2022/11/08 Flight Recap 2-Week Comp Drone

Owned by Megan Spee
Last updated: 2022-11-10 by Nathan Green
2 min read

Objectives:

  1. Proof of concept of the 6-week CAD version - exists as a quad plane, is buildable, structure is coherent

  2. Electronics etc are integrated and function as intended

  3. Hover capability test

  4. Fixed-wing function test

 

 

Results

  1. Proof of concept for plane: yes, it is structurally sound enough to take off

  2. Electronics interface w/ each other (all ctrl surfaces work)

  3. Hover test

  • Did not have enough lift

    • motors at full throttle when trying to correct/stabilize

  • Was able to take off, but not anything past that. Any yaw or motion that relied on increasing thrust in different motors was extremely limited.

  • New RC transmitter was tested!! works :D!

4. No fixed-wing test was conducted

 

Additional notes

The plane couldn’t take off with 2 batteries, one was removed for the takeoff shown in video. The plane weighed about 5.6 kg without counting batteries.

 

The good news is the plane was structurally sound enough to carry out a short hover, turn around a bit, and land.

The bad news is that the predicted thrust was not enough to lift the entire plane. This may require a re-calculation and re-design of the electrical system (motors, batteries, props). (please drop your ideas here: Propulsion System )

Some options include larger size props, which then would lead to a re-design of the motor locations on the frame to make sure nothing interferes. See above linked confluence for a discussion of this.

Update 2022-11-09 21:09 - Nathan Green

I have realized that the H configuration in Ardupilot automatically assumes the directions of each prop are reversed. This is the cause of the spinning and also possibly the cause of the aircraft failing to take off, a retest will be performed with the motor directions correctly set.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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