8 ms·
I would like to hear some experience in building drones with higher (~30 min) flight times.
by alanpca 12y ago
I would like to hear some experience in building drones with higher (~30 min) flight times.
- thelonelygod 12y agoFor higher than 30 minutes you really want to look into planes instead of quadcopters. Running 4/6/8 heavy duty motors forces battery life to be an issue. A plane has significantly less than that which lets them go for longer.
- kenrikm 12y agoGood point Skywalker X8 or 1900 are good for longer range FPV planes, I've seen some setups with 80-100km range (UHF Setups) which is pretty impressive.
- commandar 12y agoA fixed wing can also generally run its single motor at lower power most of the time, which contributes as well.
- larrydag 12y agoPerhaps incorporate solar panels to the wings?
- commandar 12y agoPeople have looked at it, but I think the general consensus is that there's not enough surface area on the airframe to generate enough electricity to make a significant impact. Depending on the exact motor+prop setup, peak draw of between 200-400W is pretty common for fixed wings in the 1.5-2M wingspan range, and cruise is often around half of that.
- mbrameld 12y agoI get 30 minutes on a HobbyKing Bixler 1.1 with a 5aH battery. I'm using an EzUHF for control with an EzOSD and 1.3Ghz for the video downlink. In a noisy place, like the suburbs of San Antonio, TX I could get 4 miles of range reliably before the video started breaking up. I'm in AK now and have flown to 12 miles with rock-solid video.