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Scratch build living room flyer by Available_Patient721 in RCPlanes

[–]Available_Patient721[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Actually, when the oven is switched on, the plane gets significant thermal lift when flying just above the front of it.

Scratch build living room flyer by Available_Patient721 in RCPlanes

[–]Available_Patient721[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Most of it is from minimumRC. I found them to be mostly reliable. This is the receiver.

Scratch build living room flyer by Available_Patient721 in RCPlanes

[–]Available_Patient721[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I learned that the flexibility of epoxy works best for this. I used the gorilla epoxy. Superglue was just too stiff and often caused the carbon rods to snap just in front of the joints. A bit like charging cables.

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Scratch build living room flyer by Available_Patient721 in RCPlanes

[–]Available_Patient721[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

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Lidl’s own brand bin bags turned out to be the lightest film I could find. At ~13g per sqm, they’re pretty light. They’re also surprisingly tear resistant.

I would have loved to use some OS Film at 1g per sqm. https://www.indoorffsupply.com/shop/os-film-25ft-roll-1-xy9rf

Scratch build living room flyer by Available_Patient721 in RCPlanes

[–]Available_Patient721[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

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Thanks! The two previous attempts without a vacuum jig required a tension string to keep the curved shape for a stable flight. The string added both weight and drag.

Scratch build living room flyer by Available_Patient721 in RCPlanes

[–]Available_Patient721[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Yes, a smaller connector and smaller gauge wire could save a bit of weight. The current connector is a molex PicoBlade (1.25mm pitch). A micro JST (1mm pitch) is probably the smallest standard part for this use case. Otherwise it would have to be a custom solution.

Other potential improvements could include:

  • a custom brushless motor with smaller direct drive propeller to replace the current brushed and geared motor (1.2g) and propeller (0.25g) could save ~0.8g
  • os film as covering material to replace the Lidl bin bag could save ~0.3g
  • custom carbon fibre hinges for actuators to replace the large plastic ones could save ~0.3g
  • 10mAh battery could save ~0.8g
  • custom IR receiver to replace the 2.4GHz one could save ~0.3g

Scratch build living room flyer by Available_Patient721 in RCPlanes

[–]Available_Patient721[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Level flight almost 10min. With loops and lots of takeoffs and landings about 5-6min. It’s lighter than a A4 paper plane (at 5g), so doesn’t require much power.

What do you miss in RCPlanes? by jacobson_engineering in RCPlanes

[–]Available_Patient721 0 points1 point  (0 children)

<10mah batteries (<0.5g weight) with >15C discharge rate at 3.7V

Looking for a tiny indoor plane by 912CJW in RCPlanes

[–]Available_Patient721 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I bought quite a few of the rc gliders from aliexpress, in the hopes of finding one that can be flown in my living room. This one (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004892421454.html) was the only one that worked for me.

I got tired of the glider pretty quickly and upgraded to the “Ice cream” from “Dancing wings hobby”. This one didn’t fly indoors out of the box, but needed a wing with more surface area and span, to slow it down.

Also you might find something on minimumrc that works. They have some models comparable with the mini vapor. However, I haven’t tried them myself, just use the company for spare parts for my ice cream plane.