Since the intention for VTOL is primarily for landing and takeoff and has proved less efficient in copter mode, I think the designer prioritized very stable forward flight and less maneuvering in vertical mode, hence the introduction of the dihedral. However it’s great to see this variant
Yes, I will find after hovering is tuned. Hoping FWBA will help on roll stabilization. Yes, Eclipson designer has spent energy to design stable plane like his other design.
I will also modify my wing and remove dihedral. Afterwards I’ll modify the fuselage portion where battery will be placed so that thrust line during hover will coincide with cg (as battery will be a little below wing) and eliminate the ‘top’ heavy you experienced.
Let me know the performance of servo after tuning. Currently I’m planning to use the faster servos you used on the #3
Nice project, what would be the payload for a camera on this vtol ?
Thanks. I do not carry any payload but have seen others carry FPV gear such as DJI. Design includes nose with camera hole.
Got another tuning chance today. It was hot spring day at 26 deg C, too hot to concentrate…
Config #4 with no dihedral, move battery to the belly, found bottom heavy. Loaded a dummy 1500mAh battery and tried to balance. As this wing has non symmetrical airfoil, looks like neutral CG alone will not balance. I see pitch I term is busy. Video of one flight, tuning movement in QHover, one transition and QLoiter. Feels better.
Log is here.
Stripped servo gear. It fell at landing a few times. Better to use metal gear servo.
Just listened to @iampete 's Tailsitter Update session of dev conf. Great summary and insight. Lots to learn.
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Great work. I’m always happy to watch your test flight videos. I’m learning every detail here in Ghana. I’m done printing. All electronics have arrived except the flight controller. Once it arrives I will also start the interesting journey with you, brother
I noticed after printing that the surface feels a little bumpy because the skin is very light. Does it have any effect on the flight performance? as I think airflow will be disturbed while flowing over the wing. I can see that on yours too
Also I’m planning to reinforce the printed airframe with a layer of fiberglass as done in this video Fiberglassing a EPO foam RC plane - YouTube. I’m thinking that could make it a little stronger. Please Kindly let me know your thoughts on this @Satoru_Sasaki
Looks good! Yes, when printed with LW PLA, surface can be wavy. Can be solved by increasing flow a bit (to 60% etc). Yes, I do reinforce using similar method as micro glass. I use Japan tissue paper and water based water based polyurethane (WBPU) thinned with water. Also good to repair crack or broken piece together.
Since LW PLA is foamed, it sticks well to resin or WBPU.
Thank you very much. I’ll give it a try and give feedback
Hover was successful. Will continue to test one more hover and try a transition.
May I know the parameters to change to allow for smooth transitioning?
Congratulations on maiden!
Check here transition section for detail.
ArduPlane tailsitter transition is simple. If you use 4.1x these parameters only, only these parameters. 4.2 has more parameter to control throttle. 4.3dev has more.
Q_TAILSIT_ANGLE
Q_TAILSIT_RAT_FW
Q_TAILSIT_ANG_VT
Q_TAILSIT_RAT_VT,
From hover to plane mode, AP will rotate head down to Q_TAILSIT_ANGLE at the rate of Q_TAILSIT_RAT_FW. See my doc and parameter as well for detail and examples.
Transition to plane (recommend to transition to FBWA) is easy. Risky timing is transitioning back to VTOL. With not well tuned plane, it will fail to keep hover after transition.
See such example (trying to make transition with not well tuned plane in windy condition) in this video. I tried transition multiple times but plane was not able to keep hovering position, till I decided to crash land.
I have seen another failure to transition back to hover at Facebook.
- Check plane is tuned well to hover
Swing the plane back and force to pitch direction, check it can recover well - Avoid windy condition
- Make transition at good altitude to recover until you get confidence.
Better to slow down the plane well before making transition.
Good luck!
Thank you. I use V4.2 beta(05). Will keep testing to ensure better hover performance before transitioning. I appreciate your help so much
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@Satoru_Sasaki , I used the faster servos for my build and they do not oscillate like it did on your #3. There is something that needs to corrected on the #3 I guess.
I’m trying to share the video of my test flight with you
Hi @esasujnr, thank you for sharing video. Looks good and stable. I see you are swinging the plane on pitch and recovering well. Different color, did you re-print or painted?
What servo do you use? My config #3’s KST speed is 0.06sec/60 deg at 6.0V on catalogue, I am thinking it is too fast.
I crashed #9 build no dihedral one last week as I set CG too far back, spiraled in plane transition. Rebuilt and flew today. Will post later.
I rebuilt everything with PLA because the LW-Pla to me wasn’t that strong for my beginner piloting skills. Transferred all electronics to my second build.
I used KST DS215MG V3.0 Digital Coreless Swashplate CNC Servo purchased from here
Thank you for sharing info. The same KST servo I use. Interesting it is not oscillating much in your build, probably my LW PLA build lacks rigidity. I will check.
This is 10th build, config #4, no dihedral wing. #9 build is crashed as I flew with foo far aft CG and spiraled when transitioned to plane. Careless mistake.
- To increase rigidity of center wing 1, printed as 2 line walls from center to motor mount. Still printed with LW PLA. Came out with good strength. Weighs 56g vs 27g. Probably can have similar result printed with regular PLA.
- Opened battery mount hole in the belly. Top/bottom CG looks good now while fuselage rigidity is ok.
Reused elevon parts. Replaced airspeed sensor, previously used 2 year old Happymodel one was too noisy…
Increased Q_ANGLE_MAX to 40, Increased Q_TAILSIT_RAT_VT a little. Flies good on 1m/s sunny day. Video of the flight
Eclipson E VTOL config #4 build 10 :) - YouTube
Log of this flight is here.
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