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Need some help with sensors

simong93

Dec 20, 2011
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Hi all im in need of some more help :).

Im curently trying to build a ship and i need to make sure its always stable how would i make sure the ship is always stable is there anyway of makeing it so if it gets slightly tilted one of the motors will spin a bit quicker to make it stable again.

Also im looking into haveing it so when the ship picks up a wall in front it over rides the users control and brings the ship to a stop but im looking to do this for up down left and right.

One more question i want to make it so when she ship lands via its for landing gears i want them to be cushond so i was wondering if i could make it so as the ship lands and starts to weigh down on the landing gear they slowly start turning off the engines.
is any of this posbile.

many thanks all and sorry for the spelling and bad puncuation.
 

donkey

Feb 26, 2011
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this is all possible.... how much do you know about electronics? if its limited knowledge than these 3 tasks could take you sometime
it also depends on the size of the ship, how much room do you have and which of these items is more important? is this for an rc or actual ship?

also you speak of landing gear and you say up/down left/right... is this a plane or boat? if its a boat did you mean forward reverse?
sorry just trying to figure out what we are talking about before giving too much more info
 

simong93

Dec 20, 2011
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this is all possible.... how much do you know about electronics? if its limited knowledge than these 3 tasks could take you sometime
it also depends on the size of the ship, how much room do you have and which of these items is more important? is this for an rc or actual ship?

also you speak of landing gear and you say up/down left/right... is this a plane or boat? if its a boat did you mean forward reverse?
sorry just trying to figure out what we are talking about before giving too much more info

I have limited knoledge i only did certain electrics at motor mechnics this will also be a flying ship that will be a small modal to see if my idea works but my small modal im planning on it being of a resonable size a bit bigger then a 19 inch car tyer if thats any help.

idealy it will be the anti tilt as if the ship tilts to much it will just fall out of the sky.

Its also rc but i want to get it in the air first :D
 

jackorocko

Apr 4, 2010
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if we stick with ship for watercraft and aircraft for flying vehicles it would be so much easier to understand you.

I like donkey keep thinking boat when you say ship.
 

donkey

Feb 26, 2011
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to design all of this is VERY possible. but be warned, some of it may be a little hard to do for 2 reasons, first your limited in experience like myself(I have some ideas though) and 2 aircraft have this annoying thing about being light so we have to use bare minimum, and you have to position them right so as not to unbalance it.

anyway a very simple tilt sensor i can think of is a few mercury tilt switches. add a battery to them and wire them up so whenever the plane leans to one side it adds 1.5v or more to the engine on that side to make it pick up. but this depends on the flight of the aircraft too.
if you use something like a helicopter than it has to tilt to manouver.... if you showed us a pic of the design I could help a little more there.

proximity sensors are nothing new, robots have been using them for ages. you have to find one that suits your needs, being airborne maybe a transducer is in order. there are kits that go on you car and slowly screech as you get closer to an object, modifying that 4 times will add some weight to your design.

and last but not least what type of landing gear you got? do they extend? do you want the engines to instantly turn off would you perfer to slowly cycle down? would you like it to be triggered when the landing gear is deployed or when you "touch down"?
the simplest way through all of that i see anyway is use a switch to pick up when the aircraft lands, make the switch nc, when the landing gear pushes the switch it shuts of power to the motors.

anyway... there are WAY more learned folk than I on here and I bet some will help with finding lighter alternatives. giving us some pics of the aircraft would be cool too. and any specific weight restrictions. also let us know what voltage you have and maybe we could find something premade for you
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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Jan 21, 2010
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The problem with tilt sensors is that they reference tilt with respect to the local frame of reference.

What this means is that if the aircraft is in a turn, and banked, the tilt sensors may detect that the aircraft is in fact level because the acceleration and gravity combine to produce a force that points in a direction other than "down"

There are a number of ways to overcome this. The first is to have the aircraft stationary. The second is to have it undergoing no acceleration. Neither of these are particularly useful.

You might think you could measure the total force and determine what part is due to gravity, however this will only work if your acceleration is limited to 2 dimensions (i.e. no acceleration along the direction of the force of gravity) -- and almost as limiting.

Using gyroscopes is pretty much the recognised way of doing this since they maintain orientation independent of acceleration.
 

donkey

Feb 26, 2011
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steve.... i was going to say gyroscope... but couldn't think of the word... all that came to mind was the word stariting with gy that meant female doctor...

anyway what about my other brilliant ideas?
 

simong93

Dec 20, 2011
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im likeing some of these ideas :D

But anyways the ship will be mainly flat at the bottom with a bigger side at the back and a pointy nose at the front.

Also the aroeplane is going to run on a system simular to jets and will need to be light as the finnished modal will need to carry water.

Also i was hopeing to have a landing gear that as soon as the landing gear is deployed the engines still work but as soon as the Aeroplane touches down then the engines start to turn off.

Voltige is no problum im going to have alot of room spare for extra battery packs.

Also thanks for all the help so far it rearly got me when i got the design done the genral principals of the aeroplane done and the mechnics then got stunned by electrics.
 

donkey

Feb 26, 2011
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voltage may not be an issue for you, but if we give you a circuit based on 24volts that uses 2 amps, and you have a standard 7.2v 2600mah battery pack then lift off will be tough.

got a sketch or pic you can put up of the aircraft?

the simplest ideas are usually the best, but we have to factor in weight issues. this forum is more electronics then rc but we have some awesome thinkers.

getting to know what control systems are already in place as well as weight and space limitations will be of great help. also are you using 2 engines or 4 or more? is it petrol powered or electric?
so many things here to find out.
 

simong93

Dec 20, 2011
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voltage may not be an issue for you, but if we give you a circuit based on 24volts that uses 2 amps, and you have a standard 7.2v 2600mah battery pack then lift off will be tough.

got a sketch or pic you can put up of the aircraft?

the simplest ideas are usually the best, but we have to factor in weight issues. this forum is more electronics then rc but we have some awesome thinkers.

getting to know what control systems are already in place as well as weight and space limitations will be of great help. also are you using 2 engines or 4 or more? is it petrol powered or electric?
so many things here to find out.

the design will have 3 engines on each side for lift two at the front for lift two at the back for lift and 4 at the rear for thrust.

The power source at current is batterys but the finnished project will run on a twist of a hydrogen generator and a soloar power battey.

I was looking into fiberglassing a shell to begin with also as i no this is light and durable as for space limitations there isnt much the aeroplane will be as big as it needs to be to fit the bits in side.

Also each motor will be running two of my engine designs to give the aeroplane continues thrust.

Im sorry for being very vage but from what ive researched my idea hasnt been designed yet and i dont want someone to come along and claim it as theres untill ive got protection in place :D also ill draw a quick sketch tonight of the genral layout of the interior and exterior im planning.
 

donkey

Feb 26, 2011
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if copyright is an issue than no worries.
anyway you might want to look at microcontrollers, for a novice they can be tough but they do alot. you could program a shut down of the engines or even just power them to an idle state. it could also help with the gyroscope and proximity sensors.
heck if you really want it could control fuel consumption for you. but once again the basics i can help with, the implementation is for others
 
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