ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ก.ค. 2024
- As an RC helicopter enthusiast, the NASA Ingenuity helicopter has intrigued me so much, I decided to build my own little flying RC model of one.
Over and above showing what a little RC Ingenuity coaxial helicopter might be like, what I really wanted to show is a comparison of the similar and not so similar rotor system components between NASA/JPL's Ingenuity and a standard collective pitch RC helicopter of roughly the same size.
So if you're an RC helicopter enthusiast, or just love science and Mars rover missions in general, or NASA's Perseverance mission specifically; hopefully you'll find this information a little entertaining, while giving you a few ideas if you want to build your own Ingenuity RC helicopter to fly around.
The fiddliest & most time consuming aspect of my little model RC Ingenuity build was cutting & fitting the Mylar film over the 3D printed PLA frame. Mylar doesn't take any sort of glue well but tape works pretty good (both Mylar & clear).
Useful Links Below:
- NASA's Ingenuity Page:
www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/6-th...
- JPL's Ingenuity Press Kit Page:
www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press_k...
- JPL's Mars Helicopter Technical Design Proposal PDF (this is awesome stuff):
rotorcraft.arc.nasa.gov/Publi...
- RC Helicopter Fun's Micro Coaxial Helicopter Page:
www.rchelicopterfun.com/coaxi...
- RC Helicopter Fun's DFC Page:
www.rchelicopterfun.com/DFC.html
TIME STAMPS:
- Intro 0:00
- Why choose a coaxial helicopter for Mars 1:08
- The Ingenuity's rotor system up close 2:14
- Ingenuity's swashplate components 4:08
- The main mast 5:00
- Brushless direct drive motors 5:17
- Swashplates & Ingenuity's DFC control linkages 6:14
- Ingenuity rotor and swashplate locking arms 6:59
- Yaw control on coaxial fixed pitch vs collective pitch 8:03
- Little RC Ingenuity Test Flight 9:20
Please consider giving a thumbs up & subscribe if you enjoy my content - thank you & thanks for watching :) - ยานยนต์และพาหนะ
rotorcraft.arc.nasa.gov/Publications/files/Balaram_AIAA2018_0023.pdf
on page 9, end of paragraph A: "Chinese weights provide a restoring force on the blade moments when under centrifugal loads thereby reducing the torque requirements on the swashplate actuators.", also see Fig. 7
btw - excellent video, Mr. Salt, and such a cute, well built model!! Congrats!
Thanks so much for that! Pure gold that PDF link. This is must reading for anyone interested in the Ingenuity's design & function. Thanks so much again for finding that and taking the time to comment & share.
I have been searching for someone who has made an attempt at this, since the Perseverance Mission was launched! I typed in browsers, and TH-cam, every which way I could think of, and nothing. Now, after forgetting about it for half a year, this video, just randomly pops up in my feed. Thank you for posting this work! This is something I am very excited about, and am looking forward to trying myself, now that I have seen someone with more experience take me through some of the process. I have been learning about quadcopters for half a year now, but know very little about helicopters, swash plates, and a coaxial copter just seems one step out of my sphere of experience. This video has got me a little bit closer to where I want to be.
The technical explanation and the demo of your little ingenuity, I'm amazed. Thank you for this!
Always appreciate your incite and explanations John of helicopter flight. Thanks for creating your Little RC Ingenuity!
Thanks back :) It was a fun & easy little project.
Awesome video, John! You got into some stuff that I would NEVER thought of. NASA should see this. Can't wait till someone makes a hobby grade replica of Ingenuity, with cheaper parts, obviously.
Yep Mark, like you, I think the market would embrace an RC Ingenuity. It might be the push required to also put electronic stabilization into a micro coaxial. Time will tell :)
Hi John, great video! I too have been following the perseverance since it launched in July. Can’t wait to see if ingenuity fly’s on Mars. Awesome job on the model😄
Me too - can't wait to hear how it goes and see the first images/video.
Congratulations on your very Lifelike "Ingenuity" Build John! I would say that most if not all of your Thoughts about the "Real Ingenuity" are probably spot on! I hope you're filing the Patent tomorrow morning. I think kids would Love one of those! Great build and I really like the mylar tent, very realistic. The only thing that perplexes me is if they have the "Switch Sounds" that you do? 😂🤣
BTW, I believe your Build comes in way under budget! Cheers and Stay Safe and Healthy John, my Best to You and Your Family always.
❤🙏🙏🙏❤
Very nicely done. This deserves many more views. I'm also hoping for a Lego Ingenuity model, but I guess the toy and model makers want to be sure it is a success on Mars before launching their publicity for their models and toys.
Brilliant, thanks for your insights.
This is the best. Thanks John
Thanks for watching
Thank you for what you do.
excellent explanation.
Really cool and interesting, thanks 👍😁
Awesome video John, thanks for sharing :)
Glad you enjoyed it
That was awesome, thanks for sharing!
You bet
Just wow!!!!!!!!!!! 👍
Thanks :)
excellent informative thank you
Awesome. great project and thanks for sharing.
Thanks for watching
Awesome!
Very nice Mr. Salt.
Thanks for watching
I was hoping there would be one of these made for us but you go and make one yourself. Awesome! 🤓 I am interested to know what NASA’s contingency plan is if it falls over. Would they try to use Perseverance’s robot arm to set it upright? How would they do that with an eleven minute delay?
I suppose if Perseverance had the ability to upright the little heli if it ever tipped over, NASA's surface strategy team would most likely approach the problem the same way they have with past rover missions. Test out the exact scenario using the twin Perseverance rover on earth and then upload the sequence to the one on Mars. Likely in very small steps of progression so they could monitor the progress of the maneuver before moving to the next sequence.
I love it
Lovely...Thank You
Welcome
Love it
Great job 👍👍
Thank you - Cheers
Neat work John! You think the co-axial build is better for long term use in mars, 10-20 years from now? Where do you see the future of aviation in the Martian atmosphere, long term?
If I had answers to those questions, I would be working for JPL 🙂 My 2 cent opinion is JPL started working on this rotary concept in the early 2000's. Lots of research, time & money invested. Ingenuity is also performing very well, dare I say better than published mission expectations. Combine all that with the priceless onboard flight systems data that Ingenuity is now providing every single second it's flying; my logical presumption would be that NASA/JPL is heavily invested in coaxial flying platforms moving forward and will continue to build on these initial successes. Pretty much the way they do with every robot mission. Again, just my 2 cents.
@@Rchelicopterfun Appericiate the insight, would love to find out what alternate rotary concepts that were explored and failed
Brilliant, mate! ❤🚀
You may have a look at "onShape" as your modelling software. It's the closest cad to "fusion 360" I know.
Therefore much more capable!
Thumbs up, for all your videos! I love them!
Thank you for your work! 🤠
I will check it out
Super cool! :)
Thanks :)
Fantastic
Thanks
Hello John. I would really appreciate if you would make a video on how to set up a flybarless helicopter (i use iKON and Bavarian Demon) on the TX16S. I know that most is set up on the flybarless controller - but still a good video explained in a non geeky way on what to do on the TX16S when it comes to helicopters. I got several helis that i would like to migrate from my DX9 to the TX16S. There is no rush - Thanks in advance.
Already have. You can search my channel or just google search "RC Helicopter Setup" and it's the first video shown. Usually listed just before my RC collective pitch heli setup eBook.
Great work john. In my opinion NASA should have taken a glider to Mars with twin motors on the wing.
The thin atmosphere wouldn't allow it to fly.
Those horns look to me like counterbalance weights for the load that is put on the rotorblades during flight. When you look at the blades from the main axle point of view you can see that these blades would want to rotate clockwise due to aerodynamic loads. The angle of the horns give me the impression that the centrifugal forces, when the head rotates will make them force the blades in a counterclockwise direction.
Simply put, these dynamic counterbalance weights will significantly reduce the loads on the servos and allow the engineers to use smaller/lighter servos
Yep, that sounds reasonable - appreciate the insight.
Great video! I can't wrap my head around one small detail, though. From my understanding, the lower (non rotating?) part of the upper swashplate of ingenuity has to be fixed on the lower rotor axle, which would mean that the lower part of this swashplate with those three servos would spin in the direction of the lower rotor. This doesn''t make sense, right? How would you contact the servos if they're spinning...So the lower half of the upper swash plate has to be stationary (non rotating). But how is this done, mechanically? From my understanding, there is no stationary part at this section of the rotorhead you could fix the swashplate to. Does somebody understand what I'm trying to say? Sorry for my english, though :D
@Moritz Berger - A couple thoughts. 1. The main mast on the Ingenuity doesn't spin like it does on conventional helicopters. It's basically a fixed hollow tube. The only parts that spin are the two rotor heads that spin around that main mast likely using two stacked sealed conical radial bearings would be my best guess on bearing type. Both the upper and lower servo trays are attached to the non spinning mast so the servo trays are not spinning.
The core of the brushless motors (the stator) which has all the windings are also both fixed to the non rotating mast. The rotors of the brushless motors (the outer bells with the magnets) are both fixed to the two rotor heads to spin them.
2. Even if the mast was spinning however, the swashplate is not anchored at all to the mast, if it was, it couldn't slide up and down on the mast to change the collective pitch angle. Swashplates use a spherical plain bearing to accomplish both articulation angle and free up and down movement on the mast. The swashplate is essentially "floating" on the mast.
This video I did on swashplate service may help understand the general design better: th-cam.com/video/_SmHR3IJqOY/w-d-xo.html
Of course, the Ingenuity's swashplates are slightly different from the one shown in that video, but the principle operation would be the same.
Really cool wish more would be made to get kids into science
Yep, more important now than ever before.
Cool what kind of controller are you using ?
RadioMaster TX16. Here's my review on it: th-cam.com/video/g6fDA2jUdn0/w-d-xo.html
Awsome! Actually You Missed Solar Panel, But That Was So Nice! Do Not Give Up!
Yes - Intentionally missed in order for it to actually work 🙂
@@Rchelicopterfun Nice!
Very nice build!
You would like to see my homemade 1/5 49cc RC buggy!
Which engine and propeller did you use in Ingenuity RC? And what is his weight?
I said what I used right at the very beginning of the video 0:10 "guts out of a Blade MCX".
It looks cute! Hey, I have a question too
How do you balance the flight of a RC helicopter without making it crash on everywhere
Sorry, I don't understand your question "balance the flight". Do you mean how to correctly trim an RC helicopter? If so, it all comes down to accurate swashplate leveling and helicopter setup. It also depends on which type of RC helicopter you are referencing as they are all very different in terms of stability and agility; ie. micro coaxial, micro fixed pitch, or traditional collective pitch.
@@Rchelicopterfun yes
@@Rchelicopterfun thank you
eggscllent and congrats. i was wondering when someone would do that.
I'm trying to build one just like yours. I found the BLADE on Ebay but will not be able to use 3D printed parts. Did you move the CONTROLLER and RX to the side of the HELO to cut down on the length of the basic power unit? Or did you leave them in the stock position right at the very front of the power unit?
All stock.
nice :)
Thanks
why a counter rotating helicopter will fly when the upper blades n lower blades are spinning at the same speeds in different directions?
I want to build that Mars Helicopter .... and fly it around the Neighborhood FPV ! .... It might be entertaining ! ..... :-)
John,Think you hve wasted your time there,that will not work in zero grave : )
Excellent work
Thanks 👍
I really wnnt one tho
Hello I am new, I am just flying all Heli. I need to learn how to setup the Radio and the Heli. I hope you can help me out. I am new at thing. I just buy the Radiomaster Tx-16s
I cover collective pitch RC helicopter setup for all flying styles from first learning right to full on aerobatics in my setup & tips ebook: www.rchelicopterfun.com/rc-helicopter-tips.html
This video I did shows the basic steps of collective pitch setup on an OpenTX radio: th-cam.com/video/O1L0wxzoqOU/w-d-xo.html
To learn how to configure any OpenTX radio including the TX16s, OpenTX University's website is a must study resource, it even has a great configuration section for collective pitch: open-txu.org/
A quadcopter design would be much simpler.. Why wouldn't they use quadcopter design?
I explained the two main reasons why in the video, but I'll relay it again for those that missed it. They needed a platform that provided maximum lift efficiency given the power & space constraint's they had to work within. There is no powered rotary aircraft design as efficient as a coaxial. There are other benefits with coaxials as well in the thin Martian atmosphere, but those were the two primary ones. If you want more info on why coaxial, check out NASA's Ingenuity page or JPL's Ingenuity press kit page, in the links I provided.
Nasa is taking the P1Ss Lol
I’m doing a one-week summer camp for middle school students with a Mars Rover theme. I would like to build your Blade mCX2 based model and show it as part of the camp. I have a helicopter to use. Can you provide a file with the 3D printed parts? If you have a photo showing how you mounted the electronics inside your enclosure, that would be helpful. Thank you.
What was the robotic voice making comments at the end lol “God?”... “oh yeah that was the right switch” lol what is that?!?! @ 9:50 and 10:09 in video lol 😂
Amber voice pack for OpenTX RC radio systems.
Lol love it
Please don't tell me that you have left Canada and you're doing a little flying with Mr. Spielberg in La La Land. lol Great Build John and I hope that you are all doing well, staying Safe and getting your 1st Vaccination soon. All is well in Toronto, just waiting for my Shot.
Lol Red Planet was NOT a good movie, but you're allowed to have your opinion 👍
Strawman fallacy. Didn't realize that mentioning "flashbacks of AMEE from Red Planet" is the same thing as stating it was a good movie.
@@Rchelicopterfun Gosh I wasn't trying to be rude i'm just mentioning my thoughts.
Nor was I, just correcting your statement since it's something I never said.
... and NASA spending billions of dollars 🤣🤣🤣🍺🍺🍺😎🤙🤙🤙