Power for the Glider

Just found the best little switch mode power supply from www.jaycar.com.au the KC5508 (oddly doesnt show on the web site)

It is a 1.2v to 20v 1.5A supply. Works a dream.

Wing joint connections

It turns out that having stability in the wing joints is hard and whats harder is to thread the servo control cables through the wings.

So to this end I have put in perminate wiring .

The socket is a 8pin din plug through which I run the 2 servos and a usb connection for the on-board camera in the wing.

 

Then when I go to connect the wing up all there is a plug to plug in, the carbon fiber rod (at rear) to lock in and then screw up the top and bottom plates in the middle. Ready to fly. 

Now the balancing act

So here we are about a year down the track and I have learned a lot.
First thing is that all dxf files are not the same. What I found was that when I selected sections from the cad drawing to be cut and exported from draftsight to dxf files that some of the shapes came out wrong. Curves were the main issue. They would be moved and rotated to odd locations. This means that I then needed to go in and edit them as dxf format for the cam software to pick them up.
This then showed that not all splines joined up and the cam software would not sort correctly. There were also cases of the same spline being repeated so that the cutter would do multiple traces of the same path.
Lasers are brilliant for cutting balsa wood but multiple passes just char to much. You can get away with a dvd laser if all you want is a mark but a 3w is better and a 10w would be excellent.
It is surprising how much weight you need to balance the glider. It's just over a kilo in my case.