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Hello
Hi there my name is Cody, I have been working on a design to help farmers attend to there crops by using a solar powered R/C Plane that you can control from a computer and there would also be a camera you can also see what it sees. I just need some help so I came here looking for it. UAV's for farmers can cost over $7,000 and run less then 55 minutes but I am trying to design one that would only cost you less then $2,000 and run as long as they need it to. So please help me.
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Nothing new at all - probably a hundred companies well ahead of you. The really neat ones I don't have links to as I am not about to spend 10,000$ or far more on a toy.
With solar you can charge a battery - a separate thing all together. Having the solar on the plane is totally impractical
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Russ
Thank you for your reply Russ. We know companies are ahead of us but they are not using solar power to charge them. In our design if the battery runs out of power there are solar panels that run separate motors for the plane. And we think we can bring the cost down on UAVs so we can make them more affordable for people to buy and for farms.Comment
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Cody
I am into flying RC planes and quad copters and have kept an eye on a lot of postings concerning solar pv cells to be used to keep the plane in the air longer.
While there have been some inroads on very large scale solar planes (costing millions of dollars) the smaller ones like you are interested in just don't have enough surface area to put enough solar cells on.
Even when used on gliders, which don't run their motor all the time, the solar cells have been shown to extend flight times but still not very long. Also by adding the weight of a camera and FPV electronics you reduce the flight time even more. Put in a larger battery keeps you up longer but now you need more solar cells to charge the larger battery.
Until a very high efficient solar cell is found there just isn't enough room on small flying platforms to mount enough cells to keep the battery charged.
My suggestion is to look into a large wing shaped RC plane like the Zephyr II made by Ritewing. It is a great FPV platform with a lot of surface area for the cells. Although still not enough area for solar cells to keep them batteries fully charged.
I like your thinking. Just understand the physics you are up against. Good luck with your research.Comment
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Look at the Lehman link[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]Comment
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SunEagle
Hello SunEagle, I actually will be custom making the R/C airplanes myself and I will be customizing the wings so it will fit enough solar panels. There will actually be solar panels for back up motors just in case the battery dies. The back up solar panels will power the motor while the other panels charge the battery.Comment
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Before you talk further why don't you calculate the amount of wing surface required under various conditions.
Why not sit down and determine how few hours or minutes per day you would be able to fly on solar power.
To have any chance at all you would have to be using the high efficiency Boeing solar cells - very expensive.
I don't think you understand how poor your solar harvest will be. Or how small f a surface area you have to work with.[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]Comment
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Nope. I'm not that stupid to fly like that or put anyone in a dangerous position. And I certainly wouldn't post a flight on YouTube if I did. Some people are double stupid.I hope this wasn't you!
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In Istanbul (a couple of years back) some kid posted video of himself doing tricks on his motorcycle in high speed and heavy traffic - they nailed him to the? crescent?[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]Comment
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Unfortunately without batteries to power the motors your solar cells will not provide enough to keep the motors running. Unless the solar cells are perfectly pointed directly at the sun (not something even possible when flying an RC plane or copter) their output drops. And as you know when the battery voltage drops the motors stop and then the plane drops.
As russ has suggested, sit down and do some research first. You will be surprised on how many cells you will need to continuously run a small RC motor. And as soon as those cells stop facing the sun the motor will stop and your plane will drop.Comment
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Cody the Laws of Physics is going to bite you in the butt. I am both a Private Pilot although not current, and a RC pilot. Lots of electric planes out there and the lightest are foamies. Just about everything you want to do exist with off-the-shelf components. Everythig except a extremely efficient and light weight thin film PV panels. Thin film exist and can be used as the skin on wings, but the efficiency is so low all it can do is extend the range a time by a short fraction.
But I have another idea that would work. I will only give you one word clue. The rest is up to you. Blimp.MSEE, PEComment
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