Sub Gram Ornithopter

I can't help myself. Every time I build something I invariably think of ways I can build it smaller. I built a large ornithopter, now I have to build a small one.

This ornithopter comes in at 920mg, just under 1g, and has a 2.5" wing span. It has 4 flapping wings. The two wings on each side flap towards each other and then away from each other. This produces both thrust and lift.

It is powered by a 8.5mAh single cell lithium polymer battery. Flight times are around 3 minutes per charge. Controls are done through an infrared receiver system which can command the throttle and rudder. The rudder is actuated with a small magnetic actuator.

The motor is a single phase brushless design that is geared 10:1 to flap the wings. The frame is all carbon fiber rod between 0.01" (0.25mm) to 0.02" (0.5mm) in diameter. The covering on the tail is OS Film while the cover on the wings is some thin grocery bag plastic film.

This is very weird to watch fly. The wings are a blur and the whole vehicle looks like its being propelled by a large dust ball. It flies quite slow and looks very much like a large insect. I wouldn't dare fly this outside.. I'm positive a bird would make a meal out of it.

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Micro Servos

When I started to take a break from microscopic flying vehicles in 2010 and migrate towards some larger, easier to work with, models (5-20g) I realized that magnetic actuators just weren't going to cut it for control (rudder, elevator, ailerons). Magnetic actuators are heavy and draw power continuously when deflected away from neutral. I needed servos. Servos would provide lots of pulling force for their weight but at the cost of mechanical complexity. Since servos at the weight I needed didn't exist or were out of my price range I decided to further over complicate the situation and build my own. I started by designing a simple linear servo (lead screw design). The picture above is of my 400mg variant which has a throw of about 0.2", resolution of 0.0015", and can pull about a 25g load. The motor is a brushed 3.2mm diameter coreless design by Shicoh. The gears used are module 0.15 and can be gotten from http://www.kkpmo.com/ . The threaded rod is 0000-160, which

3D Printed Mechanical Pencil

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840mg Biplane

I built this back in May of '07. With this plane I wanted to focus primarily on small size. I was still going for something lighter than my previous plane but I wanted to make an airplane that even I thought was small - a tall order considering I had been building micro r/c planes for year or two at this point. I chose a biplane design for this plane because it would allow me to keep a high wing area but keep the wing span small. The wing span on this plane is 2.75", the chord is 7/8", and the length is 3.75". The frame is all made of balsa wood and covered with OS film. Flight times were in the 4-5 minute range per charge. It is powered by a 3.2mm diameter brushed motor and a 1" propeller. The infrared receiver is capable of controlling the throttle and the rudder with a 7 step proportional control. The rudder is driven with a small electromagnetic actuator. The power source was a single cell 10mAh lithium polymer battery which can be recharged. Weight

The Corner Case

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