6 km Flight Video, New UAV Parts Ordered
We had several successes this weekend, with longer-range flights. We flew the small wing out 2 km, and it successfully returned and landed. A couple days later, we flew out to 3 km. We started to lose telemetry at that range with the rubber ducky antenna, but the plane flew without trouble. Here’s a video of a successful flight with autoland:
The wing above is the red one in this photo. The new wing is the black one:
The new wing will use an E-flight Power 32 motor, shown here on the test stand:
New UAV Parts
I had a flurry of buying activity this weekend, after seeing the new wing. The thing is huge: 2.1 m. I decided to build one, too. The wing it self will take the longest to arrive, some time next week, but I ordered everything else in the mean time, which should arrive before the weekend.
Here’s the list of stuff:
| Item | Source | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Wing | Flying Foam Mothership 2.1 m | $145 |
| Motor | Power 32 Brushless Outrunner Motor, 770 Kv | $74.99 |
| ESC | Castle Creations Phoenix ICE Lite 75 | $110.95 |
| Autopilot | ArduPilot | $250.00 |
| Airspeed | Airspeed Kit | $24.95 |
| Communications | XtreamBee Board | $24.95 |
| XtreamBee USB Adapter | $24.95 | |
| Digi XBP09-DPSIT-156 SMA Connector | $42 | |
| Digi XBP09-DPWIT-156 Wire Antenna | $42 | |
| Lighting | Numerous bright LEDs from SparkFun | $72.50 |
Sandel SN3308 and Garmin GNS530 Config Issues
I’ve had a Sandel SN3308 EHSI and a Garmin GNS530 panel mount moving-map GPS in my plane for over 5 years. They’ve never quite worked right, thanks to the botched installation by Eagle’s Nest Aviation in Ukiah, CA. The most recent problem: the Sandel/Garmin wouldn’t stay in GPS mode; they would automatically switch back to VLOC.
I spent over $3000 having a different outfit rewire the panel, and it finally seemed to all be done right. However, there was one small, show-stopping issue: if you selected the GPS from the SN3308 (or from the GNS530), after two seconds it would go back to VLOC. It didn’t matter if it was tuned to an ILS or not (if it were tuned to an ILS, you wouldn’t get it out of VLOC mode at all, presuming the GNS530 was configured to auto-switch to the VLOC if an ILS is tuned in).
After getting Sandel on the phone, we went through some configuration checks. Turned out the GNS530 wasn’t properly configured. I wish I could remember specifically what it was, but it’s several pages into the configuration (which you get to by holding down the Enter key while powering up).
There’s an LOC / GS / ARINC page. On it is a setting that can be something like ARINC 429, or several other things. It should be ARINC 429 Graphics w/Int (or something like that).
If I get a chance to look at the plane again, I’ll get more details and update this post.