DIY tether Typhoon H

[Ralphy]

Guys this concept of tethered drones seems to be taking off as of a couple years ago. The systems right now cost over 3k and do not include the drone. I'd like to be able to collaborate with others that are interested in developing this idea for their own personal recreational use. I have some electrical and electronics knowledge and I understand the overall strategy of the tether and on several other threads others indicated their desire to have this system for personal use. I have a custom battery tray interface that i made several years ago and it will be the starting point for the project.

Keeping the Typhoon H in the air has a demand of 25amps anywhere between 15-16v this is approx 375w. During peak demand that climbing or manuvering it can pull 65 amps.

The strategy is to run high voltage AC up the lightest possible cable than has the electrical and mechanical properties needed and once the high volatge enters the tray it would need to come down to 16v 25 amps DC.


The tray should house a small 4s battery anywhere from 800 to 1500mah and the nessesary electronics to provide the voltage and current demand. The tray total weight for the components including the battery and 200' of wire shouldnt be more than 700g and needs to fit inside the tray which has a clear space of 142mmx49mmx43mm.

 

[Dr Delta]

This is a rapid and cool start of the project.
Sorry to have to say I am not at all clumsy but far from a practicing technician/electrician, so I am afraid I can not be of any great help in your development.

Thanks for taking the lead.

 

[Haydn]

I tried to look on alibaba for wire suppliers but had no luck.
Would love to know what the brand of wire the h00v3rF1y uses.

 

[RiverRunner]

First step is to decide how high you want to go then how much the H can safely lift over and above the battery weight. Once you know the weight, you can choose a wire size (length and diameter) for that weight. You need 2 conductors, flexible, maybe coaxial, maybe aluminum for weight savings. Calculate from the wire diameter, length and material, how much AC voltage you can have without getting hot. You may consider higher frequency AC, not just 50 or 60 Hz.
In the aircraft you would need to step the voltage down and convert it to DC. You could use a transformer, rectifier and a small battery or perhaps a solid state converter of some sort. Ideally, all of this would fit in the battery compartment.

 

[Ralphy]

Cool thanks for the input, a fellow member on here recomeneed the RG-179 cable with a 900v ac rating and it's 5lbs for 500'. I looked at some solid state converters from TDK and they have outputs of 100w 300w and 500w but with either 12v or 24v outputs and traditional voltage inputs of 120v or 240v Ac or DC standard 60HZ.

The price is about 80 cents a watt.

I'll post more later in the week, thanks for the insight

 

[Haydn]

....The tray total weight for the components including the battery and 200' of wire shouldnt be more than 700g and needs to fit inside the tray which has a clear space of 142mmx49mmx43mm.

What weight is the tray?
In the dimensions which is width vs height... Length is obvious.
Thanks

 

[Ralphy]

The tray is very light I don't have a scale but I'm guessing under 10grams

49 is the width 43 is the height

 

[FePhoenix]

The tray is very light I don't have a scale but I'm guessing under 10grams

49 is the width 43 is the height

Send me one, Ralphy. I have a milligram scale I'll use on your behalf!

 

[Ralphy]

I can send out some to those interested just pay shipping it's like 7 bucks.

You have to wire it up and solder it with the connectors

 

[skrubol]

You'd be better off with DC than AC, unless you plan on running high frequency (400+ Hz,) AC.
The first thing a switching mains supply does is rectify and filter the AC into DC.
Having a 50/60 Hz transformer in the drone is a non-starter. A 600W transformer would weigh several pounds. A 400Hz transformer (the power frequency used in aircraft I believe, as it's a decent compromise between transformer weight and reactive losses,) is much lighter, but I think would still be more than the weight of a battery.
If you feed it DC, you'd use a switch mode power supply, which runs in the kHz, so the transformer is smaller yet.

 

[Ralphy]

You'd be better off with DC than AC, unless you plan on running high frequency (400+ Hz,) AC.
The first thing a switching mains supply does is rectify and filter the AC into DC.
Having a 50/60 Hz transformer in the drone is a non-starter. A 600W transformer would weigh several pounds. A 400Hz transformer (the power frequency used in aircraft I believe, as it's a decent compromise between transformer weight and reactive losses,) is much lighter, but I think would still be more than the weight of a battery.
If you feed it DC, you'd use a switch mode power supply, which runs in the kHz, so the transformer is smaller yet.

Thanks but I don't think you can run 300w of DC through 200' of 22 gauge wire. It probably has to be AC voltage traveling up the wire. Don't you agree?

 

[skrubol]

Thanks but I don't think you can run 300w of DC through 200' of 22 gauge wire. It probably has to be AC voltage traveling up the wire. Don't you agree?

Nope, as long as you've got the voltage, DC is more efficient over long runs. The reason people think AC is the only way to transmit power over long distances is because transformers only work on AC, and back in the Edison/Tesla days (and for quite a while after,) stepping up and down DC voltage was very difficult. Now days it's easy with solid state power electronics.

 

[Ralphy]

Nope, as long as you've got the voltage, DC is more efficient over long runs. The reason people think AC is the only way to transmit power over long distances is because transformers only work on AC, and back in the Edison/Tesla days (and for quite a while after,) stepping up and down DC voltage was very difficult. Now days it's easy with solid state power electronics.

Very interesting, i would have never imagined that concept. So if the DC gets stepped up to at the ground station to 300v or more i can run it 200' through a thin gauge cable then step it down inside the tray?

 

[skrubol]

Very interesting, i would have never imagined that concept. So if the DC gets stepped up to at the ground station to 300v or more i can run it 200' through a thin gauge cable then step it down inside the tray?

In theory, yes. Still might be too heavy though.

 

[grandpawmoses]

200 feet might be above the possibilities.
200 Feet of 18 ga stranded copper (single conductor) is just under one pound. Aluminum would be less but more subject to breaking from wire flexing.

 

[skrubol]

Aluminum is also a slightly worse conductor. 18 AWG is way overkill though. 26 AWG is capable of carrying 2A according to this chart, American Wire Gauge Chart and AWG Electrical Current Load Limits table with skin depth frequencies and wire breaking strength and the copper itself would be about 1/6 the weight.
With 26 AWG at 2A, you'd lose about 35V along the wiring, but if you had high enough input voltage ( > 300V) that shouldn't be a major problem.

 

[Ralphy]

I'm getting excited about this!

 

[Dougcjohn]

I can send out some to those interested just pay shipping it's like 7 bucks.

You have to wire it up and solder it with the connectors

Ralphy, short deviation from tether.
Could you expand on the extended tray and the required wiring. Does it come with terminals to plug into H port or is that another component... thought I recalled something like a wiring connector on site too. Will it utilize the H charger?

 

[Ralphy]

Ralphy, short deviation from tether.
Could you expand on the extended tray and the required wiring. Does it come with terminals to plug into H port or is that another component... thought I recalled something like a wiring connector on site too. Will it utilize the H charger?

The tray interfaces with the H via a split dean connector. These run to a xt60. The battery is a standard lip with a balance port that uses a regular lipo charger like the Reaktor from turnigy. The H charger goes in the trash, or the best buy recycled electronics bin.

 

[Dougcjohn]

The tray interfaces with the H via a split dean connector. These run to a xt60. The battery is a standard lip with a balance port that uses a regular lipo charger like the Reaktor from turnigy. The H charger goes in the trash, or the best buy recycled electronics bin.

Following you on terminals, and great to hear OEM charger not used; but not visualizing the H’s battery socket interface with your adapter. A dean connector is 2 terminals, the H socket has multiple. Does your adapter come with a diagram doc to help clarify?