New SingleCopter VTOL

[FlyerInStyle]

I decided that building a normal VTOL was not enough, I wanted to build one that worked on a single engine. My Boomin Flerken VTOL made recently was a huge success but I noticed the wing slowly failing from the added stress of VTOL motors, and the airframe just generally wasn't the best for the job. I decided that I would like to build a successor so here it goes. This is a build log of my VTOL singlecopter FT Versa. (I made it the versa just because it was a simple airframe that I had on hand with no electronics. I will be reinforcing the airframe with added spars, and using the ball drone mk2 for the single copter. It is 3d printed, runs off of a quad motor on a 4 blade 6" prop and 4 sg90s to control the bottom vanes. Attached are some pictures of it. For a flight controller I don't want to use INAV, but I instead will use Madflight, an esp32 code based flight controller software, no gui. I made some modifications for it to work as a VTOL, and so the parts arrive tomorrow, we will test it out.

I hope this build log will help someone build a similar plane, as the only other example of a similar aircraft I have seen si a Vertigo VTOL from 1994.

 

[Mr Man]

That’s pretty cool project!

 

[FlyerInStyle]

And it's mounted on the versa! Now you may ask, why did I not just make this a tailsitter VTOL, and to that my answer is, I don't know, I wanted to utilize some ft 20g servos, and I just don't like tailsitters, so here we are. All that is left, is adding the flight controller and versa elevon servos, and it'll be ready for a test. I did try hovering with a servo tester, half throttle, it lifts off the ground just fine, I have a lot of confidence in this build! The motor does get quite hot though so for the time being I'll switch it out for a less powerful prop and we'll see how it goes

 

[FlyerInStyle]

And ailerons connected! That's gonna be it for today, I am going to wait for the flight controller tomorrow and see if my custom madflight config will function as expected. It is still a bit surreal to me that you can get performance similar to an f405 fc like the SpeedyBee wing f405 with 12 dollars worth of parts, maybe more of I stick a gps on there.

 

[FlyerInStyle]

Sorry for minimal progress to anyone watching this, the fc got flashed, I'll check the imu probably tomorrow, but sadly physics tests like to get in the way... (And also projects deciding to make a custom toolchnager do too)

 

[LitterBug]

I did something similar a few years ago. Never did get a stable hover. I most likely had my weight too low. The yaw was locked in, but it wasn't able to control roll/pitch. was going to bust it out and give it another try but found a big crack running through a key part.

 

[FlyerInStyle]

View attachment 254383

I did something similar a few years ago. Never did get a stable hover. I most likely had my weight too low. The yaw was locked in, but it wasn't able to control roll/pitch. was going to bust it out and give it another try but found a big crack running through a key part.

Time to reprint! Looks really cool though

 

[FlyerInStyle]

I got the new diy fc up, it's not ideal, or rather the documentation isn't so I have been spending a lot of time trying to get this to work, but I think I am really close to getting this up in the air!

 

[tomlogan1]

I see you are using Flysky. Are you using ibus or subs? Flysky transmitter, too?

 

[FlyerInStyle]

I see you are using Flysky. Are you using ibus or subs? Flysky transmitter, too?

I use flysky receivers because they are cheap and in my experience reliable. I use sbus, ibus is not supported nearly as much, and I did start with a flysky tx but I love my frsky x18 with a multi protocol module and so that is what I use as my tx.

 

[Houndpup Rc]

I see you are using Flysky. Are you using ibus or subs? Flysky transmitter, too?

Be aware that with IBUS your RTH fail safe won't work on loss of signal so make sure you setup in you TX that if you lose signal it "flips" the RTH switch (It's because IBUS keeps sending a signal to the quad and when you make a change, that's what the quads see's.....So if it just loses signal it just keeps doing whatever it was doing last)

 

[FlyerInStyle]

Be aware that with IBUS your RTH fail safe won't work on loss of signal so make sure you setup in you TX that if you lose signal it "flips" the RTH switch (It's because IBUS keeps sending a signal to the quad and when you make a change, that's what the quads see's.....So if it just loses signal it just keeps doing whatever it was doing last)

ibus just doesnt seem to be much better than sbus (atleast for me). I just use SBUS, but thanks for the heads up

 

[FlyerInStyle]

Also, I am attempting to switch to using VScode for this and a slightly different system, as I got fed up with arduino and their recent termsa nd conditions changes, and I have a ton of other projects going so progress is very slowly happenning

 

[Houndpup Rc]

ibus just doesnt seem to be much better than sbus (atleast for me). I just use SBUS, but thanks for the heads up

Yup! I was at the end of my wits why my RTH would work by the switch but when I flicked of the the transmitter it was just sit there....So I decided to give ChatGPT a try and sure enough I tried that and boom! It started working! 😁 👍