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Yes Ron, the prints need very little cleanup after printing. There are one or two spots (like in the rear of the dummy engine mount recess) that look to be a bit too thin but I’ll boost them with some CA and kicker when it arrives, other than that so far so good.
You are right Hoppy, definitely looks like Gadget (or his long lost twin brother). Would have loved to have seen it flying.
Thanks Ron, I ordered some CA & kicker today. The pump spray pack (and refill) are still available but they don’t always come up in the site search.
Seek and yea shall receive Mr Kermit Sir!!
To start off, this is what happens when the print come unstuck from the build plate (and you forget to check it regularly). This was going to be the tail section.
It’s only happened once so far & I have taken onboard some great advice from Gerald to force feed the filament for a few seconds when starting a print with LW PLA. As it’s a foaming filament it tends to ooze from the print head before it starts the print & then doesn’t stick well. A quick force feed seems to fix the problem. I suppose another option is to edit the print GCode but force feeding is easier.
This is where I started the mini Cub project while waiting for the LW PLA order to arrive. This is the complete landing gear printed in PETG (for strength) with TPU Flex printed tyres & stainless capscrews for axles.
The whole assembly weighs in at 44.2 grams which is correct weight according to the instructions (once you deduct 2 grams for the SS wheel bolts & nuts).
The rubber band is the shock absorber that allows the assembly to flex on a hard landing.
This was my first LW PLA print. It is the centre section of the main wing with the second pic showing all the internal bracing. It weighs in at 9 grams which is 3 gm lighter than the original.
This is the fuselage tail section showing the recessed joining lip & the internal tubes for the elevator & rudder control wires.
This piece weighs in at 8 grams which is about 2 gm lighter than the original.
This is the start of the fuselage front section (complete fuselage prints in 4 parts) and this part alone is a 4 hour print (I think the longest of any part on the mini Cub) and will weigh in around 26 grams when complete.
Nose section print has finished @ just over 4 hours & weighs in at 20 grams so it looks like the eSun LW PLA prints lighter that the filament supplied by 3Dlabprint.
Front part is the PETG Motor mount.
More to follow eventually.
Yes Gerald, the Frog is getting quite adept with his HandiCam these days.
As for our discussion yesterday re the iNav system & flaps. Unfortunately whilst it sounded good it theory it wouldn’t work (for me) in practice as I use two servo outputs for separate left & right aileron controls plus one for the rudder & one for the elevator.
I could have used a Y cable and combined the ailerons on one channel but that only gave one extra output and unfortunately the Bix 2 needs two channels for flaps (one reversed) or a servo signal changer to reverse one of the servos. In the end it was easier just to use the bigger receiver which has SBus & PWM outputs as well as the SmartPort for telemetry.
All sorted now so just need to install it all back in the Bix 2 Sport & she is ready to soar.
Video 1 from the 3 cameras onboard Draco.
I’m trying it in 4K although only the side window camera is actually 4K (RunCam2 4K)
If it turns out OK I have one more to go.
The NBN people have been doing some work on the network around here and as a result 4K upload times have improved greatly.
Yet another fine video from Toad Hall Productions, definitely captured the essence of the day.
Easy to see why your Bix 3 fell out of the sky Kermit. With no wind and very little forward speed deploying the flaps was like throwing out an anchor. Cant do things like that with no wind to keep you aloft, virtually the same problem I had with the BumbleBee.
We all seem to do a better job, especially with landing when its a windy day.
Nice videos, thanks Chris.
Yes the BB was full up elevator in the tipstall but it usually recovers itself without any issues, I was using a different (heavier) flight battery & I think it was too far forward.
If it happens again I’ll take your advice & kill the FC as the very first option.
A bummer about the rain, originally wasn’t going to happen till late afternoon but I saw this morning that it had been changed to late morning instead.
Oh well, saved me a trip down.
At least Andrew got his maiden flight in OK.
I hear than Stephen forgot his transmitter today & couldn’t fly. Better watch out, that old man time is catching up with you !!
Now that the BumbleBee is all repaired it’s time to start on the AR Wing.
First off was to repair the motor as it was missing one of it’s power leads. This was a bit easier than I thought as the fly lead had simply pulled off the solder joint to the motor windings (this was the only bit I didn’t find after the crash) so a simple job of replacing the missing lead, soldering it back on & heatshrinking the joint.
Tested once complete and the motor & ESC are all OK. The GPS was also missing a lead but that had simply pulled from the connecting plug so another easy fix. The Matek F411 WSE flight controller appears undamaged (apart from a couple of bent connector pins) so with all the electronics now checked it’s time to try and glue the body back together.
After removing the two wings (screw held) they were both a fairly easy fix in that one needed the fin complete glued on and the other 1/2 the fin. Easy as the rest of the wings are virtually undamaged.
The main body section was another matter, it was broken into around 8 main pieces and several smaller bits. .
Even the top hatch was in 3 pieces. Just as well I picked up all the bits I could find at the crash site as luckily it seems that I have all the jigsaw pieces & it is all slowly going back together.
Now just to give it some time for all the contact adhesive to dry completely and then re assembly can start.
