World Premiere

So far so good. The e-copter is done for now. Next steps? Please vote on the right.

Ready? Or how to buy more time.

The plan for presenting the e-copter is finished. The sketching not so much, obviously. ;-) Well, I don't have too much time these days, but I like where the plan is going and hope that the results will be as good as expected. I also think it's time to get some feedback from you guys as to what the next steps should be. Prepare for web poll number 2.

Delay

Job #1

With all components installed and the wiring hooked up to the laptop, I call it a day for now. This is really job number one and the first flying prototype united in one physical vehicle. Let's see how it does.

Some detail

For me and the techies out there, here a bit more detail regarding how the main rotor pitch will work. Each blade can be turned around it's longitudinal or radial axis individually, via a servo, which is controlled by the laptop we installed a while back as the main control unit. You have to look at the large scale image if you want to see the details. I also implemented a software based rpm control. Once the sensor in the e-motor notices an rpm decrease (for example caused by increased pitch angle leading to increased drag leading to lower rpm at the same torque) it sends a signal to the laptop, which in turn sends a signal to the e-motor to request more torque and bring rpm back to where it should be. At the same time (and this is not shown) battery temperature, state of charge, voltage are also monitored by the laptop.

Controls

Done practicing. A little bit of sheet metal to manufacture the combo bracket, that holds the main control unit and the HEI and will attach to the forward bottom edge of the airframe.

If that sounds too much like some fancy h-e-licopter lingo, here's the translation:
1) main control unit = laptop
2) HEI = human-e-copter-interface /controls = joystick
3) airframe = office chair

Simulator

Just practicing helicopter flight in Flight Simulator. With this joystick, collective pitch is done via the throttle lever, cyclic pitch is done via the main stick, and tail rotor pitch is done via twisting the stick around it's vertical axis. Hmm, makes me think...Anyway, gotta sleep now. It's already late.

Last Nut

With the tail rotor main nut secured it's time to start planning out the final steps before the maiden flight can take place. I'm thinking we will need a control unit, controls, and a charger. As promised, I also came up with the solution for the cyclic pitch. This requires an Ikea salad bowl, but that's not an issue at all.

Fixed pitch tail rotor

The e-motor for the tail rotor got attached to the rear tail boom bracket with two bolts. Wires got soldered to the e-motor, feeding through the tube forward to the power distribution box. Which is not yet finalized. But this box will take power from the main rotor battery and divert it back to the tail rotor as needed. The tail rotor is a fixed pitch design and its rpm can be controlled independently from the main rotor rpm.

Side bar flush October 2009

10/31/2009: Happy Halloween!
10/30/2009: Just relaxing.
10/29/2009: Electronic solution for cyclic pitch is on paper.
10/28/2009: Rear e-motor assembly in the works.
10/27/2009: Just after midnight (pacific time), the tail section got bolted onto the fuselage.
10/26/2009: Drawing is in progress...
10/25/2009: Some minor improvements to the setup of the blog.
10/24/2009: Not happy with the progress right now. But getting there.
10/23/2009: Well, just after midnight, blogger is back up. And finally an update.
10/22/2009: Done sketching. But blogger is down, so no posting.
10/21/2009: Electronics will be the key to make it fly.
10/20/2009: Fully articulated rotors are unlikely. But the first sketches are on paper.
10/19/2009: I heard that "my character" is thinking about changing his name.
10/18/2009: Found a book on helicopters and started reading up on the various rotor head designs out there...
10/17/2009: The scanner is back up and running, so what am I waiting for?
10/16/2009: Started to move things around and pick the daily updates back up.