubleshooting on the setup already however and so any problems should be relatively easy to resolve (touch wood). One potential hitch is that the lowest my BEC will go is 5.6v and the limit for CW in bypass mode (required in this case) is 5.5v... I would just drop using a diode but the current draw will be fairly significant from the LED system with all lights running. There are ways around it of course but we'll see which one is best.

[Zeeflyboy]

So I'm back in the UK again, but time is not wasted. I was initially going to try drilling out the hardened steel main shaft on my pillar drill but it's got a bit too much runout and wouldn't have dealt well with penetrating the round surface without scrabbling around a bit.

So I decided to give it a go on my CNC machine which is much tighter with less than 0.002" of runout. To cover my bases because I'm a moron and don't know how to do things properly I used some nice tungsten carbide bits - they are generally pretty temperature resistant and can handle a bit of mistreatment as regards feeding and spindle speed.

First up I ran it through with a 1mm pilot drill, this went through like butter through a knife. I used some spray oil as lubricant.




Next up was my 3.2mm bit (didn't have anything in between lol)... this was much noisier, oil smoked away and some nice sparks came flying out the shaft but it too went through without too much argument... I suspect I should have slowed the spindle down a bit more but then the power really drops off.... anyway - drill bit survived without scorching or blunting so all good!




And the end result - perfectly aligned! Wohoo! the top of the shaft now butts up against the top of the head which makes the whole assembly that much more solid and also drops the head down by about 8mm. Doesn't sound like much but it does actually make a surprising visual difference to the installed mechanics.

[Zeeflyboy]

So I've finished the Channel wizard hardware wise...

Installed my 6 position switch (the large silver part top left). The 4 blue things are trim pots that allow me to fine tune the output position of each individual switch position. Not necessary for this project as the DElight trigger values can be tuned themselves, so I've gone for values that should translate to approx 0%/20%/40%/60%/80%/100%

The last position won't actually be used as I will only have 5 settings:

1: All lights off
2: Beacons on
3: Beacons, Nav lights on
4: Beacons, Nav lights, Main landing light on
5: Beacons, Nav lights, Main landing light, Auxiliary Landing lights on

Pretty neat that you can do all that from one switch!

On top of that I installed a 3 position switch on the opposite shoulder that will allow me to control my OSD pages and menus, and finished up the wiring for the 2 position camera switch and the two 2 position armament switches.

So here is how it all works if you are still wondering what is going on - All these switch wires go through to the module bay where they connect up to the channel wizard. The channel wizard takes gnd/power/ppm from the module bay pins and muxes (ie basically encodes) these additional switches into a single channel replacing the 12th channel in the stream.... the modified ppm stream (plus gnd and power) then goes back into the controller body and around to the 3 pin locking connector on the back. The EzUHF plugs into this and receives gnd/power/ppm... It's not quite over there though as Trinity is also outputting the head tracking pan/tilt channels into the EzUHF head tracking port. The EzUHF takes these inputs and replaces channels 8 and 9 in the stream with the Trinity's values instead.

The whole stream then gets sent to the helicopter. The EzUHF rx outputs a ppm stream to the mechanics ppm decoder which breaks out channels 1-7 for the naza, the cockpit ppm decoder which breaks out channels 1,2,4,6,7,8,9,10,11 for flight controls, dashboard flight mode indicator, and pan/tilt of both pod and pilot head, and to the channel wizard (through a voltage step down to give no more than 5v) which decodes the 12th channel and outputs the result to ports A,B,C,D,E for lights, guns, missiles, camera and OSD control.

Shimples?







Now that the hardware side is done, next up is testing of that theory in practice... of course work gets in the way as usual.

[FPVSteve]

I think I speak for all of us when I say .. holy crap this is getting better by the day.

From page 1 to Page 32 now, it's just a complete masterpiece.

[Zeeflyboy]

Very kind Steve, thank you!

I actually went back through the thread the other day and it's funny to watch how it started and how it has progressed and the project evolved along the way.

Finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel! The list of things left to do is slowly getting shorter.

[Coyote]

It really is an amazing build, I would be scared stiff of taking to the air with it with all the hours and detail put into the build

[Dizzy]

I been following this build from the biginning and i am so impressed with it i cant understand how you have the bottle to fly it tbh  :D

Please be so carefull i would cry if you damaged it and i dont know you  :D
Good luck on your first flight though  :)
dizzy :)

[Zeeflyboy]

Thanks guys, very kind.

All good things come to an end eventually, hopefully this has a long life before the inevitable happens though lol. Needless to say I'll probably be babying it at first and will never fly it quite like I fly my quads but it was built to fly at the end of the day and it'd be a greater shame not to enjoy it to it's full potential ;)

Besides, the smoking crater always holds the promise of something bigger, badder and better yet to come!

[Zeeflyboy]

today I gave Juan the greatest gift a man can give his semi-automaton FPV heli pilot... legs, and most importantly perhaps, trousers with which to cover his modesty.

Here's a video to give you guys something to watch and also show off the beauty of Trinity ;)

Fatshark Trinity test with full motion cockpit.


oh, and roffles at the waffles at the end....