e-Observer w/Photoship One mount and Ace One

[tott]

Aloha,

beamen.........I will share video and photo for sure.

Dont expect this too soon though.

Once I receive it from CHRIS, I will be flying it with dummy weight to get the "feel" for this helicopter in all conditions including wind, etc.

I have other AP platforms that will keep me busy as my work platforms.... while this one gets flown.

With work and flying this for fun for a while, the video samples will come down the road.

I will keep you posted..
JASON

[cbergen]

I will be posting video as well, of the test flights, and from the heli. As long as you keep in mind that I use a simple Sony Handycam. If the video looks good from that, then you KNOW it'll be good from better cameras..

[sunnyville]

looking forward to the "handy cam" footage!

[cbergen]

I had hoped to have an update today, but we still have not gotten our shipment of G10 in. I'm shortening the front end of the frames, bringing the camera mount closer to the main shaft, but had used up all my material making frames for some Gassers...

It should be here tomorrow, and I should have the new frames cut and installed before we go home.

[tott]

Thanks for the update Chris.......

I can appreciate all the EXTRA time and effort you are putting into making this BIG project a reality.

New custom frames......Just when I thought it could NOT get any better..........

Looking forward to tomorrow......lol

Have a great day..

JASON

[cbergen]

Wanted to get these up last night but it was late, needed to get to bed...

This is the product of 3 different iterations of the frames and motor mount plate. The idea is to get the camera mount, and therefore the camera, as close as possible to the main shaft.

I also added some height to the lower frames to help with keeping the camera mount off of the ground without adding taller landing gear.

The before pics and the after pics.

[cbergen]

We also reduced the parts count with this change, and a slight decrease in the total weight.

Here's what was removed,

[tott]

Thanks again for the update Chris.

The before and after pictures are great. It looks as though it was a substantial improvement on getting the gimbal closer to the main shaft.

Do you have the measurements as to how much closer you were able to get the gimbal to the main shaft ?

The taller frames will help a lot as well as looking right at home with the overall design. This also brings the FTMS for the gimbal lower and closer to the CG as well.

Thanks helifreak for making the build thread possible and thanks Chris for all your attention to detail.

JASON

[sunnyville]

The help is beginning to take shape. Please keep the photo updates coming!

[cbergen]

We had a customer here from South Africa on Thursday and Friday, getting some training on a Tazer 800 with the DJI Waypoint, so my time with this project was limited.

We'll be back on it hot and heavy tomorrow..

[nightflyr]

Looking very nice

[cbergen]

It's been a tough week, but I think I have the mount rigged well enough to start testing.

Will work on radio installation this weekend, and hopefully fly it next week sometime...

[Windbreaker]

Very nice!

This is a new no-tail-rotor design? :-)

[yeehaanow]

maybe I missed it, but what rotor-head is that?

Looking good!

[Rotorshake]

Looks like a standard Bergrn FBL rigged trailing edge control.

[cbergen]

Trailing edge control? No. We use a clockwise rotor direction. The silver pitch arms are on the leading edge side of the grip.

And Yes, it is our own FBL head.

This heli will also have our electric tail rotor motor, But I had to get the main mechanics sorted out first.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fLy7bfWmnY[/ame]

[Rotorshake]

My bad. Didn't blow the picture up enough. Thought that was strange.

[nightflyr]

Nice tail setup

[sunnyville]

@Chris>

What is the advantage of using a motor on the tail in this typical type of helicopter (AP)?

[mbrashear]

Good question ...

My uneducated and highly inexperienced thoughts on this, if I may;

Pros:
No belts or TTs to deal with and thus less opportunity for mech failure ( in that specific respect)
More (easier) control of TSpeed
Increased tail authority
Pre start tail spool up for maintaining heading (less skid hopping)
Less power draw from main rotor blade power plant
Probably more pros that I can't think of

Cons:
Separate power plant
Weight
Cost

Please take this with a grain of salt as my opinion bares no weight. I simply enjoyed thinking about this and was more or less curious as to how close to accurate my take on Night's question was. I will be more interested to hear Chris' response to the separate tail motor option.