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MooringAerospace MD-8 UAS/FPV Airframe Build Log

Discussion in 'Single Wing Aircraft Plans' started by mavacpjm71, Feb 20, 2010.

  1. mavacpjm71

    mavacpjm71 New Member

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    Guys,

    Here is a great plane I have built for use for FPV - First Person View flying with a camera, as well I use it as a small unmanned aircraft with Tiny211 Autopilot and firmware. It' works great with any type of A-20 / A-30 hacker style brushless engine, 25 amp ESC and a 9x6 pusher prop. Use basswood to make a rear box firewall to glue on the rear between the 2 sideframes, and 2 servos for ELEVON control. You can tape the servos right on the wing, or prefer you can cut into each sideframe and mount the servo as I did.

    CG is varied depending on how you like to fly, high rates then put the CG in the 7inches range, more nose heavy then go out to 8 inches all the way to 9inches rear of leading edge of wing. Measure from front of wing as it meets the body.

    You can add rudder as well, but I never use it.

    The front is setup to accept a FLIP HD Camera with velcro, or a Video Camera system like the KX-191 550 line CCD camera with pan/tilt servo setup with 500mw Transmitter. I fly it FPV style like this with a Heads Up display unit that presents Airspeed, Altitude, GPS coordinates, Artificial Horizon, Battery Charge Level, Amp usage. It's a great little plane, this was made for FFF. If you want to use Depron just readjust size down 10% and she should fit on a depron sheet - 2 sheets minimum. First sheet is already prepped, just push GCODE, then move out and move in the wing, and do the next sheet.

    She is ready for GCODE push, but since alot of you modify anyway I left the GCODE out - since we all seem to do that ourselves custom to our printers.

    Hope you enjoy her :mrgreen: , she's a simple airframe purpose built. If you want to try aerial photopgraphy, or video, or get into FPV then she is the perfect airframe. She also has exceptional payload capability, like Video gear, Onscreen HUD, FMA Copilot and camera and batteries. She doesn't stall at all with the KF airfoil added. Just drops at high angle of attack like a f-18 sitting back on her rear on slow flyby at airshows. Pictures posted, upload video of a FPV flight as well for those interested in FPV.

    Plane can accept a KF Airfoil, for those who are up to speed on them. Mine has it, but not required. If interested PM me and Ill share the KF info.

    (Added Some pictures of her in a V-Tail Rudder configuration with depron 6mm. You can see how I mounted the servos. - I did the carbon on top of wing on this one, but this version is pre-set for carbon insertion under wing and groove is already in the code to push 50% into bottom for carbon insertion.)
    Cheers,

    -Peter Attached files [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] " title="Image1.jpg" style="max-width:300px" /> [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] maero_md8_uav_cut_6mmdeporFFF_2sheets_3dmodel21.skp (852.9 KB)Â [​IMG]
     
  2. Anonymous

    Anonymous New Member

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    Peter, what do you use for the HUD, a DIY or did you buy a set of goggles from somewhere?
     
  3. mavacpjm71

    mavacpjm71 New Member

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    I use FATSHARK Goggle System off the shelf, I also use a 42" LED Screen in Trailor System for Non-Goggle flights. 2 - 25 inch LCDS 1 on each side of the 42" LED TV - each 25 inch displays a seperate HUD, the trailor has long range Receivers and has Autotracking Receiver system that tracks the Video signal automatically and adjusts the antenna arrays accordingly.

    The HUD is homegrown for the UAS system, Remzibi OSD with alot of custom modifications coupled to Tiny211 AP and Ardupilot Arduino platform.

    For FPV though I use the EZOSD from Immersion RC. It rocks, its easy to setup and perfect wit this airframe. I also use the FMA Copilot, as I like to let go and just control the camera while is loiters in a wide circle.

    I use Tiny 211 as the Autopilot, I program my own AP code, including Groundstation Firmware via Labview, as well as other custom code for things like FLIR video, Thermal Imaging and Realtime Mapping to Flight software.

    -Peter
     
  4. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

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    Peter,
    WOW this is an awesome project to say the least. I have to say you did a great job in Sketchup with this project as well.
    Can you share some of the video shots that can be achieved with a set up like this? I woulod love to see that.
    You should be able to upload a wmv file right to the Phlatforum as an attachment.
    Thank you so much for sharing this with all of us
    Top notch job!
    Mark and Trish
     
  5. mavacpjm71

    mavacpjm71 New Member

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    Here are some aerial photos that MD-8 takes. Its perfect for aerial photography. Use any camera up front, or HD video unit like FLIPHD and you can record some awesome pictures and video.

    I have tons more, here are some great shots. Still Camera used on this flight with 5 megapixels.

    Enjoy,

    -Peter Attached files [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
  6. mavacpjm71

    mavacpjm71 New Member

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    Here is an FPV flight from November 2009 with MD-8 Low flight with manual tracking.

    480 Line CCD with 500mw Transmitter - Video quality is much better on the native file which is 500 megs in size. I shrunk it down to 40.8 for upload to the site so quality is much reduced.

    Mark hope you like it :)

    -Peter Attached files Md-8 Flight Nov 2009.wmv (40.8 MB)Â
     
  7. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

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    Peter this to me is just unbelievable! I was blown away as you were flying you had the heads up of all the info you could need and then when you came in and landed the flight summary we just too much! :)
    I love this set up. It must cost a fortune to have a setup like this, right?
    Thank you for taking the time to share these cool pics and video with us
    Mark and Trish
     
  8. mavacpjm71

    mavacpjm71 New Member

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    Mark,

    Thanks ! Actually this setup for FPV is not too expensive. Here is a cost breakout for those who might be interested. I put the estimate in the ballpark range of a MKII purchase for all the gear. :mrgreen: :p

    1. Camera 480line to 550line CCD - $150.00
    2. 500MW Transmitter - $ 99.00
    3. Goggles for video flight - Fatsharks with 500mw built in receiver - $ $379.00
    4. MD-8 - Free - just print it :)
    5. 18dbi Patch Antenna and a Camera Tripod - $ 199.00 for both.
    6. Laptop with capture card. Use a laptop you have and get a diamond multimedia USB capture card for I believe $69.00 on newegg.com
    7. OSD - EZOSD from Immersion RC give HUD and all the info - $299.00

    Initial cost is over a $1000 for everything. That is all you need to do FPV. And the gear will last forever. I look at the investment like I look at a ski gear investment. I am not changing skis every year, but maybe every half decade. :)

    This will give you a VLOS - Visual Line of Sight flying ability of nearly 3 miles from point of launch to farthest distance. Obviously keep it below 400ft and within visual range per AMA and FAA is the rule. Other then that it's a blast. It's worth every penny when you are literally looking out the front of your plan at 300ft enjoying the view as if you are piloting a real plane. :mrgreen:

    Also you can move the camera and transmitter to any plane you have that is able to carry it, so in 6 minutes I can move the flight video gear from one aircraft to another. So its portable between aircraft.

    -Peter
     
  9. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

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    Wow that's really not that bad for the ability to do this. I would have to hook gyros to the goggles to allow for the camera to tilt as I moved my head :D I bet I could hack something up from the wii controller and sensor bar!
    Thank you for breaking this down, some day I will get the chance to do this and its going to be cool!
    Mark
     
  10. mavacpjm71

    mavacpjm71 New Member

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    For those who do Helis like TREX or china knock off :) - Here is an easy way to use the phlatprinter to make Skid Extensions to fly a digital camera underneath. Of course I used the phlatprinter for the skid creation, its dual layers of 6mm depron. I will post the skip tomorrow.

    Attached files [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
  11. mavacpjm71

    mavacpjm71 New Member

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    You are an Inventor Factory Mark :) My Goggles have the ability to integrate into a headtrackers and track pan/tilt of the camera through the trainer port on the futaba. So it actually use a radio channel to send the signals back and forth to the camera pan/tilt assembly based on my head position. A ton of FPV pilots use this setup today. On the wii side, funny that DIY project is up on RCGROUPS FPV forum, I will try to locate the thread.

    I use the FMA on this setup which is an extra I believe $99.00 for the older copilot. It allows me to set the plane in large circles and let go of the radio and just manipulate the camera pan/tilt while maintaining altitude hold and stability of the aircraft.

    It's a blast to do FPV, and of course for my prototyping of new UAS aircraft it's nice to use the gear to test new airframes before I drop 10k in autopilot gear into it :) and start flight tests. :mrgreen:

    -Peter
     
  12. mavacpjm71

    mavacpjm71 New Member

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    Here is a photo of my Test Pilot - Pepper. :) Just kidding on the test pilot role...she never leaves terra firma.

    And another of my trusty companion, who sits loyally with me for hours as I FPV in the limited sunny days we have here in the Northwest :) Attached files [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
  13. mavacpjm71

    mavacpjm71 New Member

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    Here are some other FPV platforms I make with the phlatprinter.

    One cool one is taking an existing set of Easystar Glider Wings and using them to prototype new FPV aiframes. Here are a few examples of airframes I have designed around the wings.

    -Peter Attached files [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
  14. mavacpjm71

    mavacpjm71 New Member

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    Mark here is another way to do FPV. This is the nitroplanes Predator ARF retrofitted with FPV Gear. I mounted camera on pan/tilt mount under front nose of plane. Same power setup and gear as MD-8 airframe too.

    -Peter Attached files [​IMG]
     
  15. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

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    WOW again Peter! You have been holding out on us! :lol:
    You have got THE set up!
    I love the idea of the easystar wings and creating your own body's for them nice idea. I was in the hobby shop the other day and they had foam wing blanks for a lot of the park zone planes and the price was cheap enough to do this. Thank you for sharing this great pictures and ideas once again.
    Wait till Randy sees your tri-copter set up! He's going to love it
    Mark
     
  16. mavacpjm71

    mavacpjm71 New Member

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    Yeah Mark, should have posted more then I have. But work has put a damper on time over the last 6 months, which is a good thing I guess :) You can expect more posting from me this spring and summer as time becomes more available.

    Your printer makes this all possible, so thank you :mrgreen:

    -Peter
     
  17. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

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    :D Thank you Peter
    We are looking forward to this for sure
    Mark and Trish
     
  18. 3DMON

    3DMON Moderator Staff Member

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    That FPV stuff looks so cool. Hobbycity just got a headtracker that plugs into the trainer port of the radio for $55.
     
  19. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

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    Shaun that is awesome! thank you
    Mark
     
  20. mavacpjm71

    mavacpjm71 New Member

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    Thanks for the link Shaun, the trackers are moving forward at a much more affordable price range then in the last 2 years. I am a big fan of Hobbycity, will check this out.

    -Peter
     
  21. mavacpjm71

    mavacpjm71 New Member

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    Ok,

    Turning this into a kind of build log as well.

    Here are some pictures of the Plane from Cut out to full build. Enjoy :mrgreen:

    In order of build out. Total Time 50 minutes from start to airframe complete. Then another 1 hour for engine and servos, esc and receiver. Mount moves from one airframe to another, my own design called MEM - Magnetic Engine Mount. It allows me to use the same power pack from one UAV/UAS to another without the need to build one into each airframe.

    If you get a chance, cut her out. Its a simple kit, and with a USB Camera, or FLIPHD you can get tremendous aerial video and photography from her.

    Cheers,

    -Peter Attached files [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] " class="gc-images" title="DSCF1389.JPG" style="max-width:300px" /> [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
  22. 3DMON

    3DMON Moderator Staff Member

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    Cool Peter.
    Great idea for the motor mount.
     
  23. mavacpjm71

    mavacpjm71 New Member

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    Thanks Shaun.

    It works on any size plane up to 40 inch wingspan. Obviously the smaller planes are perfect candidates for a mount like this. I try to build my airframes where the MEM can hop between one plane to the next, it works well for delta wing planes, trainer style pushers and I have a few airframes where it mounts up front in a traditional puller function. Why I do it is simple, I hate putting engines and ESCs in each plane I have. So when possible I build around the MEMs for my designs. Another one I have done is similar to marks UHM, except it doesn't pivot. It is just a front mount motor mount, made of depron and basswood. I mounts up front and is a smaller version of the MEMs you see in this build. So the design can scale up and down, I am building a UAS right now that will be in the .60 size nitroplane category. I am getting some strong magnets to attempt to take the MEMs to bigger airframes. Will post that build once I am ready to start.

    -Peter
     
  24. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

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    Very well done Peter :D
    Such a nice clean build you have there. I was thinking that you could add the recesses for all the magnets right into the design :)
    Thank you for sharing this
    Mark
     
  25. mavacpjm71

    mavacpjm71 New Member

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    Thanks Mark. Great idea on recessess.

    -Peter
     

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