PicooZ Pluto (Havoc) actuators controlled by servoboards and the Walkera 2406 Rx (2.4GHz). Centering magnets used. Second vid down is a little flight demo.
Component weights
The lady is flying. 100mAh lipo, Walkera 5G6 4-1, servoboard mod proportional tailmotor for 3rd channel. 6:30 flighttime. Based on the famous IR Toy Airwolf helicopter. Build log here.
marc on RC Groups showed us this FPV PicooZ. Now check this out, Prox Dynamics (i blogged about Prox Dynamic’s FPV heli here)!
Marc and his FPV Picooz
First step towards building a brushless direct drive 2.4Ghz gyro-ed PizooZ. The shaft of the HP03T 2.9 BL outrunner was replaced by a 50mm 1.5mm shaft that holds the picooZ main rotor. The picooZ rotor head was drilled to 1.5mm (stock is 1mm). The HP03T is normally used for the Walkera 4#3B brushless tail conversion. The motor is power by the flea converter.
Thrust at mid-stick is about 20g – about right, remains to be seen if the revomix works out.
I’m aiming for about 15g AUW for the 2Ch – if it works as planned this will be the platform for the acutator cyclics mod (see post here).
Amazingly quiet!
Just did the first testflights with the Airwolf coax helicopter – made from the well know RC toy heli, the IR, 3Ch Airwolf.
inside look: Airwolf 3 Ch 2.4GHz gyro-ed
The electronics were removed and replaced by a Walkera 5G6 4 in 1 (RX2402) which has 2 brushed motor outputs, 2 servo outputs and an onboard gyro. The 4 in 1 goes into the body quite nicely – only little cutting was necessary.
The heli is now powered by a 50mAh Zippy lipo – maybe a 70mAh or even 110mAh will also do.
Because of a broken rotorblade tip i had to cut the blades back – not good, because lift is decreased significantly – now im waiting for new blades.
The third channel is used to controll the vertical tailrotor. This rotor achieves forwars and backward flying. The motor is powered via a servo board (PCB) which instead of driving the servo motor drives the tailmotor.
IR Airwolf RC Toy: 23.1g AUW, 4:30 flight time
Original IR Toy specs (measured)
RC Groups User marc31 just presented the first brushless conversion of the PicooZ. The mod is based on the 2.4 GHz Walkera 4#3B 4-1. The cyclics are controlled by actuators.
Maiden flight of my PicooZ (PicoZ, Pico-Z, Havoc) with 2.4 Ghz Walkera RX2406. only 2 Channels Used. Super smooth flying, no cyclics, foward speed is only controlled by center of gravity. AUW 12.4 g. held together only by clear tape.
thanks to EQMOD on RCGroups who did this mod first.
for the cyclics, im planning to use the actuator / servo board mod, here is my test-bed video:
amazing 7g micro helicopter
also great, MFujinawa’s Rotor head design with actuator.
see the thread on RC Groups 6.25g Micro Helicopter
The Norwegian company Prox Dynamics just released videos of their PD-100 Black Hornet, a 15 gramm fixed-pitch helicopter with a direct drive brushless main motor. According to Prox Dynamics, the PD-100 is the first Unmaned Aircraft System (UAS) to be developed.
The copter comes in a box of three (always better to have more than one heli!).
Just too bad that this machine will probably never be available for the regular guy.
RTF box - millitary style.
more
The box.
The PD-100 has a rotorspan of 100mm. With a weight of 15g it is about as lightweight as a PicooZ.
• Rotor Span 100 mm, Mass 15 gr including Payload
• Maximum Speed 10 m/s, Endurance up to 30 minutes
• Digital Data Link, Range 1000 m Line-of-Sight
• GPS Navigation or Visual Navigation through Video
• Autopilot with Autonomous and Directed Modes
• Hover & Stare, Automatic Search Patterns, Preplanned Route
Videos:
Interestingly the PD-100 tailrotor looks very similar to the PicooZ tailrotor.
Direct drive brushless mainmotor - and a tail rotor that looks very much like the PicooZ's?
The PD-100 has a direct-drive brushless main motor which can be seen in the picture above. Eliminating the gear/pinion components from the design makes it very low in noise i suppose. Also the weight of the BL main motor is placed directly in the desired center of gravity.
Really a palm-size design. The rotor looks flybar-less. Do I see a PicooZ tail?
Looking at the picture above there seems to be no mechanical stabilizing mechanism like a flybar in the main rotor design. So this flybar-less setups seems to be stabilized by electronics. Also in the picture the swashplate can be seen – it has relatively large diameter: This makes controll inputs extremly precise (high resolution) – just what is needed for a flybar-less design at this scale.
One of the servos can be seen in the back of the heli, near the tailboom – looking like linear servos used on the Spektrum AR6400 or the 5-1 board of Walkera 4#3Q and Lama2.
With camera. Palm-Size FPV - PD-100 C Prototype
Also interesting are the other, earlier designs of Prox Dynamics’ Peter Murren which can be seen on his website http://www.proxflyer.com/.
Videos from 2008:
and
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