Lumenier Danaus build thread

[LitterBug]

I have a sweet spot for protected prop frames. Have two 3" prop FlexRC Owl 118mm frames that have been through several iterations of motors and controller upgrades. Several of us have asked for a 5" prop version, but that has not happened. Closest thing to it is a Lumenier Danaus. It was originally named the Monarch, but due to a naming conflict, had to be renamed. Found one on ebay a while back that was missing all the hardware for a really good price. Here's a comparison of the frame plates compared to one of my Owls


Here's a mock up of my layout next to the updated owl the ESCs came from (that will be another thread) and a Tiny Whoop.


The 1.5mm frame plates are very thin compared to the Owl's 3mm main plate and 1.5 mm secondary plate. It is very flimsy and bendy when unassembled. Surprisingly it is considerably more rigid when assembled, but the motor arms are still very wobbly. It is no surprise that is where everyone on the forums say they fail. The standard configuration has Landing posts mounted on the motor arms which would really add a bunch of stress to such weak arms.


Rather than landing on the already weak arms, I'm building mine as a pusher (motors on top pushing down) to reduce the abuse of landing on those arms. I'm also going to use a different PDB and mount the ESCs on the motor arms. I'm going for the everything inside the box layout. Maybe mount a big battery on the outside if I want extended fly time. Weather this weekend didn't give any opportunity to fly, so I made some changes to the Baby tri, and got to work on the Power parts of the Danaus.


Motors: SunnySky X2204S KV2300 II picked up new on clearance
ESCs: DYS XM20A (from Owl which is being upgraded to BLH_S x4 ESC)
ESC dumb PDB: RMRC Hellbender PDB (replaced by DTFc FC/PDB)

More to come...

Cheers!
LitterBug

EDIT: Plate is so thin I had to use spacers to prevent the motor bolts from bottoming out into the windings.

 

[LitterBug]

I can see some more Fun uses for this build.....

Going to have to make a foamboard cover for this when I'm done with the initial build....

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[LitterBug]

Ready to maiden at the Golf Dome this weekend....



All ready to go this weekend and looking forward to spreading some holiday cheer at the Golf Dome this weekend in Columbus Ohio!

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[PsyBorg]

Hrmm running quad blades now? Hopefully your idea to do a pusher setup will save some damage if you crash. Good luck on the maiden mate.

BTW that Jerkybot video was funny.

 

[LitterBug]

Running quad blades on this for sound control. Hoping this will not be a smash up derby frame. It's pretty weak to start with. Just some lazy entertaining flying. The pusher config gives me more options for mounting things on the top and keeps stuff out of the props better. Can tie to the motor arms.

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[LitterBug]

Forgot to take Santa and his sleigh to FliteFest, but did manage to take a pizza box and a few other goodies. Pizza box flew good, and after my Buddy Wile E. saw the Para glider show, he wanted to give it a try.



Also tried to get TJ's pool duck to fly on the live feed, but just didn't have enough thrust to do more than act as a hovercraft. Did some good yaw spins.

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[PsyBorg]

I got to see you maiden the Pizza quad. That got great reactions. I was on duty when you did the other stuff but I had heard people talking about it all in the build tents. That Whiley Coyote PPG (Pizza para glider) idea was awesome. It was sooo great to finally meet you in person my friend. Unfortunately with the chaos that FFE was was did not have as much time to follow thru what we had originally planned for. I think much more would have got done if it were not full on swamp fest the first two days.

At least you got to laugh at me as my Alien cartwheeled across the field first thing in the morning when we flew together before I had to go to the volunteer meeting. Seems we all still had good times and got to enjoy other things to take the time we missed. Looking forward to new and exciting things from the Litterbug along the lines of what you normally accomplish my friend.

 

[jhitesma]

Unfortunately with the chaos that FFE was was did not have as much time to follow thru what we had originally planned for.

I sure hope I get to go again one of these years...really wanted to this year but life got in the way

2015 I didn't manage to do much of anything I had planned on doing...but the stuff I did end up doing without planning was so great I didn't really care

Do regret not meeting a few people I had hoped to meet up with, but like my activity plans met way more than I had expected/hoped to which helped make up for it...to me at least.

Fingers crossed for next year!

 

[PsyBorg]

We are already thinking in that direction here. I will go with zero plans and enjoy what ever happens. I had planned to meet maybe thirty people. Instead I met and helped over 1000 easily over the course of the event. Did / will you be a volunteer? I know you have a family so that could curtail full on involvement. I still say it is soooo worth it.

 

[LitterBug]

I totally agree with PsyBorg. VOLUNTEER! You will NOT regret it!

I had several other build ideas for the Danaus and Owl frames that never made it to the table. The only premeditated plan that made it was "The Spider" on the owl frame. I'll document that over on it's thread. The Pizza Box I grabbed on the way out the door along with Wile E. and various other things/ideas I'll save hopefully for next FFE. The Pizza Para Glider idea (aka PPG THANKS PB!) came together while helping out in the build tent. Had Wile there, had the Pizza box there, he saw the PPG show and he said HOOK ME UP!. Ran next door to the Flite Test store to get control surface pushrods, but instead went with the heavier lightweight landing gear wire which turned out to be perfect. While I was in the store, I also saw the pool duck that TJ came into flooded FFE wearing. It was sitting on top of the ATM next to the checkout area. Thought, That HAS to fly. Asked about it and they referred me to TJ. Asked him if he had any plans for it to fly and if not, I'd like to give it a try. He said that would be cool, Take it, just make sure he gets to see it. Left it there as I knew it was too windy to do it then but kept it in the back of my head. Saturday night was looking to be a calm night, so I removed the Danaus from the PPG:

Took it over to the store to size it up. PERFECT FIT! Took it back to camp to rummage through my stuff for a good method to tie it all together. Grabbed my tools, some tent tiedowns, etc... and off to the build tent. Bounced ideas off a few of my buddies along the way, and PsyBorg suggested Zip Ties. Didn't really have enough of them and was hem hawing other ideas around for a bit. Finally decided to go up to the BuddyRC booth and asked Doug if they had any Zip Ties on hand. After telling him what I was trying to accomplish, he reached into a bag and handed me a fistful of the perfect sized ties Free of charge! (THANKS BuddyRC-Doug!) Back to the build tent and got the duck side mounting zips in...

Used smaller zip ties to attach the Danaus motor plate and standoffs to the duck zips and headed over to the flight line. Plopped it down next to the GIANT mini quad and waited for a good time to give it a test flight.

After the TJ flew the Giant Mini Quad, the PPG air show, and things had calmed down a bit, It was time. TJ was live streaming at the time, so the test flight was live. (still trying to find that feed). Tried a couple times to launch it from the hay on the flight line. Just not enough thrust from the SunnySky 2204 2300kv motors. Took it over to the "paved" flight line and gave it another test... Still no flight. Started banging the sticks trying to get it to move, and yaw was the only successful motion. So we had fun with some spins, and eventually had somebody give it a push down the landing strip. Gave it our best with what we had, learned from it, and have more fun ideas for this frame and the owls. Thanks to TJ for use of the Duck, PsyBorg for the ziptie idea, and BuddyRC for the zipties. Had fun trying, and there WILL be more to come on this thread!

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[jhitesma]

I saw TJ live streaming...but wasn't able to watch it at the time...wish I had now! Bummer that the duck couldn't do much...must have needed the hex

We're really hoping to make it next year, but depends on my parents selling their house and finding a new place. So far they're not having much luck - the market for houses like theirs just isn't great right now We do want to volunteer if we get to come though, my wife wished we had in 2015 since it would have given her and my daughter more to keep them busy. Our daughter enjoyed a few chuck gliders (and has shown up in a couple of the official videos playing with them) but mostly wanted to sit in the tent and play dolls.

But at the same time when we come to Ohio it's also a family visit and since it's now been over two years since my parents have seen us they expect some time with us. But...might leave the daughter with them for the weekend and do the FF thing by ourselves next time we can make it happen. But who knows. 6 months ago our daughter was terrified at the idea of staying with the grandparents for more than one night without us...and now she's upset that we didn't let her go by herself to spend a week with them over summer break

Now to go try and find that stream.....

 

[LitterBug]

I saw TJ live streaming...but wasn't able to watch it at the time...wish I had now! Bummer that the duck couldn't do much...must have needed the hex

Same motors that I had in the Singlecopter when it couldn't get off the ground. Unfortunately only has an SPRF3 which isn't officially supported by dronin so it has a really old copy of *flight on it. If I got four of the motors I upgraded the SC with, I could probably launch myself in the air. The Danaus frame is discontinued and getting difficult to find. I have a spare motor plate and just found a spare open plate available. Danaus #2 may be plausible with some scary thrust and a DTFc running dRonin. Be interesting to see how the new neotune routines handle autotune with some oddball things attached. LOL!

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[LitterBug]

Found the stream. Duck footage starts around 36 minutes in. Link below should start right where TJ starts talking about how the Duck came about.

Spider footage from 43:15 to 46:35. Mid-air collision with big Timber plane near end.
https://youtu.be/DrA8P47Lv28?t=2592

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[LitterBug]

Pulled this pic from the video my spotter took during the Pizza Box Maiden just outside the build tent.


Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[LitterBug]

Maidening the flying pizza

Finally got the vid uploaded.

Enjoy!

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[LitterBug]

The Wile E. Coyote ACME Pizza Para Glider made the cut this week!
https://youtu.be/HPaebaGNeas?t=165

Cheers!
LitterBUg

 

[PsyBorg]

Yeah you made it into several videos up now. You are quite the star from our lil gang o friends here.

 

[LitterBug]

Since this frame is discontinued, I was keeping an eye open for "spare" parts. Managed to pick up both the top and bottom plate, so decided to build a second Danaus instead of just leaving the parts sitting in a corner. Taking the rest of the parts from my two Hellbender frames and will be retiring both of those. (the V2 frame was never finished and hasn't flown) Since most of the dirty work of wiring the motors to the ESCs for correct rotation, and the wiring of the PDB to the FC are already done, this should be a really quick build to knock out. Just need to order a plethora of 30mm or 35mm standoffs to interconnect the frame plates. Pulled all the electronics out of V2 and started bolting the motors up last night.

Anticipated Build specs:
Frame: Lumenier (Shen Drones) Danaus 5" Protect prop frame
FC/OSD: BrainFPV RE1
Firmware: dRonin/Betaflight
PDB: BrainFPV mPB V1
ESCs: Spedix ES25A
Motors: Edge Racing 2204 2300kv
VTX: RMRC Cricket Pro 25/200/600
Camera: TBD

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[LitterBug]

This build is going really quick as expected.

The FC stack is already staged so four screws and it's in there...


Since this frame is thin and on the delicate side, I use reinforcements around the motors. First Danaus I used aluminum from a crashed Cheerson CX-20. This time I am using motor mount plates from RCExplorer.


Motors and ESCs mounted up in their correct rotation locations.


Added FC Stack and standoffs.


Decided to use 30mm standoffs on this build rather than the "stock" 35mm. With these motors, the motors are just shy of poking through the other side. Had a real problem soldering last night. ESC 1 took close to 30 minutes. Hooked it up backwards, then couldn't get the solder back out of the ground hole, then messed up and hooked it up on the top side of the board... wasn't about to flip it back to the bottom side after all that so there is a bit of a-symmetricness to this build. Pretty much a bind and fly at this point for LOS. Just need to throw 20 screws at the top plate and plug the RX in.

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[PsyBorg]

Litterbug.... SSSSUUUUPPPER Genious... All I can see in my head when you post now after the While E Coyote Powered Pizza glider at FFE.