RC helicopter project - are there any fly boys around here?

vaclav_sal

I am in a preliminary design stage of a project that involves RC helicopter PC controlled by video feedback.
I am looking for RC helicopter capable of carrying video cameras, highly maneuverable with maximum range of 100 meters.
Preliminary research shows that “advertised” fly time is around 6 to 8 minutes.
Where can I find the “pay load” capability?
It seems that the maneuverability depends on how many “channels “ is the controller. Have no clue what that means.
Sure would like to hear from somebody with an experience in this area.
Thanks for reading.
Vaclav

SRLM

Channels refer to the number of servos the RC receiver can control.
Most helicopters on the market today are highly maneuverable (aka, they can flight upside down with no problem, and do a spin in less than a second). Unfortunately, that comes at the price of control difficulty.
You probably won't find payload capacity on hobby helicopters, since there really isn't a need for payload.

W9GFO

The Align T-Rex 600 is a good aerial photography platform. AUP (all up weight) should be kept at 11 lbs or less. Expect four to six minute flight times at that weight. That makes for something like 4 lbs of payload.
Here are the minimum channels that you need for a standard helicopter;

Pitch
Roll
Collective
Throttle
Rudder

In addition it is common to have a channel dedicated to adjusting the gyro gain.

You may want to use a flight stabilization system such as the Spartan AP 2000i which will use yet another channel.

For my heli I have a custom front mount with tilt. The tilt uses another channel and then to actuate the camera, another channel.

I think that adds up to 9 channels that I use for my AP (aerial photography) rig.

Before you go spending tons of money on RC helicopters, please use a simulator to learn to fly. Repairing crashed helicopters can get quite expensive - more-so than a simulator.

Rich H

hover1

Well said Rich,
Even after a year on the simulator, real world situations will cause repairs.
If your'e not fixin' um, your not flyin' um.
Jim

W9GFO said...

Before you go spending tons of money on RC helicopters, please use a simulator to learn to fly. Repairing crashed helicopters can get quite expensive - more-so than a simulator.

Rich H

hover1

Check out this month's issue of Servo Magazine.

http://servo.texterity.com/servo/200909/?folio=10

At $15K it's not that expensive for what it will do. I have looked at the same platform you are tring to achieve, and I stopped when I was looking at about $3,000 just to get started. Maybe you have a bigger budget?

Jim

W9GFO

I've read a few reviews of that Draganflyer. It seems to have a lot of problems. For what it is, $15k is more than triple what it is worth. For half the money you can get a helicopter that is superior in every way except that you would need to have some skills to fly it.

Here is a picture of mine taken a couple years ago. Someday I'll take some nicer pictures of it. It no longer has the tiny video camera on a pole and I now use a 10.5 mm lens instead of the one in the picture. No need to have a video downlink for framing when using such a wide angle lens!

The tilt uses a Parallax continuous rotation servo.

Rich H

Post Edited (W9GFO) : 8/31/2009 12:08:18 AM GMT