So I was at an event last week and brought my rough little 3D printed glider with me for a maiden flight. Got lots of interest and promised to post up some details here.
I picked up an Ender 3 Pro a while ago to help motivate me to learn some CAD software to help out with the designs of a few things we are working on here at Aloft. It has been a fun side hobby, but my CAD skills still are pretty rough, but getting better.
Anyhow, the printer wasn't doing much, so let's see what some other designers have to share by poking around on Thingverse. Most of the 3D printed planes I have seen require a ton of printing, I wasn't really looking for that level of plane. Then I found this little guy:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3558276
First off, this is a pretty quick and simple project to print out. Secondly, it is based on a plane called the Nexus 900. I remember when these little gliders hit the market, I wanted to give one a try, but I think the company had some issues or something and I never did get one.
This was my first real attempt to print a plane, and I did learn several things about my printer setup and my slicer in the next few days while printing the plane. I now feel much more confident with these tools as a result. I did pretty much end up printing this plane twice due to errors I had made. I just used some PLA rolls I had sitting around, and the printer calibration was still ongoing, so the wings are pretty cruddy on this first sample. (Machine is dialed in much better now!)
Here she is with tape holding the parts together for a first good look.
Eventually I started playing with Tree Supports in Cura, and I love these things. Highly recommended. I'll probably never use a normal support again. Here is a Cura preview:
Here is the printed item:
That Tree Support easily pops out as a single piece and leaves a perfect finished part. Yay!
Radio gear in the nose section:
I made up a little servo adapter to fit these servos into it. The FrSky glider 6 channel was a perfect fit in that location. Here are the rocker arms for the wing rocking action.
I'll have to get some pics of the finished plane and hopefully some video of it flying.
So the maiden flight I just used masking tape on the fuselage joints thinking it would be OK for testing. I honestly was not expecting the plane to fly well. Well, it actually flew, but after a few passes the tape allowed the fuselage to alter it's angles, and I could not get enough pitch to keep the plane up. No worries, I glued the fuselage sections, and was back the next morning. Unfortunately on the first launch I did not have enough pitch and she slid into the ground. This was a low energy impact, but it was enough to brake the tail off right next to the glue joint. The designer suggests printing with a single outer layer, and this makes a very weak structure.
I'll glue the tail back on, then probably glue on some very thin carbon strips or something to help keep the fuselage from breaking so easily. I also went with a 1S lipo battery, and it ran my servos very slowly, so will probably wire up a 2S battery and see if the servos will hold it.
About the servos - these are some servos we are evaluating. They are very similar to these:
https://alofthobbies.com/ks-hd-47mg-servo-1-2kg-16-6-oz-in-10-sec-5-6-grams.html
They were not a direct with the with plane as these servos are actually a bit smaller for the intended mounting.
To sum it up, I was pleasantly surprised with the bit of flight I did get from the plane. I'll keep playing with this and will be printing up a cleaner and maybe a little altered design version soon.
p.s. I have also started printing up a Speed 400 speed ship that is a much nicer design, but tons more printing. Will have to start a thread on that one also. It is fun to play with this new tool and learn what it can and can not do.
I picked up an Ender 3 Pro a while ago to help motivate me to learn some CAD software to help out with the designs of a few things we are working on here at Aloft. It has been a fun side hobby, but my CAD skills still are pretty rough, but getting better.
Anyhow, the printer wasn't doing much, so let's see what some other designers have to share by poking around on Thingverse. Most of the 3D printed planes I have seen require a ton of printing, I wasn't really looking for that level of plane. Then I found this little guy:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3558276
First off, this is a pretty quick and simple project to print out. Secondly, it is based on a plane called the Nexus 900. I remember when these little gliders hit the market, I wanted to give one a try, but I think the company had some issues or something and I never did get one.
This was my first real attempt to print a plane, and I did learn several things about my printer setup and my slicer in the next few days while printing the plane. I now feel much more confident with these tools as a result. I did pretty much end up printing this plane twice due to errors I had made. I just used some PLA rolls I had sitting around, and the printer calibration was still ongoing, so the wings are pretty cruddy on this first sample. (Machine is dialed in much better now!)
Here she is with tape holding the parts together for a first good look.
Eventually I started playing with Tree Supports in Cura, and I love these things. Highly recommended. I'll probably never use a normal support again. Here is a Cura preview:
Here is the printed item:
That Tree Support easily pops out as a single piece and leaves a perfect finished part. Yay!
Radio gear in the nose section:
I made up a little servo adapter to fit these servos into it. The FrSky glider 6 channel was a perfect fit in that location. Here are the rocker arms for the wing rocking action.
I'll have to get some pics of the finished plane and hopefully some video of it flying.
So the maiden flight I just used masking tape on the fuselage joints thinking it would be OK for testing. I honestly was not expecting the plane to fly well. Well, it actually flew, but after a few passes the tape allowed the fuselage to alter it's angles, and I could not get enough pitch to keep the plane up. No worries, I glued the fuselage sections, and was back the next morning. Unfortunately on the first launch I did not have enough pitch and she slid into the ground. This was a low energy impact, but it was enough to brake the tail off right next to the glue joint. The designer suggests printing with a single outer layer, and this makes a very weak structure.
I'll glue the tail back on, then probably glue on some very thin carbon strips or something to help keep the fuselage from breaking so easily. I also went with a 1S lipo battery, and it ran my servos very slowly, so will probably wire up a 2S battery and see if the servos will hold it.
About the servos - these are some servos we are evaluating. They are very similar to these:
https://alofthobbies.com/ks-hd-47mg-servo-1-2kg-16-6-oz-in-10-sec-5-6-grams.html
They were not a direct with the with plane as these servos are actually a bit smaller for the intended mounting.
To sum it up, I was pleasantly surprised with the bit of flight I did get from the plane. I'll keep playing with this and will be printing up a cleaner and maybe a little altered design version soon.
p.s. I have also started printing up a Speed 400 speed ship that is a much nicer design, but tons more printing. Will have to start a thread on that one also. It is fun to play with this new tool and learn what it can and can not do.