Difference between revisions of "Strix StratoSurfer"

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Revision as of 20:16, 27 January 2018

AIRCRAFT
© Mark Qvale - January, 2018

SS004.jpg
  New plane! Ready for some graphics and many fun flights


Introduction

I decided to try something different and having never gone down the Bixler style road, the Strix StratoSurfer seemed like a good place to start. Also, after reading much about this plane, I decided to start with a larger motor/prop combo. For flight management/control I'll be starting with an Omnibus F3Pro flight controller to keep it light and simple.

Here then is a collection of my build notes and eventually a flight review of this plane.

General Specifications

Distributor - BangGood USA
Aircraft - X-UAV Mini Talon
Build Date - April 2017

Airframe Type -  Top Wing FPV Specialist All-Up Weight -  55oz (1565g) w/ 4S/7000 Li-ion Pack
Wingspan -  59 inches (1500mm)   56oz (1586g) w/ 4S/5200 Li-Poly Pack
Length -  39 inches (1000mm) COG -  65mm - 70mm @ Wing root (Stock)
Wing Area -  2.95 ft^2 (27.4dm^2) Wing Load w/5200mAh/4S -  18.9 oz/ft^2 (58g/dm^2)
Motor -  Sunnysky 2216-1250kv Max Continuous Power (4S) -  370 watts continuous (4S)
Propeller -  7 x 6 Aeronaut Cam Carbon Folder Max Prop Power -  295 watts @ 2550ft ASL
Static Thrust -  1135g @ 2550ft ASL Static Thrust/Weight -  0.72
Battery Type -  4S1P Lipo -or- 4S2P Li-ion Battery Capacity -  5200mAh/10C or 7000mah/3C
In flight efficiency -  TBA Flight Time -  TBA
       


Components/Flight Gear

Below is the approximate layout of installed components:

SS51.jpg



Power Set-up

For power on this build I have chosen the Sunnysky X2216-1250kv. For an ESC, I will start with a HobbyKing Blue Series 40A with extra Low ESR capacitors added. At some point I will replace the Blue Series ESC with a Hobbywing Flyfun v5 40A unit to get active freewheeling.

  • Motor - Sunnysky 2216-1250kv
  • ESC - Blue Series 40A
  • Prop - Aeronaut Cam Carbon Folder, 8x7
For more informaion on setting up a pusher folding prop - How To - Set-Up a Pusher Style Folding Prop
  • Battery - Multistar 4S/5200, 10C or a 4S/7000 Li-Ion

SS28.jpg
Mounted with a 7x6 Aeronaut folder


SS23.jpg


Motor Mount

For the motor mount I designed and printed one that spaces the motor 6mm rearward and 19mm above the original mount to get the clearance needed for 7" & 8" props. Additionally, I printed a cowl to protect the motor and direct cooling air to the rear of the motor.

SS21.jpg
Motor mount parts


SS22.jpg
Mounted


SS24.jpg
Front and rear views



ESC Mount

I decided to design and print a simple mount to hold the ESC. It mounts with four M3x6mm nylon screws and a wire tie to hold the ESC. This print is sized for a 25mm wide ESC.

SS31.JPG
ESC craddle



Flight Control

For flight control I have chosen the Omnibus F3Pro from Banggood. It is very inexpensive and in my experience completely reliable.

w/iNav 1.8.1


SS35.jpg
All wired up!


FC Mount

To mount the FC I drilled out the existing mount holes to 2.3mm then tapped them to M3 and flooded the tapped holes with thin CA. This makes them more than strong enough for a set of rubber M3x6mm stand-offs.

SS30.JPG
FC mount



RC Control

For radio gear I am using my standard DragonLink V2 system. I have mounted the DL dipole inside the verticle stabilizer. The RX is mounted on a printed deck below the GPS mount.The printed part is glued in with contact cement but you could also use E6000 or UHU-POR.

SS38.jpg
DragonLink UHF antenna


SS32.jpg
RX mount



GPS Mount

For the GPS I created a mount plate to replace the white plate on the rear of the fuse. This is sized for a Ublox Mini M7 GPS.


SS20.jpg



FPV Gear

For an initial setup I am using the stock foam cowl piece with simple mounts for the FPV camera, VTx and HD camera. I will be changing to printed canopies as I did on my MiniTalon builds to get a more aerodynamic profile and cool looks! Here are the initial components and a picture of their mounts:

  • VTx - RMRC 800mw, 1.3G
  • FPV Camera - HS1184 with 2.8 lens
  • HD Camera - Mobius Mini


SS29.jpg
Initial FPV gear



Airframe

Stabilizers

On the tail linkage I used the stock linkage bits with Hextronic MG14 metal gear digital servos. Of course the standard 1/2" Blenderm tape was added to the hinges for strength.

SS49.jpg



Wings

Nothing new or special here. I added 1" (25mm) of 3 mil laminate to the leading edge. Linkage is the same as the elevators and servos are Corona DS929MG's. Blenderm on the hinge line here too.

Fuselage

The beauty of a plastic fuselage is it is already very durable. Because of where I fly (and land) I still felt I needed a little more protection on the nose and rear skid so I designed up a couple of skids which conform to the fuselage shape. The new nose skid also has a provision for a bolt-on tow hook which I will add later. These are printed in ABS at 80% infil for durability. For glue, I used E6000 which is similar to UHU-POR and Beacons FoamTac.

SS44.jpg
Front skid


SS43.jpg
Rear skid (with excessive glue)



Kit/Build Review

I opted for the bare bones kit because I live and fly at 2500ft or more altitude and it has been my experience that most PNP setups are underpowered and supplied with very cheap servos, etc. With that said, all in all this is a very nice kit. The linkage components in mine are well made and nicely installed. There are very nice stiffeners in the control surfaces and having the channels pre-cut in the wings for servo wires is a big plus.

The plastic fuselage is also a treat. Using plastic makes for an enormous amount of room, it is very stiff and has a nice battery tray pre-installed.

Here are some points for improvement (in my opinion):

  • Please! Stop producing kits like this that will only take a 6" prop. Anyone serious about FPV is going to weight it down with gear and packs and a 6 inch prop is not an efficient way to go. Also very noisy.
  • Include an optional large prop motor mount for those of us that want to spend more money on motors and props.
  • The screw holding the tail together should be much closer to the bottom of the fuse so you can get it out. A socket head cap screw would help as well.
  • The four screws holding the wing and motor pod in place are difficult to get in and out which makes it difficult to break this down for travel. Changing them to socket head cap screws would be a big improvement.
  • Change the main wing spar to a more common CF round tube that slips into a tube in each wing panel. This would make it much easier to take the wings apart. I simply can't get mine apart without damaging them.
  • Put some stabilization inside the fuse on each side of the wooden FC mount. This piece is well glued but it still moves around too much. I inserted two pieces of foam down each side to dampen the movement.



Maiden!

Maiden - 01 January, 2018

The maiden was uneventful in terms of drama (well, except on the launch!) which is always a good thing. The weather was perfect with temp at ~70F a very light breeze and clear skies. From a flying standpoint, the StratoSurfer flies well, very controllable, nice yaw response and can be landed slow enough (for me!) without the use of flaps which I haven't installed. The prop I selected, an Aeronaut 7x6 folder is a bit weak as far as climb-out and launch and I will be changing this to an 8x6 Graupner folder for the next flights. The iNav FC needs some tuning and board alignment adjustment but it did its job and kept the plane stable when asked.

SS003.jpg
Post maiden!



Maiden Day - 15 January, 2018




Mods/Changes/Add-ons

  • APM Mini 3.1 Flight Controller


Finally got tired of trying to make the Banggood Omnibus F3 Pro flight controller perform like an APM. So, I have now replaced it with an APM Mini 3.1 I had "on the shelf" which is basicly an APM 2.8 in a small package. It flys excellent although I will need to add a compass to get all the benifits from the APM.

  • Hobbywing Flyfun V5 40A ESC


Got another HW Flyfun V5 in and immediately replaced the HK Blue Series 40A. Nothing wrong with the Blue Series but the Flyfun is a much better unit and with their DEO Technology, also known as Active Freewheeling, these units run amazingly cool at any throttle position and are more efficient at power management. Additionally, they come with a 5.2/6.0/7.4 volt BEC that will deliver a full 8 amps/20 amps peak (tested).

  • New FPV Camera Mount


Another mod from my maiden setup is a nose mounted FPV cam. I've seen pictures of others done with a nose cam and I have been on the fence about cutting into it as plastic isn't as easy to patch up as EPO should something go wrong or not work-out. Looking through all my extra gear I found I had a Fatshark 700tvl v2 FPV cam which fits very well inside the nose with only the lens needing a hole in the fuse.

I designed then a 2 piece mount for the cam consisting of a camera mount and lens hood. The lens hood is glued to the cam mount with ABS glue which is incredibly strong.

SS109.jpg
Fatshark camera mount assembly


SS107.jpg
Shown without lens hood


SS106.jpg



Once the two pieces are glued together, a hole is cut in the nose and the assembly is glued in (I am using E6000 glue). The mount is shaped to fit so that the camera and its lens hood are looking down about 2 degrees but some fine tunning is required. It is also a challenge to get it in there as there is not much room for fingers and hands.

SS104.jpg
View from the inside


SS101.jpg


SS102.jpg
Shown with front skid


SS103.jpg



The last bit is optional. There are two small holes in the mount that can be used for small self tapping screw if you want more strength in the mount. I elected not to use these as in a crash, Id rather the camera and mount got pushed out of the way and not tear up the fuselage plastic. The camera should press into the mount tightly, if not, put a layer of tape on the sides to tighten it up.

  • Future Canopies!


Below are some canopy concepts I am working on for this plane. There is a short canopy which directly replaces the small foam piece and a longer canopy that covers the entire front end.

The short canopy with bevelled edges to fit the middle foam piece is shown with a cut-out for a Mobius/Runcam camera or bolt-on components for the Pan and Tilt and Roll gimbals. The bolt on components are the same ones (interchangeable) as on my MiniTalons. With a shell thickness of 1.4mm, the plain canopy (no cut-outs) will be close to 21g.

SS63.JPG
Short canopy profile


SS61.jpg SS62.jpg
Two short canopy styles



I haven't developed the cut-outs for the long canopy yet but here is the basic shape and how it fits on the fuselage. With a shell thickness of 1.4mm the weight would be close to 42g.

SS64.jpg SS65.jpg
Long Canopy concept



  • Stay tuned!



Project 3D Print Files


Below are the 3D print files shown in this build.

General print notes:
1. All parts are shown printed in PushPlastics ABS filament
2. Motor mount and front & rear skids are printed at 80% infil, all others are 20-40%
3. All weights are as printed and subject to change depending on printer/slicer set-up
4. Print orientation is dependent on printer/slicer set-up, please rotate if necessary


All content is available under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International unless otherwise noted.

 Image Part Number  Part Description  Weight Print File  Compatibility Notes
52136sm.JPG  52136  ESC Mount  6.7g  52136.STL  25mm wide ESC craddle mount
52137sm.JPG  52137  GPS Mount  3.3g  52137.STL  Mount for a Ublox Mini 7M GPS
52138sm.JPG  52138  Motor Cowl  4.0g  52138.STL  Motor and mount cover
52139sm.JPG  52139  RX Mount  4.2g  52139.STL  Mount platform for DL RX
52140sm.JPG  52140  19mm Offset Motor Mount  3.1g  52140.STL  Motor mount to allow 7 & 8 inch props
52141sm.JPG  52141  Rear Skid  2.0g  52141.STL  Glue on rear skid
52142sm.JPG  52142  Front Skid  12g  52142.STL  Fuselage glue on front skid (print on edge)
52108sm.JPG  52108  VTx Saddle Mount  2.7g  52108.STL  Saddle mount for a 26mm x 50mm VTx
47010sm.JPG  47010  HS1184 Camera Mount  4.9g  47010.STL  Simple box camera mount for the Surveilzone HS1184 FPV camera


See Also


Some of the Vendors I used for this project

Ready Made RC
Banggood
Aloft Hobbies


Comments? Questions?

email me!




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