Friday, September 12, 2014

3D Printed Fatshark Camera and MiltiWii Pro Case

My school recently got a very nice 3D printer, so I just had to take advantage of this and print some things for myself.  So the first thing I designed was a case/mount for the camera that came with my Fatshark Predator v2s.  This part came absolutely perfect as you can see below:
Here you can see that I used a screw from a 9g servo to mount the case to the mount.
Next I decided to design a sturdy case for my MultiWii Pro flight controller board:
I can also reccomend this vibration dampening mount for the MultiWii Pro even though it wasn't my design:
There are a few more picture on the Thingiverse page for this here:  http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:198114

If you don't have access to a 3D printer, you can buy these parts at my Shapeways store:

Here are the Tingiverse links for my two designs where you can download the files ofr printing:

RC Kill Switch

Hey guys, just thought I'd share what I've been working on lately.  Recently, the club I fly at made it a rule that you must be able to kill your engine remotely; choking the engine to kill it was deemed unreliable and dangerous.  This means that ignition to the engine must completely stop on demand.  For most guys who use electronic ignition systems, this is no problem.  However, the enigne that I'm planning to use has a magneto ignition.  This means that a magnet attached to the flywheel passes by a coil to generate the electricity for the spark.  This ignition is particularly hard to stop because as long as the engine is spinning, sparks will continuously be created.  Luckily the magneto on my engine has a wire that when grounded to the case of the engine will short out the sparks and effectively kill the egine.  So, all I had to do after I figured this out was create a device that shorts this wire to the case whenever it loses power or signal.  Here's the final product:
So how does it work?  Well, let's start with the switching.  The white component on the board is actually a very small, low power relay.  I have it wired in so that when there's no power to the board, it shorts out the engine and stops it.  This is so that if the plane loses power in flight, it won't run out of control.  The other major component on the board it the microcontroller.  I used a surface mount attiny85.  This chip reads the radio signal coming from your receiver and switches the relay on only when it gets a valid signal.  There's also a blue led on the bottom to indicate when your engine is "hot".  For those of you who are more electronic savvy, here's a shot of the board traces and schematic.
Here's the code that runs on it:
##################################CODE####################################
int relayPin = 4;
int signalPin = 3;
int ledPin = 2;
void setup() {
  pinMode(relayPin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);
}
void loop() {
  int signal = pulseIn(signalPin, HIGH, 100000);

  if(signal > 1500 || signal == 0) {
    digitalWrite(relayPin, LOW);
    digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);
  } else {
    digitalWrite(relayPin, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);
  }
}
#################################CODE#####################################
Well, if you've made it this far you're probably interested in building your own.  I'll add link below to all the project files so you can download it all and make your own.  I don't think I am going to make instructions for this because this project required quite a few skills (PCB making, soldering, electrical knowledge, just to name a few).  You can feel free to ask any questions below however.
FILES:
PARTS:
attiny 85 smd
IM23 relay
10uF capacitor
standard diode
5mm screw terminals
LED and matching resistor (optional)

Ansley Peace Drone FPV Platform

Here's a look at the plane I built called the Ansley Peace Drone.  I got the design for this plane from Ed at Experimental Airlines.  He has some great designs and building styles that all use the dollar store foam and I would highly recommend checking his Youtube channel out for more information.  My primary reason for building this was to get a cheap, stable, and efficient FPV platform and this plane has done nothing but deliver this criteria.  It only uses 4 sheets of foamboard and I can easily get 30+ minutes of flight time with the 2 x 2200mAh batteries for a total of 4400mAh.
Here's a list of parts that I used:
  • Dt850 Outrunenr Motor
  • Hobbyking 30A ESC
  • 2 x Turnigy 9g servo
  • 2 x Turnigy 20C 2200mAh Lipo (in parallel)
  • APC 12x6 prop
  • Hobbyking multirotor controller board v2.1 (optional)

Here's a look at the 6" chord foam airfoil
This is how the wing attaches to the fuselage
This is the 3D printed camera mount I designed for my Fatshark Predator v2's (More info on this soon)
This is a view of the forward hatch for FPV equipment
Here's the rear hatch which holds the stabilization board and receiver
This is the connection between the large wing and the fuselage
Here you see the bottom of the plane with the HK 30A ESC mounted for proper cooling
This motor mount is just an L bracket with some break away zip ties for those rough landings
Here are all the parts disassembled for easy transportation
To sum it all up this plane flies absolutely great!  The dt850 motor is more than powerful enough to push this plane along.  I rarely need to exceed 1/2 throttle!  Though the stabilization board is nice to have, I hardly ever use it because the plane is already so stable and smooth.  It's nice to have when you fumble around trying to pull down FPV goggles though.  Maybe I'll write an aritcle on how to use this hobbyking board with a plane; it was a bit tricky to get right.  Launching the plane can be kinda hard because of the 12" blender in the back.  What works for me is throwing it hard into the air with no power on so that it glides, and then giving it some gas to power away from the ground.  I found that the CG is best at 1/2 the length of the fuselage, but performance isn't effected much if it's not exactly there.  This is by far one of my best flying planes and I would recommend it to anyone looking for an FPV platform.  Flight videos coming soon!
- See more at: http://flitetest.com/articles/ansley-peace-drone-build#sthash.PG9ndnh8.dpuf