Closed StephenCarlson closed 3 years ago
Mostly solved by ede11e9. I'm considering the winglets to be the best place for any transceivers, given we want to separate radio components and antennas as far as possible on a platform like this, but I also understand that it increases the roll inertial by doing this. Mounting avionics in the wing is possible, but given that the wings can have solar cells embedded in the top surface, it would be inviting more complexity to establish the precedent that radios can stick out of the wing surface.... I'll probably add avionics pockets to the wings in the future; for now, winglets should do.
New winglet in ce00e7db2625b679fa5b0644c8a87afdc569e009 . Mentioning #21 here for the record. The new winglet fully conceals the GPS pocket now, so this means two things: First, the aerodynamics and polish are much better, but Second, building the aircraft is slightly more complicated. The GPS and pitot pressure sensor, which both live in the pocket, will need to be installed into the winglet first, and then the winglet is glued onto the wing. If the winglet is printed in sections, that is one way to avoid this, but it still means some part of the winglet is glued on after the fact. Is it worth it? I think so, as the GPS is now much better protected, the pitot-probe pressure sensor is better shielding from incident light getting into it, and everything looks nicer. The hard part will be the pitot pressure tubing during the install.
The only residence of the wings for the present v1.0.x release are the servos. There is plenty of real estate for electronics in the outboard sections of the wings, at the risk of increasing rotational inertia in the roll axis. Well would likely be hexagon or square cutouts with provisions for a formed hatch to retain the original OML of the wing.