Mini Mayfly

[JohnOSullivan]

Mini Mayfly finished. This is a 50% version of my Mayfly 2 metre Sailplane designed last year.
It is 1 metre wing span. Weighs 2.95 ounces, Turnigy 5 gm brushless motor on 2 cell 180mah Lipo and 6 amp ESC.
Built it primarily for indoors, but should fly in reasonably calm conditions outdoors. Can't wait to try it at Lawrencetown slope.

[AndrewS]

Nice John

[bdg]

I will echo Andrew's comment - it looks GREAT!!! Thanks for sharing!

Brian

[trevor]

That looks great John!. I haven't had my Elio out all summer, I hope to get a slope day in soon. Mabe a few of us can hook up and head out soon

[bdg]

John,

That Mayfly is very light and very impressive!! Thanks for bringing it to SP on Sunday. I have been thinking about your mini control board and was hoping that you might be able to provide some additional information for this system. Is this the one from HK? If so, that has a rated torque at 4.2VDC but also suggests an operating voltage of 3.7-5.0VDC (https://hobbyking.com/en_us/2-4ghz-supe ... tore=en_us).

The "funny" thing is that the motor (https://hobbyking.com/en_us/hobbyking-u ... right.html) suggests 3.7-4.2VDC which is (as you know!) very much aligned with a 1S LiPo.

What size battery are you running in this again? Would a 1S battery work? Depends on the motor selection, too, as you know.

I did check the Castle Creations specs and the minimum voltage - for at least the ones that I had checked - was 5.0VDC. Nothing to the 4.2VDC that I recall you were trying to reach. A diode in the circuit would work to reduce the voltage by 0.7V but mounting / wiring could be a challenge.

Brian

[JohnOSullivan]

Mini Mayfly Radio details

As originally setup had receiver and combined linear Servos with external ESC From Target Hobbies
http://www.targethobby.com/spectrum-ar6 ... 62325.html

This is not the system Brian showed from Hobby King which is a brushed one.

Elevator servo was slow and intermittent and lacked power to control Elevator.
Weight Target Receiver, servos and ESC 9.5 gm
Bottom setup in photo.

The motor I am using is the Hobby King https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-181 ... 800kv.html 10 gm motor or
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/18-11-2000k ... r-10g.html both rated for 2 cell liops.
New Setup
Top setup in photo
Receiver FrSky (Taranis) from Hobby King
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/frsky-vd5m- ... pable.html
Rated for 2 cell lipos.

Servos HK-5320 Ultra-Micro Digital Rated for 4.2Volt
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/hk-5320-ult ... 075kg.html
4.2 volt recommended.


The new System with ESC from the Target setup and the FrSky receiver and HK-5320 servos reads 4.22 volts at the receiver. This should be OK for the servos and they should not be overloaded.
Weight Taranis Receiver, servos and ESC 11.0 gm

Next step is binding my receiver to the Taranis. And gear installation.

This size stuff is fiddly to handle and reminds me of when I was young serving my time in the family watchmaking business (Founded 1869 and still operating under my brother).

[JohnOSullivan]

An Update.
I fitted the Taranis micro receiver and Turnigy servos and the MiniMayfly is ready for the air. Thanks to Rick MacDonald my Taranis is now working well. It's a bit of a learning curve, but at least I can get simpler models set up. Photo is of the 2m Electric Mayfly and the Mini.

[JohnOSullivan]

Well, the Big Blow has died down and it is flat calm. I took the opportunity to try out the MiniMayfly in a nice park about 100 metres from the house which is ideal for small models.
It flew really well with no CG, rudder or elevator trim required. It was also a maiden for my Taranis transmitter, which also behaved well.
The MiniMayfly should be excellent indoors.