Category Archives: Flying Things

Testing new gimbal on the APM quadcopter

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I have always had some problems with vibrations on my APM quadcopter. This is because my homebuilt gimbal was not sturdy enough. This is an attempt to make it better.

My new gimbal that I have built has a ball bearing on the opposite side of the tile motor, making the entire construction more sturdy. I have also built this one out of thicker plywood to prevent the wood from flexing as mush. As can be seen in the video, the results are pretty good, but there are some vibrations when a fly fast forward. Maybe this is because I still have the roll motor mounted the the fuselage using an old 3 mm plywood that can bend slightly. At the end of the video, there is a crash. While I rapier the quad I will try the make the gimbal even better.

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New airplane – Sky Cruizer 2

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This is a new airplane that I have designed and built during the winter. It is a pusher with large wheels and flaps designed for rough flying fields. This plane is large compared to my other designs. It runs on the same large 8000 mAh 3 cell batteries as my APM quadcopter. The original “Sky Cruizer” was an airplane I build many years ago when I wanted something fun to cruise around with, this new plane shares both the color scheme and purpose of the first Sky Cruizer.

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Arduino in the indoor plane

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When I built the “Stik Pusher” indoor plane, I installed some LEDs that I did not connect. My intention was to add an Arduino but I wanted to test and make sure the plane worked as expected before I did it.

The main purpose of the Arduino is to monitor the battery voltage, but all control signals from the receiver to the servos and ESC (speed controller) now goes though the Arduino. The Arduino flashes the LEDs located on the fin, motor mount and nose depending on the battery status. If the voltage drops to low, the motor is stopped to protect the battery, but the the control surfaces still works. This is similar to how a normal “cutoff” function in an ESC works. My ESC in this plane in very small and simple and does not have this function built in.

I have also connected a serial bluetooth module the the Arduino for wireless communication. I also plan on connecting an ultrasonic range finder pointing downwards to experiment with an automatic altitude holding feature. This requires tuning some parameters, and this is where the bluetooth connectivity comes in handy. Maybe later. I will also try to control the plane with a smartphone app or laptop using this bluetooth connectivity.

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A small indoor plane with plans

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This is a small indoor airplane designed to be very durable, easy to fly and fast to build. It is based on an old model called “Tichy Stick” by J.A Benson. The original model is designed for a Cox .010 engine and meant to be built out of balsa. My version is built out of 3 mm depron (foam). I have moved the motor back and turned it around to create a pusher. This makes it very durable. I have also created a open battery tray on the top front of the fuselage for easy access. The plane is designed for a 5-7 gram outrunner with a 5 inch propeller and a 2 cell 300-500 mAh battery. The wingspan is 620 mm and the flying weight should be around 60-80 grams. I have not yet tested this design but I am pretty sure it will fly great. I have tested a depron version of the original “Tichy Stick” which flies good.

Plans: stikPusher.pdf   (1.8kB)

3D model make with “SketchUp Make”: stikPusher3Dmodel.skp   (1.4MB)

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FT Spitfire video

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A short video of my FT Spitfire. This airplane is a kit form Flitetest. Usually I do not like warbirds very much, mainly because they usually do not fly very well, and have bad stall characteristics. But this one is designed to fly well, and I think that is a lot more important than having the correct scale look. I use a very lightweight setup in mine, and this makes it possible to fly really slowly. The controls feels very precise for being a foamie.

APM Quadcopter video

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A new compilation video made with the quadcopter. During this summer I have flown this quadcopter for a total of about 6-8 hours. This is the best of those flights. I have also stabilized almost the entire video in post production to get rid of the small vibrations. The entire video is shot at my local flying club Gamen.

Read about my APM quadcopter here.