Skywalker FPV build log

Started by foamybuilder, January 27, 2012, 11:11:13 PM

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foamybuilder

After lot of modifications for my skywalker like landing gear, wing bolts, side hatch etc finally it was ready and
yesterday I did my first non fpv flight. Everything went well except that that the tail wheel being a spring wheel bounced during landing and did a wheelie and overturned. It was really funny to look at  :giggle: . I had anticipated but thought I could control it. I should probably remove the spring action on tail wheel. Really I dont want to remove the tail wheel as without that plane goes off the runway even with rudder input.
The total weight is just around 2kg.

Here are the specs

Motor:

Turnigy NTM Prop drive 1450kv
This is just for trial runs would be replaced by Turnigy SK3 1200kv motor

Prop
APC 8x4

Plane Battery
Nanotech 4S 4000mah

Video Tx/OSD/Servo Battery
Turnigy 3S 1400mah


ESC

Turnigy plush 60A

BEC
5A BEC powering  and servos
Servo 4x HK metal gear digital 9g servos

Camera
CMOS 12v camera.


Video tx/rx

800mw 1.2ghz

Filter

1.2ghz dual notch filter

OSD
CEOSD

Monitor
8inch lcd tft tv




foamybuilder

Many mods shown here are discussed on rcgroups..

Added credit card plastic to support the wing holding cf in place.


foamybuilder

Added Magnets to hold wing. These wings are again held by 4 wing bolts (shown later). The two wings are removable and easy for transportation.


foamybuilder

A side hatch on skywalker makes life easy. Makes each and every component installed easily accessible
One set of magnets are glued to a liteply and another set is glued on the EPO foam.

foamybuilder

Added wing bolts.  Wanted to replace the messy rubber bands.. The wing bolts will hold wings in place if the magnets fail to do their job.
Anyway will put rubberbands in initial flight.

foamybuilder

My initial estimate of the plane had come to around 2kg and really dint want to do hand launch and be dependent on some one for a hand launch.
So decided to make a removable landing gear.

Before gluing the two halfs of the skywalker inserted a liteply with grue on either halfs.The top and bottom portion where the landing gear holding screws go are again reinforced by credit card plastic.


foamybuilder

This is how it looks from the bottom.

foamybuilder

There were many posts in rcgroups regarding the motor mount becoming weak and some times snapping after long usage. Reinforced it with strips of carbon fiber.

sundaram

Subscribed Ashok, keep it coming.   {:)}  {:)} {:)}   :thumbsup:

Hope this motivates me to complete mine.

foamybuilder

Motor mount ply provided needed some modification as the motor used is a bigger class than suggested for skywalker. The ply is again glued with cf stripes which pierce inside the epo mount and held tight with glue. The ply mount is so hardly glue to the foam there is no chance of ply coming off the EPO mount due to vibration.

foamybuilder

Due to its huge tail and stabilizers, there are issues with tail wag. Added cf for vertical stabilizer.


foamybuilder

#11
Next was the boring hinging and clevis/horn. Dint have any modification for that and neither had pics for that. The control surfaces are hinged by fiber tape.

foamybuilder

The most I liked in skywalker that there is provision to mount video tx in-front of prop which gives maximum air flow.
I also added heatsink keeps it chilled now  ;D. I carefully glued to heatsink not to cover the lcd on the video tx. Even the channel changing button is accessible after placing the heatsink.



foamybuilder

Added pan and tilt for camera. Had one short of metal gear servos and used hxt servo.
Hxt servo are bad for this setup as they start jittering with 1.2ghz. Made sure the video tx and camera pan-tilt are placed at sufficient distance.


foamybuilder

Temporarily setup a ground station. Everything is powered with a single 2200mah battery.
Working on a better ground station moving everything into a suitecase which will include
1. lcd monitor
2. AV booster with 3 AV out.
3. Video receiver
4. A Video recorder/playback
5. A volt meter/low voltage beeper
6. A 12v cpu fan to keep everthing cool
7. Provision for extra power ports and AV ports for goggles

praveen

Nice setup Ashok  :thumbsup:! waiting for video!
when are you going to fly it?
To increase thrust you need more  money! But to reduce weight you  need nothing!

foamybuilder

Some pics of maiden and the final setup. Struggled a lot to make sure no visible wires from outside. except for the video tx wires everything came neat.

spitfire

Tx you used loos like turnigy 9x. Any mods with Tx to increase range?

foamybuilder

No mods to increase the range yet. Its Frsky + ER9x. Will be going for 1W transmitter after Saurab's and Sandy's review of their setup.

Nithinraj Kotian

Life is Simple Don't Make it Complicated