JimJarvis50
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If I want to fly any higher than I already have, I'm going to need to fly straighter. Blackrock is a wonderful place, but it's not as big as you might think. It's also rimmed by mountains, and I've landed on two of them. My objectives are modest. I don't need to fly vertical for the whole flight. I'd just like to be there at the staging point for my multistage flights.
Since I'm not an electronics or programming person, I'm going to use the EagleTree Guardian. It's intended as an RC airplane autopilot. This device is the same control unit that Alyssa Stenberg used for her NAR R&D project. I'm basically going to do what she did with a few bells and whistles (but no LEGO's).
The Guardian is a pretty interesting device, given that it only costs about $60. It has several operating modes. In 2D mode, it is intended to keep an airplane level (using elevator and ailerons). If you're flying your plane and you get in to trouble, you just let go of the sticks and the airplane goes level automatically. If you mount the Guardian laying flat on a bulkhead, it will try to keep the rocket vertical. That's what I'm going to try, at least to start with. There is also a 2D mode with heading control. In theory, you could also control roll using 4 canards using the v-tail mixer on the Guardian. However, the guardian uses ailerons for heading control and not rudder, so that approach won't work.
There is also a 3D mode where the Guardian tries to keep the plane moving in whatever direction it is going when the 3D is activated. For 3D mode, you would mount the Guardian vertically, and then try to fly the rocket straight up using rudder and elevator. In this mode, you could use the elevon mixer for roll control, and that might work. Some day I'll find out.
This project will take a while. There's the electronics aspect, the mechanical design, and test flights to try to figure out how it works. But, I thought I'd start a thread now and just update it periodically. I have my initial pass at the electronics completed, and I put together a little video to illustrate how it works. I can't believe how simple it turned out to be.
[video=youtube_share;93U7fqSuw1k]https://youtu.be/93U7fqSuw1k[/video]
Next steps are the mechanical design (mounting the servos, electronics, etc.), and building a bare-bones 4" rocket for testing the system.
Jim
Since I'm not an electronics or programming person, I'm going to use the EagleTree Guardian. It's intended as an RC airplane autopilot. This device is the same control unit that Alyssa Stenberg used for her NAR R&D project. I'm basically going to do what she did with a few bells and whistles (but no LEGO's).
The Guardian is a pretty interesting device, given that it only costs about $60. It has several operating modes. In 2D mode, it is intended to keep an airplane level (using elevator and ailerons). If you're flying your plane and you get in to trouble, you just let go of the sticks and the airplane goes level automatically. If you mount the Guardian laying flat on a bulkhead, it will try to keep the rocket vertical. That's what I'm going to try, at least to start with. There is also a 2D mode with heading control. In theory, you could also control roll using 4 canards using the v-tail mixer on the Guardian. However, the guardian uses ailerons for heading control and not rudder, so that approach won't work.
There is also a 3D mode where the Guardian tries to keep the plane moving in whatever direction it is going when the 3D is activated. For 3D mode, you would mount the Guardian vertically, and then try to fly the rocket straight up using rudder and elevator. In this mode, you could use the elevon mixer for roll control, and that might work. Some day I'll find out.
This project will take a while. There's the electronics aspect, the mechanical design, and test flights to try to figure out how it works. But, I thought I'd start a thread now and just update it periodically. I have my initial pass at the electronics completed, and I put together a little video to illustrate how it works. I can't believe how simple it turned out to be.
[video=youtube_share;93U7fqSuw1k]https://youtu.be/93U7fqSuw1k[/video]
Next steps are the mechanical design (mounting the servos, electronics, etc.), and building a bare-bones 4" rocket for testing the system.
Jim