Greetings to everyone!

I was planning to make a Solar quadcopter, and soon realized how foolish I was, and got to the conclusion of starting with a solar fixed wing.

I'd like to know if anyone with any experience in solar-plane is available to share some knowledge.
Here are a few things I require to know:
1) Grade of solar panels, efficiency.
   I watched a couple of videos, and came to a mild conclusion that around 20w/sqft is a good number.
   I wish to know if someone has achieved a better result.

2) Source: Where is it available in India, to buy?
   People who have already tried building one may share their source.

3) Setup:
   I know the use of the solar panel, as a source of power, requires extremely efficient motors and flight design.
    Ans yeah, what was the battery specs?
   If anyone has any tips to provide, I'll be happy to hear.

Lastly, has anyone tried out the transparent solar panels? They seem to be very innovative. Of course, the efficiency and output is drastically low, when compared the regular ones, but there are merits & demerits to every system.


Peace  

And thanks, in advance  

I had started a thread here for my solar plane project.
http://www.rcindia.org/self-designed-diy-and-college-projects/solar-plane-'the-infinity'/

1)Got around 22W/sq.ft with Maxeon C60 cells(Grade 'A')
   They weigh about 7.2g each.
   The readings I got...
   Voltage- 0.56
   Current- 5.4A (Under bright sunlight)

2) Saw them on http://www.sp4mm3r.com/flexiblesolarcell20.html months ago. Now they.    
     are out of stock.
     Alternatively, you may try eBay.com

3) Try lower kv brusheless motor. 800/980kv
    Use high quality silicone wire and keep them short in.  
    length.
   

   

   

http://myresearch.company/solar.phtml

But it will be very difficult to get the parts mentioned in the website.

Quote from: Aravind298 on March 01, 2018, 12:41:21 PM
I'd like to know if anyone with any experience in solar-plane is available to share some knowledge.

I guess you must have searched for 'solar' in this forum, and found some great threads containing personal experience on the subject.
Some members have done interesting work...
Regards

Direct solar power won't probably work. Battery charged ones work. But , that excludes everything except basic electronics. I was thinking about solar for many years. But , this is the main problem. If we were to use solar for endless flight, then we cannot add things like fpv etc.

Why not look at the posts available in this very forum?

Quote from: AL HAM SHARI on March 10, 2018, 09:18:32 PM
Direct solar power won't probably work. Battery charged ones work. But , that excludes everything except basic electronics. I was thinking about solar for many years. But , this is the main problem. If we were to use solar for endless flight, then we cannot add things like fpv etc.

You are right,it is impossible for us to add fpv, telemetry or other accessories.

https://gizmodo.com/this-cyborg-dragonfly-is-the-tiniest-drone-1795720809

This cyborg dragonfly drones are really cool.

Small wifi camera can be placed on solar drones just for spying.

I used 8 C60 panels on my plane.
I used a charge on the go method.
While the plane flies, two lipos are charged. And two get used up. They then can be interchanged.
2 pictures of my plane:
https://outerzone.co.uk/more_pics.asp?ID=3069

Regards

Is it for real?

What do you mean?
It's a RC plane.

Not that , the cyborg stuff

Quote from: prabal276 on March 11, 2018, 08:11:20 AM
While the plane flies, two lipos are charged. And two get used up. They then can be interchanged.

Regards

you have to land to switch or can be done while flying ?

the rate of charge is the same as the rate of discharge ?

That's the problem right there.
You have to land the plane in order to change the batteries. I am yet to come up with an inflight switch. That will require a reserve battery I think. A small one just to help switch lipos.
Since they Lipos are 1S lipos, they get charged pretty quickly. As for the discharge, what I do is use the plane as a glider. I glide it up and then have a slow powered descent.
Not a very good idea but it works. And it was enough to get me the second prize. Im happy.