----------------------------------- DarkHorse Sat Jun 03, 2006 4:59 pm *VIDEO* AirWolf - Reloaded On Patrol, FP & BladeCP ----------------------------------- http://www.darkhorserc.com/piccolo/images/ReloadedOnPatrol-1_lowres.jpg http://www.darkhorserc.com/piccolo/images/ReloadedOnPatrol-2_lowres.jpg http://www.darkhorserc.com/piccolo/images/ReloadedOnPatrol-3_lowres.jpg http://www.darkhorserc.com/piccolo/images/ReloadedOnPatrol-4_lowres.jpg http://www.darkhorserc.com/piccolo/images/ReloadedOnPatrol-5_lowres.jpg http://www.darkhorserc.com/piccolo/images/ReloadedOnPatrol-6_lowres.jpg 52MB 4.3 mins 50 fps 360x288 Edited highlights version: 19.2MB 2.3 mins 50 fps 360x288 I don't know how well the server will hold out so no streaming please. :cool: That was a good flight and we managed to get some good shots, not bad for a heavy Fixed Pitch, pretty happy with the old dog considering. Sadly I missed out on getting a really good full throttle fly past, which is just as well for the camera man's head sake :o. Better safe than sorry especially with such a glitch ridden setup :eek:. Don't be fooled, micro FPs with body kits are not often this much fun. Takes a lot of effort with plenty of mods, some luck and an almost zero crash rate to get any satisfaction. Main motor cooks and have to land every 3 mins. ----------------------------------- Hooloovoo Sat Jun 03, 2006 6:05 pm Re: *VIDEO* AirWolf - Reloaded On Patrol ----------------------------------- Nice!  Love the wheels coming down at the end. But I'm confused.  Why do you have *three* noisy ESCs?  What's the third one for? ----------------------------------- _Buzz_ Sun Jun 04, 2006 4:56 am Re: *VIDEO* AirWolf - Reloaded On Patrol ----------------------------------- Why do you have *three* noisy ESCs?  What's the third one for? I think one isn't powering a motor, but it's still working electronically. The Picco board + has two...the main motor and the tail motor and then there's the Phoenix 10 for the brushless main motor. I think the power lines in the back of the shot could also be adding to the hits though. ----------------------------------- DarkHorse Sun Jun 04, 2006 11:41 am Re: *VIDEO* AirWolf - Reloaded On Patrol ----------------------------------- Yes Buzz is correct. Glitching increased dramatically when the brushless controller was added :-k. Coupled with restricted antenna routing, related to Tx aerial orientation can contribute glitch :(. I found that leaving a small amount of vertical antenna hanging down helped a lot. The buttercup massacre continues... :twisted: ----------------------------------- Captain_Bodge Mon Jun 05, 2006 4:58 am ----------------------------------- Glitching increased dramatically when the brushless controller was added Well if you will use Castle Creations controllers.....:p Very nice heli though, looks a picture. ----------------------------------- Malcolm Mon Jun 05, 2006 5:01 am ----------------------------------- Well if you will use Castle Creations controllers.....:p =D>  :lol:  :lol:  :lol: Never have been a fan of them myself either ;) ----------------------------------- _Buzz_ Mon Jun 05, 2006 11:20 am Re: *VIDEO* AirWolf - Reloaded On Patrol ----------------------------------- Well if you will use Castle Creations controllers..... Bodge...I've got 2 Phoenix 10's and a 25 and haven't had a single problem with any of them !! They are all late models though. ----------------------------------- Malcolm Mon Jun 05, 2006 3:28 pm Re: *VIDEO* AirWolf - Reloaded On Patrol ----------------------------------- They are all late models though. All running the 178th revision of the firmware  :shock:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol: Seriously though, I must admit that of late you don't see so many post about CC ESc's cutting out, or popping FETs etc like you used to, and they tended to be with CC P25's more so than the 10s, so maybe they have sorted out the bugs once and for all. ----------------------------------- Radd Tue Jun 06, 2006 11:43 am Re: *VIDEO* AirWolf - Reloaded On Patrol ----------------------------------- Pretty good pilot tooooo... ----------------------------------- Inverted_Flying Wed Jun 14, 2006 12:45 pm Re: *VIDEO* AirWolf - Reloaded On Patrol ----------------------------------- Very very nice.  Once I get my Pro Sorted out and flying with out issue I am going to make one of these. ----------------------------------- DarkHorse Sun Jun 18, 2006 3:25 pm Re: *VIDEO* AirWolf - Reloaded On Patrol ----------------------------------- Thanks. Glitch update: I wrapped the Rx in Kit-Kat tin foil. Trashed a PC mother board for ferrite rings and looped all servo connectors from all ESCs. Had no beneficial effect at all ](*,)  :-k  :? . I tried various different antenna routes, most of which where the same or worse.  Until I looped the antenna externally over each wheel housing, to form as large a circle as possible on the heli's body, meeting again toward the rear and leaving 150 mm dangling vertically below the heli :idea:  :thumbleft:. Looks crap but the glitches are gone. Tested a lot of orientations and speeds in flight up to 50ft without incident. If I had the spare cash I would get an advanced DSP Rx which would probably do the job also. ----------------------------------- Captain_Bodge Mon Jun 19, 2006 4:47 am ----------------------------------- If I had the spare cash I would get an advanced DSP Rx which would probably do the job also. I'm not so convinced about that. I've been using schulze DSP rx's in electric models with no success whatsoever. There's no subsitute for elminating glitches at source instead of trying to filter them out with fancy electronics. ----------------------------------- Sao Mon Jun 19, 2006 11:02 am Re: *VIDEO* AirWolf - Reloaded On Patrol ----------------------------------- Very very nice.  Once I get my Pro Sorted out and flying with out issue I am going to make one of these. ----------------------------------- DarkHorse Sat Aug 18, 2007 12:47 pm BladeCP head conversion ----------------------------------- Ikarus Airwolf with a BladeCP head conversion 570mm rotor and 30mm stretch DD tail, brushless main motor. Forward Flight taster (27MB 2.75min 50fps WMV): http://www.darkhorserc.com/piccolo/images/thumb-AirWolf-BladeCPhead-570mm-7.jpg http://www.darkhorserc.com/piccolo/images/thumb-AirWolf-BladeCPhead-570mm-1.jpg http://www.darkhorserc.com/piccolo/images/thumb-AirWolf-BladeCPhead-570mm-5.jpg http://www.darkhorserc.com/piccolo/images/thumb-AirWolf-BladeCPhead-570mm-6.jpg http://www.darkhorserc.com/piccolo/images/thumb-AirWolf-BladeCPhead-570mm-4.jpg ...AirWolf-BladeCPhead-570mm.wmv ...ported a TwisterV2 (BladeCP) swash, head and 255mm symmetrical MS CFc blades (570mm rotor, previous FP was ~510mm). I thought through a few combinations and wasn't happy with any of them... I eventually settled with re-using the original Ikarus Piccolo frame interior and simply swapped in the BCP head and swash straight onto the Piccolo main shaft. This solved the 140T main gear diameter problem by using the Piccolo 96T main gear that works great with my old Himax 2015 2800rpm/v brushless motor on 9T (yep, I'm still getting mileage from the old dog even after hard duty in 3 heli's and a plane  ). The other appealing factor to this approach was a generous rotor height, much the same as with the original FP mechanics, plus the extra height from the over slung BCP flybar assembly. The result has the swash protruding 15mm above the top of the fuselage. Move the AR slit, using a nail clipper I carefully cut off the Ikarus frame mast anti-rotation retainer from the side of the main mast, scuffed the plastic area at the rear of the main mast, where the BCP swash AR spike needs to be and CA glued in place. Opened up the plastic gap wider for a bind free fit. Now here's the hard part, positioning the 3 servo's for 120º CCPM oh, ah em, yeah, mmm.... I wanted to mimic the BCP layout as close as possible. There isn't much space in the top of that body and the BCP servo links are relatively short... I ended up mounting the two rear servo's back to back up inside the foam body, busting through the top of the internal foam bulk head seperator, glued in with foam friendly (no tears formula) CA glue. Slightly further back than on the BCP to accommodate the front servo placement on the main mast, just squeezed under the hood so that the servo horn just avoids the motor and not hitting the foam body front lid. Then had to cut insertions for the servo links to meet the external swash. Moved servo links in one hole and cut down servo horns to avoid binding on the foam body walls etc. With the servo links unscrewed to max length and some crazy sub trim numbers I managed to get mid stick at 0º pitch. Yes it's an awkward ugly bodge but the ship fly's OK now with a larger CP rotor . The DD tail and 3x20 mini prop is a little close to the main rotor down wash but not likely to touch using stiff near solid head damping. Had to add a 2mm CF rod cross member to secure the top of the very long Piccolo main mast, reducing any side ways oscillation tendencies under load. Running a soft throttle curve I keep the Plus a 30mm tail stretch. ----------------------------------- trev0006 Mon Jan 04, 2010 3:06 pm Re: BladeCP head conversion ----------------------------------- I am currently working on this project, thanks for the info. Ikarus Airwolf with a BladeCP head conversion 570mm rotor and 30mm stretch DD tail, brushless main motor. Forward Flight taster (27MB 2.75min 50fps WMV): http://www.darkhorserc.com/piccolo/images/thumb-AirWolf-BladeCPhead-570mm-7.jpg http://www.darkhorserc.com/piccolo/images/thumb-AirWolf-BladeCPhead-570mm-1.jpg http://www.darkhorserc.com/piccolo/images/thumb-AirWolf-BladeCPhead-570mm-5.jpg http://www.darkhorserc.com/piccolo/images/thumb-AirWolf-BladeCPhead-570mm-6.jpg http://www.darkhorserc.com/piccolo/images/thumb-AirWolf-BladeCPhead-570mm-4.jpg ...AirWolf-BladeCPhead-570mm.wmv ...ported a TwisterV2 (BladeCP) swash, head and 255mm symmetrical MS CFc blades (570mm rotor, previous FP was ~510mm). I thought through a few combinations and wasn't happy with any of them... I eventually settled with re-using the original Ikarus Piccolo frame interior and simply swapped in the BCP head and swash straight onto the Piccolo main shaft. This solved the 140T main gear diameter problem by using the Piccolo 96T main gear that works great with my old Himax 2015 2800rpm/v brushless motor on 9T (yep, I'm still getting mileage from the old dog even after hard duty in 3 heli's and a plane  ). The other appealing factor to this approach was a generous rotor height, much the same as with the original FP mechanics, plus the extra height from the over slung BCP flybar assembly. The result has the swash protruding 15mm above the top of the fuselage. Move the AR slit, using a nail clipper I carefully cut off the Ikarus frame mast anti-rotation retainer from the side of the main mast, scuffed the plastic area at the rear of the main mast, where the BCP swash AR spike needs to be and CA glued in place. Opened up the plastic gap wider for a bind free fit. Now here's the hard part, positioning the 3 servo's for 120º CCPM oh, ah em, yeah, mmm.... I wanted to mimic the BCP layout as close as possible. There isn't much space in the top of that body and the BCP servo links are relatively short... I ended up mounting the two rear servo's back to back up inside the foam body, busting through the top of the internal foam bulk head seperator, glued in with foam friendly (no tears formula) CA glue. Slightly further back than on the BCP to accommodate the front servo placement on the main mast, just squeezed under the hood so that the servo horn just avoids the motor and not hitting the foam body front lid. Then had to cut insertions for the servo links to meet the external swash. Moved servo links in one hole and cut down servo horns to avoid binding on the foam body walls etc. With the servo links unscrewed to max length and some crazy sub trim numbers I managed to get mid stick at 0º pitch. Yes it's an awkward ugly bodge but the ship fly's OK now with a larger CP rotor . The DD tail and 3x20 mini prop is a little close to the main rotor down wash but not likely to touch using stiff near solid head damping. Had to add a 2mm CF rod cross member to secure the top of the very long Piccolo main mast, reducing any side ways oscillation tendencies under load. Running a soft throttle curve I keep the Plus a 30mm tail stretch.