GeorgeG
Junior Member
Psyborg wrote:
I’d love to see it there. Since I’m new to the forum, I could not find a way - figured that’s something that the forum operators do?
Caroline Tyler wrote:
Well, I’m mainly into model rockets so that takes up as lot of my hobby time. But this Lunar Module truly was a childhood dream that I never thought would be possible… until I realized it was maybe possible as a Quadcopter.
There is another special Quadcopter project that I have in mind. This time it’ll be based on an old Model Rocket design, and it will have the capability to take off 100% on rocket power, and not use the rotors until it reaches apogee , at which time the F.C. will stabilize it to level and hover, ready for manual R/C control after that. I’ll use Arducopter’s “Throw Mode”, when you can arm it., and throw the multicopter into the air with the motors not running, it senses when it reaches apogee then stabilizes into a hover. Figure rocket boost will be treated the same way as throwing, Anyway, I’m not sure when I’ll do that project but I’ll post info on this forum when I do.
There are a number of R/C multicopter builders who have done a number of neat scale/sci-fi type projects. One I re-found is “RC DemonDriver”, who does a lot of airliners but also has done a number of Sci-Fi models. Like this Discovery from 2001: A Space Odyssey:
The way that wobbled around, technically it flew, but not very well. That is the kind of poor handling that I was thinking of if my LM had flown that poorly on its first tests and I didn’t think it could get much better…. I’d have cancelled it. The likely reason that Discovery model wobbled around so much in pitch, the inertia from the length while the quad rotor layout was still in a square near the center (not enough leverage in the pitch axis). If anyone tried that again, they’d want to have a pair near the front and a pair near the back (Like Carolyn’s idea of a motor on each foot of a Space 1999 Eagle), and do plenty of PID tuning to sort it out (again that is among the neat capabilities Arducopter, to adjust the PID settings, and even to use “autotune”, so it learns by itself while in the air the optimal settings).
I was unable to find another person I’d seen do a number of Star Wars models a few years ago, which flew well. Videos of commercial drone models from Star Wars kept me from finding the guy I was thinking of.
Back to the LM, no, it won’t ever have a rocket motor in it. Over the years when I’ve done some neat projects and someone sez “what would be really neat would be…” (and 99% of the time, those people do not build advanced models). I have come up with a response , which is that I look forward to seeing their model that does all the stuff mine does plus the extra thing(s) they thought was needed to be added in order to actually be a neat project.
So….. “I look forward to your LM with the Ascent Stage taking off using a rocket motor”
makatack wrote:
Interesting idea. But that could be done with other multicopters as far as the flier using FPV to land onto a spot, for a game. What I like more in this model is the bright LED inside the decent engine nozzle to represent the rocket engine firing (and in the vacuum of space, there was no exhaust visible. The artwork showing flames was just that, artwork).
However, at some time I would like to add an optical flow sensor to the Descent Stage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_flow
In this case, a special little camera pointed straight down, which “sees” the ground drifting by and can be used like “optical GPS Hold” so the model hovers over the same spot on the ground, rather than drifting. Sometimes the compass sensor is a bit off, and the LM has a problem with “Toilet Bowling” in GPS Hold (or GPS Loiter). https://diydrones.com/forum/topics/toilet-bowl-effect-in-loiter-even-after-calibration
So I’d like to add that to the LM so that I could land it more accurately when there’s significant wind and it’s Toilet Bowling that day. But optical flow sensors are for just detecting horizontal motion, not true cameras that produce a useable signal to transmit to the ground or record onboard.
kpixels wrote:
You’re welcome. I tried strike a bit of a balance between reposting the thread on The Rocketry Forum, while covering a lot of things that were either unique to this model, or “well known” to some old-timer Multicopter builders (yeah, old-timer, like 4 to 5 years ago!), but not known much by some multicopter fliers (Like Arducopter and Multicopter version of eCalc) and very little known by those who are not into multicopters.
I’d love to see it there. Since I’m new to the forum, I could not find a way - figured that’s something that the forum operators do?
Caroline Tyler wrote:
Well, I’m mainly into model rockets so that takes up as lot of my hobby time. But this Lunar Module truly was a childhood dream that I never thought would be possible… until I realized it was maybe possible as a Quadcopter.
There is another special Quadcopter project that I have in mind. This time it’ll be based on an old Model Rocket design, and it will have the capability to take off 100% on rocket power, and not use the rotors until it reaches apogee , at which time the F.C. will stabilize it to level and hover, ready for manual R/C control after that. I’ll use Arducopter’s “Throw Mode”, when you can arm it., and throw the multicopter into the air with the motors not running, it senses when it reaches apogee then stabilizes into a hover. Figure rocket boost will be treated the same way as throwing, Anyway, I’m not sure when I’ll do that project but I’ll post info on this forum when I do.
There are a number of R/C multicopter builders who have done a number of neat scale/sci-fi type projects. One I re-found is “RC DemonDriver”, who does a lot of airliners but also has done a number of Sci-Fi models. Like this Discovery from 2001: A Space Odyssey:
The way that wobbled around, technically it flew, but not very well. That is the kind of poor handling that I was thinking of if my LM had flown that poorly on its first tests and I didn’t think it could get much better…. I’d have cancelled it. The likely reason that Discovery model wobbled around so much in pitch, the inertia from the length while the quad rotor layout was still in a square near the center (not enough leverage in the pitch axis). If anyone tried that again, they’d want to have a pair near the front and a pair near the back (Like Carolyn’s idea of a motor on each foot of a Space 1999 Eagle), and do plenty of PID tuning to sort it out (again that is among the neat capabilities Arducopter, to adjust the PID settings, and even to use “autotune”, so it learns by itself while in the air the optimal settings).
I was unable to find another person I’d seen do a number of Star Wars models a few years ago, which flew well. Videos of commercial drone models from Star Wars kept me from finding the guy I was thinking of.
Back to the LM, no, it won’t ever have a rocket motor in it. Over the years when I’ve done some neat projects and someone sez “what would be really neat would be…” (and 99% of the time, those people do not build advanced models). I have come up with a response , which is that I look forward to seeing their model that does all the stuff mine does plus the extra thing(s) they thought was needed to be added in order to actually be a neat project.
So….. “I look forward to your LM with the Ascent Stage taking off using a rocket motor”
makatack wrote:
Interesting idea. But that could be done with other multicopters as far as the flier using FPV to land onto a spot, for a game. What I like more in this model is the bright LED inside the decent engine nozzle to represent the rocket engine firing (and in the vacuum of space, there was no exhaust visible. The artwork showing flames was just that, artwork).
However, at some time I would like to add an optical flow sensor to the Descent Stage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_flow
In this case, a special little camera pointed straight down, which “sees” the ground drifting by and can be used like “optical GPS Hold” so the model hovers over the same spot on the ground, rather than drifting. Sometimes the compass sensor is a bit off, and the LM has a problem with “Toilet Bowling” in GPS Hold (or GPS Loiter). https://diydrones.com/forum/topics/toilet-bowl-effect-in-loiter-even-after-calibration
So I’d like to add that to the LM so that I could land it more accurately when there’s significant wind and it’s Toilet Bowling that day. But optical flow sensors are for just detecting horizontal motion, not true cameras that produce a useable signal to transmit to the ground or record onboard.
kpixels wrote:
You’re welcome. I tried strike a bit of a balance between reposting the thread on The Rocketry Forum, while covering a lot of things that were either unique to this model, or “well known” to some old-timer Multicopter builders (yeah, old-timer, like 4 to 5 years ago!), but not known much by some multicopter fliers (Like Arducopter and Multicopter version of eCalc) and very little known by those who are not into multicopters.
