I was just wondering, does anyone know how it steers? It has two counterrotating blades (I have no idea how they manage to make them counterrotate on a single rod nor do I know how they manage to keep it so that some small imbalance doesn't cause the overall vehicle to spin) but I don't see another control surfaces. I think it's too light to have a heavy gyroscope. Does it have some sort of gimbal at the base of the rotors to allow them to tilt? Is there some sort of internal mass (the batteries?) that
It's quite simple, it's two concentric shafts, one inside the other. As for steering, I haven't looked at the Mars copter, but helicopters have a device called a swashplate that lets you change the pitch of the blades selectively as the blades spin around 360 degrees. This gets you selective thrust in any direction.
An extreme example of a swashplate would be in 3D helicopter flying.
It's got a swashplate. They mention the health of the swashplate servos in the webcast.
I'm sure it also has tiny solid state/MEMS gyros of some sort, like terrestrial n-copter drones.
The explanation is correct, but the linked video is of no use, to understand the working of the swashplate. This one is better: https://youtu.be/Kd1yLZen33I [youtu.be]
The blades look fixed angle in photos. I think they may be using a rigid rotor system that tilts. That would be mechanically simpler and is quite common with model helicopters.
Getting the weight down and lift up are big considerations because the atmosphere is very thin on Mars, and the reduced gravity doesn't fully compensate.
Good lord, man. Photos are a frozen picture of a moment in time, what else would you expect to see besides a fixed angle?
A tilt rotor system is neither simple nor common. I don't know how many model helicopters you've seen, but I've seen hundreds on my bench over 20 years. Not a single one tilted the entire rotor assembly.
You have all the explanations in the above comments.
There is no swashplate. The tail rotor is turned 90 degrees and it blows UP or DOWN to tilt the entire helicopter, causing the FIXED main rotor to blow slightly forward or backward. In normal hovering, this type of tail rotor DOES NOT ROTATE, AT ALL.
These are made this way because they are cheap and good enough. You are not flying sideways with this arr
I have a tiny 4 axis helicopter with a fixed pitch rotor, Hiller stabilizer bar and swashplate. The model is Jiuchon 9C0002, weights about 35 grams, and I think it falls full square into the "toy helicopter" category, though it takes slightly more skill to hover it in place. The two blades tilt as a single unit around their pitch axis, hence the "fixed pitch" definition. The hiller bar is mechanically mixed with the inputs coming from the swashplate. But I also had a coax "3.5 axis" toy helicopter where the
Does anyone know how it steers? (Score:5, Interesting)
I was just wondering, does anyone know how it steers? It has two counterrotating blades (I have no idea how they manage to make them counterrotate on a single rod nor do I know how they manage to keep it so that some small imbalance doesn't cause the overall vehicle to spin) but I don't see another control surfaces. I think it's too light to have a heavy gyroscope. Does it have some sort of gimbal at the base of the rotors to allow them to tilt? Is there some sort of internal mass (the batteries?) that
Re:Does anyone know how it steers? (Score:5, Informative)
It's quite simple, it's two concentric shafts, one inside the other. As for steering, I haven't looked at the Mars copter, but helicopters have a device called a swashplate that lets you change the pitch of the blades selectively as the blades spin around 360 degrees. This gets you selective thrust in any direction.
An extreme example of a swashplate would be in 3D helicopter flying.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
This is where the swashplate has extreme throws compared to a full-size one...
The Kamov Ka-50 is a full size coax helicopter.
Re: Does anyone know how it steers? (Score:4, Informative)
Re: Does anyone know how it steers? (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
I hope they disabled the GPS module.
Re: Does anyone know how it steers? (Score:2)
Yeah it may fly back to Earth and land on someones head. That may make NASA look bad.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah it may fly back to Earth and land on someones head. That may make NASA look bad.
If NASA could manage that it would make them look great. Elon Musk, eat your heart out.
Re:Does anyone know how it steers? (Score:5, Informative)
The explanation is correct, but the linked video is of no use, to understand the working of the swashplate. This one is better: https://youtu.be/Kd1yLZen33I [youtu.be]
Re: (Score:1)
thanks, I never understood all the stuff I saw on helicopters at the rotors before
Re: (Score:1)
The blades look fixed angle in photos. I think they may be using a rigid rotor system that tilts. That would be mechanically simpler and is quite common with model helicopters.
Getting the weight down and lift up are big considerations because the atmosphere is very thin on Mars, and the reduced gravity doesn't fully compensate.
Re: (Score:1)
Good lord, man. Photos are a frozen picture of a moment in time, what else would you expect to see besides a fixed angle?
A tilt rotor system is neither simple nor common. I don't know how many model helicopters you've seen, but I've seen hundreds on my bench over 20 years. Not a single one tilted the entire rotor assembly.
You have all the explanations in the above comments.
https://hardware.slashdot.org/... [slashdot.org]
One wonders why you felt the need to comment.
Re: (Score:1)
I don't know if you are joking, trolling, or just misinformed or what.
Here is the standard toy setup of a coaxial helicopter
https://sep.yimg.com/ay/yhst-9... [yimg.com]
There is no swashplate. The tail rotor is turned 90 degrees and it blows UP or DOWN to tilt the entire helicopter, causing the FIXED main rotor to blow slightly forward or backward. In normal hovering, this type of tail rotor DOES NOT ROTATE, AT ALL.
These are made this way because they are cheap and good enough. You are not flying sideways with this arr
Re: (Score:2)
I have a tiny 4 axis helicopter with a fixed pitch rotor, Hiller stabilizer bar and swashplate. The model is Jiuchon 9C0002, weights about 35 grams, and I think it falls full square into the "toy helicopter" category, though it takes slightly more skill to hover it in place. The two blades tilt as a single unit around their pitch axis, hence the "fixed pitch" definition. The hiller bar is mechanically mixed with the inputs coming from the swashplate. But I also had a coax "3.5 axis" toy helicopter where the
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
The blades may superficially resemble those of fixed-pitch toy helis, but they in fact have full cyclic and collective control.
Re: (Score:1)
wow, thanks for sharing that video, I will never underestimate the ability of RC pilots again!