Our Solarplane Dreamship Surprise

Hello Flitetest,

Thats my first article and I want to show you our Solarplane that we build this summer.

We are currently in the 11th class and that was our project for the last schoolyear.

Before that in the 9th class we build an solarboat :

After that we thought of something more faster and we want to build an solarplane.

As an inspiration we found that very nice project : http://www.solarimpulse.com/

Our first idea was to build an own plane for the solarcells but because we had not so much money and time we bought an wing that was made for gliding : http://www.kuestenflieger.de/modelle/albatros/index.html

For the cells we used some of a little german factory. The specs are:

0,6 V and 2 A by a size of 78x78 mm

On our plane we have 24 of that and with good sun we have 13 V and 2 A.

Here are some pictures of the build;

The wingspan is 2 meters and finally the weight is about 1,5 kilogramm.

After we build the wings we had to build a case for the solarcells and a motormount.

We decided to print the things on our 3d printer mendel prusa.

Here are the cases for the solarcells. Some in balsa and some in abs. We had to build some in balsa because our filament was empty :)

For flight stabilisation and autonomous flight we bought an CRIUS AIO by RcTimer with GPS and Current Sensor so we could let it flight alone.

Our biggest Problem was how to charge the battary in flight with all the Current that we have.

We could either build an own MPPT or we could use an balancer charger.

We decided to use this Balancing Charger from parkzone : http://www.parkzone.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=PKZ1040

It can charge with up to 3 A. After we bought one on Ebay we adjusted it :

Thats the final product :)

The battery in the front is a Lipo 3S 3300 mAh.

The motor draws on cruising speed a little bit more than 2 A. Our longest flight was something around 3 hours and still some power in the battery :)

Greetings from germany

Jan :)