VTOL build log PT.2

by ohitstarik | January 6, 2015 | (0) Posted in Projects

How to read this article:

Important parts/titles are centred. Important details are bolded (you could get through the article by just reading the bolded parts)

Non-important parts are left plain. 

Italics designate problems, and parts that i could need outside help on.

Well then. After a fun winter break I got back and started work on the VTOL.

The first issue to address was the oscilations.

At first for the back all i had was a short little carbon fibre cubic tube. Obviously, this meant that the back part was bending (you all know how foamboard cracks), so i thought up a solution by just using a longer dowel. I went to Home Depot and bought me a nice little dowel that didnt bend with the foamboard.

I used my little dremel tool to cut into the dowel to make it shorter. What i had seemed like a sanding piece (will buy metal cutting circular things soon), but it worked fine nonetheless. I'm being very honest when i say this, buy a handheld dremel. They're very useful. (I have the dremel 400xpr. Once i buy some better heads for it, building will be so much smoother.

I think I just ended up sanding myself through it. I had no other way to cut it so i'm not really complaining.

Anyways.

I glued the dowel with the motor on it. This wouldnt have any up or down movements/vibrations at all. Look at it!

Well there were still pitch oscillations. When I forced the front booms to move, they kinda bent forward and back realitively easily. This really annoyed me, and i said "You know what, we're redoing this".

I did some material research. You know those signs at the sides of the streets? Usually used for like "Tutors for hire", or "Debbie dogrul real estate". The ones with holes in it. It has a VERY obvious grain, but when placed against the grain (i hope i'm explaining this correctly since i dont have pictures), it is VERY stiff. I placed it double sided on the new fuselage. It holds hot glue very well, impressively well actually. My new fuselage was pretty much as stiff as i could get it. The weight increased, but overall I think it's worth it. 

I think i might have went overboard with the access hatches. 

Well, there's a problem though. My connection with the servo arms arent very strong. I'm thinking of adding panels to the back part to stop the bend.

I hope i could draw that correctly. I've recently gotten a new computer, so i havent downloaded AutoCad yet.

Oh and also! Here are the tilting mechanisms. I ended up using instamorph to increase the stiffness of the servos. Hot glue just wasnt doing it. 

After all that, here is a flight video! I had flown it once before so i got cocky and took it up a bit higher than normal. My brother was telling me to "lower" it in the video, which i didnt really listen to. Right after that, something happened and the back motor just cut off. I pulled throttle to zero right after and let it crash. Not sure what caused the crash. I'm investigating at the moment.

But overall, i'm very happy about the hover. I will be attaching the wings very soon, and starting transition testing around that time.

COMMENTS

Duncan on January 13, 2015
Looks like a fun project... I would like to see a complete list of materials. Most helpful would be a shopping list of electronics. I am new to multirotor and do not know what is needed to make it all work together. Maybe you could show how all the electronics where put together
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ohitstarik on January 13, 2015
Maybe in the Final Article i might put on some actual build notes and lists.
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VTOL build log PT.2