RCExplorer Mini Tricopter Build thread

kpixels

Antigravity or bust...
Yeah, the green ones were pre-production and had a barometer on them. I have about 7 of the orange ones.

Hi LitterBug, Nice, well I have dRonin now (love portable soft) but it's not detecting this board and sends me to the program files/folders. It is flashed with BetaFlight/DOGE 2.7.1 and works in OpenFlight, CleanFlight and BetaFlight. I'm guessing dRonin is a branch of OpenFlight I'm somewhat familiar with it. Probably need the boot loader. No hurry, just checking it out.

Nice video! That wasn't a crash that I heard was it?
 

LitterBug

Techno Nut
Moderator
That wasn't a crash that I heard was it?

I will neither confirm, nor deny anything that happens off camera... ;-D

You will need to use the BetaFlight configurator to do the initial flash to dronin. Put the board into DFU mode by holding the boot button when plugging in, pick local file in BF Configurator firmware flasher, browse to the dronin\firmware directory, and choose the dtfc.hex file. Once flashed, unplug it, start the drgcs, plug it in, and it should detect the board.

Cheers!
LitterBug
 

kpixels

Antigravity or bust...
You will need to use the BetaFlight configurator to do the initial flash to dronin. Put the board into DFU mode by holding the boot button when plugging in, pick local file in BF Configurator firmware flasher, browse to the dronin\firmware directory, and choose the dtfc.hex file. Once flashed, unplug it, start the drgcs, plug it in, and it should detect the board.

I'm starting up in DFU mode, LEDs are lit steady, in BetaFlight firmware flasher. I'm choosing file ef_dtfc.hex because it is closest to dtfc.hex in the dRonin directory (portable version). Keep getting "Failed to open serial port" but it still connects to BF with no problem. Will play with it some more tomorrow. Thanks LB
Ken
 

LitterBug

Techno Nut
Moderator
Hmmm... sounds like DFU mode driver issues.... What OS are you working with? Oh, and you are using drgcs to connect to the board after flashing too right?

Cheers!
LitterBug
 
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kpixels

Antigravity or bust...
Hmmm... sounds like DFU mode driver issues.... What OS are you working with?

I'm on Win 8.1

Oh, and you are using drgcs to connect to the board after flashing too right?

That's the problem, I can't flash it to get that far. I do have drgcs running, I can get to GCS home screen and firmware flasher etc. inside of drgcs. Did you say that I had to flash it in BetaFlight first? Can't get past that...
Ken
 

kpixels

Antigravity or bust...
Hmmm... sounds like DFU mode driver issues....

Yes drivers! Let me try running the install version. I'm using the portable version that doesn't get installed to system. I have to run now but I will try that later and let you know...Thanks LB
 

kpixels

Antigravity or bust...
Hmmm... sounds like DFU mode driver issues.... What OS are you working with? Oh, and you are using drgcs to connect to the board after flashing too right?

Don't want to become a pain with this. Tried again with full install from dronin.org/download page and still getting "Failed to open serial port" in BetaFlight firmware flasher.

I looked at device manager/usb connections and when I enter DFU mode by plugging in with boot button pressed, it adds "STM Device in DFU Mode" to the list of devices and no errors appear...
 

LitterBug

Techno Nut
Moderator
Interesting.... Do you have a screenshot with the options you have selected when you attempt to flash it? I'll grab one out of my bag and do a step by step screenshots....

Lit
 

LitterBug

Techno Nut
Moderator
That Mega Y3 looks veeery interesting, and sleek.

Have you seen the X-4 quad frame??? $30 and still available.... :-D
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/x-4-fpv-fiberglass-quadcopter-frame-485mm.html?___store=en_us
X4Frame.jpg

Cheers!
LitterBug
 

LitterBug

Techno Nut
Moderator
Somebody did this:
HKx4.jpg
hkx4b.jpg

And their are molded groves for LED strips.... so somebody did a night flyer..... :-D

Lit
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
That's not too bad, but an airbrushed full detail Alien skull would be sick to see flying or even just sitting out on display. Look similar to the fender in this pic.

airbrush avp.jpg
 

kpixels

Antigravity or bust...
Interesting.... Do you have a screenshot with the options you have selected when you attempt to flash it? I'll grab one out of my bag and do a step by step screenshots....

Sorry, I got swamped with work and some family things. I'll have to come back to this later, I appreciate your help though. I was on RC Explorer the other day watching some of David's videos on TriFlight and flashing. I downloaded Zadig then thinking it has to be something with the USB to that specific DFTc UART port. Like you said, "driver". Haven't had time to work on it though and I'm not sure where to get the correct driver for this board to configure with Zadig.

All of this had me wondering, what is the advantage of dRonin over OpenFlight (or BetaFlight)? In David's videos (2016) he was talking about switching his TriFlight over from CleanFlight based, which the video was about, to BetaFlight based. I thought TriFlight was the end goal, so a bit confused about that. Were your boards already flashed with dRonin?
Ken
 

LitterBug

Techno Nut
Moderator
All of this had me wondering, what is the advantage of dRonin over OpenFlight (or BetaFlight)? In David's videos (2016) he was talking about switching his TriFlight over from CleanFlight based, which the video was about, to BetaFlight based. I thought TriFlight was the end goal, so a bit confused about that. Were your boards already flashed with dRonin?
Ken

Ken,
The DTFc boards come flashed with an old version of cleanflight. (can't remember which version) I flash them to dRonin myself. The RCE F3FC boards come flashed with an old version of triflight. TriFlight is an OpenSource Branch/Fork that has additional functions and configuration related to the unique yaw/thrust properties of tricopters. It is merged into another base firmware. The fork/Branch is maintained by @Lauka on gihub and he posts it up on RCExplorer.se as well. It is currently a branch of BetaFlight but has bounced back and forth between Beta/CleanFlight as support for one or the other has changed over time. The Tri routines have also been merged into dRonin by @jihlein in his branch at https://github.com/jihlein/dronin/tree/newTriflight.

The difference between the base firmwares comes down to many things including development goals, features, and community. BetaFlight by their own definition is geared mostly to racing, and has been dropping and implied lack of interest in maintaining features that are not beneficial to racing. (ie navigation and nav sensors among others) it was originally a fork of CleanFlight. At some point, CleanFlight wanted to merge a good deal of the BetaFlight code, and made the choice to drop it's current path and Fork from BetaFlight. (it's really murky)
dRonin has a completely different lineage altogether (librepilot, taulabs, etc). It's a relatively small community with pretty much direct access to the developers. One key feature that I really like with dRonin is it's AutoTune.

So, not sure if the clears it up, or murkies it up more...

Cheers!
LitterBug
 

kpixels

Antigravity or bust...
...(it's really murky)
dRonin has a completely different lineage altogether (librepilot, taulabs, etc). It's a relatively small community with pretty much direct access to the developers. One key feature that I really like with dRonin is it's AutoTune.

So, not sure if the clears it up, or murkies it up more...

Murky yes, but I'm not giving up if you're not! There may be some delays from my end, but I'm really interested in getting dRonin on this puppy (ha ha). I haven't messed with the Zadig yet, need to know which driver to assign. Thanks Lit,
Ken

Interesting.... Do you have a screenshot with the options you have selected when you attempt to flash it? I'll grab one out of my bag and do a step by step screenshots...

I've tried the three options, No Reboot Sequence, Flash On Connect and Full Chip Erase every which way. I've flashed Naze boards this way (boot mode) before with no problem.
dtfc-usb-02.jpg

After clicking "Open", the Flash Firmware button turns yellow. I click the Flash Firmware button and get the message (top left) Failed to open serial port;
dtfc-usb-04.jpg

After plugging in USB while holding boot button a new device appears in the Device Manager list as expected;
dtfc-usb-05.jpg
It must be the wrong driver for USB to DTFc UART connection, my guess...
 
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LitterBug

Techno Nut
Moderator
Ken,
I am confused... I thought you were running W8.1, But your screenshots look like linux/unix... The com port would show COM## in normal mode or DFU for bootloader mode in windows. Maybe you have a newer version of the BF configurator than I....

Cheers!
LitterBug
 

kpixels

Antigravity or bust...
I am confused... I thought you were running W8.1, But your screenshots look like linux/unix... The com port would show COM## in normal mode or DFU for bootloader mode in windows. Maybe you have a newer version of the BF configurator than I....

I can confirm it's Win 8.1, on my trusty ASUS, bought it new a few years ago. It's probably because I turn off all themes and animations when I uninstall (new pc) windows crapware. I prefer performance and don't mind the looks of it.
Sorry for the confusion,
Ken
 
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