Projects New RC Project that has me stressing

[Derek]

Hey Tony! Check out what I just found...

Turnigy 2 in 1 Power Meter/Servo Meter 1.5 TFT

It looks to be a New Item from HK. I think I'm gonna order this and I'll tell ya what I think.

 

[Tony]

That is an interesting tool. It looks like you could actually hook up a LiFe to the input, and run a servo wire from the output to the Rx battery input and test ALL 10 servos that you are wanting to use. I would first test each servo just to see if you can get a baseline. Remember, you will not use all servos at the same time so your total for the 10 would be about 20-30% more than the actual usage.

If you get it, let me know how it goes. I really need to get something like this for my own projects. I'm worried about the battery wires on my 600 and the 5 standard size digital servos. I need to do some testing to see if it starts to heat up.

Ah what the hell, just order one for me

 

[Tony]

for the best price, hang out on the page and wait for the $16 offer to come up. You used to be able to be a gold member and get the best price. But now you have to wait for it.

Edit: I'm a platinum member and it's showing the $16 when I sign in. I guess some do it and some don't.

 

[Derek]

Here is the latest video update. I have fuselage, tail section, and center wing section on my kitchen floor. Personally, I think the video came out a bit crappy because of the glare from my floor, but at least everyone knows that I have a clean kitchen floor that gives off a nice glare, lol.

Albatros (laid out on floor) - YouTube

I'll make another video soon and I'll have my wife do the videoing so that I can pick the plane up and show you.

I still need to work on:

1. motor mount
2. mounting the wing to the fuselage (still uncertain about how)
3. getting hook or something for flight lines to attach to the fuselage
4. tail servo box, access hatch, and adding servos, push rods, etc
5. adding ailerons and flaps, push rods, etc
6. adding motor, esc, reciever
7. lipo and LIFE battery trays as well as access hatches

I still need to order the lipo's, LIFE pack, prop, and some hardware, but progress is being made.

...and I still need to add some color of some sort. All that white just SUCKS!!!! lol

no worries, Tony.....RCH will definitely be on the plane, lol

 

[Whirlybird]

My concern is that your CoG is way forward . . . and because of the looooooooooooong fuselage behind the wing and obviously heavy tail section, I don't see you being able to balance it with batteries behind the wing. Even with two heavy motors and props hanging out in front of the wing, that weighty tail section with the long boom may be hard to counteract . . . remember your wing chord is not that wide and roughly 60% of that will be to the rear of the CoG . . . you may need to sit up front to balance it

Where does the plane balance in the configuration you have in the video, as it is with no electronics and just the center wing section? Just curious

 

[breeze400]

Not Frank has a good point there. I was kind of thinking along the same lines.

 

[Derek]

Yep...I knew that the CG questions were gonna start coming up. This is surely not a perfect plan, if there is a plan at all, lmao.

My thoughts for CG was to get everything together with electronix mounted then start looking for CG. My original thought was to have the wing toward the nose, as shown in the video. This may or may not still happen. Some material is going to get cut away from the horizontal stabilizer because I'd really like to have swept corners....not pointed. The rest of the CG searching, I think, will come from simply cutting foamboard away from the fuselage center sections...bring the tail closer to the nose. The wing may even get slid back, a fair amount. It's all a work in progress, for sure. I made the long fuselage sections ahead of time on purpose because I didn't want to have to stop forward progress to make another section. Instead...I thought it would be easier to just cut away the "fat" from the fuse as needed. It's possible, and most likely 'probable,' that I got carried away with the fuselage, lol.

As I said prior, it's a work in progress, but we'll get there.

 

[Whirlybird]

Derrick, 33% of the wing chord back from the leading edge is "generally" the proper CoG even a little nose-heavy from there helps You might have a better start of it if you move that wing back or cut the fuselage down before adding the electrics. Since your wing kind of resembles a glider's, maybe look at the proportions between fuse/wing and wing setback on different glider setups

 

[Derek]

Yep...I have the understanding that that the CG is "generally" 33% of the wing chord. I also understand that having a plane more to the "nose-heavy" side is recommended. And after seeing my plane on my kitchen floor, I also understand that I most likely went overboard building the fuselage, lmao. I am not dead set on having my fuselage as long as it is shown in the video. I was just thinking, while in the hunt for CG, it may be easier and faster to cut the fuselage down in a tail heavy situation versus having to make more fuselage sections and wait for the glues to dry in a nose heavy situation. So, it's very clear, lol, that I made the fuselage insanely too long, lol. I can live with that. I also have no problems with moving the wing rearward some but I don't want to stray too far from this image in my head. I still have a lot of work to do on this plane and I'm ok with that. I love to build and sometimes, while building, ya just gotta tear apart, too.

Please keep watching my videos and, most certainly, please keep the opinions, instructions, and constructive criticism coming. I appreciate it all.

 

[Whirlybird]

Well . . . you could keep things as they are and make it a "2 seater" so Tony can fly along with you on the maiden

 

[Derek]

ha ha ha, a 2 seater so Tony can fly along with me on the maiden...thats awesome!!! Just curious, buy why would Tony get the seat and not my wife? Oh yeah, that's right...because my wife is afraid of heights, lol...that's why. Ok...a two seater it is!!! Tony had better have a strong stomach because I am NOT the best pilot when it comes to maiden flights. I shake and tremble SO much, lol.

 

[Whirlybird]

Thought she handled the camera

Tony will be shaking right along with you so that should cancel the effects

 

[Derek]

Yeah, my wife does real well videoing my flights. During my first flying attempts, she would lose my plane but she's gotten so much better at it lately.

Because of my flying skills, Tony and I may have to "fast" for 12 hours before flight. This plane is just a foamy so we don't need any vomit messes around, lol.

 

[Derek]

I'm gonna be working on a motor mount for this plane real soon. I'm just not entirely sure how to go about making it. My first thought was to take some aluminum flat stock (approx. 4 1/2" wide x 1/8" thick) and bend it into a right angle triangle and mount the motor to it. I'm just curious if the aluminum motor mount will hold up.

Any thoughts???

 

[Tony]

Yeah, it will hold up. Mounting it to the plane is where you will come into issues IMO. But the mount will hold just fine. Make sure to use flat washers and lock washers with thread lock though. That will help evenly disperse the stress of the bolts out farther away from the hole.

 

[Derek]

I am pretty confident with mounting the triangular motor mount to the fuselage (I think, lol). I'll get the materials around and I'll post up a video of my thoughts. The video will show what I'm talking about so much better than I can explain it here. Then, I'll surely be open to suggestions.

 

[breeze400]

I would think that it should work just fine. Has long has you can mount the plate to the plane good enough. Most motor mounts are made out of light plywood anyway. My F7F motor mounts are plywood molded onto the fiberglass motor pods!

 

[Derek]

Thanks for your two cents, breeze! I'll get some work done on it and post some video later on.

 

[Derek]

I cant believe how hard it was to find the right sized aluminum flat stock. in fact, I didn't even get what I had originally wanted. I wanted a 4 foot piece of flat stock that was 4inches wide and 1/8 inch thick. I ended up getting an 8 foot flat stock that is 1.5 inches wide and 1/8 inch thick. I'll just have to try to make two identical, or semi-identical, triangles instead. That should be interesting. I'm gonna have to make a jig and probably I'll use some 2x4's or something to make a metal brake so that I can get symmetrical bends. Again...that should be interesting. I'll probably be calling on my Dad for help here. He's a very clever guy. I'll take some pics or a video but my intentions are, 100%, to have this motor mount done TODAY!!!

 

[Tony]

I get all of my aluminum from a machine shop. The stuff I get is .063" and I just have them cut it off of a 4'x8' sheet to the width I need.