RCExplorer.se Baby Tricopter Kit Build Log
- Thread starter LitterBug
- Start date
Did you run the hovering tailtune to completion? That should knock the waggles out. Still trying to figure out what I did wrong tonight trying to run tailtune. From what I'm seeing on the RCExplorer.se forums, it was probably the wind hosing me tonight. Going to re-watch David's build video anyway, as I could use some good humor tonight!
Cheers!
LitterBug
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Tried a few more attempts to run the tailtune with the recommended Baby Tri settings yesterday. Still no go. I am going to reload settings I used for my LOS and previous tailtunes and try again. Also got OSD hooked up and configured for my next trip to the field.
Cheers!
LitterBug
Cheers!
LitterBug
Habakkukk
Fly Eagles, Fly!
is your servo feedback wire installed? My first bluebird servo with feedback came with the feedback wire detached from the middle hall sensor. It wouldn't tune correctly during setup either. It's a huuuuuuuggggeeeee pain getting that servo put back together too so maybe there's a way to test that before taking it apart...
Also, tail tune simply gets you a true center and max resolution, if you've got the waggles and it's not locked in you will probably have to adjust pids (of your motors are different that the emax red bottoms the pids that come loaded with the baby tri hex for triflight won't work.)
Anyways, my $.02
Been doing some quiet Baby Tri testing on the side in between fun times with the Hellbender. Been great to have a quad in the air that flies like it's supposed to. Flipped back to my previous settings on Baby and flew a few packs over the weekend after not having any luck completing the automatic tail-tune. Tail was not waggling with the stock tri-flight PIDs and a completed tail-tune. I did run in to one issue with the current measurement and OSD. Appears that the F3FC Racing FC, uart (2) I used for the OSD is configured for 3.3V instead of 5V, so as soon as I hooked up the OSD, the current measurement was all wacked out. Figured that out based on threads from the RCExplorer.se forums. I'll be moving the OSD to uart1 and retesting. Don't believe this has anything to do with the incomplete tail-tune, because that was not completing before I hooked up OSD.
Cheers!
LitterBug
Cheers!
LitterBug
PsyBorg
Wake up! Time to fly!
From the few vids I saw on that tail tune thing it can take some serious time to complete specially if there is any wind at all. Might wanna find an area indoors large enough and do it wind free. maybe sneak into the back area at a walmart and do it quick then get out... Would be sort of like one of them stealth Rotor Riot episodes
Yeah, I have gotten a tailtune with the default TriFlight PIDs, just not with the recommended settings. I went back to default and it flies good. (needed to bump rates up though) Will continue playing once I get the current monitoring fixed. (hopefully today) Will post up video from flight over the weekend tonight. Gotta develop that film still. ;-)
Cheers!
LitterBug
Cheers!
LitterBug
PsyBorg
Wake up! Time to fly!
I think you just crashed a lot and don't wanna show the footage. I did see some of your other flights in other threads and that thing boogies as long as your not crashin into tables. Crazy seeing something that tiny pulling 70+ amps.
If it comes on schedule I should have that pnp50 on Thursday and have it in and wired by Friday for some air time before the weather goes south Sunday here.
I did see some of your other flights in other threads and that thing boogies as long as your not crashin into tables. Crazy seeing something that tiny pulling 70+ amps.If it comes on schedule I should have that pnp50 on Thursday and have it in and wired by Friday for some air time before the weather goes south Sunday here.
Yeah, the fun thing to watch is how the faster you go, the less current it takes at the same throttle setting. Interesting to see how a dynamic environment affects current. In the turn around the tree, it spikes up over 80 when it has more air to push against from the speed it has picked up. Static bench tests only show a small piece of the data compared to real flying. Love my flying dyno.
Cheers!
LitterBug
Cheers!
LitterBug
Ok, so to update the OSD / Current monitoring on my Baby Tricopter build, There is a thread on RCExplorer.se about this exact issue. I had connected my Micro minimOSD to uart2 which has now been clarified that this is a 3.3V IO port and should not be used for 5V serial devices. Moving my OSD to UART1 fixed the issue. So if you are using the RCExplorer F3FC Racing FC, use UART1 or UART3 for the OSD and not UART2. I also moved my RX from UART3 to UART2 since spektrum is a 3.3V serial device. That frees up UART3 for me to add blackbox logging or telemetry.
POTUS is in CMH tomorrow night with a 30nm no fly zone. Probably be Friday at the earliest before I get another chance to fly.
Cheers!
LitterBug
POTUS is in CMH tomorrow night with a 30nm no fly zone. Probably be Friday at the earliest before I get another chance to fly.
Cheers!
LitterBug
Been playing with the Baby a lot lately. Working with Lauka on testing the latest pre-release version of TriFlight 0.6 RC2 and diving deeper into tuning it up right. Expect to see good things happening soon in the smoothness front as I learn how to properly tune the tail and get the updated firmware dialed in. Ran into a few snags with this latest release, and they may rebase triflight off of BetaFlight. Personally I'd love that as BetaFlight is really running smooth now even with stock PIDs. I decided that the underpowered 2100kv motors need to be beefed up. Going to throw some F60 2207 2450kv beasts at it soon, and this should be one rocket of a tricopter. Yes, it's true. I am a madman, and this thing is just making it better!
Cheers!
LitterBug
Cheers!
LitterBug
Got Baby out to the field briefly tonight at sunset. Attempted an in-flight tailtune, but that failed with a double beep error code. Went ahead and flew a pack FPV with bad tail tune data. Not my prettiest flight, but any airtime in short sleeves this time of year is a bonus!
TriFlight 0.6 Pre-Release RC2
Cheers!
LitterBug
TriFlight 0.6 Pre-Release RC2
Cheers!
LitterBug
PsyBorg
Wake up! Time to fly!
Good to see you back and active LB. I notice the end stats say max amps were 89 but I only noticed max around 40's. Did I miss a punch out or something or is that part of the calibrations you mentioned needing done?
That lil beastie lays over pretty far and doesn't seem to slide sideways. I would think a tri would be worse for sliding in higher degree roll then a quad. Keep showing these vids and my next build may be a baby tri instead of a four incher.
That lil beastie lays over pretty far and doesn't seem to slide sideways. I would think a tri would be worse for sliding in higher degree roll then a quad. Keep showing these vids and my next build may be a baby tri instead of a four incher.
Yeah, I've been doing some beta testing of TriFlight 0.6 and other building lately (ie AWK210). Really not much to post and really quite boring. I was treating this flight as a maiden being on alpha release firmware. Just feeling out the handling and the tail really wasn't handling well at all. I did do one punch out near the end and slammed the throttle shut at the top. It went into a weird spin like I didn't have Air Mode enabled. (which I did) It recovered on it's own when I fed throttle back in. This release is based on the latest cleanflight release and there are some real issues to be worked out in both. My initial LOS flights had the motors smoking Hot in less than 30 seconds and was almost unflyable. BlackBox logging is not working either. Flip back to TriFlight version 0.5 and all was good. Ended up trying 5045 props instead of the 5050s I've been running and the heat problem went away. Turns out there is a bug that was amplifying noise instead of filtering it leading to oscillations etc.... Might also be why I can't get it to complete an in flight tail tune.
Cheers!
LitterBug
Cheers!
LitterBug
RCExplorer Baby Tricopter, now running dRonin TriFlight alpha firmware
TriFlight RC6 development based on CleanFlight has been stalled out after some performance and stability issues with the latest cleanflight release. So I jumped at the opportunity to alpha test new dRonin TriFlight firmware for the RCExplorer F3FC Racing Flight controller on the RCExplorer Baby Tricopter. Have been working with @jihlein to work out the bugs over the last couple days and managed to get it into the air today for an autotune. Weather has been sketchy today and the rain is back, or I'd be out trying to get a tailtune and do some more testing. Really stoked! Was flying really smoooooooth with the LOS flying I managed to get in.
Wish I would have had a camera running when taking it out for the first flight. Had the servo configured backwards and it went into an unbelievable, incredibly fast yaw spin like a top. Almost tempted to reverse the servo again to get some video. ;-)
At any rate. Managed to get some good BabyTri work done and should be able to get some LOS and FPV at the dome next weekend.
Cheers!
LitterBug
TriFlight RC6 development based on CleanFlight has been stalled out after some performance and stability issues with the latest cleanflight release. So I jumped at the opportunity to alpha test new dRonin TriFlight firmware for the RCExplorer F3FC Racing Flight controller on the RCExplorer Baby Tricopter. Have been working with @jihlein to work out the bugs over the last couple days and managed to get it into the air today for an autotune. Weather has been sketchy today and the rain is back, or I'd be out trying to get a tailtune and do some more testing. Really stoked! Was flying really smoooooooth with the LOS flying I managed to get in.
Wish I would have had a camera running when taking it out for the first flight. Had the servo configured backwards and it went into an unbelievable, incredibly fast yaw spin like a top. Almost tempted to reverse the servo again to get some video. ;-)
At any rate. Managed to get some good BabyTri work done and should be able to get some LOS and FPV at the dome next weekend.
Cheers!
LitterBug
I keep hoping that they'll move Triflight to Betaflight... dRonin sounds interesting, keep us updated
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