FPV-Community.com

Almost finished the TwinstarII, I decided to take some pictures and make a build log.

I chose the Twinstar because of it's size / wingload/ payload. Already have an Easystar and a Minimag. Have seen the stock Twinstar flying last summer and it floated better than a EZ and also a better climbrate and more fun. No propellers in front of the camera and "crash proof" elapor foam.
This is my first real FPV platform, did some recording with a wireless camera in the past, resulting in this project.

Setup:

TwinstarII brushless
35mhz Corona RX

EagleTreeSystems OSDpro
-airspeed/altimeter/battery/watts/amps/variometer/GPS

CMOS camera X
850 mw 1.3 Ghz TX / RX
Fatshark goggles

As I like to paint my foam flyers I was inspired by the Dutch Coast Guard, they fly a Dornier 228-112 with FPV black nose!

---

The airplane is bought locally, the rest of the gear I had to order from Hobbyking and Electronicarc.com.
Waiting for all the stuff to come in, I had plenty of time browsing the internet for info and figuring out how to and what for.

The plane comes in half and has te be glued together later on. Here we see the space we have for all the stuff, on the left the nose/battery compartment, on the right the tail.



First I installed the airspeed meter with pitot tube, to prevent problems I shielded the silicon tubing with a pvc-tube. The airspeed and altimeter sensors are fitted in a cut-away close to the OSD compartment. I've put a temp.sensor behind the wing area (not on photo) These are the only parts that are really stuck in the plane after closing it, the rest shall stay removable.



The OSD comes in 2 parts, the Micropower V3 Datalogger and the actual OSDpro expander. The V3 Datalogger connects to: ESC, Battery, OSDpro exp.,RPM sensor, temp.sensor and GPS. It measures pack voltage, wattage, amps and all values from sensors. The OSDpro expander connects to: V3 Datalogger, videocamera, video tx, mic., 5 RC channels (throttle, elevator, aileron, aux1, aux2) So the OSD also connects to the RC reciever.




To save weight I installed 2 Turnigy 28-26 1650 kV brushless motors, saving 35 grams per motor. Power increases from 70Watt to 140Watt per motor. Half the weight, twice the power. The ESC are 2 Mystery 20A for brushless off course.



The motors fitted on the original motormounts that come with the twinstar. All I had to do was shorten the motormounts and sand out the three ribs inside the mount. The mount-plate is screwed on at the "inside" of the motormount. About 5mm is cut off the mount for good fit.






The wings are reinforced by a small piece of half-round carbon rod, glued into the wingtips. The original main wingspar was 45 grams, I bought a 10mm Carbon rod to replace it ... 23 grams now.



The servo-leads for aileron had to be extended, after that all the wires are glued in the wing, I also installed a brushless RPM sensor in one wing.
The wires are nicely guided at the middle of the wing.



Meanwhile done some painting, just sprayed with fluor-orange motip car spray, doesn't stick very well but it'll do. The black and blue metallic is Trendy spray and holds much better. After pulling the tape off both paints come off also. Sprayed some paint in a cup and did the by tape ruined parts by hand with a small brush, a blind man wouldn't see the difference! I did use plastic primer but no result.



Made a basic camera mount of acrylic glass (plastic) easy to drill and dremel, still looking for what camera to use. The video TX is going to stick to the back of the canopy area...


Small cargo-door for routing wires or extra components.



Updates coming up......

Hi Michio!

Thanks for sharing your build log here.
I like your paiting idea in Dutch coast guard style

By the way: We still have a TS2 Build Log here: http://fpv-community.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=38

Keep it on!!!

Michio so will you glue the 2 halves completely shut?

if so, what do you do if you need to access any of the internal parts? do you plan to create a bay below?

I am currently trying to decide how I want my internal gear....thxs

my post below ty
http://www.fpv-community.com/forum/showt...hp?tid=444

Yes indeed, both halfes are CA'd together, the alti-temp-speed sensors are permanently in the fuselage. The RPM sensor is glued into the wing. These sensors are quiet cheap, the alti and airspeed also work as standalone. At the time I'll transfer my stuff to other planes I'll simply buy some more sensors.
I made a small door in the back for easy acces to all compartments, perhaps the GPS will fit in there. The RX and OSD stuff simply go in and out throug the opening below the wing and sliding it backwards into the tail. A hinged fuselage that can be opened anytime should be nice but rather fragile.
As worse things happen to me all the time, I intend to keep the bottom waterproof.. .. . . Also didn't do any fuselage reinforcement with carbon to prevent signal interference. Think the box shaped fuselage is stiff enough.

Looking great man.
I think that i will build my stuff also in a plane.
I got still problems with the helicopters stability.
Now we have to wait for nice weather

(03-14-2010 05:56 PM)Michio Wrote: [ -> ]Yes indeed, both halfes are CA'd together, the alti-temp-speed sensors are permanently in the fuselage. The RPM sensor is glued into the wing. These sensors are quiet cheap, the alti and airspeed also work as standalone. At the time I'll transfer my stuff to other planes I'll simply buy some more sensors.
I made a small door in the back for easy acces to all compartments, perhaps the GPS will fit in there. The RX and OSD stuff simply go in and out throug the opening below the wing and sliding it backwards into the tail. A hinged fuselage that can be opened anytime should be nice but rather fragile.
As worse things happen to me all the time, I intend to keep the bottom waterproof.. .. . . Also didn't do any fuselage reinforcement with carbon to prevent signal interference. Think the box shaped fuselage is stiff enough.

Great points! appreciate that. I will probably something similar, i am sitting infront of both halves trying to decide where to put my AR7000 RX. I would like as far back as possible so I can minimize any interference to the Vid TX later on. I am fairly confident I can make an opening on the

thxs agn

Ah I finally made the doors on mine, tape is just there to hold the plane together and allow me to pull it out, earth magnets are holding it in place. 4 magnets per box.

I have so much room to keep the RX in the back and so much more for extra gear in the 2nd box! =)

Looking good! I know have the reciever under the wing and the osd at the back. Maybe I'd better put the reciever in the back for less interference, good point there. The spaces inside the "closed" plane are big enough to fiddle with your gear. I've cut 2 compartments inside, just past the last window. An extra ventilation channel is added from the back compartment to the vent-hole behind the wing.
The space right under the wing is needed for the y-cables, have to replace the powerlines for flexible silicon wire, for easier mounting of the wing.

Finished mounting the TX, was thinking about placing it in the nose but that's difficult for cooling and maybe too risky when crashing. So I mounted it the classical way. Made a saddle of remaining Elapor, glued to the back of the canopy, otherwise the antenna would hit the wing.
The 850mw TX needs a lot of airflow to cool it down, I guess it works better at normal temperatures. I've one temp sensor for outside temperature glued in the back of the plane, have one more for measuring different components (esc, lipo, tx)....
The TX and saddle have velcro and a simple rubber band to make sure it all stays aboard.



The TX is 12V, the camera 5V. All will be powered by a 3cell lipo 11,1 V. The TX gets direct power, for the the camera I use the UBEC. The green connector is for the TX, the yellow marked cables are 5V power to the OSD. The camera is easy to change by a single connector this way.(otherwise I would have the camera connected to the powersuply and to the OSD seperately)
Somehow I ended up with a lot of wiring, the OSD goes between the servo's and the reciever, using 6 servowire-extenders, or 4 at least. As the components are scattered all over the airplane moving around doesn't seem to make much difference in wire lengths. Moving the OSD close to the camera and TX will keep the video signal-path short....hmmm....



Thanks for your replies and suggestions are welcome...

Hey Michio!
Your paint sheme looks great! What type of color have you used?

Yeah , I just love the paint sheme . Very cool !