Reaction wheel props not dead yet!

[Tyr Anasazi]

So - Breaking Ground is here and I've had a play with rotors and servos. I may be biased but in my opinion reaction wheels are still better performers!

One major disadvantage of the rotors is that they create equal torque in both directions - any design using BG rotors must be counter-rotating.

One thing is for sure - Servos make the best bearings.

Here is Global Dumpling MK3, which uses M-12 Servos as bearings. Motor overspeed and random explosions are now a thing of the past. The engine will now happily spin at maximum RPM indefinitely. 

 

[klond]

 I gotta get some of my old RCS bearing craft refitted with this new tech.  Less parts total too, and if I'm adding right, should be lighter too.

[qzgy]

3 hours ago, klond said:

 I gotta get some of my old RCS bearing craft refitted with this new tech.  Less parts total too, and if I'm adding right, should be lighter too.

I wonder, would turboprop aircraft work with it?

[klond]

1 hour ago, qzgy said:

I wonder, would turboprop aircraft work with it?

 At first I thought "Of course it will," but then I was like, "wait, he's right, maybe we haven't thought it through!  Won't the turbine need to be a separate craft?"

 But it totally works!

 and I even got away with using only one tiny servo as a bearing.  I saved .042t on this thing.

(there's a juno blowing on the other side).  Crazy.

@Tyr Anasazi You're right, servos make the best bearings.

Edited May 31, 2019 by klond

[qzgy]

2 hours ago, klond said:

 But it totally works!

This is gonna be fuuun!

[klond]

54 minutes ago, qzgy said:

This is gonna be fuuun!

 Oh man, it's a blast.  I'm been jerkin around with this lil plane for a few hours now.

 If you use an unpowered motor instead of a servo for a bearing, for the cost of a few extra kilos weight, BAM!  RPM meter.

[Tyr Anasazi]

9 hours ago, klond said:

 Oh man, it's a blast.  I'm been jerkin around with this lil plane for a few hours now.

 If you use an unpowered motor instead of a servo for a bearing, for the cost of a few extra kilos weight, BAM!  RPM meter.

The RPM meter in rotors is cool however their round form factor had caused me issues with decoupled engines. The reason I like the servos is their square form factor makes"holding" them easy.

[klond]

8 hours ago, Tyr Anasazi said:

The RPM meter in rotors is cool however their round form factor had caused me issues with decoupled engines. The reason I like the servos is their square form factor makes"holding" them easy.

 Oh, yeah I see now in your second picture in the first post up there.  Good work.  You're on the cutting edge.

[_Rade]

On 6/1/2019 at 1:32 PM, Tyr Anasazi said:

The RPM meter in rotors is cool however their round form factor had caused me issues with decoupled engines. The reason I like the servos is their square form factor makes"holding" them easy. 

You could just attach a cubic strut to the rotor and then put 4 more cubic struts around it to hold it.

[Tyr Anasazi]

6 minutes ago, _Rade said:

You could just attach a cubic strut to the rotor and then put 4 more cubic struts around it to hold it.

I tried that and found it not reliable

[moonsparkejo]

On 5/31/2019 at 1:46 PM, klond said:

 I gotta get some of my old RCS bearing craft refitted with this new tech.  Less parts total too, and if I'm adding right, should be lighter too.

I heard you're going to make a Transformer? 

On 5/31/2019 at 9:55 AM, Tyr Anasazi said:

So - Breaking Ground is here and I've had a play with rotors and servos. I may be biased but in my opinion reaction wheels are still better performers!

One major disadvantage of the rotors is that they create equal torque in both directions - any design using BG rotors must be counter-rotating.

One thing is for sure - Servos make the best bearings.

Here is Global Dumpling MK3, which uses M-12 Servos as bearings. Motor overspeed and random explosions are now a thing of the past. The engine will now happily spin at maximum RPM indefinitely. 

 

While I attempt to save for my 80mm EDF I will continue making me some normal RCS bearings xD

[Azimech]

On 5/31/2019 at 3:55 PM, Tyr Anasazi said:

So - Breaking Ground is here and I've had a play with rotors and servos. I may be biased but in my opinion reaction wheels are still better performers!

One major disadvantage of the rotors is that they create equal torque in both directions - any design using BG rotors must be counter-rotating.

One thing is for sure - Servos make the best bearings.

Here is Global Dumpling MK3, which uses M-12 Servos as bearings. Motor overspeed and random explosions are now a thing of the past. The engine will now happily spin at maximum RPM indefinitely.

It's not even a bearing anymore, just a model and some code.

And I actually like motor overspeed and random explosions. We've been developing props & rotors since 2012 ... and when I invented the turboshaft engine in 2013 my helicopter lifted off with 7 rad/s because that was the game limit. The devs have increased the limit at my request every time.

This is the very first turboprop on the planet, KSP 0.90. At one point something says poof but the engine continues to wobble and work. I like that.
 

Once I flew a turboprop around Kerbin and at one point was a bit lazy ... didn't watch the revs enough. Damaged the engine. It continued to fly for many hours.

[Majorjim!]

50 minutes ago, Azimech said:

It's not even a bearing anymore

He's using the servo to drive a sperate craft, the prop, which is pretty much what we where doing before. The great thing is we still have the old parts so there's nothing stopping us from making them the old way and having fun with it! 

[panzer1b]

Ive been having alot of trouble with the new "airplanes" we can make from the motors, and the best ive managed was ~50m/s in air which is pathetic for a propeller plane (counter rotating 16 blades).  Helis work pretty well (as does anything with very widely spaced blades, but super compact props are just not gonna happen with the DLC (although i will say it makes far superior rovers that can go like 200m/s with big enough wheels).

 

Guess its back to experimenting with reaction wheels, i actually made one that was just barely capable of 250m/s, and im pretty sure i could go more then that if i was willing to sacrifice form factor.  Although i understand why the 2.5m ones are best (.6energy to 30 torque), i refuse to use those as it makes my planes look like crap (and i dont make very large planes so more then 1.25m is a no go).

[klond]

6 hours ago, moonsparkejo said:

I heard you're going to make a Transformer? 

No, but someone will and it'll be glorious.