Custom propeller basic tutorial
- Thread starter Zach Brockway
- Start date
Fly_electric
Well-known member
Unique images on individual blades?
Excellent videos Boof.
I may have missed it being mentioned, but how are individual blades given a unique CS? For example, a scale prop may have the manufacturer logo on only one blade.
Thanks
Excellent videos Boof.
I may have missed it being mentioned, but how are individual blades given a unique CS? For example, a scale prop may have the manufacturer logo on only one blade.
Thanks
Johnny31297
Active member
Couldn't find anything as well when I was looking. Waiting for captain.
csgill75
Well-known member
You could probably make the Prop V-Pitch once you import the prop into Realflight. Once you have it in the sim, you will have to edit the .propeller file. change the No to a Yes in the correct location. You find this in a similar place where the RFVehicles are found in your documents folder.
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Johnny31297
Active member
I think it's more about the animation. Making a VPitch one without pitch animation is easy, you can just import any custom prop this way.
Boof69
Well-known member
Any custom propeller can be made into a variable pitch but the animation is the nut to crack. A few things need to be done. Import your custom propeller then simply use the v-pitch prop that comes with RF to use as the "Based Upon" (See attached picture). This will give you the correct options in the "Engine" settings to get Variable pitch. You will want to make a new output channel and servo to control the pitch. You will also want to change the throttle channel as well. It will need a complex input to allow the use of the graph to make a throttle curve. The curve should be 100, 0, 100 at low mid and high positions respectively. The new output channel for pitch can be a simple feed set to the throttle channel. Now when you select your new prop you will see settings for Minimum and maximum pitch °. Also you can pick the new pitch servo you just made under "Variable pitch servo". Now your model will behave as if it has variable pitch but the animation doesn't work. You really never see that anyways. I can describe the method for putting this behavior on a switch too. That way you can have variable pitch "Mode". I've attached this RFX of my stamp mono. I imported a custom propeller and used the v-pitch prop as the physics setup. The dual rates switch in the "UP" position gives v-pitch mode and in the "DOWN" position it's normal. Just check out the output channels "3" & "8" in the "Radio" tab. Pay attention to the "Input" and the "Input Feed When" sections. Also look at the "Pitch" servo under the "Electronics" tab. Finally look at the "Engine" section under the "Physics" tab. That's where all the V-Pitch settings will be.
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legoman
Well-known member
Sorry for any confusion that my pervious most may have caused. What I was trying to say was, how to animate it the kex in Realflight. not how to set up the .rfvehicle or .propeller files. I was wondering if there was supposed to be a magic name in the hierarchy like ~CS_PIVOT or something to go between ~CS_HUB and _BLADE that rotates the blade with the physics. So it acts/looks like the V-Pitch and not like the Griffin Combat VTOL.
Boof69
Well-known member
Upon further investigation there is a dummy object included with the V-Pitch propeller. The name KE used for the V-Pitch dummy object is ~CS_PivotBlade It looks like RF creates a second blade and names it the same as you name it with "_1" added to the end. The ~CS_PivotBlade is also copied and given the new suffix. I would assume that you should use a point helper at the root of the blade with the X axis pointing down the blade. The PivotBlade should be a child of the Blade. The attached picture shows the source for my information. No guarantees that this will make the animation work.
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legoman
Well-known member
I have determined that the ~CS_BLADE is the "dummy" blade that real flight looks for to replicate and the ~CS_BladePivot should be the child of ~CS_BLADE and should the visible propeller blade and will pivot along the x-axis for the CW blades and the negative x-axis for the CCW blade aka rotate the pivot around y 180 degrees
legoman
Well-known member
Yes I under stand that. But the only part of the Hierarchy that rotates with the variable pitch is ~CS_BladePivot. ~CS_BLADE is stationary and cannot rotate. The ~CS_BLADE object tells real flight that it and all of its children are part of the propeller blade and should be duplicated, ~CS_COLL ~CS_GLOW... Or in the way that I found that works for V-Pitch props is to name some object cube etc. ~CS_BLADE. Then name the visual blade ~CS_BladePivot.
I tried HUB->"visual blade" (~CS_BLADE)->"dummy object" (~CS_BladePivot). Both the ~CS_BLADE and ~CS_BladePivot were duplicated and rotated around the y-axis. However, ~CS_BLADE does not rotate with the variable pitch and the ~CS_BladePivot pivot rotated with the v-pitch
I also tried HUB->"dummy object" (~CS_BLADE)->"visual blade" (~CS_BladePivot). And it worked/looked as a variable pitch propeller should.
I am not saying I am perfectly right. I am just reporting what worked for me.
flemdogmillion
New member
Hey, question: How do I import a new propeller's performance data or pitch model?
legoman
Well-known member
You either need to import it as the closest stock propeller. I really dont know how to create the physics for scratch i have tried and got mildly successful results. But there is no easy way to import the performance data and or pitch model you either need to make it from scratch in the .propeller file or import it as a close approximate.
legoman
Well-known member
Is there an advanced tutorial that I am missing? or did it never get made?
@legoman thanks for your variable pitch writeup. I got a custom variable pitch prop imported successfully using your advice. I'm now noticing that RealFlight doesn't have the concept of prop twist for variable pitch props. It simply lets you control the beta angle of the prop. How are the physics being calculated for these props? Is it assuming more like a helicopter blade with zero twist for the blade? On normal props, you can tell it the pitch of the prop in inches and I'm assuming that that's assuming linear twist at 0.75R? But yeah very unclear. This is a really useful tool, just wish they'd document and polish this off a little more
legoman
Well-known member
it is flat put tweaking some of the measurements in the .propeller file seems to change the aoa per in/mm or pitch in fixed pitch and trust per degree aoa in variable pitch. it is a black box as far as really knowing what the values you change in the .propeller are doing to the physics shape and calculations.
I wish we had an explanation for the different lines in the propeller file and what changes for each of them. or some way of visualizing the changes