orange_rc_pilot

Hi all, I know this is an old thread, but I’m just letting you know that the Sphinx VTOL is now complete, and she will see a maiden flight tomorrow (Saturday) at the field! Apologies in advance for any tears if she fails to meet my expectations; we’ve been through a lot together... I’ll post some pics and vids shortly afterwards 😉 Sevan

Yeah I never actually plan on going that fast. Maybe one low pass, and then slow down and pull out of it reeeeally slowly! I've only got 9g servos, so I shouldn't do anything too wacky. I don't actually need to do anything within the TX. I've got a KK2.1 hard-case board flashed with OpenAeroVTOL (open source software: love it ) which acts just like any other FC firmware, except it's designed specifically for VTOL so it has 3 modes: hover, slow forward flight (SFF, where the wings are tilted forward a little bit) and fast forward flight (FFF, just like a fixed wing). You just designate a p

Good news! Just did a quick power/thrust test on 4s and found the following (note, I only tested the front 2 motors and then inferred the data for the rear motor, as it was difficult to test all 3 motors simultaneously): - The front 2 motors drew 402W each at full throttle, which is perfect (barely above the 400W limit on the motors, and well under the 40A burst limit on the ESCs - I imagine the slightly smaller prop on the rear motor will draw about 300-350W) - The front 2 motors produced about 1.3kg of thrust each at full throttle, which is also perfect (I imagine the rear motor

Those skids on the link look good, but I worry that they (along with lots of the other ones I found online) are too short - vertically, I mean. I need to put the base of the fuselage a good 13cm up off the ground, and looking at pictures of some of the biggest helis, they only look to be about 7 or 8cm. If I have them too short, then any slight wobble when I come to land will smack the wingtips into the ground and likely strip the wing tilt servos. I think I've got to stick to the tall and narrow landing gear for now. If the narrow wheelbase becomes a real problem, I'll make them a bit wi

Thank you both for your replies! Dave: In terms of battery power, I've got two 4s 3000mAh 40C (50C burst) running in parallel to create 6000mAh, so my maximum burst current is 300A! Hopefully I won't be going anywhere near this As for the tight wiring, the picture is quite misleading. Where the wiring enters the foam booms on the sides, there is some hot glue there but that hot glue is not actually attached to the wires! It's just there to make the hole in the boom wall slightly smaller, so the wires are not secured in that seemingly tight position. Essentially, when the prop bar r

Update on this topic: I know it's been a while since I posted this, I've been busy recently. Long story short, I bought some new motors with higher power rating. I'll fiddle around with different props to see which gives the best power/thrust ratio (I imagine 11" props on 4s will draw more than 400W, which is what the motors are rated for - we'll just have to see ). I'll post a full chart of my results if/when I come to testing. Note that this may not happen for another few weeks. I've included a couple of pictures* and a SketchUp rendering* if that helps at all? Essentially I

Hi Dave, Thanks very much for your detailed reply. Your calculations make it look much worse than what I had hoped for! And sorry Mr. Eastwood, I ain’t feeling particularly lucky about this! In that case, I think I’ll up the size of the motors, maybe another few mm wider and in the 1200kv range. I’ll do some HobbyKing hunting. Thanks once again!

Hi all, I’m coming to the end of my next scratch-built project, the Sphinx VTOL (photos on my Instagram page orange_rc_pilot), and I was wondering to what extent I can run my motors beyond their max current rating. I’m using 3 of these: https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-d2836-9-950kv-brushless-outrunner-motor.html on 4s and 1147 props, and I got 27.4A max current, whereas they’re rated for 23.2A - is this all right?? (My ESC is a plush 30A one so I’m not worried about damaging that) I’d only ever be at max throttle for a few seconds on takeoff/landing, or perhaps not at all if I ca

Hi Dave, thanks so much for your detailed response. Sorry I couldn't reply earlier, I was abroad with bad connection. I had forgotten just how strong motor magnets are, and electronics perform fine around them! Hopefully it shouldn't cause me any issues then. I'll still put my antenna about 5-10cms away from the magnets, juuuuust in case, but I certainly won't obsess over having them a metre apart! I'm not planning to use any FPV gear, so no issues there Thanks again, Sevan

Thanks very much for the reply Ben. I'll bear that all in mind when I get to installing the wiring Sevan

Testing

Hi all, I'm currently designing a VTOL aircraft, (I know, very ambitious for someone with not that much experience!), and there will be a few magnets in it to hold battery hatches in place etc. I was wondering if having wires carrying either power or signals (i.e. battery leads/BEC wires and servo wires) would be affected in any way by being very close to the magnets? They are 1.6kg 1.5x6mm neodymium magnets, and the wires will be about 20mm away from the magnets, or perhaps closer, with thin foam (5mm) in between. Also, would mounting a receiver antenna next to a

I had no idea some of those were yours! They're all brilliant; looking forward to downloading some more. I'm in no way a funfly pilot so I had no idea about the aft CG factor. I learn something every day! The -0.12 CG is nice for cruising around, but I have yet to try any funfly manoeuvres. I'll move it back a couple cms when I do. Thanks, Sevan.

Hi all, Stumbled across a post on RCGroups with hundreds of user-made models available for download for Phoenix. Among those listed was an IC Cougar 2000 which I thought may be worth sharing here, since I know a couple people at the club (including me) own one. I've also made an electric edit to suit the spec of my one. Drop a comment if yours is electric too and I can post the electric variable file, as well as installation instructions (slightly different). To get the stock model into phoenix, right click the zip file once downloaded, click "extract all" and choose the location as Docum

Wot? The ARTF is certainly a good idea. I'll look into all the different options. Not to mention colour schemes, different marks (1, 2, 2+)... so much choice!!!

Quick update; spoke to dad about it, he said no IC for now as it will stink up my room and he is convinced that there will be a mess. Not going to try and persuade him any further... Emay's Cougar, once converted to electric, is fine by my dad. I have yet to discuss it further with both him and Emay. So the options are now: Cougar (electric) Wot 4 foam-e Wot 4 EP Will keep you updated. Thanks Sevan.

The Wot 4 foam-e definitely seems very tempting, though it will have to wait until my birthday in April. Emay has very kindly offered to sell me his old, currently IC, cougar, since he is in the process of thinning out his fleet. It is certainly something I'll consider, but again that may have to wait until my birthday. I'll try talking it through with my dad. I'd probably convert it to electric for the time being, and keep the engine (which, as Emay informs me, is an OS engine so bound to be nice quality), either to put onto the cougar later, or put it onto another system. My parents

Thank you both for taking the time to answer my question very thoroughly! After some consideration, I've realised that, at least for now, IC seems like a lot of hassle, and while it can be just as clean as electric, I think that it would be good sticking with electric for a while. I'll definitely have a browse on just engines, and see what sort of price range there is. A Wot 4 would certainly be a good introduction to IC for me, if I don't get either the foam-e or the electric balsa one in the meantime . Then again, the cougar looks tempting... If I decide to start moving into IC, wh

OK, forget the clean aspect of it. Someone on RCgroups just suggested a bin bag over the fuse. Can't believe I didn't think of that earlier... But I'd still very much appreciate suggestions for an airframe and engine which would suit my requirements, as well as being a good introduction to fuel models

Hey there, I've only ever owned electric foamies in my RC life, but since I joined CAMFC, I've noticed that EVERYONE has gassers. For a while now, I've been thinking about getting one, but there's one big issue; they're dirty! There's always oil and fuel everywhere, and wherever you put the plane, some will drip down. This is bad for me as I live in a carpeted apartment with no garage, and fuel on the carpets is an absolute no-no. What I really need is a clean setup. Something which is very closed up and won't drip everywhere. I don't know if this is determined my the engine ty

Yeah, I did realise that I just wanted to post something, since it would be my first post.

Hey there Trevor, If you are going to change the angle at all, then I suggest having the frontmost part of the plane tipping down, so that the back of the tail is raised slightly. Don't overdo it, though! A couple of degrees is more than enough. Angling the tail in this way can let you get away with a slightly underpowered power system, but it may cause the nose to pitch up if you punch the throttle. It will also fly great with no angle at all. Hope this helps!