Using a drone FC on a plane

[freddieb]

Hi All,

 

I do a bit of FPV freestyle drone flying and made a couple of planes before but I've now decided I want to make a 1200mm-1500mm span traditional style plane (either cessna/trainer or warbird style, not made mind up yet!)  but with FPV and all the data you can see and contol like you can with FPV/freestyle drones. It would also be nice to have the option to easily add stuff like head tracker, GPS, lights or retractable landing gear later on.

 

I know the best thing to do would be to by a plane spacific FC but there a little pricey and as I already have drone FC that has a option to run 8 PPM chanels, I was hoping to use this as the flight controler. I have done a bit or research on it and it looks possible and have a good idea on how to make it work.  My main struggle is coming up with a power distribution solution for the servos and ESC that doesn't look messy.  Has anyone here attempeted this before or have any suggestions or examples on how to go about this? or am I really barking up the wrong tree?

 

I'm fairly confident with a soldering iron so don't mind a bit of a challenge and also in case it's helpful, heres the gear I've already got that im hoping to use:

 

Aocoda-RC F7 MINI speed

3-4S LIPO's

Flysky FS-i6X transmitter

Flysky FS-X6B Reciver

ESC's and motors of verious kinds

FPV cameras and VTX's of verious kinds

 

Thanks in advance.

[m4inbrain]

Betaflight has a fixed wing option, but it's a bit hit and miss.

 

https://betaflight.com/docs/wiki/archive/Setup-for-a-Fixed-Wing-Aircraft

 

 

As was mentioned in there, servos browning out could be an issue. 

 

Personally, depending on what you intend to build (foamy, or something more expensive), i'd just ignore the gyro stuff, get a cheap china ESC etc and just fly as is without horizon mode and whatnot. If you go with a cessna/cub style plane and add some dihedral, it's super easy to fly. 

 

Wouldn't start with a warbird, they're notoriously for being harder to control (apart from one or two outliers like the T-28). You'd want to start with a dihedral top wing, not a low wing.

[freddieb]

Hi, thanks for the reply!

 

The browning out issues is why I'm looking to make/buy a suitable power distabution board for the servos and ESC so the flight controler won't have to deal with the power supply and associated power surges from them.

 

I've made and flown a couple of trainers (balsa and foam board) and feel comfortable flying those. I've not tried a low wing/warbird style yet but heard that they are not quite as stable and forgiving (and why i haven't made my mind up) but this is where I was hoping I could utilze the gyro and stablizer options to assist at a flick of a switch if needed.

 

I've currently have foam board cub which I think I will test the set up on first as I'm used to it and don't mind crashing if the worst happens.

 

Thank you for the links by the way!