Quick Guide

Airships were the most fascinating aircrafts, ever crossed the skies and forever will be (well, maybe one day Imperial Star Destroyers will be a bit cooler, but till then airships absolutely rule). So, why not build your own? Thanks to modern materials and electronics, RC-airships can be incredible fast and agile while consuming very low energy and they really make fun to fly. The following guide will explain in fast and easy steps how to get the Silent_Runner airship running. For more details look at the Documentation or join us in the airship regatta mailinglist rc_airship_regatta@yahoogroups.com

How to build the Silent_Runner airship explained fast without tables and formulas: Steps:

• 1. Tools you need (you probably have almost everything)
• 2. Parts to get (easy to buy in the internet)
• 3. Assembling the parts (simple for everyone who ever built some RC-stuff)
• 4. Ready To Fly Setup (please, try first to fly indoor and attach a string)

Tools you need

• Soldering tools
• Saw, knife, scissors, gripper, Screwdrivers
• Tape, Glue (Epoxy)

If you´re going to build your own hull depending on how you´re doing it you will need some welding tools and a clean flat surface of at least 2.4 m x 0.4 m. If you´re going to solder and program the Arduino Pro Mini on your own you´ll need:

• Serial adapter (Arduino Duoemilanove or similar)
• Some Cables (USB-A or similar)
• Arduino Environment

Parts to get

Hull

• 1x Silent Runner Envelope (366 l volume, 100 g weight)

If you decide to build the hull on your own, have a look in the detailed documentation.

RC Electronics

• 2x Brushless Motors (15g weight or smaller)
• 2x Brushless Electronic Speed Controller (10 A or smaller)
• 3x Servos (5g)
• 1x LiPo Battery (2S 7,4V 300mAh, 26g)
• RC Receiver/Sender couple minimum 3 channels
• 2x Propeller (6” counteracting)
• Some servo plugs
• Cables (see wiring for more details)

Arduino Pro Mini 5V

If you decide to use a programmable RC-Sender, make sure it is capable of controlling a lambda fin layout. In this case you can leave the Arduino out of the system. If you want to solder and program the Arduino on your own you will need the following stuff:

• Some Serial Connection Adapter (Arduino Duelaminove, etc.)
• USB-A cable
• Pin-strips

Structure parts

• 1 m CFK tube (3mm diameter)
• 1 m CFK tube (2mm diameter)
• 0,5m² Depron/Epp (4mm strength)
• 2x Motor mounts (printed)
• 2x Motor connector (printed)
• 3x Servo mounts and fin parts (printed)

If you want to build the 3d printed parts on your own by historical handwork, refer to the CAD models for dimensions. All parts can be downloaded at thingiverse

Assembling the parts

Electronics and Soldering Solder the electronics as described in the following scheme. Use light weight wires and accurate cable length depending on your setup. Attach a longer wire to the battery to use it as balancing weight. Be aware that the hull is aluminum coated and can shortcut the electronics if there are blank cables. Soldering the Arduino

• For soldering the Arduino refer to the documentation

Structure Parts

• Assemble the structure parts according to the full detail 3D model available at (thingiverse. For gluing two component epoxy glue works fine for all material used. To attach things to the hull, use TESA or similar tape.
• Upload the code
• for uploading the code to the Arduino pro mini, refer to the following tutorials depending on the hardware you want to use:

english english2 german

Final setup

• Inflating the hull with the lifting gas.
• Attaching stuff to the hull
• Final Check
• Flight!