Chimera inspired VTOL Tricopter Mini Guinea

[FlamingRCAirplanes]

Hey guys! As I have been talking in @Taildragger’s thread, I am making a VTOL Mini Guinea inspired by Peter Sripol’s Chimera on the Flite Test channel! I initially made the foam body first, but when my software did not work as intended, I ended up stripping it down onto a wood frame so that I could crash with less damage.
After doing some 20+ failed tests with the new wooden frame version I figured I would take matters into my own hands, and modified the code from MultiWii to work, the problem it was having was the two front motors where swapped in the PID loop, resulting in it correcting in the wrong direction, but working on the correct direction when you control it with your TX.
The circuit is VERY simple, just an Arduino Nano and a MPU6050 IMU for checking its attitude.
I soldered it up onto a protoboard, and joined two of them together using screws to sorta make a double layered PCB, the end result was a nice, if big, flight controller:

After I got the FC working I went ahead and added landing legs and a better servo mount, I used two spare protoboards for supports as they have REALLY good adhesion to hot glue (since they are full of holes.)

And I feel I made it in true FliteTest spirit! I used two Power Pack A equivalent’s and one Power Pack C equivalent. Just threw it together, and used all of my motors. This is currently my only flying vehicle besides my TinyWhoop but now that I have TriCopter mode working somewhat, I can tune it, then move on to adding working VTOL including putting it back on a Mini Guinea! I am super excited to see how it works!

 

[FlyerInStyle]

Hey guys! As I have been talking in @Taildragger’s thread, I am making a VTOL Mini Guinea inspired by Peter Sripol’s Chimera on the Flite Test channel! I initially made the foam body first, but when my software did not work as intended, I ended up stripping it down onto a wood frame so that I could crash with less damage.
After doing some 20+ failed tests with the new wooden frame version I figured I would take matters into my own hands, and modified the code from MultiWii to work, the problem it was having was the two front motors where swapped in the PID loop, resulting in it correcting in the wrong direction, but working on the correct direction when you control it with your TX.
The circuit is VERY simple, just an Arduino Nano and a MPU6050 IMU for checking its attitude.
I soldered it up onto a protoboard, and joined two of them together using screws to sorta make a double layered PCB, the end result was a nice, if big, flight controller:
View attachment 225230 View attachment 225229
After I got the FC working I went ahead and added landing legs and a better servo mount, I used two spare protoboards for supports as they have REALLY good adhesion to hot glue (since they are full of holes.)
View attachment 225235 View attachment 225236 View attachment 225237
And I feel I made it in true FliteTest spirit! I used two Power Pack A equivalent’s and one Power Pack C equivalent. Just threw it together, and used all of my motors. This is currently my only flying vehicle besides my TinyWhoop but now that I have TriCopter mode working somewhat, I can tune it, then move on to adding working VTOL including putting it back on a Mini Guinea! I am super excited to see how it works!

Hey guys! As I have been talking in @Taildragger’s thread, I am making a VTOL Mini Guinea inspired by Peter Sripol’s Chimera on the Flite Test channel! I initially made the foam body first, but when my software did not work as intended, I ended up stripping it down onto a wood frame so that I could crash with less damage.
After doing some 20+ failed tests with the new wooden frame version I figured I would take matters into my own hands, and modified the code from MultiWii to work, the problem it was having was the two front motors where swapped in the PID loop, resulting in it correcting in the wrong direction, but working on the correct direction when you control it with your TX.
The circuit is VERY simple, just an Arduino Nano and a MPU6050 IMU for checking its attitude.
I soldered it up onto a protoboard, and joined two of them together using screws to sorta make a double layered PCB, the end result was a nice, if big, flight controller:
View attachment 225230 View attachment 225229
After I got the FC working I went ahead and added landing legs and a better servo mount, I used two spare protoboards for supports as they have REALLY good adhesion to hot glue (since they are full of holes.)
View attachment 225235 View attachment 225236 View attachment 225237
And I feel I made it in true FliteTest spirit! I used two Power Pack A equivalent’s and one Power Pack C equivalent. Just threw it together, and used all of my motors. This is currently my only flying vehicle besides my TinyWhoop but now that I have TriCopter mode working somewhat, I can tune it, then move on to adding working VTOL including putting it back on a Mini Guinea! I am super excited to see how it works!

Wow! quite an amazing project! maybe using a real FC would be better with beta flight? Just a note, an Arduino is much slower than even an f1 flight controller. just an idea, and I believe Inav supports vtols so you could flash an FC with Inav. the f4 omnibus I have heard is a nice one for such a project. also why a c pack motor in the back? do you have any rear tilt mechanism for yaw? I don't see one. sorry for critiquing so much, just interested in helping out

 

[JasonK]

iNav does not support vtols. you would need to use ardupilot if you want something with support out of the box.

 

[FlamingRCAirplanes]

Wow! quite an amazing project! maybe using a real FC would be better with beta flight? Just a note, an Arduino is much slower than even an f1 flight controller. just an idea, and I believe Inav supports vtols so you could flash an FC with Inav. the f4 omnibus I have heard is a nice one for such a project. also why a c pack motor in the back? do you have any rear tilt mechanism for yaw? I don't see one. sorry for critiquing so much, just interested in helping out

Yeah, first, I did not want to use a real FC because you can't really modify the code to transition between the two modes Airplane and Tricopter.
Second, an Arduino IS a lot slower, able to maintain a loop speed of only 2400hz compared to the 8000-16000hz used by the better FC's BUT I can program them myself thus making it a better alternative compared to trying to find a version of INav/Ardupilot/BetaFlight/Dronin that has built in code to be able to stabilize a VTOL and still be able to transition, I looked at dRehmFlight but I would need a Teensy 4.0/4.1 and I did not want to spend any money, it ended up costing me nothing and the cost of the components I used came out around $10 on the FC so that is a Win/Win.
I did get it stabilizing amazingly well considering it is running on a Nano which everyone said is not gonna be able to do it, but it works nevertheless and I am quite pleased with it!
I am using a C pack because that is all I have, and it works well enough!
I am using a 2.2kg servo from a Brushless RC Car kit by GoolRC for the tilt system, it would not fly AT ALL without some sort of yaw, as they are very unstable in yaw.
And thanks for asking questions, because then they get explained and everyone else gets to see it!
Thanks!

 

[JasonK]

you could take iNav code and modify it to support transitions (I was doing that) or write your own code that runs on a 'modern' FC chip (Not much harder then arduino - just a bit different development env).

The "I had the parts on hand" part of it does make some sense, but if your getting a 2k control loop, you should be fine, some current FCs only have that for the gyro loop - but they are also doing gyro filtering and other stuff and not using the data raw... and that processing might be more expensive..

 

[Hondo76251]

iNav does not support vtols. you would need to use ardupilot if you want something with support out of the box.

+1

Unless you REALLY like the challenge of building your own from the ground up, an FC that supports Ardupilot is absolutely the way to go.

 

[FlamingRCAirplanes]

+1

Unless you REALLY like the challenge of building your own from the ground up, an FC that supports Ardupilot is absolutely the way to go.

I Really like the challenge of building my own from the ground up : )

 

[Hondo76251]

I Really like the challenge of building my own from the ground up : )

Not me! I try to limit my masochism to marriage and work, dont need it in my hobbies! 😂

 

[tamuct01]

Check out Nick Rhem's dRhemFlight VTOL. It runs on a Teensy 4.0 and is completely customizable.
https://github.com/nickrehm/dRehmFlight

 

[FlamingRCAirplanes]

Check out Nick Rhem's dRhemFlight VTOL. It runs on a Teensy 4.0 and is completely customizable.
https://github.com/nickrehm/dRehmFlight

I mentioned it in my post, and at some point I will, but not right now. I do not have a Teensy 4.0/4.1

 

[FlyerInStyle]

Yeah, first, I did not want to use a real FC because you can't really modify the code to transition between the two modes Airplane and Tricopter.
Second, an Arduino IS a lot slower, able to maintain a loop speed of only 2400hz compared to the 8000-16000hz used by the better FC's BUT I can program them myself thus making it a better alternative compared to trying to find a version of INav/Ardupilot/BetaFlight/Dronin that has built in code to be able to stabilize a VTOL and still be able to transition, I looked at dRehmFlight but I would need a Teensy 4.0/4.1 and I did not want to spend any money, it ended up costing me nothing and the cost of the components I used came out around $10 on the FC so that is a Win/Win.
I did get it stabilizing amazingly well considering it is running on a Nano which everyone said is not gonna be able to do it, but it works nevertheless and I am quite pleased with it!
I am using a C pack because that is all I have, and it works well enough!
I am using a 2.2kg servo from a Brushless RC Car kit by GoolRC for the tilt system, it would not fly AT ALL without some sort of yaw, as they are very unstable in yaw.
And thanks for asking questions, because then they get explained and everyone else gets to see it!
Thanks!

I would recommend trying an esp32 development board. not the stm32. the esp32 is up to f4 standards, and arduino programmable

 

[FlamingRCAirplanes]

I would recommend trying an esp32 development board. not the stm32. the esp32 is up to f4 standards, and arduino programmable

I have heard of it, but I think I will get a Teensy 4.1 soon instead of that, the Teensy 4.1 is up to “f4 standards”

 

[FlyerInStyle]

I have heard of it, but I think I will get a Teensy 4.1 soon instead of that, the Teensy 4.1 is up to “f4 standards”

also works. I have never heard of the teensy. now that I looked at it the esp32 is cheaper. this project is all up to you though

 

[FlamingRCAirplanes]

also works. I have never heard of the teensy. now that I looked at it the esp32 is cheaper. this project is all up to you though

Yep I just checked and the ESp is a LOT cheaper
that said the Teensy has more power, about 4 times the speed, but I like the price point for the ESP

 

[Hondo76251]

Im on the road, so can't look myself, but how does the equipment your referring to compare to say the matek stuff?

 

[NickRehm]

Following with interest because VTOL

Feel free to steal some of my code--I started out with an identical setup on the nano and got good results:

Teensy just offered more i/o options for radio in / motor out, and had more horsepower to play with

 

[LitterBug]

Careful.... TriCopters are highly addictive! It started with one and I have a whole fleet now.