Building RealFlight8 Models

[palm369 (David Kaden)]

Motor: 50 g, 961 kv, Ri 0.157 Ohm, idle curr = 0,62 A @ 11V

Prop: Ct = 0.097, Cp = 0.041

Full throttle: 715 g @ 11.07 V, 12.74 A, 0.1206 Nm, 7151 RPM = eta 64%

You also need the inertia moment from the CAD Model?

[lorbass]

@tridge

Does that even make sense?

Only if you like this designe or you can’t draw a own with the format .TGA.
You would have to define a Material with a texture with the name of the .TGA file which then has to be in the same directory.

In your .max file you have nearly all meterials with a texture. Therefore the program crys if they are not available.
And for RF8 it is not nescessary. You can use different materials, as yellow in caipirinha, but as Standard (no texture)
When you want to use a nice designe, like carbon motor carrier this shoul be in the one texture file as all other label, stars, strings and so on.

The english tutorial is here:

Controlling a Texture with Unwrap UVW

@tridge

yes, it does, hopefully after thankgiving we can get some help from Jeremy at KnifeEdge to find the causes.

Good to hear, I would loose the rest of my hairs.

@tridge

The trick was to not use more than one texture file.

This time !!! but I use one texture file too. But didn’t find yet, why no props.
The RF8 reacts very unstable, one time it works, then later no more.
I think, they are not many who designe models.

About your file: Which measure units do you use? (inch, metric, m, cm, mm)
I got FL, no idea what this is.
Top menu, right of “Rendern” in German language “Anpassen”

Regards, Otto

[lorbass]

@palm369

Ahh, nobody told me.

@lorbass

I didn’t get the specification from David so far.
But I hope you can use it with your own data.

I asked twice for the specs in the German Forum, no answer so far.

Therefore, I posted the Graphics unter the anonyme name: Cat.
Regards, Otto

[palm369 (David Kaden)]

I think you mean by email

So here it is:
Airfoil: NACA 0015
Chord center = 300 mm
Chord wingtip = 200 mm
Center part width = 200 mm
Overall span = 1000 mm (without stands)
Flaps length same over whole wing = 100 mm
Flap max angle = 45 deg
Straight trailing edge
Center stand aka VTP has no specific foil on the real one.

Thats all.

Also here is the Votex file if anyone wants to play with values a bit: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hcpmtyx27r90i9k/Tailsitter%20Testbed%20mit%20VTP.flz?dl=0

[lorbass]

@tridge

thanks for looking into this!

Created a .TAG File.
I modified the texture and the fuselage.(More room for the huge battery)
Deleted all other textures in the materials.
Here the Files:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1AaXUwk4a6A5m3gjE8pMxDZxvObm5GBan
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1RDpkWW00mMbHVmezR8kBh4T9jd9uzqA0
Regards; Otto

[lorbass]

Hi David,
ja per E-Mail.
Ich wollte das Wing so genau wie möglich zeichnen.
Deshalb der Center-Stand von Auge dimensioniert. (Höhe, Breite)

Apropos unerklärbare Ereignisse mit Speicher Karten. (Ev.
elektrostatische Ladungen in deiner Werkstatt, wenn man heizt ist die
Luft trocken und lädt sich auf mit Kunststoffkleider)

Mit RF8 ein neues Modell designen führt zu Haarausfall und Schlafstörungen.
Als Simulator sicher gut, aber die Anleitungen sind nur oberflächlich
und wenn irgendwas nicht stimmt, stürzt er einfach ab.
Man ändert dann gemäss Bauchgefühl etwas am Grafik File, exportiert das
in .FBX. Dann muss man RF8 wieder starten, was dauert, dort muss man
noch irgend ein anderes Model wählen, denn das vorige ist ja offenbar
falsch. Nund .FBX importieren was ca. 8 Mausklicks erfordert, dann
Modell wählen.
Entweder er stürzt gleich ab, oder spätestens wenn man OK drückt.
Wenn nicht, drehen die Props nicht, oder sind nicht sichtbar und wenn
quer zum Flügel.
Und so weiter, diesen Prozess habe ich in den letzten 3 Tagen schon ca.
100 mal durchgemacht.
Wenn er nicht abgestürzt ist, kann man mit dem Editor die tech. Daten
editieren. Nach dem verlassen des Editors, ist das Menu oben
verschwunden und man muss wieder
das Programm beenden. Auf einem anderen PC genau gleich.
Tridge hat das irgenwie hingekriegt, aber wenn man das anschaut um zu
lernen, sieht das richtig vermurkst aus. Z.B. Die Props stehen wie ein
Flächenflieger, der Wing aber senkrecht.
Beim simulieren dann, stimmt es komischerweise. Man muss also ein
Tailsitter falsch zeichnen, dass es geht. Das kann doch nicht sein. Ich
hasse solche Murks-Tools.
Hat wahrscheinlich niemand bemerkt, denn wer macht schon eingene
Modelle, es hat ja viele zum Auswählen. Abgesehen, ist das 3Dmax sehr
aufwändig zum Lernen (3 Bücher mit je 1000 Seiten)
Je eines für Geometrie, Materialien, Animationen)
Um das hinzukriegen, habe ich mit einem Sample Flieger wie eine Cessna
angefangen. Dann Teil um Teil durch das ersetzt was eben einen
Tailsitter ausmacht. Und nach jeder einzelnen Aenderung, das
ganze Prozedere durch gespielt. Jetzt muss ich noch das Fahrwerk
eliminieren, die Texture noch anpassen und dann könnte es gehen.
Allerdings in RF8 muss ich die Elevons noch mit einem Mischer versehen
bzw. das vorher lernen.

Auf einem anderen PC habe jetzt RF8 und den MP eingerichtet. Jetzt kommt
noch der Link dazu und dann könnte ich dort Propeller ruinieren.

Gruss, Otto

[tridge]

@lorbass

I modified the texture and the fuselage.(More room for the huge battery)

Thanks!
New video here:
https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=8wSsu8uG_8o

@lorbass

Deleted all other textures in the materials.

I did a small amount of editing to remove some extra objects and put the files here:
https://github.com/ArduPilot/SITL_Models/tree/master/RealFlight/Tridge/CUAV_TVBS
One thing I haven’t managed to do is stop it reflecting like a mirror on the tail. Something related to the specular values, but no luck getting rid of it. I’ll ask on the knifeedge forums.
Thanks for all your help!

[lorbass]

@tridge

New video here:

Can’t see the video. It opens my channel on Youtube the Videomanager.
Will have a look to the “mirror” effect.
Regards, Otto

[lorbass]

@tridge

to do is stop it reflecting like a mirror on the tail

Here the reflecting definition is showed:

realflightboxtrainer

Exactly at 1:02:28
May be, you can modify it yourself.
Else would need the 3Dmax file for 2015.
What about the other .TGA Files. Only one is accepted by RF8
Regards, Otto

[tridge]

@lorbass

Here the reflecting definition is showed:

yes, I’d seen that but it doesn’t seem to have any effect when I import into RealFlight. I also tried using a NAME_s.tga file with all black (as mentioned on some other threads).
I’ll experiment some more when I get time. I’m probably missing something obvious.

[lorbass]

Can you poste the 3D max File in 2015 Version?
I wil try to finde the reason.

[lorbass]

Hi Tridge,

I made a Model of the Skywalker 6.
Here the Files: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xCHunwy8_qXJ23mQaCJlckWzmXWmiUWa

I worked as far as I could. May be you have to complete some items.
But no more trouble to import in RF8, but not tested flying.
Priority on designing, so RF8 not linked yet to MP:
The Wing Surface is 60 dm2, the total weight 2300 gr. (incl. FPV Equipment)
Motors Quanum MT 4108, kv 580, Battery 4500 mAh, 6S, Props 12x5.5 Carbon.

I would appriciate to hear your meaning how good this could fly in reality. Thank you.
Regards, Otto

[MagicRuB]

I found a way to convert STL -> FBX without 3DS Max.

Use this site to convert STL to 3DS
http://www.greentoken.de/onlineconv/

Use this small app called “Autodesk FBX” to convert 3DS to FBX
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/item?siteID=123112&id=22694909

[tridge]

Hi Otto, sorry for the slow response.
I loaded the SkyCat into RF8 fine, but I wanted to fix up the physics model to get the fuselage right (it needs different names for each fuselage element, so different name for left and right side of fuselage as they are separate objects), so I loaded the FBX into 3ds max. It looks good in 3ds max, but when I then export to FBX the model is shrunk by 3x, so it has a wingspan of 47cm instead of 1.5m. I haven’t yet worked out what is going on with that.
Can you upload the max file so I can try with that?
Cheers, Tridge

[lorbass]

Yes, I think you are heavy charged.
Here the .max File:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=18Ri3DuTh1Zh2oX84vIGQP3hNZDYXM6Ra

Yes, the Fuselage ist designed in 2 Halfe.
But I read in the tutorial that Parts with the same name are treated as one part.

May be the scale issue is produced by the selected units in 3Dmax.
I work with the “internal” units.
In my first trial the Skycat was as large as the runway an as hight as the building.

In the meantime fighting with the LINK. In MP it shows as connected (right top “disconnect”)
but no reaction between. e.g. the heading in MP or the arming Text in the Hud.
I tried with the Cessna 182.
Regards, Otto

[lorbass]

@Tridge,
In the meantime Cessna 182 works with the Params from David.

But the Caipirinha, downloaded from Github (incl.your Params) not.
The Tilt Servos are in QHOVER Mode (Visible in the HUD) always in FBWA Position.
Take of is not possible, because the Props touches the ground.

By e-mail I read from David, that his Cat fly in FBWA but not in Hover.
What made we wrong?

By the way. How can we “download” the params?
I only can see the text when I click the link in Github.
Therefore I copied the text to the Notepad to create a File with the name …param

Regards, Otto

[MagicRuB]

I was going through each of the models in the git repo and one of them immediately crashed my RF8. Not sure which one it was, could have been the cat one where you guys were talking about the german character issue. However, now I can’t even get RF8 to start and draw the menus so I can change models.

Is there a way I can externally change the selected RF8 model to a known working one and/or invalidate the currently selected model so I can at least get it to boot-up?

If I get this working, I’ll identify which one breaks my system and will make a PR to remove that model from the git repo.

[MagicRuB]

Found the Solution!

[peteretep (Peter Armstrong)]

Hi, I’m starting to use Realflight8 to do some ardupilot device development.
I’m running ardupilot in a linux environment (Ubuntu 16.04) and am running Realflight8 on a windows 10 VM using virtualbox.
Following the instructions at sitl with realflight believe I have connected ardupilot to the VM correctly by running in MAVProxy:
sim_vehicle.py -f flightaxis:10.1.10.187 --console

I have loaded the Cat Tailsitter model, and loaded the CatTailsitter.parm file into MAVProxy with param load

I’m unclear about the following instructions -

back on RealFlight push the red “RESET” button on the transmitter

Is this the same as resetting the aircraft position with the spacebar?

the performance of the connection can be checked by opening the “ArduCopter” window (on the machine running SITL), the “FPS” (Frames Per Second) count needs to be over 150 for the vehicle to fly well

I don’t understand what is meant by this.

Any help to get me going would be appreciated, and I’m happy to update documentation etc if I can make things clearer.

[peteretep (Peter Armstrong)]

Apologies, my issue was with the Realflight8 update - the update had not been applied due to this issue - https://www.knifeedge.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32756

I now have ardupilot and realflight connected together, but the aircraft are not flying well.
My FPS in the arducopter window is only averaging around 15, and according to the instructions it needs to be over 150. Any suggestions?
23.86/795.42 FPS avg=16.25