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Flight Test Pod

Chris Hill

Well Known Member
I want to design and build a flight test air data collection pod that can be attached to any aircraft such as the RV series, Stearman, Cub etc. I thought I would see if anyone here might have advice/suggestions/skills to offer in completion of this project.

I am planning for 2 telescoping booms weighing less than 10 pounds per boom. I want one boom to collect airspeed, static pressure, and air temperature, and I want the second boom to collect angle of attack and yaw angle information.

I'd like to have it intgrated in to small computer or ipad that would automatically record the data and time.

The end result would be a bolt on pod (brackets would be individually tailored to the test aircraft) capable of recording data to allow bootstrap performance calculations for any airplane.

Thanks in advance!
 
Can't speak for anyone else, but I certainly would not want to install the mounts required to bolt a couple of 10 lb booms on my aircraft (not to mention the effects of the booms themselves) :eek:

Perhaps you could use a "temporarily" installed (speed taped) AOA to the side and tap into the existing P-S system?
 
True, you add an element of unknown, but people have done way worse...think tip tanks, wing walkers, etc. I'd like to fit electronic sensors inside of a 2 inch diameter aluminum tube which should have minimal aerodynamic penalty. It might even weight less than 10 lbs.

Does anyone have any exerience in computer programming? I'm trying to find a way to collect data from the sensors electronically.
 
think smaller

This could be done with an Arduino micro controller and some add on instrumentation -- check out Sparkfun for some ideas.

Other than the hardware for an AOA sensor, this could all fit inside of a box smaller than an Altoids can. SD memory logging, and self-contained 3v power...
 
You would be better off buying a Dynon D10A, tapping into existing pitot/static ( which is super easy these days with press on fittings), building a simple AOA probe and attaching to existing pitot. Then use the D10's data logging to capture not only air data, AOA, but Ax, Ay, Az, p, q, r, theta, phi, psi (3 axis accel, 3- axis rates as well as earth referenced geometric angles). Use simple tape measures to determine stick position (manually) and you have a portable system capable of capturing all the data needed to characterize an airplanes Handling Qualities. Manually record engine parameters and you'll get the performance info too.

If you think having a boom will alleviate static error issues you maybe correct provided you can calibrate the boom as installed - which is not trivial.
 
DIY Drones is a good place for the hardware.

Does anyone have any exerience in computer programming? I'm trying to find a way to collect data from the sensors electronically.

I would go with something like this.
http://store.diydrones.com/Kit_MPXV7002DP_p/kt-mpxv7002dp-01.htm

And if you need static pressure and tempature:
http://store.diydrones.com/product_p/br-0011-01.htm

I've used things like this in the past for some projects. You'll need a simple data logger. I did end up writting my own A/D data logger for storing values to a sd card.

You can use something like this for data logging but it does not have a built in sdcard.
http://store.diydrones.com/ArduPilot_Mega_IMU_Shield_OilPan_Rev_H_V1_0_p/br-0013-01.htm The source for this is open source and pretty easy to work with.

Good luck.
 
Wow, good call! I still have to have a boom out in the freestream air in order to collect the most accurate data. In that way, I can calibrate the boom/pod sensors and it should be good for any aircraft. I'll look into those ideas though and come back with questions :)
 
You would be better off buying a Dynon D10A, tapping into existing pitot/static ( which is super easy these days with press on fittings), building a simple AOA probe and attaching to existing pitot. Then use the D10's data logging to capture not only air data, AOA, but Ax, Ay, Az, p, q, r, theta, phi, psi (3 axis accel, 3- axis rates as well as earth referenced geometric angles). Use simple tape measures to determine stick position (manually) and you have a portable system capable of capturing all the data needed to characterize an airplanes Handling Qualities. Manually record engine parameters and you'll get the performance info too.

If you think having a boom will alleviate static error issues you maybe correct provided you can calibrate the boom as installed - which is not trivial.

The D10A is an interesting idea. Depending on how devoted to the cause I am, I may go that route. Right now it provides more features for more $$ than I'm ready to commit.

MGLs electronics are pretty decent looking, so I will spend some time looking at that.

The micro electronics DTW and Fuzz posted are about right in size obviously and price too.

The real kicker right now is taking the data from sensors and getting it into a useable form on the PC.

Thank you all for the inputs! Lots of good ideas to go read about. I'll see if I can figure something out and post it for critique. Hopefully I come up with some easy to reproduce and easy on the wallet incase someone else wants to make one.
 
I want to design and build a flight test air data collection pod that can be attached to any aircraft such as the RV series, Stearman, Cub etc. I thought I would see if anyone here might have advice/suggestions/skills to offer in completion of this project.

I am planning for 2 telescoping booms weighing less than 10 pounds per boom. I want one boom to collect airspeed, static pressure, and air temperature, and I want the second boom to collect angle of attack and yaw angle information.

I'd like to have it intgrated in to small computer or ipad that would automatically record the data and time.

The end result would be a bolt on pod (brackets would be individually tailored to the test aircraft) capable of recording data to allow bootstrap performance calculations for any airplane.

Thanks in advance!

This has all been done by the.... CAFE FOUNDATION http://cafefoundation.org/v2/aboutcafe_main.php

Contact.... [email protected] (Brien Seeley)
 
How are you planning to weigh these airplanes?

How do you expect to get the engine power or thrust?

Dave

For weighing, I was thinking some electronic scales would do the trick. They dont need to be excessively precise. Any other ideas?

For engine power, I'd like to use power charts where available. Some engines just arent going to have those available, so I'm shopping for ideas there too.

Thrust we can calculate and/or measure directly
 
< $100 Arduino / Bluetooth / GoPro Mount Sensor Pod

Last year, for EAA's Founder's Innovation Prize competition, I made a < $100 sensor pod with an Arduino variant connected to a differential pressure sensor, with Bluetooth to an iOS App. The general idea was that the pod would attach to a GoPro style mount and provide pitot static data to an iOS device and cost about as much as a "Stratux" DIY device, but for pitot-static and other flight data instead of ADS-B.

I did not get selected by the EAA -- other similar things were selected to present during AirVenture. However, other than the $2000 Levil BOM Pod, I have not seen anything further in this space, and nothing further from the other EAA Founders Prize Finalists.

I have not tested it in flight (I just got a steam-gauge RV-6A that I may try this out on once I get transition training and comfortable with the airplane), but, when I saw this thread, I figured I would share this for educational/discussion purposes here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18mL9U718EX5rQHKicf2mjgVoycELpJsp/view?usp=sharing
 
This...
https://wingbug.com
also looks interesting. Not sure if they are for sale yet, but they had a few units at Sun n Fun. I believe they said raw data was captured on the iPad and was exportable.

I have no connection or experience with them.

Good luck, sounds like an interesting project.

Peter
 
This...
https://wingbug.com
also looks interesting. Not sure if they are for sale yet, but they had a few units at Sun n Fun. I believe they said raw data was captured on the iPad and was exportable.

I have no connection or experience with them.

Good luck, sounds like an interesting project.

Peter

I hope to have a WingBug to test soon, and if that happens, we?ll let everyone know how well it works!

Paul
 
I did something with altitude several years ago... never really followed up with the idea though.

I have a set of sensors I was going to use to make a pitot tube and a set of gyros etc that I was going to use to make a bank turn and artificial horizon. I'll have to dig those sensors out of the box if you want to know what they are. The one sensor had two vacuum tube ports on it so you could hook one up for static and one for "ram air" which would give you all you needed for airspeed.

AOT sensor would be easy enough basically a potentiometer like a fuel sending unit.

http://www.diyavionics.com/projects/arduino/altimeter

The one thing I found at the time alot of the other projects on the internet the formulas people were using was wrong to calculate the altitude of pressure, or didn't adjust for baro. So I derived my own formulas.

EDIT:

The sensors for airspeed
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/NXP-Freescale/MPXV7002DP?qs=N2XN0KY4UWXOkdT07YYQaw==
or if you want the tubing etc
https://www.amazon.com/Hobbypower-Airspeed-MPXV7002DP-Differential-controller/dp/B00WSFWO36
diydrones has one also
 
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