Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Cessna landing gear
Just a quick update on the printed landing gear project. I finally got around to printing my gear design, and mounted it on the Cessna, which by now has been through more repairs than Michael Jacksons nose. Anyhow, the gear fits well, and seems to have an adequate amount of suspension. It is not too soft, as I feared. Tomorrow, or this weekend, I will test it out.
Monday, May 11, 2015
Custom plane design revision 1
After playing around with building the RCPowers foam jets for a while, I decided to make an attempt at creating my own plane. I started fiddling with some plans, and made the first iteration last Sunday. The specifications are loosely as follows:
wingspan: 50cm
length: 45 cm
engine: 10g outrunner
ESC: 6amp generic Ebay
battery: 450mah 2S lipo
servos: 4x3.7g
Anyone who has built an RC foamie before should recognize the steps here. I printed the plans in poster mode, which means you have to manually tile them together. Not too much work.
With all the plans cut out from 3mm depron, I put them together without glue, to make sure everything fits well. At this stage, I realized that the plane might actually fly.
I glued all the foam parts in place using 30 minute epoxy. It's slower than hot glue, and I'm not sure the added strength gives much of an advantage considering the breaking properties of depron (hint: it breaks. A lot.), but it should in theory save a few grams, and is a lot less messy.
After gluing the parts, I finally mounted the power plant and the RC equipment. It really paid off having access to a 3d printer for the custom engine mount, but off-the-shelf stuff, or a plywood cutout should work just fine.
And finally, a video of the first prototype.
wingspan: 50cm
length: 45 cm
engine: 10g outrunner
ESC: 6amp generic Ebay
battery: 450mah 2S lipo
servos: 4x3.7g
 |
| Assembling the plans |
 |
| All the parts cut out and ready for assembly |
 |
| First test assembly (no glue) |
With all the plans cut out from 3mm depron, I put them together without glue, to make sure everything fits well. At this stage, I realized that the plane might actually fly.
 |
| Gluing with epoxy, making sure things are relatively |
I glued all the foam parts in place using 30 minute epoxy. It's slower than hot glue, and I'm not sure the added strength gives much of an advantage considering the breaking properties of depron (hint: it breaks. A lot.), but it should in theory save a few grams, and is a lot less messy.
 |
| 3D printed control horns! |
After gluing the parts, I finally mounted the power plant and the RC equipment. It really paid off having access to a 3d printer for the custom engine mount, but off-the-shelf stuff, or a plywood cutout should work just fine.
 |
| Mounting the engine |
And finally, a video of the first prototype.
I did not yet maiden this plane, since I'm waiting for a really calm day. It's very light and most likely handles wind as well as Titanic handled icebergs.
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