On the negative side.. she now is 425-435g (depending on battery) due to heavier motors and probably some repairs here and there.. will see if that affects the flight
I'll have to weigh mine when I get home tonight. I suspect it's almost twice as heavy.
I've got a new pan/tilt FPV cam coming in the mail tomorrow, but I'm no longer convinced it's a good idea to try to mount it on this plane.
Wow. You're getting much better results than I am with the stock FT powerpack. I've been flying a 2200 and 2350mAh 3S batteries, and I get only 10 minutes.
Well.. 2200 seems waaay too heavy for this plane.. im using 800 to 1000mAh batts (i get the CG balance ok with them)..
think that one 2200 is arround 190g while a 800 is 68g.. a 850 is 74 and a 1000 is 85g (i just weighted all 4 of them)..in planes as well as multicopters there is a point where bigger batteries dont compensate their extra capacity due to the increase of weight..and they also cause the craft to fly much worst. For example in my ZMR250 i could get same flight times with a 2200 than a 1500 for the 70g extra weight penalty
(That pulls my batteries down to about 3.5v per cell.) I have some 6-inch 3-bladed props laying about that I might try, though.
3,5V per cell under no load is quite low.. ideal is not going bellow 3.7V with no load.. going under that puts extra wear on the batteries .. i know that very well because i ruined many batteries until i learned the lesson its like Josh Bixler 20% rule ..
Also, I think my mini guinea might be a lot heavier, since it's completely covered in packing tape. I have to keep a lot of power on all the time (50%+) to prevent stalls. Maybe my battery weight is past the sweet-spot--so it's taking more energy to carry the mass of the battery than the extra capacity is supplying.
I'll have to weigh mine when I get home tonight. I suspect it's almost twice as heavy.
I've got a new pan/tilt FPV cam coming in the mail tomorrow, but I'm no longer convinced it's a good idea to try to mount it on this plane.
Huh. Mine is actually 374g without the battery. The 2200mAh battery is about 190g, though.
I've got some 450mAh batteries --- maybe I'll make a quick parallel cable tonight and rig up some 900s.
Take the popular Syma S107 3ch helicopter for example.. they come with a 150mAh battery and usually that lasts for 5/6m ...
They sell a 240mAh battery that fits thr S107.. but guess what.. with a 240mAh battery (60% more capacity) people gets the same flight time of 5/6m... because the extra weight of the 240 needs more motor power to hover/climb and doesnt compensate the extra capacity.. and even worst.. it requieres the motors to run at more power wich puts more stress/heat on them reducing their life ..
Also i have 2 microplanes (both Horizon) a Champ and a T-28.. time ago i did a mod to carry a 500mAh batt in the T-28 wich is like 4 times the usual capacity it carries (120mAh). however flight time only increased X2 ..that means 250mAh (50%) wasted only in carrying the extra weight
Hey, I did it! I got the pan/tilt camera in the mail last night and wired everything up this morning. Just got through about 35 minutes of FPV-ing with my Mini Guinea. It's a much better FPV plane than I'd expected! I'm converting some DVR footage right now, so I'll post a little video as soon as it's ready.
I also did some testing with different batteries. With the 2200, I had no trouble flying a full 11 minutes FPV. Landed at about 3.68v per cell, and the battery came back up to about 3.75. Perfect. I also made a parallel battery plug and tried two 450s in parallel, and two 500s. The 450's hit my low cell warning at 3.5 right about 9 minutes. Landed and it went back up to about 3.65. The 500s, I landed at just 6 minutes and they were near 3.5 and came back up to about 3.7.
So I think I'll stick with the 2200 and 2350 batteries I've got. The plane flies a little more stable with the extra weight, and at 10 minutes I'm not putting any strain on the batteries. (They come back warm but not hot or puffed. The smaller batteries took a beating and came back pretty hot.)
I got some 6x4 props a little while ago. pushing the motors but it should be ok, they did have it on the list of recommended props. I will get a video of a flat spin, the wings looks more like Helicopter blades. It took at least twice as long to fall the same distance as with 5 inch props. I love this plane, and just got half of my FPV stuff ordered.(first time FPV)This should be a good candidate.
So....been playing with my multis too much lately and my stack of DTFB is getting dusty. Figure it's time to build another fixed wing and the guinea's are calling to me.
But...as usual I short on funds and want to use what I have on hand for the expensive bits. And what I happen to have on hand is a pile of 1300kv 24g "blue wonder" motors. They're a bit beat up from being used on my budget quad build...but still worked when I took them off
Problem is...I don't think they're big enough to cut it on the full size guinea (unless maybe I did a 4 motor version...I do 4 working motors collecting dust.) but with the lower kv they need 8"-9" props so they probably won't cut it on the mini....unless I was to move the pods out and maybe modify them a bit to be a hair larger...
What do you guys think...would moving them out further on the wings to clear larger props work on the mini...or would 4 maybe have enough oomph to get the fullsize through the air (they're supposedly rated for 400g of thrust on an 8" prop....)
Or should I just hold off until I can spare a few bucks on some more 1806's and do a mini "properly".....
What do you guys think...would moving them out further on the wings to clear larger props work on the mini...or would 4 maybe have enough oomph to get the fullsize through the air (they're supposedly rated for 400g of thrust on an 8" prop....)
Or should I just hold off until I can spare a few bucks on some more 1806's and do a mini "properly".....
MMmmmm... im using 5" props and if the plane tips a bit on the ground they allready hit the ground/grass.. a 6" would definitily cut more grass and i dont know if a 7" would be able to clear the ground
should be easy to check on paper.. or also you can mount the motor pods above the wing instead of bellow (like a flying boatok
).. I think Peter had done that with one of the bigger guineas to fit bigger props for towing.
Obviously that would requiere some reworking of the wing to redirect wires and also make sure the pods would sit angled with the fuselage
I finally got my Mini Guinea flying and working great. I tried to design and make as many 3D printed components as I could with this build. Ended up making some reinforced firewalls for the power pods, main spar, and wheels. Setup is as follows.
This thing is heavy all said and done at damn near 800 grams with the 2200 and FPV installed. I know my motors sound a little messed up in the video, I'll be getting replacements soon. But if you know what noise they are making let me know why please.
This is my first RC plane after flying quads for a couple months. Sorry the video is rotated improperly, I forgot to ask my wife to turn the camera.
Video of my 3rd Flight:
I finally got my Mini Guinea flying and working great. I tried to design and make as many 3D printed components as I could with this build. Ended up making some reinforced firewalls for the power pods, main spar, and wheels. Setup is as follows.
This thing is heavy all said and done at damn near 800 grams with the 2200 and FPV installed. I know my motors sound a little messed up in the video, I'll be getting replacements soon. But if you know what noise they are making let me know why please.
This is my first RC plane after flying quads for a couple months. Sorry the video is rotated improperly, I forgot to ask my wife to turn the camera.
Video of my 3rd Flight:
Ha, my wife likes to film the wrong way too. That is the way you hold the phone most of the time anyway, right?
I would imagine you are near full throttle with that weight, which also needs higher speeds to keep it aloft. That may cause the props to flex and make the noise which I didn't really notice in the video (no expert though). The battery and the foam type are working against you on the weight versus thrust. Do you have smaller batteries you can try to reduce weight? It may or may not reduce flight time with a smaller battery as you will need less thrust.
How do the 1806s do on watt and amp draw with 6x4 props? I think 6x4 are on the upper end of watt/amp range for those motors. Are they hot after a flight?
I don't think the motors are making any particularly unusual noise. Mine sounds pretty much the same.
In my own testing, I have found that flying with two 450mAh batteries instead of one 2200 makes a difference in weight of about 115 grams. And the plane flies much better when it's 115 grams lighter. But I think it handles the wind better with the big 2200, so I use that all the time now. I flew it FPV today for just the second time. (I lost my head tracker cable after the first flight and had to order another!) Wind was blowing about 5-9mph and it made for a pretty bumpy ride. I don't get a great glide out of this plane, and I need to blast 75%+ throttle to get a decent climb. But I'm having a heck of a lot of fun with it. And it's making me really want to look into a SkyMule or Bix3.
This thing is heavy all said and done at damn near 800 grams with the 2200 and FPV installed. I know my motors sound a little messed up in the video, I'll be getting replacements soon. But if you know what noise they are making let me know why please.
Even at its extreme weight I can cruise around at 50% throttle no problem. The motors start to get warm above 75% throttle but not too hot. I really thing i could push 1kg and it would still fly. I still have pretty good vertical performance too!
I know the 6x4's are pushing the 1806's I was running a 20c 1000mah 3s but the wires got really hot so i had to switch to my 250 quad batteries.
I really like this plane. on low rates its nice and docile while still having plenty of control, on high rates its kinda nuts
The DYS1806 are suposed to be able to handle even 6045 props in 3s and people are even using them in 4S
Im using 5030s so far but i should try the 6030s or 5045s... still im quite happy with 5030 so far.. efficient.. more than enought power (even with the tiny 1306s).. and this plane is not a racer after all..
Funny note.. people are asking me if the MG is suposed to be an Aviocar... and i can see why :
Well today I found the first problem with a mini guinea this heavy. I folded the wings on a high G turn, this made landing extremely exciting. After some wood and Carbon fiber reinforcement Im up to almost 850grams. Still seems to fly pretty good and have decent power. Im going to test out some 5x3's and see if it even flies LOL
its like Josh Bixler 20% rule .. 
