thanks so much , se it can be done they did it why not us

Your question was about a drone. The common usage of that term in the U.S. refers to quadcopter, not gliders or airplanes. It also applies to flying, unmanned weapons used by the military but that is usually determined in context. When the news describes a drone attack, we assume it was not a quadcopter attack. If the news talks about a teenager spying on the girl next door with a drone, we know it was not a weaponized airplane.

Yes, solar power can be relevant on a glider and it's been done at multiple scales. No, solar is not very useful on a quadcopter.

Are you suggesting that this thread is about solar-powered flight, i.e. powered gliders like the one you have linked?

 

A Rob has a strong desire to do something that is not impossible. Ask yourself: If you cannot offer help or encouragement, why do you post in this thread?

To to quote my former boss, Dave Wilton "Man who says it cannot be done shall not stop the man doing it."

 

A Rob has a strong desire to do something that is not impossible. Ask yourself: If you cannot offer help or encouragement, why do you post in this thread?

It's not helpful to ask what he wants to do? I assumed there might be some language problem, that his use of the word 'drone' is different than mine. What's so bad about clarifying the project goals?

 

I am sorry if I sounded like I was talking about you, @wayneh . My comment was in response to a post prior to your post, not yours. You are being helpful as usual.

 

Would be helpful to tell OP, go buy a 100W panel first and see if you can mount it, balance it and fly it.
And if you can do this we will show you what to do next.

If so, @a Rob Buy a 100W panel and get back to us.

 

I did not see what looked like 100W panels on those small planes in the videos. What I did see was planes that were designed to be, as @blocco a spirale put it, "essentially a power-assisted glider". Perhaps that is the direction in which @a Rob should be looking.

By the way, I did not see A Rob refer to a quadcopter in any of his posts. As Wayneh indicated the term "drone" makes people think of quadcopters in the U.S. it may have a broader meaning elsewhere.

I am remaining optimistic.

 

By the way, I did not see A Rob refer to a quadcopter in any of his posts

In Post#16 he referred to the DJI Phantom 3 Advanced which is a quadcopter.

 

In Post#16 he referred to the DJI Phantom 3 Advanced which is a quadcopter.

Thank you for the correction.

 

The TS needs some of these?
http://news.mit.edu/2016/ultrathin-flexible-solar-cells-0226

Or maybe these:
http://www.powerfilmsolar.com

 

The TS needs some of these?
http://news.mit.edu/2016/ultrathin-flexible-solar-cells-0226

Or maybe these:
http://www.powerfilmsolar.com

Pretty neat stuff. The MIT concept has a long way to go but has promise, I guess time will tell. They make no mention of output power? The second link while interesting also has a long way to go. The Low Light Power Development Kit available for $99 USD has the following specifications:
Battery
- Nominal Voltage - 3.7V
- Typical Capacity - 40 mAh
- Includes protection circuit
Board
- Low-Light Indoor Kit
- (3) Screw terminals
Panel
(2) LL3-37
- Wattage: 1000 lux:1.39 mW
- Current: 1000 lux 515uA
- Operating Voltage: 2.7V

- Typical Voc: 3.5V

This also has a long way to go since the power produced is so minimal. Maybe in a decade or two a solar powered quad copter would be feasible but I really don't see it happening anytime soon let alone today. Today the technology to do what the original poster would like to do simply does not exist. Then too it was only the battery technology advances which made the quad copter drone a reality. Prior to LiPo you would never get a battery in a copter (or plane) to lift its own weight.

I just bought a LED (Daymaker) kit to replace the head lamp and side spots on my motorcycle. A decade ago such brilliant LEDs did not exist. Go figure.

Ron

 

Any idea what kind cells they use on those solar-assisted gliders? They clearly follow the airfoil and make up part of the wing itself. I guess a very thin glass backing would allow a degree of curvature.

 

Any idea what kind cells they use on those solar-assisted gliders? They clearly follow the airfoil and make up part of the wing itself. I guess a very thin glass backing would allow a degree of curvature.

Flying Around the World in a Solar Powered Plane

The journey took a very long time—505 days to fly 26,000 miles (42,000 km) at an average speed of about 45 mph (70 kph)—but pilots Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg successfully landed the Solar Impulse 2 aircraft in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, after flying around the world using only the power of the Sun. Solar Impulse 2 is a solar-powered aircraft equipped with more than 17,000 solar cells that weighs only 2.4 tons with a wingspan of 235 ft (72 m). Technical challenges, poor flying conditions, and a delicate aircraft all contributed to the slow pace. Gathered here are images from the record-setting circumnavigation, undertaken to help focus the world’s efforts to develop renewable energy sources.

Some good reading and material. In this example the guys flying were backed by some serious engineering and as you noted, the panels were custom to the wings so each panel was likely created unique. Much like the heat shield panels of the space shuttle. I doubt they went to Harbor Freight and grabbed a dew panels. I would imagine with some digging more could be learned about the engineering behind the flight(s).

Ron

 

Haha, yeah, the idea of anything flying around with a Harbor Freight label is kind of scary.

 

Haha, yeah, the idea of anything flying around with a Harbor Freight label is kind of scary.

<OFF TOPIC>
Years ago one member (MrAl) had a tagline to the effect of "LED's Versus Incandescent Bulbs, LEDs are winning". A few dacades ago I would have argued that to my death. Damn good thing I didn't! My earliest electronics was Ham Radio when I was a kid, around 13 years old in 1963. I began my formal education with vacuum tubes or valves for my friends across the pond. During my life I have seen some really cool technology advances. I never would have dreamed, growing up with lead / acid batteries that a battery would come along to drive a motor and provide enough energy to lift its own weight. My neighbor has a top end quad copter and that thing is cool. The battery technology is unbelievable that has evolved.

Getting real here for a moment nobody is about to power a quad copter using solar power. The technology simply is not there. That does not mean that tomorrow it won't be there. Tomorrow being several years down the road, anyway, today it is not going to happen. If I did not have so many expensive hobbies I would have popped for a quad copter but there are limits. The things are pretty cool as a toy though. They even have potential commercial use.

</OFF TOPIC>

Ron

 

To my mind, having never flown one, the way to use solar for a quadcopter is to use a big panel as a charging station in the field. Is that more convenient than just bringing along spare batteries? Maybe not.

 

To my mind, having never flown one, the way to use solar for a quadcopter is to use a big panel as a charging station in the field. Is that more convenient than just bringing along spare batteries? Maybe not.

My neighbor has several batteries which he interchanges as he charges them up. A large solar panel in a field would ge great for field operations using a drone for industrial applications.

I have to share this which you may find humorous. Ohio, just like many states has rules governing bridge inspections on Interstate Highways, State Highways and other roads having bridges. Bridge inspections are actually hard and dangerous work requiring inspectors to go over the sides in a harness and inspect bridge undersides and crawl in nooks and crannies. There was a company marketing a $30,000 USD quad copter which could do bridge inspections. I haven't a clue why a $2,000 USD drone had a $30,000 price tag but during a demonstration involving a bridge over a river the drone had a massive power failure and was last seen crashing into the river and was unrecoverable. The state in their infinite wisdom declined to purchase the drones. There was a news crew filming when this little mishap went down. SenseFLY is the name of the company which lost the drone. Good idea but the thing crashed at the worst possible time.

My wife is a retired manager from a small TV station locally. After she retired we were talking to the station manager one day and he told us the station bought a drone they use for filming of Friday Night Football. The very first thing the station did after buying the drone was buy liability insurance just in case...

Ron

 

Proves the axiom I learned to follow: Never demo things publicly if there is any doubt about the demo, or ask questions that you don't already know the answers to. Murphy's law ensures that the rare Black Swan events will occur at the worst possible moments. Like asking OJ to try on the bloody glove.