Ornithopter Servo Conversion: Crossbow 2 RC bird flies with servos instead of conventional gearbox

[@TheAlixour]

The Crow in the background: *Pokemon surprise face* Happy to have stumbled upon your work. Thanks for sharing it!

[@cprooney]

Such a nice natural movement. Ive been searching for a 3D printed version of an ornithopter today, and this is the nicest movement ive found all day. Looking forward to seeing more.

[@OrnithopterZone1]

I put some 3D printable ornithopter parts on my Thingiverse page. www.thingiverse.com/nathanchronister/designs

[@playframe6231]

Servos is obviously the future for ornithopters. The goal is to actually mimic a brid's dexterity

[@michaelrtreat]

This is the future of RC aircraft. Really performs like a bird

[@VivaanJaiswal-o2p]

hey can you please make a video show casing the electronics and transmitter setup for the new servo design .....

[@oracid]

In the video, is the flight of the birds at real speed? Why 2 servos for movement, when one would be enough? Anyway, very good work !

[@d4ro]

By two servos it allows full directional control

[@oracid]

Do you mean turning left and right ?

[@OrnithopterZone1]

The two wing flapping servos can provide left and right steering. And can also provide elevator function. Also, mounting the wings directly to the servos is a lot simpler than using one servo to flap two wings via some kind of mechanism.

[@JiazeCai-q6r]

What's the max flapping frequency here?

[@OrnithopterZone1]

It can be adjusted from the transmitter over a range that is determined by the Arduino programming. Servo speed is measured in degrees per second so as the frequency increases, the potential amplitude decreases.

[@Pluzzie]

that's really really COOL! wish more hobbyist do more omnicracft rc

[@Simon_Rafferty]

I imagine you've figured out that you can lose at least one on the tail servos, leaving just an adjustable elevator - and use differential flap angle between the two wings to give steering. Please continue to make more Ornithopter content - there's not much out there!

[@OrnithopterZone1]

When I first started building servo driven ornithopters, I used only the two servos that flap the wings, and no other servos. The Crossbow originally had a conventional flapping mechanism and two servos in the tail. I retained those two tail servos in order to keep the weight the same in both versions, while knowing that I could have made it lighter by removing them.

[@kaspulanwar7082]

could you tell me about the centre of gravity position? is it 1/4 chord from leading edge?

[@robotics_and_stuff]

I just keep coming back and realizing how good your build is. I have built my servo driven ornithopter, but the some aluminum gears in the servos are failing. I need to address this issue but I'm looking for alternative designs as well and I found your channel. Did you make the aluminum servo horns?

[@OrnithopterZone1]

I designed the servo horns and had them custom made by Servo City. You should be able to order more of them from Servo City. Please contact them if they are not listed on their site.

[@robotics_and_stuff]

@@OrnithopterZone1 Thank you for the reply. I ended up 3D printing reliable servo horn sockets that reinforces the original servo horns.

[@robotics_and_stuff]

What is the reinforced wing material that you use? Could you please link where I can buy that?

[@OrnithopterZone1]

Like many ornithopters a high performance kite fabric is used. This one is a polyurethane coated polyester called Icarex. It is difficult to source but I have been able to find it on ebay.

[@robotics_and_stuff]

@@OrnithopterZone1 Thank you!

[@robotics_and_stuff]

@@OrnithopterZone1 I have purchased kite fabric, it is really strong. I see that the material is sewn, but you also use some kind of glue to hold the thin carbon rods in place. What kind of glue or glue tape do you use for this? Thanks!

[@ShittuOlanrewaju-d9s]

Please what the toque of the servo And any links to get that servo?

[@OrnithopterZone1]

Speed and torque for each of the three servos tested are shown in the video. The best servo for this ornithopter (of the three that were tested) was Hitec HSB-9360TH. It has a torque of 17 kg-cm and speed of 0.06 sec@60deg at 7.4 volts. As mentioned in the video, using a slower servo with more torque, HSB-9370TH, was not helpful. Additional information on the servos can be obtained from Hitec: hitecrcd.com/products/servos/digital ...or Servo City, which is also a good place to buy them from: www.servocity.com/servos

[@meregaming1770]

Would it be possible to use hydraulics?

[@marsmars2851]

Thank you for the info! Could you tell more about whole electronics setup for HSB-9360TH? I'm trying to build raspberry-controlled ornithopter but not sure how to connect it all together.

[@OrnithopterZone1]

I will try to make a video showing how it all works. Driving servos is simple. You need to connect the signal wire of the servo to an output pin on the microcontroller. Send a pulse in the range of 1000-2000 microseconds about every 20 milliseconds. The pulse width determines the servo position. Typical radio receivers output this same type of PWM signal. You can connect each channel of the receiver to a different input pin on the microcontroller. And read the pulse width. Some receivers have a "single wire" output, which offers simpler wiring. But there are many different protocols (cPPM, Spektrum serial, sBus, and others). In ornithopters the microcontroller is powered through a voltage regulator while the servos get power directly from the battery.

[@marckart66]

I purchased a ornithopter from ornihobby. Despite a few weak parts, it flies quite good. I wondered about converting the main motor drive to the central spur gear to be belt driven with a lower kv motor.. But after seeing this, I'm wondering of servo drive on each wing would be better.

[@OrnithopterZone1]

Yes! Please do that and post a video.

[@bobkreutzer869]

What were your reasons for using the adafruit controller over the Arduino?

[@OrnithopterZone1]

It's smaller than Arduino Nano and it is actually running Arduino on it.

[@Rahsajati]

Very good job. Very realistis...👍🎉😊

[@playframe6231]

Make the wings bend!

[@autonoob]

👍 . I would love to see a more realistic wing stroke though. Folding in during the upstroke and pushing the wing forward during the downstroke. Seems fairly inefficient with the straight up and down. But I understand the complexity goes up a fair deal.

[@RedZone54]

Would this fly using Spektrum equipment (receiver and transmitter). I think I saw a 1000mah battery in the specs - on average, how much air time does this give you?

[@OrnithopterZone1]

I use a Spektrum transmitter. I haven't compared the flight time with crank vs servos.

[@frost-hex]

Amazing! Thanks for sharing

[@soaringkhaled]

It's really impressive .... Could you please tell me where I can buy the servo controller ready to us ?? I understand that the board you mentioned in the video is just the hardware ?? but it needs the firmware to run it ... Thanks a lot

[@OrnithopterZone1]

When I have time I will make a video about the programming and post some example code.

[@OrnithopterZone1]

I used to sell ready to use flight controllers and ornithopter kits. I had to close shop because of limited time. It would be nice if a company would make something like this.

[@michaelrtreat]

So cool

[@thejokesters9036]

Great

[@ChandrashekarCN]

💖💖💖💖

[@irkedoff]

💜

[@cillianwilliamson16]

Can it dynamic soar😂😮

[@nivimg]

Cool, now put a HD FPV system on it and send it though the newest gap 😜

[@OrnithopterZone1]

I started FPV flying with ornithopters in 2004 using a CRT monitor plugged into my car. Haha. I still don't have an HD system. Currently using a 4 winged ornithopter to reduce image shake. It's lots of fun.

[@AshutoshSingh-rajput]

👍👍🎉😊👌