Motor: Racerstar BR4108 600KV ~$30 I spent a lot of time studying r/c motors several years ago. Unfortunately there are not enough specifications published for this motor to determine if it is excellent or terrible. I loved finding inexpensive motors that outperformed motors costing 10x.
Love your channel! Would be very interested in your considerations during your builds. Really enjoyed the build vids and am certain that a ‘talk all of us through as you solder away’ (akin Adam Savage…) would ‘glue’ your entire audience to their screens! Keep up the great work
Awesome stuff. I really think home built planes like this are the way to go because if you want a kit from China that is larger than 1200-1300mm the S/H to the US is insane. Also I use Sumsung 50E Lions for my Zodh Talon GT and Reptile Dragon v2. Each cell is rated for 5000 mah and 10 amp discharge. Really great performing cells for my 4s2p and 4s3p packs.
I just finished building the "silent star" with some slight differences, I also decided because I had the motor to build a half scale one of these pushers. not to sure if it will fly considering how heavy the half scale one is because it weighs so much but both were really fun to build. Im planning on running 4s or 3s lipos with 50amp esc and a 3536 1000kv motor
Great video mate. Your calculation is a bit off though. 100-((7267mah/9600mah)×100)=24.3% capacity remaining. You wouldn't want to drop much below 3v per cell, so I think you picked a good place to end it. I use Murata VTC6 cells in a 3s1p pack and typically stop flights at 3v/cell. As soon as I see 9v, I bring it down. 18650's are actually slightly more energy dense than 21700's (8.28% more amp hours per gram), that's why I use them.
18650's aren't actually more energy dense, they are about the same. For example the Vapcell N40 (FEB 4000mah) 18650 sits at around 300 Wh/kg which matches that of the new 6000mah 21700 cells like the Lishen LR2170SS, FEB 6000mah (Vapcell F60) and others. You can definitely discharge them down below 3V, and for these high-capacity cells that you use for these kinds of long-range flights you need to if you want to get everything out of them. As long as you stop at 2.5V they'll still easily do hundreds of cycles.
That's not true about energy density the 5000mah samsung 50s 21700 weighs 70g a 3000mah sony vtc6 18650 weighs 47g. That's about 64mah per gram for the 18650 and 71.5mah per gram for the 21700 and the 21700 has higher amp draw capability which extends the usable voltage range of the pack and thus the useable mah's, the further under max amp draw the lower the voltage you can safely discharge to. There is also the weight of wire and plugs to take into account while not much they weigh the same for each so they are taking slightly less from the over all mah per gram of a 21700 and while you can get 3500mah 18650 that is 74.5 mah per gram but, only 8a current capability and a 6000mah 21700 is 86mah per gram with a 12a current capability. It's simply a matter of scale the bigger a battery the better the ratio of battery to case. Also 2.8v is a safe voltage and that's for quadcopters that pull more amps, if you're well under the max amp rating 2.6v is fine, you can find the voltage to discharge current ratings in the data sheet for cells. With low enough current some cells can safely go down to 2v while under load.
Just to be clear, it's relatively safe for the battery to drop to 2.5VPC but stopping at 3V is probably a good idea to leave a reserve for most aircraft to perform a safe go- around maneuver in case the approach is not ideal and the landing has to be aborted. of course it all depends on the power requirements of the aircraft. Some aircraft can fly on much less power and you can drain the battery further than 3VPC
Hey Nathan, love your channel, it's been fun watching your progress! Let me know if you'd be interested in a collaboration using some lightweight custom-designed 3D-printed parts, such as an aeropod for your camera gimble to reduce drag. Cheers!
Can your ESC keep working down to a super low voltage? Most Can't. I use a variable power supply to test them. Currently using Castle Creations ESC's programed with their Castle Link device and Castle Link free Software. They work great and are very robust and efficient.
Might the shorter (than expected) flight distance be a result of the increased weight due to the heavier battery pack, resulting in an increase in drag...? Just an idea...
Seems like a flying wing design is the best for long range autonomous flights, but haven't had much luck to get a succesful design. Still on it tho. But the V-Tail isn't that far off from performing like a flying wing.
Nice video ❤ . Can u please recommend flight controller that have RTH but no need for soldering 💔 in need rth in case of video lost but i always burn fc during soldring . I don't know soldering and i hate it it's the only thing that prevent me from progress in the hobby💔
Don't be scared of soldering. It's a necessary skill. Get a practice board, get some thick tips and a good quality soldering station, and make sure you have both no clean flux and LEADED solder. don't use non leaded it sucks. You want to heat the pad and melt some solder INTO it, then tin the tip of the wire you want to connect. Then simply line up the wire over the tinned pad, and press together. They should melt together and you will have a nice solder joint. Get the speedybee f405 wing. 39 bucks in some places and it's super capable and has wire ports for everything.
@@MrKyle700I have the speed bee f405 wing and you still have to solder a lot. The pins don’t come pre attached so you have so solder like 30 pins. Most of the wires also aren’t on correctly so you either have to solder or change out the wires on the jst connectors.
For this size, gas is no option unless wood is implemented in the build process. It would be way heavier, louder, have higher risk of fire's (fueltank), increased maintenance on engine, and flight control systems have to be tuned to control/cut a gas engine. It is possible but not worth it, at all.
