Hey!
Can one import CAD models into RealFlight8 and simulate?
Just curious!
yes, unfortunately RF8 uses the visual for ground interactions.
the physics should only be linked to visuals for ground interaction, I haven’t noticed a linkage for flight.
Cheers, Tridge
Thanks Tridge,
I did get it working quite well in the end, still not enough drag though
hi everyone,
KnifeEdge have now released a beta which supports up to 12 actuators for the FlightAxis protocol, which means we can build aircraft with up to 12 channels. This really helps with more complex aircraft.
See the announcement here:
http://www.knifeedge.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33513
I’ve pushed a change into master to take advantage of the extra channels. I’ve also tested to ensure that sending 12 channels doesn’t break anything with the older version of realflight.
Cheers, Tridge
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12? Its better than 8, but I already have a design I’m working on that needs 12 for the copter, 1 for mode changes, 1 for retracts, 3 for the gimbal, 1 for a sprayer channel, 1 for arm/disarm, and probably more… why not just make it 24 or more and be done with it?
because the internal structure of RealFlight makes going to 12 easy. Going to more than 12 is a much bigger job, and not something they can take on right now.
btw, why would you need an output channel for mode changes?
This has nothing to do with input channels.
In the real vehicle, we passthru sbus signal out from pixhawk to another microcontroller, and it needs to be aware of mode changes and arming state, and currently gets this info via sbus signalling two servo out channels, which isn’t perfect, but works. We cant sim this at present ,but would like to
you can simulate that actually, just set one of the SERIALn_PROTOCOL channels as SBUS_OUT, and connect a real UART (see wiki) using USB serial adapter. Then the real external microcontroller can get data while flying with SITL in RealFlight.
The 12 channel limit is only on what goes into RealFlight. You can have 16 channels running with SITL, and output them all via other protocols (including SBUS).
Cheers, Tridge
are there RF8 with ardupilot demo ?
There are quite a few youtube videos on the ArduPilot channel and my channel showing now it works
Hi everyone,
I’m looking to simulate an octa-rotor tailsitter (design attached). I’m struggling with 3DS Max, can someone help freelance in modeling this design in 3DS Max so that it can be imported into RF8?
P.S: If 8 rotors is a blocker (SITL wise), I’m okay to try with 4 rotors.
8 motors should be fine, you get 12 outputs. If your just interested in the physics you don’t need to import the model you can just change the physics of a existing model, it just wont look right.
Hi Peter, thanks a lot for the suggestion. I tried to use some of the quad-rotor tail-sitter models already shared here by markw: https://github.com/ArduPilot/SITL_Models/tree/master/RealFlight/markw/Tailsitters
However, I could not get them flying as the models are not sitting on their tail and I do not know how to take-off in this case. In order to quickly get something up and running, I went ahead to modify “CatTailsitter” by Tridge. I used 3ds max to duplicate the frame and motors (to create a quadrotor tailsitter with 2 wings), then I imported this into RF8 and edited the aircraft to manage CoG etc., Please find attached the file in RFX format. I connected this with SITL, unfortunately I am unable to take-off properly. I’m not sure if I’m using wrong params or if I haven’t named the motors in the right order. I’ve double cross-checked, but I’m unable to find anything wrong 
Please can you look into this and see if I’m doing anything wrong here. Quad Tailsitter_V1_EA.RFX.zip (958.6 KB)
You can hand launch them, there is a option for this in the physics editor. Will have a look at your file if I get a chance.
That’s right, and my quad tailsitter models should already have been set for hand launch.
Hand launching in QHOVER mode should work fine if the tuning is reasonable.
Are there any here who specialize in building RealFlight models that we can use for simulation? We have our complete UAV in Solidworks and need a custom model due to its unique propulsion layout.
Hello Robert, I successfully implemented a VTOL tilt rotor in RealFlight 7 including the gyro stabilization within the same software. I am yet to open up the wallet to purchase RealFlight 9 for full integration to ArduPilot, but I don’t think the principle of how to build models within RealFlight changes. Send me a private message if you are interested in working with me.
You’re in luck! Brandon MacDougall and myself have started working more on models lately. You can join the discussions on the simulation channel on the ArduPilot discord server.
Here is what we’ve been working on lately:
the full model source and ready to use RFX file for RF9 for the Alti Transiton is here:
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