Dragonfly Motor Rotation Direction

[Mamalemond]

What direction do you recommend setting your motors on the Dragonfly?

Front two turning toward each other? what about the two next to them pointing down? and the rear?

Thanks!

 

[The-One-Who-Never-Crashes]

Here are the rotations of the motors, looking from the top:

(CW=clockwise; CCW=counter-clockwise).

Front Right: CCW
Front Left: CW
Center Right: CW
Center Left: CCW
Tail: CCW

Remember to always keep your props' numbers facing UP!

Hope this helps. Good luck with the build!

 

[pressalltheknobs]

Also, in case you don't know, if you have CW and CCW threaded motors then the thread direction should be opposite to the motor direction. The CW or CCW designation on the motor box refers to the shaft thread. The motors themselves can operate in either rotation. If motors have shaft adapters then you can switch them around afterwards but if the thread is part of the motor bell it's more difficult particularly if you solder you motors.

Normal Rotation= CCW and has a CW thread
Reverse Rotation= CW and has a CCW thread

It's important to get it right because otherwise the force of the prop will loosen and undo the prop nut and you will loose props. If the thread are opposite to the motor direction the force of the prop will keep the prop nut tight.

 

[Mamalemond]

Thank you so much for your quick replies! and thanks for the comments about the thread direction - we surely would have missed that!

Do either of you know anything about the Graupner MZ12 setup? I am setting up the helicopter "swashplate" value for flying the Dragonfly (tricopter). I have choices of

- 1 Servo
- 2 servo
- 3sv(2rol)
- 3sv(140)
- 3sv(2nic)
- 4sv(90)

I am guessing I would use 3sv(2rol)??? Tri with 2 causing roll?? I have only one real servo for the Tough Tilt...

Thanks again!

 

[Mamalemond]

Thank you so much for your quick replies! and thanks for the comments about the thread direction - we surely would have missed that!

Do either of you know anything about the Graupner MZ12 setup? I am setting up the helicopter "swashplate" value for flying the Dragonfly (tricopter). I have choices of

- 1 Servo
- 2 servo
- 3sv(2rol)
- 3sv(140)
- 3sv(2nic)
- 4sv(90)

I am guessing I would use 3sv(2rol)??? Tri with 2 causing roll?? I have only one real servo for the Tough Tilt...

Thanks again!

 

[pressalltheknobs]

I do not know specifics about the Graupner MZ12 but generally multi-rotors use airplane setups not helicopter setups. Helicopters have specialized controls that do not generally apply.

Multirotors act more like planes and generally you only have to map the 4 channels that control the elevator, ailerons, throttle and rudder to pitch, roll, throttle and yaw respectively, to get basic control. You probably will want to map one auxiliary channel to allow you to select flight modes on the Flight Controller.

Which channel corresponds to which will depend on how your transmitter is arranged. Some fix which stick movement corresponds to which specific channel number and some allow you to program it.

A tricopter may be different since the tail rotor controls both pitch and yaw but that should be taken care of by the flight controller if you select the tricopter configuration there. What flight controller are you using?

 

[Mamalemond]

I do not know specifics about the Graupner MZ12 but generally multi-rotors use airplane setups not helicopter setups. Helicopters have specialized controls that do not generally apply.

Multirotors act more like planes and generally you only have to map the 4 channels that control the elevator, ailerons, throttle and rudder to pitch, roll, throttle and yaw respectively, to get basic control. You probably will want to map one auxiliary channel to allow you to select flight modes on the Flight Controller.

Which channel corresponds to which will depend on how your transmitter is arranged. Some fix which stick movement corresponds to which specific channel number and some allow you to program it.

A tricopter may be different since the tail rotor controls both pitch and yaw but that should be taken care of by the flight controller if you select the tricopter configuration there. What flight controller are you using?

Thankyou again! I did wonder if that might be the case... as I was taking the outs from my Graupner receiver and putting them on the inputs of my Naze 32 board.

We were able to get the servo to drive the tilt last night, but we were not getting the motors to run up. We checked the electro-hub and it was getting power from the battery, but the esc's and motors were not firing up. That is what prompted me to think about what my Tx might be sending.

All part of the fun - to debug - and think it through... (even though we are beginners and haven't a clue!!!)

 

[pressalltheknobs]

As I understand it the standard Naze software does not support tricopters (or does not support them very well). This may have changed. However David W of RC Explorer fame and erstwhile Flite Tester has worked with someone to get the naze to support tricopters (or support then better). I didn't immediately find anything about it on his site but you might want to search around for Naze32 and tricopters. You may need to update the firmware

Well I looked around and is it seems the changes were modifications to CleanFlight and may be specific tweaks for his designs so ignore this for now.

 

[Craftydan]

A recent version of *Cleanflight* had issues with tricopters (v1.9). It supports them, it's just buggy. Haven't played with v1.10 yet to see if it's fixed, but v1.8 works, and works well.

Baseflight hasn't had problems with Tri's from what I've seen, but it's not getting the development time cleanflight and betaflight are getting, so it's falling behind in performance and features . . . that being said, if you've got the Rev6 Naze board, it only works easily with baseflight (hopefully that will change VERY soon -- with Cleanflight V1.11)

As for the motors not responding . . . Have you tried to run them manually using the motors tab in the configurator? That would establish that the ESCs are indeed under the Naze's control:

- If they do spin up, then there's something inhibiting the arming sequence (accelerometers not calibrated, airframe tilted too far off level, Baro mode enabled, radio rates not set high enough to trigger).
- If they don't spin up, the board doesn't have control. recheck (again) your signal paths, your solder joints, and power to the ESCs. Also, try running each ESC directly from the RX to verify it's working.

Should I have to remind you to remove the props before you try any of this?