Of all the goals I have made for myself, one that seems to have fallen by the wayside is this blog. I simply just haven't had time to keep it up to date with all the projects I have been working on. So in an effort to make well on my own personal promises to myself, this post shall serve to update the progress of everything I am working on and also introduce some of the new projects I have yet to document.
Here is another video of the yaw mechanism operation during the build process:
I have already made some slight changes to the printed parts, and received the revised versions from shapeways. I haven't built up Version 2 yet mainly because I want to buy an extra set of electronics for it so that I can keep both versions airworthy. Eventually I will get around to it, but the Version 1 is getting the job done for now.
3) Project Evolution X: major engine rebuild!
It's time to finally get my 2008 Mitsubishi Evolution X back on the road. It is currently down due to a cracked piston, which thankfully was caught before the whole thing disintegrated and caused more damage. The car has been sitting in my garage for almost two years now, and the time has finally come that I can commit some time and money to rebuilding it.
This will probably be my biggest project this year, and I have been prepping and organizing my garage over the past two months in order to make room to take apart the car. I plan to start dis-assembly in a couple weeks and hope to have the engine sent to the machine shop around mid March. Once I start taking things apart, I will probably put all my other (mostly RC) projects on hold unless I have some downtime while the engine is being worked by the machine shop. I'd like to get this project accomplished before the end of April, which honestly is a relatively short time period.
Let's start with the old stuff from last year!
Status on Old Projects from 2014:
1) Gimbal Quad: Benched!
The sad news here is that I haven't made much progress on this project. While having gathered all the parts, a major setback with the ESC's desyncing from the motors caused this project to be un-flyable. One ESC would always desync and cause a crash/instaflip whenever quick throttle inputs were given. At first I thought it was due to a bug with the autotune because the first crash occurred during an attempt to use this feature. After another flight where I attempted to manually tune the PIDs, I discovered autotune was not the issue, and the ESC's were to blame. This issue led me to purchase a set of KISS 18A ESC's to replace the Multirotor Superstore 20A ESC's I originally installed.
I have gone the process of replacing the ESC's and wiring everything but I have not flown it yet due to issue #2 with the whole setup; the gimbal IMU is having issues, and the roll axis drifts over time. I have tried the 6-point calibration, and I have also tried looping the IMU cable through a ferrite ring to reduce noise, but have not fixed the issue yet. Moving forward I am going to swap the controller and IMU for a unit from Ready to Fly Quads. I am also going to re-design the placement of the IMU so that it is top mounted and see if that helps.
These two issues combined with all the other projects I have been working on really halted progress on this project. For the time being I have decided to bench this project and work on other things.
2) GoPro Mini Quad V2: Project Complete!
I haven't written about this one in a while because it is pretty much a closed book. I have been flying it around trying to get more experience flying FPV. The 4S power setup is definitely better suited for this size quad. I am also trying to fine tune the PID's and adjust the rates to perfection. But as far as design improvement goes, I don't plan to change anything in the near future. If I do add anything, it will be an additional camera mount to hold a CMOS or CCD camera above the GoPro strictly for FPV flying and just using the GoPro for flight recording. But I am in no hurry to do this.
3) Twitchity Acro Quad: Still practicing my Acro maneuvers
I never really wrote up much on this project, but basically I bought this frame from Twitchity, who is a fellow Flite Test forum member who has been helping me CNC my frame parts. The idea here was to use the 3S power setup that came out of my GoPro Mini Quad V1 to build up a durable quad for acrobatic practice. This frame has been my go to for months now, and I posted a couple videos of my flights with it. Nothing has really changed here, although Twitchity has supplied me with his updated parts for this frame, I have yet to swap anything out.
4) Hybrid G10 and 3D Printed Tricopter: Moving on to version 2!
I hardly updated the blog for this but I have made a lot of progress on this front. The version 1 is built and flying. Here is a video of one of the early flights:
Here is another video of the yaw mechanism operation during the build process:
I have already made some slight changes to the printed parts, and received the revised versions from shapeways. I haven't built up Version 2 yet mainly because I want to buy an extra set of electronics for it so that I can keep both versions airworthy. Eventually I will get around to it, but the Version 1 is getting the job done for now.
New Projects for 2015:
1) PrintrBot Simple Metal 3D Printer
Shortly after Christmas I used all my Amazon gift cards to purchase a PrintrBot Simple Metal 3D printer kit. I've been wanting to get a 3D printer for a while, and this seemed like a good value, and way to get my feet wet. Since I bought a kit, I had to assemble and set everything up. This didn't take me long, and I have already printed quite a few things. Below is a quick video of one of the first few prints I did:
As time goes on I am slowly upgrading the printer to add more capability. As of this post I have already upgraded to the heated print bed which allows me to print more materials like ABS plastic.
2) Tamiya Lunchbox FPV!
A friend of mine decided it would be cool if a group of us built some old school Tamiya Lunchbox monster trucks and started racing them on his backyard track. We have yet to meet up and do this, but I have already decided I wanted to take mine one step further and install FPV equipment inside the bodywork so that I can drive it like I am inside the drivers seat.
Below are a couple pictures of Lunchbox and how the project turned out thus far:
1) PrintrBot Simple Metal 3D Printer
Shortly after Christmas I used all my Amazon gift cards to purchase a PrintrBot Simple Metal 3D printer kit. I've been wanting to get a 3D printer for a while, and this seemed like a good value, and way to get my feet wet. Since I bought a kit, I had to assemble and set everything up. This didn't take me long, and I have already printed quite a few things. Below is a quick video of one of the first few prints I did:
As time goes on I am slowly upgrading the printer to add more capability. As of this post I have already upgraded to the heated print bed which allows me to print more materials like ABS plastic.
2) Tamiya Lunchbox FPV!
A friend of mine decided it would be cool if a group of us built some old school Tamiya Lunchbox monster trucks and started racing them on his backyard track. We have yet to meet up and do this, but I have already decided I wanted to take mine one step further and install FPV equipment inside the bodywork so that I can drive it like I am inside the drivers seat.
Below are a couple pictures of Lunchbox and how the project turned out thus far:
Below you can see the video equipment installed in the shell using a 3D printed mounting plate I designed and made with my PrintrBot:
I have already driven this thing around, and it is a blast to drive FPV! It's not blazingly fast, but the sensation of speed is so much better from the FPV point of view, below is a video showing what it looks like:
3) Project Evolution X: major engine rebuild!
It's time to finally get my 2008 Mitsubishi Evolution X back on the road. It is currently down due to a cracked piston, which thankfully was caught before the whole thing disintegrated and caused more damage. The car has been sitting in my garage for almost two years now, and the time has finally come that I can commit some time and money to rebuilding it.
This will probably be my biggest project this year, and I have been prepping and organizing my garage over the past two months in order to make room to take apart the car. I plan to start dis-assembly in a couple weeks and hope to have the engine sent to the machine shop around mid March. Once I start taking things apart, I will probably put all my other (mostly RC) projects on hold unless I have some downtime while the engine is being worked by the machine shop. I'd like to get this project accomplished before the end of April, which honestly is a relatively short time period.
