7
votes
Accepted
why do drone frames have spaces and holes
A major consideration is weight reduction; if material can be removed without significantly reducing the strength of the item, this will result in an increased payload or flight duration. This is ...
- 5,996
7
votes
Accepted
How do you build and use a smoke stopper?
There are different ways, but a common one is to put a light bulb in series with the positive battery lead.
This works because it will allow low currents through to power the flight controller, but ...
- 4,412
7
votes
Accepted
What would a basic fixed-wing electronic setup look like?
The main things you need are a motor, battery, electronic speed controller (ESC) and servos.
The ESC sits between the battery and motor, and it also has a thinner cable that goes to the receiver. The ...
- 7,003
6
votes
Is there a method to wire a brushless motor to an ESC so it spins in the required direction first time?
Without disassembling the motor, and figuring out how the ESC is designed, there is no other way then simply testing it.
From my experience, the motors spinning clockwise has usually been the ones ...
- 2,644
6
votes
What are the benefits to different types of frame arrangements?
Unfortunately it really seems to be a personal preference thing.
I tried logging the same move on both pitch and roll on a stretched x frame to determine exactly how much difference there was and I ...
- 468
6
votes
Accepted
How to program drones that have old flight controllers?
You can always run an older version of betaflight. Also, if you have older F3 controllers you may also like to like to look at https://github.com/spatzengr/betaflight/releases which are maintained by ...
- 619
6
votes
Accepted
How to keep my prop from flying off my motor?
It looks like you are missing a piece of the prop adapter.
There should be three pieces, the nut, the central shaft with a thread for the nut on one end and a taper on the other, and a collar that ...
- 7,003
6
votes
Accepted
How do I attach a propeller to this motor?
You use one of the provided rubber rings to attach the propeller to the motor. The 2 protruding screws with their heads are the anchor points for the rubber before it is wrapped over the prop to the ...
- 106
5
votes
What should I use to cover this plane with?
How about the thin white polythene/polyethylene from carrier bags or bin liners? I think you could stick it on with a foam-safe contact adhesive such as UHU POR.
Alternately, you can save weight from ...
- 7,003
5
votes
Could using a 2.4GHz controller frequency interfere with an onboard computer trying to access 2.4GHz WiFi networks?
The control radio will probably only interfere with the WiFi adapter when it's within a meter or two. Once the drone is flying the signal will be weaker and the error handling should be good enough to ...
- 7,003
4
votes
Could using a 2.4GHz controller frequency interfere with an onboard computer trying to access 2.4GHz WiFi networks?
From a strict RF standpoint there will be some interference. This would occur if the RC and Wi-Fi were near the same frequencies, transmitting at the same time, some phase relationship and etc.
The ...
- 501
4
votes
Could using a 2.4GHz controller frequency interfere with an onboard computer trying to access 2.4GHz WiFi networks?
No.
Radio systems that claim to be "2.4 GHz" don't actually operate on EXACTLY 2.4 GHz. They have different channels a short distance apart.
For example, nRF24 transmitters have an active ...
- 303
4
votes
How to program drones that have old flight controllers?
Librepilot may be able to do what you want. I had it running an old CC3D board recently until I burned it into a parking lot at high speed. I prefer Betaflight so far, but I haven't really explored ...
- 181
4
votes
How do you build and use a smoke stopper?
A small scale power supply with over-current protection also works well.
The type to get are little cheap build yourself units, with a display that allows you to adjust output voltage and display ...
- 301
4
votes
How do you build and use a smoke stopper?
There are two problems to mitigate here - incorrect polarity and overcurrent - which have different solutions but can be used together.
To protect against a battery being connected backwards you need ...
- 5,996
4
votes
What factors affect the noise level of propellers?
Since only you can be the judge of what you feel is too loud, and noise level from a drone is the result of many parts working together, this is a tough question to answer and I'm not sure you will ...
- 1,226
4
votes
What would a basic fixed-wing electronic setup look like?
Summary
The necessary electronic components: Transmitter & receiver, ESC, motor, servos. (yes, it really is that simple)
How they are linked together: basically; battery plugs into ESC input, ...
- 5,642
4
votes
What would a basic fixed-wing electronic setup look like?
The image below shows a fairly basic fixed wing electronic configuration. Depending on your design you might not need it all, and for more complicated builds with flaps and retractable gear you would ...
- 5,996
4
votes
Is the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) an appropriate association for those interested in building RC aircraft?
As for EAA - No. They seem to be politically on the good side of drone (anti-RID / Docket ID FAA-2019-1100). They do not mention any CBO (community based organization) direction searching the site. ...
- 1,058
4
votes
Accepted
What are the benefits to different types of frame arrangements?
As a designer and manufacturer of frames here's my experience (6+ years, 10,000 flights, FPV only, 107 pilot w/HAM)
True-X: If you build well and balance your load these will fly in a symmetrical ...
- 1,058
4
votes
Will this set up fry my components?
The Matek PDB has a 5V regulator and this can be used to power the fc.
Just wire the PDB to one of the unused ESC plugs on the FC. The FC has solder pads for 6 ESCs (right on the picture) and for a ...
- 635
4
votes
Contra-rotating coaxial shrouded fans: design guidelines
The starting point is working out the speed of air through your rotor disk(s). This air starts stationary at some point above the disk, and is pushed down by the disk. The force required to accelerate ...
- 7,003
3
votes
How to program drones that have old flight controllers?
You'd need to provide more info on what "old FC" is, and same for ESCS.
For the FCs - are they running an STM32 (F0, F1, F3, F4, F7) processor? If so the cleanflight/betaflight path is what ...
- 1,039
3
votes
Accepted
Where to find model aircraft with moving parts?
I don't have any models from this site, but it appears from their product descriptions that they have what you're looking for on themotorpool.net. They have a plethora of models of all nationalities, ...
- 5,948
3
votes
What should I use to cover this plane with?
For what it is worth, I used outdoor grade of polyurethane brushed it onto my Tiny Trainer. It added almost zero weight and while I would not fly it in the rain, it seems to shed water nicely.
- 29
3
votes
What should I use to cover this plane with?
Have you considered using lamination sheets (semi-rigid, slightly bendier than paper, plastic sheets)? You can attach them with a staple gun and also spray-pint the interior to make them white.
- 4,412
3
votes
What should I use to cover this plane with?
I wonder if you might have luck with plastic wrap? (Also known as 'cling film' or 'saran wrap'.)
You could wrap multiple layers for extra strength and can apply with a little tension to keep it taut; ...
- 5,996
2
votes
Accepted
Installing Spektrum receiver onto AtomRC Dodo
Sorry, but soldering to tiny pads is unavoidable when building a quad, especially with a tiny 2.5" quad. (unless you buy one with the receiver already installed, and never need to replace ...
- 7,003
2
votes
Drone/Quadcopter sim that allows custom building/editing of (large) quads?
I don't know about a simulator. However, often in motor's datasheets it will say power consumption and expected thrust under different conditions. Keep in mind that things aren't 100% efficient and ...
- 148
2
votes
Is it a good practice to use a throttle limit of 90% for racing builds?
There are two reasons to throttle limit, one is obvious, the other is not necessarily obvious.
The first reason is that both thrust and amperage draw grow rapidly at higher throttle values, and ...
- 846
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible