FPV cruiser wing (to get back in the groove)

[Fluburtur]

Wow looks like I finally made my way back here, been a few years but it feels good.
Last year and this one as well I have been working at a museum away from home and couldnt take part in my other (expensive) hobbies so I felt the itch to get back into rc stuff, I already fixed up my old aurora 90 but I also wanted to finish a wing I cut back in 2019 when I was good at hotwire.

It is my usual PW51, 1.2m wingspan with 20° sweep on the leading egde, 30cm root 20cm tip and -3° or so of washout at the tips, this model flies very well without requiring up trim thanks to the washout and basically doesnt stall, this one was also covered with poor man fiberglass (newspaper and wood glue/water)

I designed 3d printed winglets and im still working on the design of the body.
View attachment FLU05682.JPG
I also decided to give it a camera gimbal with headtracker just because I think it would be nice, I have a bunch of little plastic cupcake domes that work perfect for that but because of the limited size and shape I have to be a bit creative about the motion system of that gimbal.

Because the gimbal system takes up significant space inside the body I will need to be a bit creative with the placement of the components inside but im confident I will work it out.

Electronics wise I will run a matek F405 wing with inav on it, tbs micro receiver that was only crashed once in my ASW-28 (if anyone remembers that), 1.2ghz fpv system, split style camera for fpv+hd, gps, 1400kv motor with a 8x6" prop on 3S with a li-ion pack I have so it should have plenty of beans.

The head tracker system im using is this one and I will be using my QX7 with all that.

I will try to get this plane ready for flight by mid june before I go away again.

 

[LitterBug]

I have an ancient RMRC Mako kit that needs to be maidened some time this summer. It came with a dome like that and had an optional smoked one as well. Looking forward to seeing your project fly!

 

[Houndpup Rc]

Wow looks like I finally made my way back here, been a few years but it feels good.
Last year and this one as well I have been working at a museum away from home and couldnt take part in my other (expensive) hobbies so I felt the itch to get back into rc stuff, I already fixed up my old aurora 90 but I also wanted to finish a wing I cut back in 2019 when I was good at hotwire.

It is my usual PW51, 1.2m wingspan with 20° sweep on the leading egde, 30cm root 20cm tip and -3° or so of washout at the tips, this model flies very well without requiring up trim thanks to the washout and basically doesnt stall, this one was also covered with poor man fiberglass (newspaper and wood glue/water)

I designed 3d printed winglets and im still working on the design of the body.
View attachment 258520
I also decided to give it a camera gimbal with headtracker just because I think it would be nice, I have a bunch of little plastic cupcake domes that work perfect for that but because of the limited size and shape I have to be a bit creative about the motion system of that gimbal.

View attachment 258521
View attachment 258522
Because the gimbal system takes up significant space inside the body I will need to be a bit creative with the placement of the components inside but im confident I will work it out.

Electronics wise I will run a matek F405 wing with inav on it, tbs micro receiver that was only crashed once in my ASW-28 (if anyone remembers that), 1.2ghz fpv system, split style camera for fpv+hd, gps, 1400kv motor with a 8x6" prop on 3S with a li-ion pack I have so it should have plenty of beans.

The head tracker system im using is this one and I will be using my QX7 with all that.

I will try to get this plane ready for flight by mid june before I go away again.

Awesome to see you back!!

 

[LitterBug]

From things I have seen about FPV domes, you want everything inside the dome to be dark so you don't get reflections in the dome. especially if flying into bright light....

 

[Fluburtur]

Yes im aware of that, I put the camera very close to the dome itself and I might give it a little cone as well.
It should be very easy to change parts of the gimbal considering they are all snap fit with airsoft bbs as pivots, this way it has no backlash and it is very smooth.

 

[Fluburtur]

I printed a test nose and fitted it with most of the hardware, there is a little bit more gap between the camera and dome than I planned for but thats ok.
The range of motion isnt restricted anywhere either so this should work out pretty well, just need to figure out how to mount the camera mainboard in a way that is easy to access.
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[LitterBug]

Are you running one of the Open HD FPV setups, or analog?

 

[Fluburtur]

Analog, I still have a set of the old matek 1.2ghz system so this plane will hopefully be good to at least 5km.

 

[Fluburtur]

I made a new center ring to hold the camera a bit more forward, there is less than a millimeter of gap between the lens and the dome so this should take care of most of the internal reflections issues (but I just received more black plastic anyways)
I also noticed that a possible downside of this motion system is that the camera is rolled when both axis are moving together, not sure how much impact this will have.
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[Fluburtur]

Currently working out my way through the features of the fuselage, I wasnt sure how to mount the FC and camera board but I figured out a "floating" tray bolted on from the sides would be ok and also provide some bracing in the middle of the fuselage, I feel like this plane wont be easy to assemble.
The cutout is for the heat sink of the camera board, I will put air inlets on the sides later on.

 

[LitterBug]

Currently working out my way through the features of the fuselage, I wasnt sure how to mount the FC and camera board but I figured out a "floating" tray bolted on from the sides would be ok and also provide some bracing in the middle of the fuselage, I feel like this plane wont be easy to assemble.
The cutout is for the heat sink of the camera board, I will put air inlets on the sides later on.
View attachment 258588

Nice! My VolantexRX Phoenix 2400 glider has a molded fuselage with plywood trays bolted in from the sides like that. Definitely makes it easier to service having it removable and adds rigidity. Would simplify the printing in this case too.

 

[Fluburtur]

Yes im trying to keep the weight of the fuselage down, it is only 0.8mm thick (2 wall layers) overall with ribbing in places to make it stiffer, even then I think I will have to dig up a cavity in the wing to place the battery in order to get the CG right.

 

[Fluburtur]

I printed the front half of the fuselage, not the easiest part so im quite surprised the print worked out first time.
I put some parts in as a temporary fit and it works out nicely so far, now I need to work out the rear half with motor mount and more importantly, decide where to put the GPS and VTX.
I was thinking GPS out on the wing and VTX in the middle of the body but I might do the opposite, blasting 600mw of 1.2ghz centimeters from the fc and camera might not make them too happy and GPS receivers those day have pretty good noise rejection. (also im too lazy to extend the gps wires)
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[Fluburtur]

I assembled the gimbal into the fuselage and hacked together a config in inav, this works well but I need to adjust it to reach down into the corners.

 

[Fluburtur]

I printed the hatch, it is a bit wobbly without any internal ribbing so I added some in the cad model in case this one doesnt work out with the completed fuselage.
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Currently attempting a test print of the rear of the fuselage, more updates tomorrow.

 

[Fluburtur]

I printed the rear of the plane, the part cooling fan of my printer fell off mid print but it still completed fine.
View attachment FLU05716.JPG
Next up is working out the mounting of parts in the wings.

 

[Fluburtur]

May not look like it but I did some good progress today, installed the 3d printed servo pockets in the wings, swapped extended wires in the servos (I love crimps) and made the spaces for the rx and vtx, also wired the camera to the fc so electronics wise I only have the esc left to wire up and then I can assemble the whole plane but I want to do some partial testing first, I also need to prepare the control surfaces.
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[Fluburtur]

it lives.

Gluing up the body didnt go quite as planned, physical reality is a tad different than cad but it still worked out.
I checked the electronics and it is all working good, 1.2ghz to 5.8ghz also working fine on the first start after years of storage.
Only remains to make the control surfaces and wire up the ESC then it will be good to go, balance seems pretty good as well.
Might make a new hatch, I dont totally trust this one to not fly off mid flight.
Pretty happy so far, deadline to getting it flying is 2 days but with some luck it could be in the air tomorrow.

 

[Fluburtur]

Well it is about done, not looking too pretty but the paintjob will wait until after I fly it.
I was worried about the CG but it turned out just right, bit forward if anything.

 

[Fluburtur]

I wanted to maiden it this evening while it wasnt too hot but before night but I couldnt because I have some inav modes configured incorrectly, I guess that shows that I have been out of the loop for a few years.
Will try again tomorrow.