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Introduction to flying
The Silverlit UFO quadrotor in flight.
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Quadrotors |
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Silverlit UFO |
The Silverlit UFO is a small quadrotor costing about £ 100 + V.A.T. in the U.K. Thanks to Dr Stephen Prior of Middlesex University to pointing out the presence of this small quadrotor that can be used in tests.
The above image from the Silverlit web site at http://www.silverlit-flyingclub.com/xufo-body.htm. We purchased two Silverlit Quadrotors from separate suppliers in case we were supplied with different items, since there has been quite a lot of copying of this design, much to the irritation of the Silverlit people.
Our experiences
- The supplied battery is too weak. Using the as-supplied NiMH battery (the lower, blue, battery) with a 350 mAh capacity we could only get the quadrotor to fly for a few seconds. Possibly there was a problem with the charger, but the weka battery problem was the same in both Silverlit quadrotors purchased from different companies. We are experimenting with higher capacity LiPo bateries, such as the 1,000 mAh battery shown below, purchased from Sussex Model Centre. The LiPo battery has a voltage of 11.1V, whereas the NiMH battery has a voltage of 12V.
Since there were different connectors on the Vislero LiPo cells, we decided to simply solder some wires to the power leads for the quadrotor, as shown next.
On connecting the other end of the wires to a power supply, we fnd that the current draw of over 4A reached the power supply limit at a voltage of 4.27 volts, as shown next.
© Barnard Microsystems Limited 2006 - 2008