Hey, I’m a beginner with ArduPilot and I’d like to build my own VTOL. I have the following components: Pixhawk FMU2, 11.1V LiPo battery, 2 servos, Mission Planner, 5 motors, GPS, Spektrum controller and receiver, and 5 ESCs (3RD Robotics 20A Simonk firmware, 5V output BECs). I’d like to take the first step, which is testing my components using ArduPilot. How can I set up these components on this board?
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It is going to be a long voyage… Probably your ESCs are not very adecuate for the job. I would buy a 4 x 1 ESC, maybe something like speedybee (around 50 USD) with bluejay flashed. Pixhawk is not the best option, either…
If you never used Ardupilot, you could start out by building a small copter using your things and test it out. The chances that you will crash at first are very high, and a VTOL plane is not exactly sturdy. You can even glue together two wooden sticks as a frame for the copter, does not really matter. (I even used 2 x 1 inch wooden sticks for my tricopter trials.)
So once you figured how to setup a copter, you would change to VTOL, which is basically the same thing, just with one extra motor… And you could test first the full weight of the VTOL plane on your provisional copter.
Don’t use this piece of junk. Go here for some advice.
Hardware to Avoid
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More VTOL specific stuff is here:
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One advice, be carefull with 4-in-1 esc, because the demand can cause heat and the esc will shutdown - I had problems with 3 airplanes and there is cases related in this forum - In my case - a stallion from flightory - even with a 5 volts fan was not enought to cool the esc.
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That’s a good point. We have indeed seen that problem reported on the forum several times.
I had this problem as well, but it can be solved very easily by leaving the ESC in the propeller stream. From my experience, an exposed 4 x 1 without airflow and 5 kg plane can work for about 2 to 4 minutes, before shutting off due to high temp (130 C).
Fans can not really work well, they have flow speed of maybe 2 m/s, while a propeller wash may be going at 20 m/s. and they are usually enclosed, so that the hot air is recirculating.
For a very small plane or copter of up to 3 kg, an exposed ESC will work fine without direct prop wash.
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