MonoProp EasyVTOL Prototype

[VAALLEON]

Re-tuning the unit for the 3 blade props. Amazing sound, much less noise. I was really amazed how much the flight characteristics changed with the new prop. Not sure I know the reason why. Anyway, the vertical flight, except the slow wobble, has improved unbelievably. After I fixed the wobble, for the fist time I felt in full control of the unit in vertical flight, which means that I can stop and go whenever I want during FPV flights. To achieve that I had to tighten the PID, which didn’t help much with horizontal flight. Now need to fix that.



This video has 4 flights: 1- PID tightened but not much, still wobbles out of control. 2- PID tightened, slight wobble, controllable. 3- Battery placed higher for a higher GC, didn’t help with the horizontal flight. 4- Back to original GC, the flight starts with loose PID, slight wobble, then soon after take off I change it from the TX and wobble stops almost immediately. Excellent control of the vertical flight throughout the flight when I did stop and go. But got into trouble in horizontal flight right turns. Another issue is that with the new prop the unit is less eager to transition to horizontal flight. Will need to do some aerodynamic changes along with some more tuning.

 

[VAALLEON]

Making the final adjustments. This was a good flight. I think I am transitioning back too fast and the unit is kind of losing it. But I was able to save it with the extra kick from the 3 blade props. One more flight to confirm the setup and test transitioning and I will call this one done.

 

[mach1 rc]

Making the final adjustments. This was a good flight. I think I am transitioning back too fast and the unit is kind of losing it. But I was able to save it with the extra kick from the 3 blade props. One more flight to confirm the setup and test transitioning and I will call this one done.

Wow super cool!!!👍😍

 

[VAALLEON]

Wow super cool!!!👍😍

Thank you sir!

 

[VAALLEON]

A pretty strong head wind. It gave me the opportunity to do some descent testing, hover, transition and horizontal flight. The unit handled the wind beautifully. It looks so much like a bird with the active wing control that contributes to the stabilization. To be able to beat the wind I went -2 degrees from last night’s attack angle. I have some close ups and some interesting transitional flight against the wind.

The trick to transition back successfully is to take it slow, and let the unit slow down before going fully vertical.

This will be may last test unless something goes wrong. I will install the FPV cam and see if I can have some fun. The hardware’s useful life is almost fully consumed with all crashes and tests.

I will probably be building a new one with a different wing mechanism.

Thank you!

 

[Piotrsko]

Looks like a breeze is your friend so you want to land standard upwind? Still way cool. I'm also guessing you know the 3 pid elements have different functions for the loop /feedback/ response. My motor controller is set 30 20 15 as an example.

 

[VAALLEON]

Looks like a breeze is your friend so you want to land standard upwind? Still way cool. I'm also guessing you know the 3 pid elements have different functions for the loop /feedback/ response. My motor controller is set 30 20 15 as an example.

Thanks bud! Yes, have some experience with PID.

 

[BATTLEAXE]

Thanks bud! Yes, have some experience with PID.

How's it coming along, I almost anticipate your vids now lol

 

[VAALLEON]

How's it coming along, I almost anticipate your vids now lol

haha! thx... Yeah, the video that I posted today just a couple of hours ago is pretty much it. The unit is pretty stable for both vertical and horizontal flight. Flight time is about 8-9 minutes. I will move forward to improve the design for a better flight time. I am thinking of a much sleeker design with a smarter way of handling the folding wings. We'll see how it goes

 

[BATTLEAXE]

haha! thx... Yeah, the video that I posted today just a couple of hours ago is pretty much it. The unit is pretty stable for both vertical and horizontal flight. Flight time is about 8-9 minutes. I will move forward to improve the design for a better flight time. I am thinking of a much sleeker design with a smarter way of handling the folding wings. We'll see how it goes

K I am going to back up, I missed today vid lol, thx

 

[BATTLEAXE]

haha! thx... Yeah, the video that I posted today just a couple of hours ago is pretty much it. The unit is pretty stable for both vertical and horizontal flight. Flight time is about 8-9 minutes. I will move forward to improve the design for a better flight time. I am thinking of a much sleeker design with a smarter way of handling the folding wings. We'll see how it goes

Have you seen Tom Stanton on YT? He has done some interesting vids on a project trying to emulate a SpaceX rocket based on the same principles of your little VTOL hot rod, not the same design of coarse but still cool anyway. You should check it out and see if anything pops out for you to use on this. Here is one

 

[VAALLEON]

Have you seen Tom Stanton on YT? He has done some interesting vids on a project trying to emulate a SpaceX rocket based on the same principles of your little VTOL hot rod, not the same design of coarse but still cool anyway. You should check it out and see if anything pops out for you to use on this. Here is one

Yeah, I have come across to his videos. Cool stuff!!!

 

[VAALLEON]

I wanted to share the latest on the EDF unit with the new design... This is on a different thread that I have for the EDF EasyVTOL but I have received so much support and good ideas from this thread so I wanted to share here for anyone who would be interested in the progress. Thank you!

AT LAST +10 minute EDF VTOL unit!!! Decided to take it out for a longer flight to test the flight time and good thing I did. It used 1693mah for 5:20 minutes, which puts the estimated flight time approximately to 9.5 minutes. When you account for the marginal efficiency improvement over the take off and landing taking less portion of the overall flight, a longer flight will definitely exceed 10 minutes. This proves the design successful... Now need to build a better and lighter unit of the same concept

 

[Piotrsko]

Suitably impressed, except for the recurring hide behind that tree portion.

 

[PsyBorg]

Brother you STILL amaze me after what 4 plus years now following what you do. How you design, build and work the process to complete a product to a proven flyable unit. How you are not locked away in a hole at Skunkworks being forced to do this for our government is crazy you are that good.

Hats off once again for another success under your belt.

 

[VAALLEON]

Suitably impressed, except for the recurring hide behind that tree portion.

Thanks bro! Yeah I do that sometimes Gotta go a little higher but then the unit too small too see in the video

 

[VAALLEON]

Brother you STILL amaze me after what 4 plus years now following what you do. How you design, build and work the process to complete a product to a proven flyable unit. How you are not locked away in a hole at Skunkworks being forced to do this for our government is crazy you are that good.

Hats off once again for another success under your belt.

Thanks bro! I appreciate your support so much over these years. You are one of the ones that keep me going Good thing I am not locked up! lol! But really, I have been testing too many things all over the place and recently I decided to focus on consolidating all my experience in different designs and building techniques to focus on this single fan VTOL concept, the concept which started it 6 years ago. I will work on improving this design with a good flight time and make it autonomous to maybe come up with a versatile and easy to operate search and rescue drone. Ofcourse the final product will need to be a larger unit. I do want to commercialize on this experience but somehow that have not happened yet. We'll see what happens in the future. Thanks again!

Testing the vertical capabilities of the unit. One thing that I know it cannot do is fly backwards but everything other than that looks good. Tight maneuvers and sideways look successful. I am in the process of building a new improved autonomous unit with arduino support. That may have the capability to fly backwards, too. The significance of this capability is to be able to handle the back wing while hovering. In the current state I always need to face the wind or take it from the side.

 

[PsyBorg]

What kind of AUW's are you seeing with these? You may get your wish after these new laws and rules hit if you can keep them under the 250 gram limit. Most people that will tolerate the governmental BS will just dump everything and go sub 250g so if you can get in the market soon you may get popular REALLY fast.

 

[VAALLEON]

What kind of AUW's are you seeing with these? You may get your wish after these new laws and rules hit if you can keep them under the 250 gram limit. Most people that will tolerate the governmental BS will just dump everything and go sub 250g so if you can get in the market soon you may get popular REALLY fast.

I agree that these changes will definitely help the sub 250g market. But not really sure if one can come up with a sub 250g professional search drone unless he has access to defense tech or some serious development capabilities. Something to think about though. I can build a single 1300mah lipo sub 250g unit. I have no idea though what its durability would be or if can turn it in to an autonomous unit without designing my own board or finding a super light but very capable board..

I was thinking more of a professional gas powered or hybrid larger drone with at least 60min flight time. Not saying it would be easy to build but you would need a very capable unit for search and rescue. My selling point and and why I think EasyVTOL is suitable for search and rescue is that it can stop and go very easily with minimal effort, or do in between and fly slowly at 45 degrees, meeting many different flight type demands. It can fly like an airplane to scan larger areas and slow down or stop if there is an area of interest.

Shoot over what you think. I am just improvising, and in the current state, it is very hard for any individual to get anywhere and be competitive against this many large corporations competing in the drone industry anyway...

 

[PsyBorg]

Think .com bubble.. design viable sub 250g commercialized for general public first.. sell it off before that bubble bursts to fund the development of your SAR unit and probably more.