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Helicopter shaft design — Parallax Forums

Helicopter shaft design

dev/nulldev/null Posts: 381
edited 2009-07-30 03:15 in Robotics
Hi!

I am concidering building an RC helicopter with counter rotating blades (and Stamp control of course).

I have read somewhere that you can rotate the fuselage by increasing or decreasing the rpm on the blades. This is OK.
The question is: How do I get the copter to move? Do I tilt the rotor shaft? And how many axes do I need?

Since I can rotate the fuselage with rpm adjustments, I thought I'd get away with only one axis.

Thanks

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Don't worry. Be happy

Comments

  • W9GFOW9GFO Posts: 4,010
    edited 2009-07-28 14:42
    The Blade CX helicopter uses two axis cyclic for control. I haven't seen it done in an RC helicopter where you tilt the main shaft for control but I would think it could work. It works for some full size helicopters and autogyros so it ought to work for a model helicopter.

    Rich H
  • dev/nulldev/null Posts: 381
    edited 2009-07-28 23:48
    Have some investigation I found that most RC helicopters (including the Blade CX I guess) with counter-rotating rotors use propeller tilt with a swashplate. I was hoping to avoid this and instead tilt the whole shaft (easier design), but I'm unsure if it will fly.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Don't worry. Be happy
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,244
    edited 2009-07-29 22:34
    Do you really want to re-invent the helicopter from scratch AND try to control it with a stamp? Either is a major project·in itself. There are lots of great-flying, well-designed RC helicopters on the market already. Many have counter-rotating props, consider starting with one of these to learn about how they fly.·Google search to find sources like http://www.rctoys.com and http://www.overstock.com/Sports-Toys/Syma-S009-Apache-3-channel-RC-Helicopter/3887949/product.html?sec_iid=33969

    They come in all sizes, so you can either·scale up a small one or just buy a large enough one to carry your electronics. Their power-to-weight ratio and energy density of their lithium polymer batteries is quite impressive.

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    ·"If you build it, they will come."
  • W9GFOW9GFO Posts: 4,010
    edited 2009-07-30 03:15
    Here's two suggestions.

    1, Learn to fly first. There are a couple really good RC flight sims out there and helicopters are... not real easy to fly. The bigger they are, the easier they are to fly, unfortunate that they are also more expensive.

    2, Try out your funky aircraft designs in X-Plane. You can download the program for free, the Plane Maker program that comes with it has no restrictions (as of version 8 anyway) and the flight sim part will allow you to fly for five minutes before disabling the controls. Plenty of time to try out your designs.

    Rich H
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