TBS Caipirinha

The TBS Caipirinha is a small wing released by Team BlackSheep purposely designed for FPV use. It can be flown anywhere and the light weight makes it resilient to crashes. The airframe has pod inserts in the front for a GoPro HD camera, in addition to a pod to make it easy and safe to mount a FPV camera.

This is a great wing to get into FPV or to learn new tricks for proficient FPV flyers.

Specifications

• Announced: February 2013, shipped April 2013
  • Manufactured by WindRider, in cooperation with RiteWingRC
  • Also known as: TBS Caipi, TBS Capy
• Type: Powered medium sized flying wing
• Airframe: Molded EPP (Expanded Polypropylene) foam material
• Wingspan: 34-inch / 865 mm
• Dimension: max. W865xH52xL415mm
• Length overall: 415 mm - inc. elevons
  
  • Root chord: 278 mm [1]
  • Tip chord: 123 mm
  • Sweep: 250 mm
• Wing area: 173 dm^2
• Center of gravity: 130 mm from front (GoPro mount), CG range 127 to 135 mm [2] [3]
• Frame weight: 180g (frame 113g, spar tubes 15g, ribbons 7g, elevons 25g, winglets 16 / 20g (symmetrical / ”bunny-ears”))
• All up weight: 600-650 grams incl. RC and FPV gear
• FPV camera pod: W332xH32xL34 mm
• Battery: 2S 3300mAh 30C+ LiPo pack or 3S 2200mAh 30C+, with lightweight JST-connector, Mini Deans T-connector or EC2-connector
  • Battery weight: 150-200 grams recommended
  • Battery compartment: W46.5xH16xL137.5 mm
• Elevon travel range (radio programmable): elevator: +-15 mm, aileron: +-10 mm
• Motor type: 2206/2208/2212 class, 1500-2200KV, 25-40 grams, 50-100 Watt
• Propeller: 8x6-inch on 2S battery, 2000KV motor
• Speed controller: 12-30A switched ESC with 5V BEC
• Servos: 2x micro-servos 9 grams with wire extensions
• Payload capacity: 100-250 grams - unconfirmed
• Flight speed: 20-60 km/h
  • Flight time: ~35 minutes
  • Flight range: ~10 km on TBS equipment
• Flying area: minimum 250x250 meters recommended
• Accessories:
  • 1x Pre-tapered and pre-laminated lightweight balsa wood elevons
  • 1x Plywood motor mount
  • 1x Plywood GoPro mount
  • 1x Plywood battery support plate
  • 2x Control horns and push-rods
  • 2x Bunny-ear and symmetrical winglets, pair
  • 2x Winglet adhesive back velcro strips
  • 1x Receiver and ESC adhesive back velcro strip
  • 5x Negative foam inserts included
  • 1x TBS Caipirinha sticker sheet
  • 1x 280 mm fiber glass spar tube
  • 1x 356 mm fiber glass spar tube
  • 2x 490 mm front wing flat ribbon spar (underside)
  • 1x 650 mm cross section flat ribbon spar (underside)
• Design to fit: Lawmate 2.4GHz 500mW video transmitter, EzUHF Lite 8-channel RC receiver, TBS Core power- and OSD-module, TBS59/TBS69 32x32 mm FPV pilot camera
• Similar models:
  • Ritewing Mini-Zephyr 31-inch wing
  • Techone Popwing 35-inch wing
  • Turnigy Tek Sumo 35-inch wing
  • Windrider Ele-Bee2 48-inch wing
• Product page:
  • TBS Caipirinha - announcement
  • Support

Equipment

A complete basic setup includes a motor, propeller, speed controller, servos, RC receiver, battery, FPV camera, HD camera, OSD, FPV power regulator, video transmitter and antenna. Below is a good selection of most common gear used on this wing.

The gear below is picked to be a direct drop-in to fit the compartments without much or any modifications. The drive train is focused on long flight since this is a wing primarily suited for FPV and shallow vertical climb.

Motor

• TBS-2206 2000KV 30g brushless motor - custom made for TBS Caipirinha, quality, rewired Tiger MT2206
• SunnySky X2208 2350KV 45g brushless motor - great value, speed
• Amax G2826-2000kV 50g 2212 brushless motor - quality
• Scorpion SII-2205-1490KV 35.4g brushless motor - overall well matched motor, quality
• Scorpion SII-2205-1900KV V2 35.4g brushless motor - for speed, quality
• Roxxy BL Outrunner 2826/09 1900KV 45g brushless motor - quality, for speed, limited flight time
• Hacker A20 34S 1500KV 29g outrunner motor - for cruising, less thrust, quality, efficient
• SunnySky X2204-21 1800KV 19.5g brushless motor - great value, pancake, lightweight
• RCTimer A2208-12 1800KV 38g motor - great value, speed
• Hacker A30 22S 1440KV 70g outrunner motor - powerful, quality, heavy
• AXI 2208/20 1850KV Gold Line 45g outrunner moor - quality, heavy

Propeller

• Graupner E-Prop 8x5-inch propeller - quality, balanced, rigid
• Graupner CAM slim 8x6-inch propeller - quality, balanced, efficient

Speed controller

• TBS 12A Caipirinha ESC - great quality, rebranded RC Tiger ESC
• Turnigy Plush 18A speed controller - great value, reliable
• Turnigy Plush 12A speed controller - same reliability, smaller and lighter
• Hacker X-12 Pro 12A brushless ESC - quality
• Castle Creations Thunderbird 18A brushless ESC - quality

Servos

• TBS 9 grams micro servo - great quality
• Hitec HS-65HB / HS-5065HB micro servo - excellent quality, lots of torque
• Hextronik HXT900 micro servo - good value, infamous, chance of DOA

Battery

• TBS 2S 3300mAh 35C 177g Lipo battery - long lasting, keeps charge, small JST-cable, fits the compartment nicely, rebranded KYPOM KT3300/35-2S battery
• TBS 3S 2200mAh 35C 183g Lipo battery - equally good, for speed and larger motors/props combos, rebranded KYPOM KT2200/35-3S battery
• Gens Ace 2S 3300mAh 7.4V 25C 194g Lipo pack - quality, value [4]
• Thunder Power G6 Pro Lite 2S 3300mAh 25C 168g Lipo pack - lightweight, quality, bit pricey
• Turnigy nano-tech 2S 4000mAh 40C 227g Traxxas Lipo pack - huge capacity, might be bit nose heavy
• Turnigy nano-tech 2S 3300mah 35C 191g Lipo pack - cheap
• Hyperion G3 CX 2S 3300mAh 25C 189g Lipo pack - quality, value
• Zippy Flightmax 2S 3000mAh 40C 185g Lipo pack - cheap
• Turnigy 2S 3300mAh 30C 204g Lipo pack - cheap

OSD

• TBS Core - basic OSD, current, timer, voltage, built in regulator
• Skylark Tiny III OSD - compact, simple overlay
• TBS Core - basic, includes clean voltage output for vtx/camera
• Range Video OSD - advanced, configurable to be simple or detailed

Control link

• Pushrod 2-56 Great Planes full threaded, cut to length [5]
• DuBro DUB109 steel clevis
• Extra long 2.8x24mm control horn

Flight control

• Ruby Flight System - lightweight, powerful [6]

Accessories

• 3M Storage tape - for elevon hinges (also included in kit)

Build notes

• Airframe:
  • Assemble: super-glue+kicker glue to join the wing halves, polyurethane (PU) (Gorilla) to install the spars and super-glue for the thin strip spars
  • Film: apply optional laminate using hot-iron from front of the wing to the back, one sheet on top, one on the bottom, first spray glue (Loctite 200) the foam if it is going to be painted
• Elevons:
  • Shape: pre-tapered 1/2-inch from the side down half way the middle of the elevon
  • Paint: optional low VOC or foam safe spray paint, Krylon Rust-Oleum flats and Neons Any flat color will work fine
  • Film: pre-laminated yellow film
  • Attachment: elevon tape (3M storage) to attach elevon to airframe
• Winglets:
  • Attachment: hot glue to keep them positioned, silicone adhesive (Goop) around the wing edge to keep it flexible, or nylon nuts and screws to make them removable
• Servos:
  • Install: epoxy glue between the servo compartment and servo, or double-sided foam tape and glass-fiber tape
  • Mount: epoxy glue to join control horn to the elevons
• Motor mount:
  • Assemble: super glue to put together the balsa wood mount
  • Mount: epoxy glue to fasten the motor mount to the airframe
  • Install: self-locking nuts to attach the motor to the balsa wood mount
• GoPro mount:
  • Assemble: super glue to put together the balsa wood case
  • Mount: epoxy glue to attach the balsa wood to the front of the airframe
  • Install: strap the velcro around the camera to make it sit tight
• Expo and throws:
  • Expo: 50% aileron, 30% elevator
  • Throws: 10 mm both up and down

Reference build guides:

• Official RiteWing wing videos
• TimNilson Complete Zephyr 1 FPV build manual
• Official Team BlackSheep Zephyr 2 build videos
• rockFLYR Zephyr 2 build videos

Setups

TBS default gear setup

This is the default TBS setup offered on their website. The focus is to get a lightweight wing with long flight time.

• Motors: TBS branded 2000KV outrunner motor
• Propellers: Graupner E-Prop 8x5-inch propeller
• ESCs: TBS branded 12A switched ESC 5V BEC
• Transmitter: Futaba/Spektrum/JR/Graupner 6-8-channel radio
  • Transmitter module: ImmersionRC EzUHF 433 MHz 200mW/600mW transmitter module
• Receiver: ImmersionRC EzUHF lite 8-channel or 4-channel 433 MHz receiver
• Servos: TBS branded 9 grams servos with extra long wire
• Battery: TBS 2200mAh 2S 35C branded KYPOM KT3300/35-2S Lipo battery pack

TBS default FPV setup

And the default FPV setup offered by TBS.

• FPV camera: TBS69 or TBS59 FPV camera
• HD camera: GoPro HD Hero1/2/3 camera
• Video transmitter: Lawmate TM-240500-LM 2.4GHz transmitter - modded
  • Antenna: Stock 3dBi dipole antenna
• Video receiver: Lawmate RX-2460CK 2.4GHz receiver - modded
  • Antenna: TBS 2.4GHz 11dBi 10-element yagi
• Power management: TBS Core video- and power-controller
• OSD: TBS EzOSD system with 25A current sensor
• Goggles: FatShark Dominator FPV goggles
• Other: OEM 3S 2200mAh ground station batteries, custom-made power cables, composite video splitter

Build logs

• PredatorUAV black Caipi build - unboxing
• ChrisG's black tidy build
• DennisFrie's black Caipi build
• Bourney's black Ruby build

Tips and tricks

• Minimum 1:2 static thrust to weight for leisurely flight, 1:1 for aerobatics, and atleast 1.4:1 for extreme maneuvers [7]
• To get a smooth and glosse finish of the airframe, add a thin layer of laminate on both sides before adding the other gear
• When choosing folding props, Aeronaut assume a 42mm yoke centrepiece, whereas Graupner assume a 32mm centrepiece [8]
• A thrust-to-weight ratio 1:1 means that the motor generates the same thrust as the weight of the plane [9]
• Use 3M double-sided tape to fasten servos and packing tape to cover the compartment, easy to remove for later repairs and upgrades
• On a white airframe finish, spray the servos white to make them blend more, or cover the servo pods with white sheet
• A tail heavy airplane is destined to crash, while an nose heavy airplane will be sluggish to elevator commands but it will still be flyable [10]
• CoG balance test; put the wing on a 45 degree dive and 1/4 throttle, release elevator stick, plane should level back; it is tail heavy if it continues to dive and nose heavy if it alternates between climb/dive dips [11] [12]
• Thrust line should pass through both the center of mass and the center of drag [13] [14]
• To keep the same ESC current draw; when going up in prop size go down in motor Kv [15]
• APC propellers perform almost the same as one size larger Graupner propellers, e.g. the thrust from a APC 10x4.7 Slowfly equals the thrust from a Graupner 11x5 [16]
• Initial elevon trim is flush to the airframe [17]
• Program maximum elevon travel range for elevator of +-10 mm and aileron for +-15 mm
• For smooth flight, program expo to 50% aileron, 30% elevator [18]
• On the black model, spray or paint the balsa wood pieces black for a coherent match with the frame
• To adjust the CG, move the battery further a bit by doing a cut in front and taping the foam to the back [19]
• Laminate is not essential, the wing is too curved to get the laminate on, the strength isn't needed and the added weight is overkill [20]
• Recommended amount of reinforcement/sparing is to cut one spar in about half and use that, skip the front leading edge spars to keep the weight low, no harm in using all of the spars [21]
• Symmetrical winglets will give Zephyr-like flying characteristic, with the yaw wobble being corrected slowly with about 2-3 oscillations, "bunny-ear" winglets are countering yaw movement more aggressively, which allows more precise flight but makes the shots more "nervous" [22]
• The initial design suggested a CG spot at 130mm from the front to get a more maneuverable wing (tail heavy), but this spot is hard to reach with the default suggested equipment setup
• A revised CG spot of 135mm makes it easier to balance and fly the wing, move the battery to adjust the CG
• To get rid of most tail wagging, try to move the CG spot to 140mm (nose heavy) to put weight forward, also use the "bunny ears" or larger custom winglets [23]
• Keep in mind that a slightly front heavy wing will fly, while a tail heavy wing will tend to fly verypoorly or not at all

Presentation

The video below is the official announcement of the TBS Caipirinha. Shot in New Zealand, February 2013.

A short walkthrough by Trappy.