Originally Posted by Stunt Double

Kahnx, I think your skyfun will fit in just nicely.... i'll be out there somewhere under 399ft on the weekend hope you two can make it.

Given the rain forecast for Saturday, I expect I'll be flying Sunday arvo.

Still out of stock.

Got my Skyfun sorted on the weekend - what a great little plane!!!

The HK skyfun is an excellent little sports pusher prop plane that also is a great FPV platform: Smallish, cheap to power (3S 2200, 28mm 2000kV, 6X4), plenty aerobatic, easy to modify from stock HK crap (cheap), and with it's delta wing, can carry an FPV setup with ease.

Firstly the airframe: I bought the kit (not RTF) and fitted it out with:
- Turnigy 2836 2350kV outrunner turning a 6X5.5 E-APC.
- Turnigy plush 60A (for future motor upgrade).
- Turnigy MG14 servos, with pushrods on top of the wing.
- Replaced foam elevons with balsa.
- Fitted a 4X1mm CF ribbon spar to the underside
- Laminating film on the bottom of the wing - extra stiffness and landing durability
- 4 strong magnets to hold the canopy on.
- Re-glue the clear plastic canopy window on better.
- 3S 2200 30C batteries.

Now for the Cyclope Storm OSD:
- Pushrod link fitted to the INNERmost hole of the servo arm
- Pushrod link fitted to the OUTERmost (highest) hole of the elevon horn
(These will reduce sensitivity, and prevent the STORM from overcontrolling).
- Position the OSD as close to the CoG as possible.
- Position the GPS antenna out on the wing, away from everything else.
- Roll and Pitch gain 20%.
- Roll and Pitch angle 30 degrees.
- Ensure GPS is running on 3.3V (jumper mod) not 5V.
- Triple check that PA and RTH directions are correct.
- CoG at front of finger holes.

For FPV, I use a #16 V2 key fob cam with the "D" lens (120 degree FOV). Modify the camera firmware to allow live feed. Power the camera from an empty 5V RX plug. Power the camera and VTX from the main flight battery. This camera is reasonably aerodynamic, and weighs very little, so it gives plenty of scope for a range of flight battery locations (weights = endurance). Remember to turn the camera on first, then power up the OSD to ensure that all the ODS info fits on the screen and is not stretched outside the edges.

First few flights were frustrating because even low gains were too much - got severe roll over-correction. The solution was to lessen the servo authority my reducing the movement of the elevons. This allowed the OSD to not overcontrol, and smoothed things out nicely. I've still got enough throw to do all the acrobatics I want, and have high rates available (125%) for launch and landing.

Had a couple of good flights on the weekend - Vid is not spectacular, so I'll put a better one up soon.

Roger

Skyfun with landing gear and then some:

Tri-Motor Skyfun Vertical Launch & More (9 min 12 sec)

Originally Posted by Kahnx

Got my Skyfun sorted on the weekend - what a great little plane!!!

Roger,
Happy New Year, and many happy flights to both of you, you and your plane
A couple of qs if you don't mind:
- The GPS unit out on the wing, did you just fix it flat on the wing, or did you dig sort of little pit for it so that it doesn't stick out too much?
- How did you fasten it to the wing? - velcro, tape, or what?
- Does the GPS wire run on the surface of the wing, or again you made a groove for it?
- Did you have to balance it putting anything on another wing, or was the weight of the VTx on the opposite side enough to compensate for GPS?
and
- Stock motor mount looks straight with no thrust angle compensation... Is there really no need in putting a washer or two between the motor and its mount to make the motor look a bit aside and upwards?


I estimate the distance from GPS's current position to the VTx would be practically the same if you put the former onto the nose, inside the canopy. Did you consider this option, and if yes, why didn't you go ahead with it?

Thanks and regards,
- Mark -

Also, a question to everyone... The ESC's and motor's wires are a bit too long (see picture), and I don't really like leaving it as it is. I definitely don't want to cut anything off to make it shorter, as I want to leave myself an option to use these parts on other projects. Any suggestions about how to tidy it up?
I thought of making a hole near the rear end of the ESC and pass the wires down under the fuse, run motor wires under the fuse, too, and connect them all there. This way I'd be able to hide some 4 cm in bends. The only problem is that the quality of foam used in this plane is not quite astonishingly good, and making extra holes might not be the best idea...

Mounted an Eflight 80mm ducted fan on my Skyfun, maidened it today. Crashed bad.
Cause: I think the FY30a. Too much vibration. After perfect launch it kept wanting to flip onto its back. Then it would flip back upright again, hold that position for a second then flip over again.
Nosed into pavement. In the process of putting it back together.


Any experience with vibration induced FY-30a problems?

Answers below:

Roger,
Happy New Year, and many happy flights to both of you, you and your plane
A couple of qs if you don't mind:
- The GPS unit out on the wing, did you just fix it flat on the wing, or did you dig sort of little pit for it so that it doesn't stick out too much?I dug out the foam so that the GPS would sit flat, without interrupting the airflow.
- How did you fasten it to the wing? - velcro, tape, or what?A single piece of heavy duty packing tape.
- Does the GPS wire run on the surface of the wing, or again you made a groove for it?I made a groove for it, pressed it in with my thumb, taped over it.
- Did you have to balance it putting anything on another wing, or was the weight of the VTx on the opposite side enough to compensate for GPS?Didn't bother with checking - my guess is that it balances pretty well because there's no tendency to roll out of loops.
and
- Stock motor mount looks straight with no thrust angle compensation... Is there really no need in putting a washer or two between the motor and its mount to make the motor look a bit aside and upwards?No thrust angle adjustment at all. On these small wings it's not a big factor. Mine flies pretty straight.


I estimate the distance from GPS's current position to the VTx would be practically the same if you put the former onto the nose, inside the canopy. Did you consider this option, and if yes, why didn't you go ahead with it?
I was conscious of keeping the GPS antenna as far away as possible from everything, including the camera, as most generace RF that may interfere with the receiver function. Given the issues that others have been having with the GPS on the Storm, I wanted to minimise stress on the wires and any other outside influences. The installation is pretty straightforward in the wing.
Thanks and regards,
- Mark -

Also, a question to everyone... The ESC's and motor's wires are a bit too long (see picture), and I don't really like leaving it as it is. I definitely don't want to cut anything off to make it shorter, as I want to leave myself an option to use these parts on other projects. Any suggestions about how to tidy it up?
I thought of making a hole near the rear end of the ESC and pass the wires down under the fuse, run motor wires under the fuse, too, and connect them all there. This way I'd be able to hide some 4 cm in bends. The only problem is that the quality of foam used in this plane is not quite astonishingly good, and making extra holes might not be the best idea...I cut a wide groove into the foam to bury the wires with a curve on them in a similar shape to yours. This gets the wires out of the air flow. If you would consider shortening the wires, cut them short on the ESC side, as some motors have the coated stator wire all the way up to the bullet connector, which makes it very difficult to re-solder the motor leads shorter.

Cheers ... Roger.

BTW, I put very smll winglets onto my Skyfun, and it helped minimise (though not eliminate) the yaw waggle

Originally Posted by Kahnx

Answers below

Thanks a million!
By the way... All that magnets around, do they in any way affect compass reading from the Storm? Have you tried checking the compass without magnets in proximity and comparing it to what it shows with magnets 5 cm away?

Originally Posted by ecworks

Mounted an Eflight 80mm ducted fan on my Skyfun, maidened it today. Crashed bad.
Cause: I think the FY30a. Too much vibration. After perfect launch it kept wanting to flip onto its back. Then it would flip back upright again, hold that position for a second then flip over again.
Nosed into pavement. In the process of putting it back together.


Any experience with vibration induced FY-30a problems?

No experience with this FC but a big tip is to fly the plane and get it balanced before you try flying with an FC. Once you know it will fly balanced, you can try messing with an FC, otherwise diagnosing issues is problematic - you won't know where to start. First flight with the FC fly it with the least agressive settings possible then slowly dial in and out each "pot" to see what works and what doesn't. See Merry2 on youtube - though I'm sure there are others with the Feiyutech unit you have.

With the FY-30a on the Skyfun with the ducted fan the vibration caused the red light to go solid and then caused erratic elevon movement which was caused by the excessive vibration. I then installed the vibration dampening system and foam pads that come with the FY-30 with no improvement. Then I used some Zeal foam to isolate the FY-30 and now the red light only flashes intermittently during wide open throttle but the elevons do not behave badly anymore. Does this mean it is safe to fly?

In the manual it says if the red light is solid then the vibrations are too much but it doesn’t say what it means with the light is flashing.

Any observations about this?

Thanks,

Mark Madison

Finally got the FY-30 to play nice with the Skyfun ducted fan.
Used a variation of the Milti-mod (see below) and lowering the gain on the FY-30.
Now it just blinks slowly when throttling up but no more erratic elevon movement.

Here are the pics. Remember the maiden flight lasted 5.5 seconds and ended badly because of the vibration problem with the FY-30a so it required a lot of plastic (styro) surgery. If this all works I'll probably get another Skyfun and transfer everything over clean. I'll likely cut in two rails on the back as motor mounts and attach the EDF with some sort of rubber o-rings or Zeal material to isolate it from the frame as much as possible.

Currently it weighs in (with a 2800 mah 4 cell batt) at 2lb 11 oz. Max thrust on the bench with the 4s is 2lb 8 oz.
The Eflight ducted fan is set up to run 4 to 6 cells. Should pickup another 1 1/2 lbs of thrust with the 6 cell batt.

2nd maiden flight (?) this weekend to see how it actually flies.

And yes, that is a slotted spoon protecting the 80 amp Eflight ESC.

Wheres the FPV gear??

Bench tested the Skyfun ducted fan project with a 6 cell (40c) and the Skyfun definitely gained some weight. It is now tipping the scales at 3 lbs 5 oz!

The ducted fan now produces 4 lbs 6oz of thrust with a significant weight penalty.
I think 5 cell will be the sweet spot weight vs thrust wise.

Originally Posted by Stunt Double

Wheres the FPV gear??

Getting there. Have a very small 5.8 vid tx and a even smaller keychain camera with live video out feed. I need to figure out how this engineering marvel flies as it is and then move on to FPV

Always looked down at these "hey everyone here's me and my plane" posts but fell to the same temptation

Maidened today. Honestly, asked someone more experienced to handle the bird, so I only played with the controls when she was at safe altitude. Teacher took off and landed her for me (my experience is all about slow fliers and gliders).

Landing was a tricky biznis as the plane always tended to bounce up after touching down (which resulted in a few wrinkles on the nose; hot-aired out already). Perhaps something to do with springed front wheel leg. Or, just have to get used to it.

Roger, you were very right - the motor needs no angle correction whatsoever, I removed the extra washer after the very first test flight. Some stabilization system will be a plus but even without it I didn't experience any tangible oscillation. Will however give a chance to small winglets anyway.

All in all, it was a pants-browning somewhat scary thing, so different the bird behaved from anything I have flown before.
But very, very, very interesting.


P.S.
- 3S 2200 mAh
- Emax 9g metal gear analog servos
- no name 5 g plastic gear servo for front wheel (rudder channel)
- Hobbywing 60A Esc (a bit of an overkill)
- 3300 KV no name motor (50 yuan) recommended by a friend; behaved quite well and screwed the plane vertically into the sky with speed still increasing - we nearly lost visual contact with the bird so fast it went up! - Will probably play with a slower 2700 KV motor just to taste the difference
- 6*5 prop
- 30 A on static test
- self-made gear
- control throws tuned down to 70 %, still plenty, could be 50 but I'll try to get used to 70
...
Anything I missed?