nvrtd.design Blog

I had to take a few weeks away from this project while we moved to a new house, but I'm back at it and nearing first flight of the prototype.  I've built a little power distribution board to connect the power for servos, Arduino, and flight controller.  All of the electronic components I'm using are stuff I had lying around and are definitely not what I'll use on the final aircraft.  For now, I'm using: FLIP32 + AIO flight controller running iNAV and NAZE firmware Arduino Mega 12 Amp ESC The all-up weight at this time is 418 grams.  For comparison, the original Blade MCPx BL (without battery) weighed in at 48 grams.  I have serious doubts this will actually fly at all in the current configuration. Before any first flight, I need to verify the throws on all the cyclic servos so they match positive and negative travel.  The flight controller should take care of small differences, but it's best to start off as neutral as possible. I'm al...

"Two helicopters on a stick" For my first prototype, I want to attach two of the mCPX BL helicopter frames to a central boom to test the control system in a hover. Essentially, two helicopters on a stick.  Upon examination of the stock mCPX BL frame, there is not a good way to attach the plastic frame to any cross support. I would have to design my own. I took the measurements from the stock frame and started sketching them up in Fusion360. After a few test prints to confirm the dimensional accuracy, I created a way to attach the frames to a 15mm square dowel. I’m using a Flip32+AIO FC board ( https://www.readytoflyquads.com/flip32-aio ) that I had in stock. It’s a Naze clone, and already quite old as FCs go, but it should provide enough functionality for this build. The stock mCPX BL controller has a built-in ESC for the brushless motor, but I will have to use different ESCs since I’m not using the stock control board. I happened to have 3 12-amp ESCs in m...

Now that I have a conceptual idea of how to build a V-22 using leftover mCPX BL parts, how do I go about controlling such an aircraft? I own a Taranis X9D+, and it can control up to 32 channels using dual receivers, so that won’t be a problem. I’m sure that I can create a mixing profile in the transmitter to handle just about anything, but I’m also sure that just like any multi-rotor “drone," this thing will need some form of automatic flight stabilization. I own a few multirotor aircraft and I’m familiar with how they function. Some research into the popular flight control software (Betaflight, iNav, Cleanflight, LIbrepilot, etc.) all came up short. No one has written code for off-the-shelf flight controllers to manage a dual-swashplate aircraft. I would have to build my own. I have not delved into writing code for flight controllers, but I have built a number of Arduino projects, and some of them utilize RC inputs to control servos and motors. It occurred to me that I...

I embarked a few weeks back on what I think is a fairly ambitious project. I’ve long been a fan of the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey. For those not familiar, the V-22 is an “American multi-mission, tiltrotor military aircraft with both vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL), and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capabilities. It is designed to combine the functionality of a conventional helicopter with the long-range, high-speed cruise performance of a turboprop aircraft.” (Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Boeing_V-22_Osprey ) I’ve studied a few commercially produced V-22 radio control (RC) models, but they all seem to come up short. In the cases I studied serious design concessions were made to control costs and the model did not properly reproduce the real-world functionality of the V-22. Here are a couple of my observations: E-flite V-22 Osprey VTOL BNF Basic 487mm ( https://www.horizonhobby.com/v-22-osprey-vtol-bnf-basic-efl9650 ) Horizon Hobby, the makers of E-f...