This weight dilemma does not merely occur when attachments are put onto the drone. The battery proves to be another challenge. Increasing battery size leads to more weight on the drone, leading to less flight time. But the larger a battery is, the longer a drone can fly. See the problem? There is a sweet spot where the battery length and the total weight of a completely decked-out drone is maximized. When this balance is reached, the batteries provide energy to power the motors. Having a motor two times as strong as the weight is needed for it to fly, but three times as strong is the most efficient. And another fact: the drone motor is “three phase,” meaning it uses a magnetic field when turning.
The JMU Bee Team’s motor finally starts to spin.
Complex task number two: replicating what we learned from the lecture.
The output of the motors is 1 to 2 milliseconds, which lets us control the motor from 0 to 100 percent power. We used a code on the computer to calibrate the output so that it would be at the correct rate to produce the adequate amount of thrust for given weight… supposedly. Ideally, the ratio of power of the motor to the weight of the drone is 3:1, but a 2:1 ratio will allow the drone to fly. Something went wrong with our tests because when we put a propeller on the motor, the whole stand bent backwards. Xavier “fixed” the problem by putting his hand behind the stand to keep it upright, and we clamped the whole thing onto the table to avoid it flying into the Landmine group working at the table next to us.
Xavier puts his fist behind the wooden lever to
prevent it from bending backwards onto the table.
To find the actual thrust of the motors and the length of time that the drones can fly, we used a website called eCalc. We also plugged in various components such as motor speeds and different sized propellers to calculate the power output.
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