Have you ever owned a drone? Did you think it broke too often and was hard to fix? Did you think it was too expensive and easy to crash? Well, I thought so(I have probably broken 8 drones in one year). Well, if you are willing, I have a solution. Make your own RC plane with (mostly) parts from around the Makerspace. Has slightly less control, however, as it has no yaw control. However, I find that when I fly planes, I don't use the yaw controls anyway.
I was inspired to do this project when I saw instructions to make an RC plane in a Make magazine. I originally thought it was a cool project, but then I saw the price tag: $100. With homemade parts. I could not do it for Maker Faire because of the hefty price tag. I wanted to do it however, so I decided to try to do better and use things from the makerspace as much as possible.
I engaged in the design process by designing(but no prototyping, as there was no time), and
Also, since I had no time to prototype, I had to test every step of the way to make sure everything was right. I had to test the hexadecimal codes on the remote five times, to make sure they were right, and I did constant circuit tests with LEDs. I had to make sure nothing failed, for if it did, i would be stuck with no project.
However, I had some constraints with this project. I did not have a lot of time to do it(WHY does our double period science have to be on Mondays?!), and was also rather lacking in skill and help to accomplish the project. I got most help from online tutorials, which was inconvenient because I did not know a lot about how to do it.
One of the challenges I came to was that I could not get the elevon servos to work. I could not make the plane without the elevon servos, and they would not spin when I pressed the buttons on the remote. So, I switched the servos. But that did not work. Then, I realized that the power wire was disconnected, and reconnected it, and added servo tops. Then they showed signs of movement.
2 channel IC plane
In this project, I learned that not everything works the first time. Well, I knew that, but I learned it again while completing this project. It took about 2 weeks to get the motor to properly connect to the transistor. Then, once I managed to connect the motor, I could not get the elevon servos to work. Then, I had a range problem with the IR remote. I could not get it to go past 2 meters. It was never solved.
If I had more time, I would have added a lot to the RC plane. I would have added a third channel(tail fin and rudder to control yaw) and added a second motor and a fuselage to the design. If I had a ton of extra time(and servos) I might have tried adding landing gear, so I could take the plane off without throwing it(as the current plane does). I would have also possibly tried adding air brakes(again, with lots of time and servos).
If you are looking into this project, I have some advice. Never give up. Just when you think you are down in the dumps with this project, another hour puts you back on track. Just when everything looks bad, it is about to get good. You can do it!
Plan ahead too, especially if you have a deadline. You will normally need to order some materials, and they might not come in time. So, you should plan to get materials.
Also, don’t procrastinate.
Link to tutorial
Cost:
Arduino Board: $15.00
Small breadboard: $7.00
IR remote and receiver: $7.00
DC motor: $2.00
Various electronic bits: $5.00 (guess)
Cardboard: FREE
Propellor: $1.00 or $0 if you have a 3D printer
Servos: 2 for $3.60
Total: $39.60 to $40.60
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