Very good job. You are on the right track to have the best results possible! I made a solar glider similar to yours a few years ago. It was 0.5 meters bigger wingspan and produced 100+ watts and the cruise speed power consumption was 75watts~ @ 45mph. I hope to be able to share the results of my next design version in the future. Good luck Luka!
Well done man .. well done.. I am building and flying model airplanes for more than 45 years now.. and I am happy to see how far we have come.. keep on engineering.. !!! greetings from Switzerland
Luka: I am immediately a fan of you. Nice project, well photographed, and explained. You, like a very few others worldwide are setting the bar for the rest of us in the future. I LOVE your choice of background music. Very inspiring! - Jim Subscribed today.
Can you put links to all the parts you used? My friends and I are trying to replicate something like this and seeing how well we can do this for a science fair project.
Should have checked out RCTestFlight on UA-cam. His V3 craft in 2015 was almost identical to this but his wings were machined carbon fiber frames that fit the cells a bit better. Might have been able to squeeze out some more juice. Seems like your battery work is much better though.
Have you thought bout adding some supercapacitors. They can provide boost when you need it and they can soak up extra power from the solar when the motor is not consuming energy.
Thanks for considering this idea. Let me know if you need help designing or sizing the capacitor bank. I looked into it a bit and saw that there is one guy using 18650B panasonic Li-Ion cells in his solar glider. He had great results and i was going to suggest these but considering the inefficiencies of energy exchange and the difficulty of matching the solar voltage to the battery voltage i thought caps could be a good way to go. You might also want to try the newer bigger version of the 18560B 20700 (A, B or C) depending on the application. You would want the one that has the lowest C rating. They can output power for a longer period as long as it's relatively low amounts of power. The cells with the highest C rating are good for very high power applications but they can not last as long in duration. Correction. I think the 20700 cells only come as NCR20700A and NCR20700B You would require B as A is the one with the high C rating and short life. But i'm liking the idea of the capacitor technique. I think keeping weight down is key but it might become difficult to fly or more like a glider. Well you could put some pretty beefy capacitors in there. I can take a look to see whats out there if you like.
Hi Luka, well done. Simple and effective!! You are using the SEPIC module if I am correct. Did you consider connecting it to an Arduino and have it work as an MPPT?
I don't use MPPT (power tracker) because my plane is more than 100% efficient so I don't need it. But I am working on New Bigger Solar Airplane that should fly FOR 24/7 whit MPPT.
Awesome! I agree with your views regarding the future of R/C aircraft. Unfortunately, you live quite some ways from me. I am in the U.S., in the state of RI. I have been building models of all kinds since I was very young, mostly fixed-wing aircraft, and eventually I took the plunge into R/C planes and one helicopter. I started get back into R/C aircraft after some years and my goal is to build a long-range UAV. I haven't decided how I am going to power the aircraft, which will dictate the design. I will most likely use a a gas engine along with 'wet-wings' due to the distance that I am shooting for. I have been looking at some of the designs of already available UAV aircraft with my own ideas, including drop-tanks, possibly solar cells to save battery weight and I have also been toying with the idea of an electric back-up motor. I want to install an electric starter, fuel pump, and an ignition system. Yes! It's a tall order. I purchased a 3d printer and I have some experience with CNC and manual milling, something that I have wanted to learn more about. My goal is a 350 mile flight to my brother's home in NY, and back. I have looked into incorporating WIFI to my design. Raspberry Pi, Pix-Hawk, Ardupilot, Sixfab shield, and a few other goodies. I have ton to learn especially in regards to the electricity aspect and the coding that is involved. That's one of many reasons that videos such as yours are incredibly awesome. Thank you for your contribution.
Hi. Big Kudos from Nigeria. I'm into drones too and would love to do this for my Final year project. How much will it cost to complete this project sir
Hi Luka, Great build! Thats impressive run times for so few batteries. Your solar cells are definitely doing their job! What kind of motor were you using on that 16 hour flight? How long could you fly that setup without solar cells. Sorry if you answered any of that in the video. I watched it all but may have missed something.
Wow, this is a cool plane. If youn can build a camera into the cabin, you can remove a bit of the trimmweight in the nose and you can fligh on a long range so you can produce a great photage. Good luck from germany. Ps: sorry for my teribble english, im still a student. ;-)
I am using APM mini 3.1 and telemetry link: onedrone.com/store/flight-electronics/telemetry/3dr-radiotelemetry-kit-433mhz.html . Yes I dont use ailerons, I dont need them.
That's some very cool stuff! Just a suggestion, in the future you might want to check out different solar cells, find the ones that produce the most power for their surface area, and design the wing around them. I notice your wingtips are tapered, that means there's quite a bit of wing area that doesn't have solar cells to produce power. Not that it's much of a problem, but for this kind of application you want to save weight as much as possible, so a straight non-tapered wing with the right chord and span could be entirely covered in solar cells with no 'dead' area. Thanks for posting :)
I'm thinking it's not just a matter of getting the biggest wing area for the solar cells, but also making an efficient wing, so it can fly with minimum energy. Hence - among other things - tapered wingtips. Balancing the competing requirements - the magic of engineering !
And I think he connect to series different panel pieces with different size, this is problem because the the current restricted by the solar cell that generate the smallest amonut of amps.I tried this with my DIY solar panel, it was enought to cover one cell out of 24 the power drop from 90W to almost 0W...
thanks for posting. good work. you should realize, however, at the earth's surface, solar power will Always be Intermittent. that's not good in a power system, where a Continuous (or nighttime) load is planned. cheers
Undefined Lastname I don't understand why you need to divide 1hr by 60 min and if 108 w is consumed for 1min then for 60 min there will be more energy consumption and 108w should be multipled by 60min and that's 6,480 watt/hr but are you sure it's 108w because that's like an electric blub. I think it's 108mW/min.
Undefined Lastname Undefined Lastname Undefined Lastname so if your formula means watt/hr = watt used (min used/60min) then for this RC solar aircraft 108W*(60/60min)=108Wh but why it's 1,8Wh(is it 1.8)?
Undefined Lastname I think that's how we measure the ampre hour of a battery also? On a battery if it's written as 1000mA/hr of 12V battery then does it mean that it will give 1000mA to a load of 12 watt (power = current*volts = 1A*12V = 12W) for 1hr? But how we will find the ampere hour of a battery if we only know it's voltage?
Undefined Lastname I didn't get the 20 hrs thing but can you tell me what it means when a AA cell battery rated 2500mA of 1.3V and if we make a battery then how we will find it's ampere hour?
Hi. Big Kudos from Nigeria. I'm into drones too and would love to do this for my Final year project. How much will it cost to complete this project sir
Very good job. You are on the right track to have the best results possible! I made a solar glider similar to yours a few years ago. It was 0.5 meters bigger wingspan and produced 100+ watts and the cruise speed power consumption was 75watts~ @ 45mph. I hope to be able to share the results of my next design version in the future. Good luck Luka!
Well done man .. well done.. I am building and flying model airplanes for more than 45 years now.. and I am happy to see how far we have come.. keep on engineering.. !!! greetings from Switzerland
Another slovenian genius guy
This is awesome, 2 thumbs up for you bro 👍👍
Very cool plane! Good job with the solar powered glider.
Luka:
I am immediately a fan of you. Nice project, well photographed, and explained. You, like a very few others worldwide are setting the bar for the rest of us in the future. I LOVE your choice of background music. Very inspiring! - Jim
Subscribed today.
Can you put links to all the parts you used? My friends and I are trying to replicate something like this and seeing how well we can do this for a science fair project.
guess thats a no, seeing it been 4 years
thank you for your great work inspiring me to become an aerospace engineer
Should have checked out RCTestFlight on UA-cam. His V3 craft in 2015 was almost identical to this but his wings were machined carbon fiber frames that fit the cells a bit better. Might have been able to squeeze out some more juice. Seems like your battery work is much better though.
Cool system Luka...Slovenia is ahead of everyone in this field.
Wow, great work!! I would like to say more, but I am speachless. You are one of the leaders of the next generation my friend!
nice job. please make a video about electronics connections.
Hİ Luka, Great Work, is mppt charger is waste of tech, beacuse of so much movement on the solar power levels. What do you think
impressing. why no solar cells on the tail....?
Have you thought bout adding some supercapacitors. They can provide boost when you need it and they can soak up extra power from the solar when the motor is not consuming energy.
wow, great idea I didn't think about this, I will consider it for my nex solar project. Thanks :)
Thanks for considering this idea. Let me know if you need help designing or sizing the capacitor bank.
I looked into it a bit and saw that there is one guy using 18650B panasonic Li-Ion cells in his solar glider. He had great results and i was going to suggest these but considering the inefficiencies of energy exchange and the difficulty of matching the solar voltage to the battery voltage i thought caps could be a good way to go. You might also want to try the newer bigger version of the 18560B 20700 (A, B or C) depending on the application. You would want the one that has the lowest C rating. They can output power for a longer period as long as it's relatively low amounts of power. The cells with the highest C rating are good for very high power applications but they can not last as long in duration.
Correction. I think the 20700 cells only come as NCR20700A and NCR20700B You would require B as A is the one with the high C rating and short life. But i'm liking the idea of the capacitor technique. I think keeping weight down is key but it might become difficult to fly or more like a glider.
Well you could put some pretty beefy capacitors in there. I can take a look to see whats out there if you like.
Sorry, i am just as excited about the performance of the Li-Ion cells as i am about the capacitor bank, the above comment is a bit mixed up :D
Oh yes, that is you, you are the guy using the Li-Ion :D great idea, very efficient.
izzzzzz6 i didn't understand his calculations because 108 multipled by 1 min is 108 but not 18 Wh and 50 by 10 is 500 not 5Wh
excellent job Luka ! Keep it up !
Nice build Luka
Hi, great job. How many miles for 16 hours flight ?
Hi Luka, well done. Simple and effective!! You are using the SEPIC module if I am correct. Did you consider connecting it to an Arduino and have it work as an MPPT?
I don't use MPPT (power tracker) because my plane is more than 100% efficient so I don't need it. But I am working on New Bigger Solar Airplane that should fly FOR 24/7 whit MPPT.
hey man, how is going with this new project ?
Great project !
You say 16h flight, but can you share the flight logs produced by the autopilot ?
The full flight link redirects to this page...
Awesome! I agree with your views regarding the future of R/C aircraft. Unfortunately, you live quite some ways from me. I am in the U.S., in the state of RI. I have been building models of all kinds since I was very young, mostly fixed-wing aircraft, and eventually I took the plunge into R/C planes and one helicopter. I started get back into R/C aircraft after some years and my goal is to build a long-range UAV. I haven't decided how I am going to power the aircraft, which will dictate the design. I will most likely use a a gas engine along with 'wet-wings' due to the distance that I am shooting for. I have been looking at some of the designs of already available UAV aircraft with my own ideas, including drop-tanks, possibly solar cells to save battery weight and I have also been toying with the idea of an electric back-up motor. I want to install an electric starter, fuel pump, and an ignition system. Yes! It's a tall order. I purchased a 3d printer and I have some experience with CNC and manual milling, something that I have wanted to learn more about. My goal is a 350 mile flight to my brother's home in NY, and back.
I have looked into incorporating WIFI to my design. Raspberry Pi, Pix-Hawk, Ardupilot, Sixfab shield, and a few other goodies. I have ton to learn especially in regards to the electricity aspect and the coding that is involved. That's one of many reasons that videos such as yours are incredibly awesome. Thank you for your contribution.
What record is held here exactly? Sky-Sailor flew for 27 hours straight in 2008.
WOW,
great job!!
did the powerplant has a reduction gear for better efficiency?
Good work man! Thank you for sharing.
Hi Luka which component did you use to charge lithium ion battery from energy received from Solar cells?
i think a solar panel controller sums up the evolution here
Hi. Big Kudos from Nigeria. I'm into drones too and would love to do this for my Final year project. How much will it cost to complete this project sir
May you can share link of solar cells you have used and charge controller?
brilliant prject! may i know the name of the circuit that u use it to transfer energery from solar to battery
If if flies more than 6 and up 16 hours, I can make fly 200 miles in autopilot waypoints????
Please i have to do a prototype for the solar impulse...how can i do it
Can you help me?????
Hi Luka, Great build! Thats impressive run times for so few batteries. Your solar cells are definitely doing their job! What kind of motor were you using on that 16 hour flight? How long could you fly that setup without solar cells. Sorry if you answered any of that in the video. I watched it all but may have missed something.
Hi, I am using 2836/8 1100KV Brushless Outrunner Motor, simple and effective. Without solar cells, I can fly for 1.5 - 2 h.
Excellent video!
Wow, this is a cool plane. If youn can build a camera into the cabin, you can remove a bit of the trimmweight in the nose and you can fligh on a long range so you can produce a great photage. Good luck from germany. Ps: sorry for my teribble english, im still a student. ;-)
This was just a prototype, soon I will be making a better airplane. Thanks for great idea :)
I didn't expect to have a awnser so soon.
@@LukaArtelj pleassse how can i do that ???can you write the instruments and the way ?pleasse really I need your help??
@@ikrammisbah4798 not a problem
@@LukaArtelj ??
Where u got this solar cell ?
What material are you using to cover the solar panels and the wings?
Hi. Very nice glider.
No ailerons are used?
What kind of transmitter are you using to send the GPS data back to ground?
Thanks.
I am using APM mini 3.1 and telemetry link: onedrone.com/store/flight-electronics/telemetry/3dr-radiotelemetry-kit-433mhz.html . Yes I dont use ailerons, I dont need them.
Using a glider design is efficient for distance, but not efficient for endurance.
Are you trying to do long distance automatic missions?
That's some very cool stuff! Just a suggestion, in the future you might want to check out different solar cells, find the ones that produce the most power for their surface area, and design the wing around them.
I notice your wingtips are tapered, that means there's quite a bit of wing area that doesn't have solar cells to produce power. Not that it's much of a problem, but for this kind of application you want to save weight as much as possible, so a straight non-tapered wing with the right chord and span could be entirely covered in solar cells with no 'dead' area.
Thanks for posting :)
I'm thinking it's not just a matter of getting the biggest wing area for the solar cells, but also making an efficient wing, so it can fly with minimum energy. Hence - among other things - tapered wingtips. Balancing the competing requirements - the magic of engineering !
And I think he connect to series different panel pieces with different size, this is problem because the the current restricted by the solar cell that generate the smallest amonut of amps.I tried this with my DIY solar panel, it was enought to cover one cell out of 24 the power drop from 90W to almost 0W...
where is the flight video of this 16h flight
maybe you need two sets of wings
have You thought of making a flying Wing version= less weight
Can u link me to the web site for the charge controller that you have installed in this plane?
Outstanding great job
What mppt do u use for charge the battery? Tq
Very nice job
Отличный проект
What are the specs of the motor you are using and the total weight of the solar plane (including battery)?
a motor has 110 W of power, and the total weight is 1,7 KG.
Thanks a lot. Do you also know how much thrust the motor produces when climbing?
Well done. But your attempt to scale upward will be much more difficult not to mention far more expensive. Lithium battery systems do not scale well.
Hello everyone ! Can someone tell me the title of the song at the very beginning ? Thank you !
Enya - Only Time
Thank you very much ! Good luck for your awesome project !
where r u from , u r genius
What is the engine / motor that is used?
Subscribed! Greetings from Bulgaria.
Great job
Respect my friend
Your job is excellent👍
i hate the fact that there is lead in there . besides that nice plane :)
yea I know, the next time it will be better :)
well done. congratulations!!
thanks for not bombing our village last year from drones. thank you
you are welcome ;)
Good stuff brother
Amazing 👍
Can I buy it from you
16 hours... it might be your Personal Best but it isn't the record...
Solar flight record is 117 hours buddy
Porkchop Sandwiches why hate this shit is still impressive
@@shadi_vq2246 impressive but Calling it the longest flight in history is stupid because its not
And great video explaining everything. Your great
Luka parli italiano? Speak italian?
nice job brother !
Isn't there several others that have done this before you? NASA had a wing in 2006-2008. SolarAtlantik did 81 hours.
yea, you are right but I am an amateur and not NASA
I would like to build that mini airplane
nice plane... i wanna built one like urs will u help
nice video to watch
thanks :)
thanks for posting. good work. you should realize, however, at the earth's surface, solar power will Always be Intermittent. that's not good in a power system, where a Continuous (or nighttime) load is planned. cheers
very nice !
i didn't understand your calculations because 108 multipled by 1 min is 108 but not 18 Wh and 50 by 10 is 500 not 5Wh
Undefined Lastname I don't understand why you need to divide 1hr by 60 min and if 108 w is consumed for 1min then for 60 min there will be more energy consumption and 108w should be multipled by 60min and that's 6,480 watt/hr but are you sure it's 108w because that's like an electric blub. I think it's 108mW/min.
Undefined Lastname Undefined Lastname Undefined Lastname so if your formula means watt/hr = watt used (min used/60min) then for this RC solar aircraft 108W*(60/60min)=108Wh but why it's 1,8Wh(is it 1.8)?
Undefined Lastname okay... now i got it! But how he measured the wattage consumption for 1 min?
Undefined Lastname I think that's how we measure the ampre hour of a battery also? On a battery if it's written as 1000mA/hr of 12V battery then does it mean that it will give 1000mA to a load of 12 watt (power = current*volts = 1A*12V = 12W) for 1hr? But how we will find the ampere hour of a battery if we only know it's voltage?
Undefined Lastname I didn't get the 20 hrs thing but can you tell me what it means when a AA cell battery rated 2500mA of 1.3V and if we make a battery then how we will find it's ampere hour?
How does it land?
RebellisSpiritus on his belly
By coming into contact with the ground :)
wow , its great..
Nice project but the claim that solar powered aircraft are the future is a bit bold.
subscribed!!
Subscribed! Greetings from Pakistan :)
cool project, and you are correct, thats the future. look at company HANERGY from china. thinfilmsolar. greetings.
Whata locely clear voice. See im not racist so long as its ledgible
Wh NOT W !
Ты молодец! А как тебе это видео ua-cam.com/video/fgB9TuYUsYc/v-deo.html
there was no record here just talking about that's what you want it to do LAME!!! not even a flight
Not even close to longest flight in history...
Hi. Big Kudos from Nigeria. I'm into drones too and would love to do this for my Final year project. How much will it cost to complete this project sir