Custom ducted fan blade questions

[Fly_electric]

Have recently created my first pass at making a custom prop (great video tut Boof!), and through it is working I have a few questions.

First of all, the image is not a propeller, but a ducted fan blade. Wanted a more realistic blur disk for the Force 10 being modeled.


On import (no errors), RF detected this as a helicopter blade, not a propeller.
What differences in names, pivots, etc. cause RF to interpret the kexs as heli vs propeller?
Have not seen a heli blade tut, so I am not aware of how the two custom parts differ.

Ok, told RF it was a propeller (ducted fan isn't a selection option, so that was the next best choice).

The DF comes up as a valid choice. Blur disk looks realistic and good.
Side blur is wrong of course (just a thin image), but that is OK as it is not visible in the RF scene.
Did not know if the side view and blur were essential, but made them anyway.
Regretfully, the ducted fan selection is limited to only 6 blades (EDF modeled has 11), but that is the way it is until there is a RF change.

While the blades have a realistic blur, the hub does not. Can anything be done about that?
The logo (and the not as yet CS added mounting screw holes) could be left off, but would rather keep them if possible.
The hub does not have a special ~CS_xxxxx name, (nor is suppose to as far as I know) so that may be part of the problem. On the other hand, I've seen spinners (~CS_SPINNER is assumed) with different colors on each half. Those do not blur correctly either, but have the same jerky animation as the DF logo, as at whatever the image is at refresh time, is displayed.


Thanks

 

[legoman]

edf help reply

What you could do for the number of blades is to in your max, wings, etc. file of your blade is make a duplicate of the ~CS_BLADE. Then rotate it around the axis that the propeller rotates, so that it is half way between the two blades of a 5 or 6 bladed propeller, 36 degrees and 30 degrees respectively. Also make sure to combine the original blade and the duplicate back in to one object named ~CS_BLADE.

the highlighted objects in the photo need to be one object not two

You will not be able to make a eleven bladed fan because this will only work for fans with an even number of blades.

Import it in to RealFlight as usual, and there should be an Electric Ducted Fan option for importing.

Once it is imported exit realflight and appears as intended. Go to this file

users/<your user name>/my documents/realflight 7/vehicles/propellers/My_EDF.propeller

if My_EDF.propeller is not there then you may need to turn on "show hidden files and folders" I can remember if than is required

once you find My_EDF.propeller right click on it, then select open with, then find Notepad, it should open and display something like this


[Main]
CoeffDragMod=0.68
CoeffLiftMod=1.17
IsFolding=No
VariablePitch=No
Version=1

[ChordShape]
AirfoilProfileMM=FLOATARRAY~0.01~0.01~0.01~0.03~0.03~0.03
AirfoilThicknessMM=FLOATARRAY
MeasuredLengthMTR=0.06

[WeightOverride]
DiameterIN=6.
NewWeightG=30.

[Weight]
LengthToWeightCurveX1=0.0
LengthToWeightCurveX2=0.1911
LengthToWeightCurveX3=0.0156



you can edit the physics in here the lines you will want to change is

CoeffDragMod=0.68
CoeffLiftMod=1.17

and maybe

DiameterIN=6.
NewWeightG=30. (note this is in grams)


syntax is extremely important pay attention to all of the "=" "." etc.

as far as the blur disks and spinner I don't know

 

[Fly_electric]

Thanks for your help on this one legoman.
Still have more adjustments to make, but as a first pass, the Force 10 now has a 10 blade EDF with realistic blade blur.

 

[Fly_electric]

Just an update. The Force 10 is getting close to being ready to post.

 

[doug schluter]

looking good Fly electric , nice to see some more progress on it , hey lots of regulars are on tonight

 

[Fly_electric]

Thanks Doug,

Have not always had the time to work on it as much as I'd like, but it's getting there. Am grateful to the requester for having such patience!

 

[legoman]

So apparently Real flight 7 will support blade counts higher than 6 and less than 2. (the prop in the picture has 20 blades and the other has only 1 blade). It displays all the blades and calc the total thrust and load correctly (up to a graphical limit that changes from blade to blade.) But editing outside of Real flight is required. Thus it is not easy for the average Real fight user to recreate on another model. So the way I told you before is preferable. Unless you don't like other people reusing your stuff.

 

[doug schluter]

nice i see your force 10 is on the swaps with a extra CS as well , thanks Fly electric i'll check it out

 

[Fly_electric]

You are welcome.