Author Archives: NG SI YING CHERYL

Pixhawk Riding on Skysurfer

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Due to space constraint in the fuselage of the sky surfer, we are left with no choice but to mount the pixhawk onto the canopy of the sky surfer.

Pixhawk Mount 1.0

Initially we attempt to mount the pixhawk on to the existing foam canopy provided

Pixhawk on Foam Canopy

However, there are more electronic component that have to be attached onto plane along with the pixhawk, for e.g, safety switch, buzzer, GPS module, telemetry etc.

Therefore, there is a need for us to redesign the canopy to accommodate these various electronics.

Pixhawk Mount 2.0

We did not have the CAD model of the canopy of the sky surfer, hence we have to manually measure the current canopy and model it out on Autodesk Inventor. This new design consist of a platform to mount the GPS module, a hole for the safety switch, Micro Usb connection and a cut out to allow auxiliary connectors to be connected.

Pixhawk Mount 1.0

Subsequently, we realised that having the pixhawk expose during flight, the air pressure in the cavity maybe affect the barometer reading in the pixhawk, hence we have to find a solution to cover up the canopy.

Pixhawk Mount 3.0

In this new design, we offset backing by another 10 degrees for a better fit. Next we added a 3 mounting holes for the FPV, and a few cut outs for wirings.

(my Autodesk Inventor decide to die on me, so i had to use fusion 360 for speed prototyping)

Design Improvisation

Printing in Process….

Ready to Takeoff

Fixed Wing Drone

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Initially the team planned to use a quad copter to collect data from the ground sensor nodes. However due to range and efficiency, we have decided to use a fixed wing remote control plane to be the transportation tool.

Air frame Selection:

RC plane model that our team will be using for our first prototype will the Sky Surfer X8 with a wingspan of 1410mm. This plane model is a high wing trainer plane, high wing plane generally has low center of gravity which would promote good lateral stability. A plane would with good lateral stability would help to overcome side slip and correcting rolling moments. Which would be beneficial for first time RC plane flyers like us.

The Sky Surfer X8 is also a pusher plane, where the motor and propellers are mounted at the back the plane. There are various benefits from this configuration.

  • The propeller is well protected. In the event of nose landing or unfortunate crashes, the damage to the motors would be at minimal.
  • It would not obstruct the view of our FPV.

The EPO (Expanded PolyOlefin) material of the Sky Surfer also makes maintenance and repair easier.

Motor & Propellers:

The suggested configuration of the Sky Surfer X8 is a A2212 KV2200 brushless out runner motor paired with a 6 X 4 APC propeller. However, to increase the efficiency and thrust of the plane, we have decided to upgrade the motor with a Dual Sky ECO2814 (1330kV) brushless out runner motor paired with a 7 x 6 APC propeller.

However, the current airframe only support up to 6 inch propeller, hence we will be getting a motor mount to further enhance the performance of the motor by pairing the motor with a 7 inch propeller.

ESC:

Selection of ESC is based on our motor selection. Hence for the Dual Sky ECO2814 (1330kV) the suggested ESC in the datasheet the max current draw is at 36.9A. Hence the ESC chosen is a XRotor 40A ESC.

Servo:

The recommended servo is a 9g servo, however the servo that came with the kit is a plastic gear servo. Plastic gears servo are more likely to strip if the motor is jammed or overloaded. Compared to metal gear servo which are longer lasting. We then decided to go ahead with the EMAX 12g Metal Gear Servo.

LiPo:

Battery Capacity is mainly determined by the motor choosen. Hence, with reference to the datasheet of the Dual Sky ECO2814 (1330kV, we have decided to use the Turnigy nano-tech 2200mah 3S 35~70C w/ XT60.

Lipo Alarm:

The lipo alarm is a device to be plug into the lipo balance lead. It will release a “alarm” when the LiPo voltage falls below 3.3V.  Which is essential in notifying us when the voltage is low. 

Video FPV:

Spotter V2 attach with a build in transmitter of 5.8GHz

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