[HN Gopher] Create an Inexpensive Flying Wing / Drone
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Create an Inexpensive Flying Wing / Drone
Author : ghgr
Score : 65 points
Date : 2022-09-04 06:00 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.robotshop.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.robotshop.com)
| robomartin wrote:
| People in the model airplane world have been building precisely
| these kinds of planes for probably at least two decades. In that
| sense, nothing new. That said, good to see the idea reaching a
| different audience.
|
| If you want to save some weight you can buy small diameter carbon
| fiber rods for the pushrods (rather than using steel). You can
| also stiffen the wing by using a carbon fiber spar (either epoxy
| or cyanoacrylate to the bottom surface. If you know what you are
| doing you can even lighten it by cutting holes in the wings
| (think: punching out a bunch of circles) and then use packing
| tape to cover top and bottom surfaces.
|
| That said, a light plane isn't always better. Some of my best-
| flying RC planes are not what anyone would characterize as light.
| For example, an electric-powered glider that weighs eight pounds
| (3.6 kg), can go straight up like a rocket, glide (power off) at
| over 120 mph and thermal with the birds with great agility and
| control. The problem with very light RC planes is that they can
| be very difficult to fly in windy conditions, this is
| particularly true of inexperienced pilots.
|
| Here are some examples (no affiliation):
|
| https://www.wmparkflyers.com/EPP-Foam-Airplanes
| nine_k wrote:
| The point here appears to be very inexpensive and requiring
| very little skill to build. Basically only the electric
| equipment and the aileron hooks are not made from common cheap
| household items or flat TV packaging trash.
|
| Certainly you can improve this design in many ways, while
| making it lighter, sturdier, and higher-performing at the same
| time. It would take quite a bit of skill, more tools, and a
| variety of more interesting materials.
| bri3d wrote:
| "Flite Test" have been designing ridiculously cheap, low-
| skill DIY flying things for many years now - at the same
| level of "turning trash to an RC plane." Definitely worth
| checking out if you're interested in the space.
| kayodelycaon wrote:
| My grandfather built model planes out of balsa wood kits for at
| least two decades. Some of them had wingspans of 5 feet. :)
| stuven wrote:
| Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
| saidinesh5 wrote:
| Obligatory link whenever people are interested in flying wings:
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hTYuj7hzKeI (building an rc flying
| wing with a pizza box) . It's actually a really cool DIY channel
| imo.
|
| In general, I think these flying rc toys (especially the fpv
| side) are a great hobby to get into for the Hacker News crowd.
| Almost all of the software is open source. Hardware is mostly
| open too. Lots of things to learn and tweak and tinker.
| FastEatSlow wrote:
| I've been looking for instructions for a drone this simple and
| cheap for a while now, guess I have a project to do now.
| danboarder wrote:
| This uses the same control surfaces as a v-tail RC airplane ;-)
| . I built one like this, fairly simple controls using an
| aileron mix (as elevons) to combine the traditional aileron,
| elevator, and rudder controls. Note that you can find a lot of
| RC projects like this online under keywords like "RC flying
| wing plans".
| tguvot wrote:
| somewhat relevant, saw it today. Create an inexpensive bomber
| copter from scrap metal:
| https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fb6A-NxWQAMjTC7?format=jpg&name=...
| melony wrote:
| Enough of these drones, who else here remember "model planes"?
| nine_k wrote:
| It's only a drone if it can demonstrate stable flight by
| itself.
|
| Sadly, the remote control chapter is not (yet) there, and the
| self-flying drone capabilities are only briefly mentioned in
| the intro.
|
| I suppose that for a real self-flying capability, a model plane
| would need at least a 3-axis accelerometer, a speed sensor, a
| height sensor (or at least a ground proximity sensor), and a
| controller to make sense of all of the data. That part is going
| to be a bit less cheap and trivial.
| bri3d wrote:
| They're quite cheap and "trivial," honestly - iNav,
| ArduPilot, and PX4 are all strong in this space, and
| controllers start in the $50-$60 range (look at Matek
| hardware). Of course, for some definition of "trivial," but
| we do live in an age where a fairly accurate MEMS
| gyro/accelerometer, a barometer, and a fast STM32
| microcontroller can all be had at a low price, and the
| control algorithms are mostly tried-and-true PID /
| feedforward PID attached to some form of input filtering.
|
| One can definitely build a fully autonomous flying wing for
| under $200, especially if the foam is self-cut. There are
| also a wealth of cheap foam pre-molded models available these
| days. We're really in a golden age for DIY flying models
| right now, pending regulatory crackdowns in most countries.
| Gys wrote:
| This reminds me of a kickstarter project for motorizing a folded
| paper plane:
| https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/393053146/powerup-40-sm...
|
| Still available: https://www.poweruptoys.com/products/powerup-4-0
| melenaos wrote:
| I have an RC plane that is without remote control. How can i bind
| the random remote control I have with the plane?
| cryptonector wrote:
| Look at the docs for the radio on the plane and then acquire a
| remote control that is compatible with that radio. Or, if you
| don't even have a radio, buy a remote control and radio, read
| the manuals, install the radio (and battery), connect the
| servos, check that it works.
| samlittlewood wrote:
| The best support for random consumer rc protocols is the open
| source https://www.multi-module.org/
|
| It can be plugged into various TXs that support modules, and
| many TXs use it as their built in primary TX component.
| cheschire wrote:
| There's a lot of details missing from your question I think. I
| tried doing some brief research for you because the question
| sounds interesting, but without knowing information that would
| narrow down the quality of the remote or the plane, it's too
| difficult to guess what your next steps are.
| hnuser123456 wrote:
| You need to find the type of RC receiver on the plane, and the
| protocols it speaks, and the type of radio/transmitter you
| have, and the protocols it speaks. A common
| controller/radio/transmitter brand is FrSky with the ACCST
| protocol (apparently now ACCESS), Flysky with AFHDS2A, and
| Spektrum with DSMX. Each of these brands and protocols has
| their own binding procedure described in the transmitter and
| receiver manuals. Since this article is about inexpensive, the
| least expensive, well-known brand I listed here is Flysky.
| Frsky is more about open source and modularity, and Spektrum is
| the most American but not cheap or open. Radiolink appears to
| be another large brand but I don't know as much about them.
|
| Generally, all of these are about sending a PWM signal, with
| the pulse width being 1.0 ms - 2.0 ms, where 1.5 ms is the
| "center" position, at an update rate of 50 hz, to represent the
| controller stick positions, with 4 channels, two for each axis
| of two sticks, and perhaps additional channels for
| communicating more data from a fancier controller to a fancier
| receiver for things like flaps, landing gear, flight modes,
| etc.
| saidinesh5 wrote:
| Frsky used to be good but they pushed too many shady things
| and caused too headaches to their users.
|
| Everyone now moved onto ExpressLRS (an open source, very high
| quality rc link protocol) that multiple hardware vendors
| support.
|
| Radiomaster, Jumper, Mateksys, Betafpv and more vendors
| support Elrs.
|
| My next radio probably would be radiomaster once my frsky
| hardware dies.
| bri3d wrote:
| I don't really see what FrSky did as shady - they
| introduced a new system with DRM that was not compatible
| with their old system, which was widely cloned. They did a
| really poor job at communicating these changes and
| explaining the implications, but I don't feel that there
| was anything malicious about it - just a matter of poor
| documentation. Their main competitor at the time (TBS) also
| has extensive DRM on their system, they just haven't yet
| had to deal with 1:1 clones.
|
| Anyway, you're right that ExpressLRS appeared to eat their
| lunch, especially now that it's approaching legality in
| many regulatory regions. ELRS is really a very strong open
| source story - a hack project appeared out of nowhere and
| managed to disrupt a whole cottage industry by virtue of
| being community built and supporting a wide range of
| implementations.
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