Nano-QB V2

By Kstone on Jul 10, 2021

15  694  7

After building the Micro-QB i was inspired to combined what I had learned from the experiance with Dave_C's Nano-Long-Range. True to Dave's build, I'm using the 18650 LiPo but with wings! (Orange props denote the direction of flight)

All up weight: 100 grams !

Please be aware that the wings shown in the photo are but placeholders as I have yet to finalize what shape would be best. Thus far I'm done all of the in-house testing / flying and should start field testing next week assuming the weather is "nice". My biggest concern is the iTerm wind-up once I pitch over for winged flight. If you have any tuning ideas, please feel free to post them below.

Edit: In the photo the wing is a little off center but its only a photo. Will have them gluded in place for the field testing.

7-12-2021 Made a video of the 1st test flight.
Be aware that the camera angle is 100% vertical so other than the battery Voltage there may not be a whole lot to see yet.

That being said, the flight ran for 17 minutes at which time It was blown to the ground by a nasty gust of wind. Decided at that point to call it as I needed to make sure the little guy wasn't damaged. Before the crash, the LiPo was reading 2.7-2.8 Volts, which meant that I had another 2-3 minutes of flight time left before the FC shutdown.

Note: Wind gusts of 10-25kph were constant.

Now as for the winglet performance, I was surprised at the amount of lift the winglets generated but also realized that the winglets may either be too small or the material chosen (cardboard) was too flexible. Thus this could create a situation where the lift generated could be more or less variable as the winglet bent back and forth. Obviously a stiffer material is needed here as is a better angle of attack. Especially considering that the majority of the flight I had a difficult time pushing forward enough to create the desired amount of lift.

7-15-2021
-Made a few more photos.
-Added a proprer Camera mount.
-Replaced the wings.
-Wingmounts are now offset at a 5 degree angle of attack. should make ot easier for the wings to bite air during the transition to forward flight.

7-16-2021
-Achived forward flight on the wings!
-Intermittant Yaw iTerm wind-up. (Suggestions needed)
-Max current draw was 9 Amps over the duration of the flight. This maybe suggests that a better 18650 is needed?

7-17-2021
-Will need to replace a BetaFPV 1103 motor after i discovered that a bearing is badly sticking. While BetaFPV has a decent line of products, they're not what I'd call reliable. Everything from their flight-controlers internal RX (SPI) not binding with EU protocals (LBT), to their motors coming apart (bearings and wires) right out of the box. Case in point, the installed 1103 motors all had FOD in them and had to be cleaned out before flying. (they were very crunchy when manually turned) While this assessment may sound harsh, I’ve had so many problems with their products so often that I'm at the point that I no longer care. (very pissed) Thinking that I'll avoid using BetaFPV in the future as pretty much all of their products has failed for me at some point.

7-23-2021
-Flying with an iTerm of "1" prevents Windup (naturally) but the slightest breeze can make the craft roll endlessly.
-Installed larger (deeper) wings 50mm and canards. See newly attached photo.
-Replaced the garbage betaFPV 1103 motors with Flywoo 1202.5-11,000kv.
-Flying props-out configuration now.
-CG is just ahead of the leading edge of the wing.
-Tried out an Efest 18650 battery. Its higher C-rating (20 Amps) is really nice and I think this should be the standard 18650 for similar 1S builds.
-Todays longest flight was almost 14 minutes long, with the nose held maybe 5-10 degrees above the horrizon @ around 50% throttle.

8/12/2021
-Figured out where all the wind up was comming from and made a short video of the stable flight.

Whats Next
-Mount the 18650 lenght wise while extending the wing to match.
-Try different width wings and higher pitch propellers.
-Reduce the weight more and optimize the tuning.

Photos

Discussion

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makesomemore_   Aug 18, 2021  

how well do the "wings" work?

Kstone   Aug 20, 2021 

The "wider" winglets (170 mm tip to tip) make it very difficult to manage Yaw (Roll). The shorter winglets (98 mm) worked great but could be made longer to increase the available surface area and lift. Currently they're 48 mm from leading edge to end. Doubling this value would also allow the battery to be remounted (length-wise) to help avoid drag.

The ideal situation would be to have the "winged flight" throttle below 40% to extend flight times past 17 minutes. (lower current draw) Currently, the throttle is around 50-57% which should improve over time as the wings / props become better optimized.

Edit: Could drop maybe another 3-4 grams by shortening the motor wires. Which would make up the mass increase from the larger winglets.

OptimaZe   Jul 11, 2021  

That's awesome! Looking forward to a flight report.

Show 1 more comment
Kstone   Jul 15, 2021 
1

Updated the build, will fly FPV soon as the weather is nicer.

Kstone   Jul 16, 2021 

Acro flight video posted!

Kstone   Aug 12, 2021 
1

Solved the wind up issue, see here for details: https://github.com/betaflight/betaflight/issues/10850

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