ArduPilot Solo Tailsitter 1

[XevetS]

So once again It's kinda boring around here with all the Rain and nasty weather and I had a spare Pixhawk 2 and solo main board lying around from another Project Me Being an RC Foam Wing Builder/Flyer for the longest I decided to meld the two together into The Ardupilot-Solo-Tailsitter-1 (still in creation/testing Phase mind you).
The wing is a Scratch built foam board/filled with spray foam for strength VersaWing (Thanks Flite Test for the free plans)! This is a test Plane I made its been through hell yet very robust and it bounces like a rubber ball (ask me how I know)

So far I have the Motors installed and working correctly, I still need beefy digital servos for the Elevons and a Decent sized 4-S battery for Lift off power and tail weight, It's very nose heavy right now.
It's running OpenSolo 3.0 and the latest stable APM-Plane, So far no issues with parameters and the Solo's Guts...

Being able to take off vertically and transition to forward flight and land back on its fins is my goal right now I just gotta try that cause it looks so cool.
I will film the maiden once I get the Bird finished..So Stay tuned.


Added the Solo's battery needed the tail weight

Also added Elevon extensions for better authority when hovering

And wheels for the first Takeoff and flights in normal flying mode.....

 

[Ed.it.Ed]

Nice!

 

[johnbair134]

So once again It's kinda boring around here with all the Rain and nasty weather and I had a spare Pixhawk 2 and solo main board lying around from another Project Me Being an RC Foam Wing Builder/Flyer for the longest I decided to meld the two together into The Ardupilot-Solo-Tailsitter-1 (still in creation/testing Phase mind you).
The wing is a Scratch built foam board/filled with spray foam for strength VersaWing (Thanks Flite Test for the free plans)! This is a test Plane I made its been through hell yet very robust and it bounces like a rubber ball (ask me how I know)

So far I have the Motors installed and working correctly, I still need beefy digital servos for the Elevons and a Decent sized 4-S battery for Lift off power and tail weight, It's very nose heavy right now.
It's running OpenSolo 3.0 and the latest stable APM-Plane, So far no issues with parameters and the Solo's Guts...

Being able to take off vertically and transition to forward flight and land back on its fins is my goal right now I just gotta try that cause it looks so cool.
I will film the maiden once I get the Bird finished..So Stay tuned.
View attachment 8987
View attachment 8989
Added the Solo's battery needed the tail weight
View attachment 9005
Also added Elevon extensions for better authority when hovering
View attachment 9006
And wheels for the first Takeoff and flights in normal flying mode..... View attachment 9007

Did you have to reprogram or did you install open solo

 

[XevetS]

Did you have to reprogram or did you install open solo

I had installed Open solo on both the controller and the Cube first then I flashed the APM-Plane firmware via Mission Planner. I then set the plane up as a Tailsitter..So far all seems to work but I won;t know until I install the Elevon servo's and Take it for a flight....Gulp...

Here are some Tailsitter's in action

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[timgilley]

So once again It's kinda boring around here with all the Rain and nasty weather and I had a spare Pixhawk 2 and solo main board lying around from another Project Me Being an RC Foam Wing Builder/Flyer for the longest I decided to meld the two together into The Ardupilot-Solo-Tailsitter-1 (still in creation/testing Phase mind you).
The wing is a Scratch built foam board/filled with spray foam for strength VersaWing (Thanks Flite Test for the free plans)! This is a test Plane I made its been through hell yet very robust and it bounces like a rubber ball (ask me how I know)

So far I have the Motors installed and working correctly, I still need beefy digital servos for the Elevons and a Decent sized 4-S battery for Lift off power and tail weight, It's very nose heavy right now.
It's running OpenSolo 3.0 and the latest stable APM-Plane, So far no issues with parameters and the Solo's Guts...

Being able to take off vertically and transition to forward flight and land back on its fins is my goal right now I just gotta try that cause it looks so cool.
I will film the maiden once I get the Bird finished..So Stay tuned.
View attachment 8987
View attachment 8989
Added the Solo's battery needed the tail weight
View attachment 9005
Also added Elevon extensions for better authority when hovering
View attachment 9006
And wheels for the first Takeoff and flights in normal flying mode..... View attachment 9007

When you change the ardupilot parameters for plane then the controller is good to go?

 

[XevetS]

When you change the ardupilot parameters for plane then the controller is good to go?

No Mission planner see's the controller like any other Spektrum® DSMx based controller but its a lot of tweaking a real nightmare but it works...I had to set right and left throttle PWM'S right and left elevon PWM'S ,also had to make sure they were deflecting properly, then I set throttle rudder/thrust for steering while ground roll taking off and also had to make sure the servos were reverse/correcting properly when in FBWA which is a sort of autopilot/leveling...Lots of hair pulling lol I did modify the controller by pulling out the centering spring for the throttle too....It's ready for a maiden maybe tomorrow if weather is permitting..

 

[XevetS]

Update:
Ardupilot-Solo-Tailsitter-1 is ready for a runway roll maiden stay tuned.....

Check out the modified throttle on the controller... (yeah I know blurry pic)

This is a Scratch Built blunt nosed Foam-filled Versa-Wing with an implanted 3DR SOLO Main board with a Pixhawk2 IMX6 running OpenSolo 3.0 and APM Plane 3.9. Its not yet flown and just in the Testing Phase. all parameters are working as intended. The plane is setup as a Tail sitter and is using throttle differential as shown in this short vid. The first flight will take off from a runway roll to test air worthiness in FBWA mode . Maiden coming soon conditions permitting...

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[yarrr]

Any updates?
Really hoping to move ahead on a similar project.
Good luck!

 

[XevetS]

Any updates?
Really hoping to move ahead on a similar project.
Good luck!

Yes But I have yet to post a vid, I need to edit all the cursing out lol

It was just to porky to fly motors were wrong and was very tail heavy (go figure with that big ass battery hanging out the back) but I did move all Solo components over to another wing with a single rear pusher motor style setup which I know fly's.....To be continued...

 

[ZaZ]

Hi Everyone,

Quick question - did you have to tweak the controller firmware to get the Channel inputs reading correctly? What is required to use the Solo controller in a similar way as one would use a Taranis radio?

Also, is there any way one could adjust servo trims at all?

Thanks!