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Protection

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Joris Dirks edited this page May 17, 2020 · 13 revisions

Table of Contents

Hardening the EPP

There are two main ways of protecting the foam of the airplane: Tape and Laminate.

Tape is good for protecting the most exposed areas, such as the leading edges of the wing and the landing zone on the belly. Use a bi-directional filament tape such as 3M 8969, it is nearly impossible to rip. It is also a bit heavy though, so you probably do not want to cover the entire plane with it.

For that, you use laminate. It is a polyester covering film to laminate the drone.

Repairing the EPP

  • Tape the hinge using filament tape. Clean surfaces with alcohol. Fold the elevon down, apply tape on the top side. Fold it up, apply tape on the bottom side side.
  • Try warming the bent eleveon with hot water, it should expand back to original shape.
  • If that fails, clamp it softly between two boards or other straight items for at least a day.
  • If that fails too, tape/glue a 3mm carbon tube to the trailing edge to keep it straight.

Instructions

Popular material

Camera

The lens on the nose is difficult to replace and easy to scratch or dislodge (leading to out of focus).

Many use a CPL filter (polarisation) or ND2/ND4 filter (grey filter, helping against over-exposure). a 37mm filter can be fitted with a GoPro Hero 3 adapter.

3d printed lenses

Waterproof electronics

CorrosionX can be used to protect electronics (servos, C.H.U.C.K. except the barometer) from water/corrosion[1][2]

GPS tracking

With any long-range flying aircraft, it is a good insurance to have some way of tracking its' position if and when you crash it. There are three main technologies to use:

Glympse (built-in to 4gmod)

Disco4g can track your drone with 4g and built-in gps, even when you're flying over wifi. Downside: If the drone crashes so hard the system shuts down (for example if the battery is ejected), the locationing will also shut down.

Stand-alone GPS tracker

Stand-alone trackers contain a separate GPS and send their position over the cellular network. There are alternatives with and without monthly fees.

One important thing when selecting device is to make sure it is compatible with the cellular network where you plan to use it. Some GPS trackers only support the 2G GSM network, which is being shut down in parts of the world.

With monthly fee

Some alternatives (not a complete list):

  • Trackimo Guardian (2G+3G) costs $200 for the device and $5/month after the first year.
  • Minifinder Pico (2G) costs €140 for the device and €9-€16/month.
  • Tailit Mini (2G) costs $80 for the device and $7-$10/month.
  • Tractive (2G) costs $60 for the device and $4-$8/month. A nice detail is that you can buy the subscription only when you need it, i.e. when you've lost your plane!

Without monthly fee

Note that you need a separate SIM card for these to be able to report their position back to you. Most people use a prepaid SIM.

If you search for GPS trackers online, keep in mind that some very cheap/small trackers have only location based positioning based on cell towers nearby, which is generally very coarse and not usable for finding a drone. They are not always marked as such upfront.

RF tracker

Another route is having an RF or beeping locator beacon in the drone (could be combined with GPS)

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