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April 15, 2007 10:45 AM

Categories: Dragonfly

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milw

  Moderator
Joined: 03/10/2007

Here's one of the later test flights of the RedWing. It's not flying perfectly, but this sure made me happy! See the Hacks and Mods blog for a description of how to make new wings. (btw- there is no extra paper on the tail, and I'm using a dime as the nose weight)

-Scott

Cameraman: Owen

(edit: and below, a sneak peek at the iridescent wingset!) 

Iridescent wings! 

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Discussion:    Add a Comment | Comments 1-11 of 11 | Latest Comment

Ron Repking Avatar
  Member
April 17, 2007 11:26 AM

I love it.  It looks like in the picture above that the wings are clear, but the shadow is red.  Is this red wing and an optical illusion or did you make clear wings too?

Exterminate! Exterminate!

milw Avatar
  Moderator
April 17, 2007 12:44 PM

You're right, the photo is of the second wingset that was made with the 'iridescent' mylar, which is like transparent with a partial mirror coating. I have some other photos at better angles- the mylar reflects greeny- yellow, so the transmitted light is reddish. I'll be posting about these wings soon- they are working much better than the red set, I think because of the rods that were re-used from an original 'circuitry' wingset.

Here's a better angle shot:

 

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Generic Member Avatar
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  • member since: 07/04/2007
  • rank: 1329 of 1881
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July 4, 2007 12:39 AM

Hi milw,

Your wings are quite impressive!

May I ask what you mean by a 'circuitry' wingset? 

Cheers 

  

milw Avatar
  Moderator
July 4, 2007 10:02 AM

Oh, that is the original wings that the dragonfly comes with- it looks like resistors and circuit traces printed on the wings.

cheers- Scott

(and thx for the compliment! Smile)

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Generic Member Avatar
Member
  • member since: 07/04/2007
  • rank: 1329 of 1881
  • 4 comments
July 4, 2007 11:11 AM

Ah, thanks!  (Don't I feel rather silly now? ;) )

I notice that you've since mentioned that the original wings (and components of) fly better all things being equal... does that mean that the masses and dimensions are all the same?

Do you have any insight as to the issue? (I have managed to break one of my wings by 'flying' my dragonfly into a tree - and it looks like getting replacement wings in Australia is going to be expensive.)  I have also promised myself that I will satisfy my modding urge when the opportunity (breakage!) arises and I'm sure that others will benefit from your experience.

Thanks again!

 

 

milw Avatar
  Moderator
July 4, 2007 1:04 PM

At least you still have the spare pair, right? I think one issue is that I used Scotch tape which is wider than the tape used on the original wings, so that is adding some mass. Also, at the leading edge of the lower wing, I have a small amount of mylar and tape forward of the support rod...  I'll have to look back at the weights, I think my iridescent wings were a tad heavier than the stock. Also I didn't get the angled rod in quite exactly the same place- the trailing end is about 0.25" (~0.5 cm) forward of where it should be.

Some people have noticed that their Dragonfly performs better with one or the other pair of stock wings- so I think some pretty subtle differences can affect flight performance significantly.

I'll post the weights and a comparison image of mine next to a stock wing.

cheers- Scott 

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Smokes Avatar
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  • member since: 07/04/2007
  • rank: 1323 of 1881
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July 4, 2007 5:02 PM

Hey Viapada KMart in Oz have the dragonfly on special between 5th and 18th for $59.95. Need some spare wings? No, I have nothing to do with KMart but I just bought a couple there.

Generic Member Avatar
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  • member since: 07/04/2007
  • rank: 1329 of 1881
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July 4, 2007 11:23 PM

Hi Smokes, thanks for the tip!

 

Scott,

Very interesting -  I look forward to seeing your results.

Yep I do have the spare pair, but considering I've only owned it for a few days I thought I might have to get a little creative when it comes to repairs! ;) 

milw Avatar
  Moderator
July 7, 2007 8:36 AM

OK, I weighed the wings and have a pic here, the wing I built is at 2.27 grams and one of the original wings is 2.198 grams, so less than 4% heavier... I don't think that accounts for it. But here's the image, I really think it is my placement of the trailing rod (red arrow, versus stock wing nderneath it, red arrow).


 

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Generic Member Avatar
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  • member since: 07/04/2007
  • rank: 1329 of 1881
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July 8, 2007 8:07 AM

Hi milw,

 Thanks for the info!

 Something I have noticed is that the original carbon tubing is quite stiff when compared to the carbon tubing of the same diamater I've managed to get at hobby stores. 

Perhaps the increased ductility changes the movement of air during oscillations... I have noticed that the wing I repaired (whilst looking pretty much the same) is now the side the dragonfly turns to - which is the opposite side to where it naturally turned to begin with.  Perhaps the properties of the sticky tape is also different and that might alter the wing-strut angle/movement...

 Besides my ramblings... may I ask what type of scale are you using to measure mass so finely? I can't find anything so precise locally!

milw Avatar
  Moderator
July 8, 2007 9:18 AM

Smile I'm using an analytical scale from work, it's good to mg levels. Hm, I didn't compare the stiffness of the tubes, but yes, that would make quite a difference. We need some high speed video of the wing action while in flight!

cheers- Scott 

Visit my Roving RoboReporter blog!

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