Mini-Tricopter Build on RCExplorer.se Frame

[califrag]

I was afraid of splitting too at first.Maybe I'm wrong but when looking close, it's more like a "mold trace" than a seam to me. I don't see anything like a seam on the end part, just on 2 "faces", so I didn't take much care after all.
Plan is to use David's carbon booms which I already have, but for upgrading my bigger tricopter. So I ordered a new set for the mini. I can feel by hand that's it's top quality CF = looks quality, feel and sounds like it (click it with you finger nail, it sounds so stiff like a metal alloy).
The little end cap is indeed 3D printed, not by me but from David's kit and yes, it fits perfectly (very light too).
I ended using my tricopter V3 kit partly for my big tri and for my new mini.
I expect some good results with the sunnysky x2207 using 5030 prop and 4S.

I received my sunnysky motors today, but no time to build right now, just a test fit.
HK booms changed for David's CF cut down to 150mm (back boom is 165mm).
Servo back to vertical position as motor is tall enough for prop clearance.
Fingers crossed with this tiny KISS esc's...

Motors rotation checked (easy to change with jumper JP2, nice).
ESC calibration : I decided to make the economy of the negative signal wire from esc to flight controller. It works, but then how to do the calibration routine? Hopefully I recall multiwii has an internal routine to do them all at once without unplunging anything. Lucky this time... It was necessary as one motor start slowly spinning right after arming the tricopter. Everything goes normal after calibration.
PID are set "low" to start (mostly the yaw to stop the motor 'dancing' too much)

Weight is 362gr. My fpv gear (700tvl cam + 200mW vTx + CL antenna) will add about 50gr. but will test without first.
Ways to save some weight : servo is overkill, screws (20) are steel made, FC could be lighter (naze32 for ex), adjust wires length...

Ready for first test flight tomorrow.

Nice job that looks great! Can't wait to hear back on the maiden, make sure to take video!

I still haven't bought my motors cause the ones I want have been out of stock, so my build is still sitting in a box waiting

Your hybrid wood carbon booms are just like what I'm doing on my Fortis. Only difference is that I used polyurethane glue. The foamy stuff (Gorilla Glue). The Elmers doesn't seem like it would bond to the CF very well.


Best regards,
PCH

I considered using the gorilla glue but the wood dowel fit pretty much exactly and the gorilla glue being so thick I figured most of the glue would squish out anyways. I chose elmers cause it was a little bit thinner and after spreading the glue on, I could let it sit for a minute to soak into the wood, then slide it into the arm and wipe away the excess. It actually seems to have bonded really well and they seem very strong and the dowel feels like it's not gonna be going anywhere.

While testing out the motor mounts and carbon arm lengths, I ended up with a couple extra carbon pieces and motor mounts that seem like they would be perfect for making an optional v-tail assembly so I may wire the tricopter tail assembly to be removable so I can swap between the two.

 

[ztoon]

Nice job that looks great! Can't wait to hear back on the maiden, make sure to take video!

I still haven't bought my motors cause the ones I want have been out of stock, so my build is still sitting in a box waiting

Thanks,
The maiden has been done, but with some gusty wind. So just a little flight to check everything works.
No PID tuning yet.

 

[cranialrectosis]

Nice copter, ztoon!

 

[ztoon]

Thanks Cranial,
I hope weather will improve this week so I can fly it for real.
I remade a comparison between my bigger tricopter and my new mini with ecalc.ch calculator, here's some interesting values I didn't notice before :
BigTri (about 1.2kg/1.5KW - 9" prop) as reference
Max Tilt = 53°
Max Speed = 41.6mph / 67kmh
MiniTri (about 600gr/1KW - 5" prop)
Max Tilt = 67°
Max Speed = 75.8mph / 122kmh
Same mini tricopter with 6" prop
Max Tilt = 75°
Max Speed = 72 mph / 116kmh

 

[Twitchity]

That is a pretty windy day to be maiden a copter. It looks to be tossed around quite a bit by the wind The tri looks nice though.

 

[ztoon]

Hi Twitchity,
Yes some winds, but it didn't improved since...no flight this week
So I added my fpv gear.
Weight is now 462gr without battery.
The 1000mAh/4S-45C I used is 125gr.

 

[BanditJacksRC]

You tricopter looks amazing. I am planning to start a tri soon and will likley be doing one very similar to yours. Looks great man

 

[ztoon]

Thanks Bandit,
I wish I could make my build look more like somebody who uses paracord on this forum... Nice & clean. Well not yet for mine.
Plus I think I need something to protect the wires where they meet the carbon booms. Yes, wiring need to be re-done anyway.
I flew one battery this afternoon, the thing is pretty fast.
My mobius battery was empty (planes flights before), so no video this time.
Not totally satisfied with the pid but it's already feeling like it is "locked in the air".
The small 200mW vTx works very well (and it's a cheap one).
Sounds promising.

 

[ztoon]

Wiring has been redone + some mods.
Added plastic protections inside and at the tip of the booms to protect wires, no more risk of wire cutting when folding.
Props are now 5045 bullnose hqprop.





A (new) test flight in windy conditions.

 

[jipp]

much nicer day to fly i say. sure looks like a great flying and looking tri. congrats on your build.

chris.

 

[califrag]

Man ZToon that is such a nice build and flies so nice.

My build had been shelved while I worked out issues with KISS esc's burning up (the ones I was gonna use on this build had to be used to replace some other ones) and seven months after starting this thread I finally have something that flies but it still needs to be tuned in.



I put some slightly used Tiger MN2204 motors that my friend and I removed from our blackouts when we upgraded to Cobras and paired them up with the new sn20a running BLHeli with damped light and oneshot.

The rotor bits were a PAIN to work with and in order to drill the holes to fit the 2204 size motors, I had to shave away and drill into some of the connecting support structure to allow the screws to sit flush and thread in properly.



The holes weren't perfectly measured and the motors are a little offset but it still hovers nice and stable, just gotta get rid of the tail wag.

I'm using an old burnt out ESC that still has a working BEC to power the servo since I was getting cut-outs when trying to power it from the 500mah pololu with the naze and receiver.

There's no FPV gear on it yet but I'll try to get some video this weekend and post it up but I'm making progress again

 

[ztoon]

The holes weren't perfectly measured and the motors are a little offset but it still hovers nice and stable, just gotta get rid of the tail wag.

I'm using an old burnt out ESC that still has a working BEC to power the servo since I was getting cut-outs when trying to power it from the 500mah pololu with the naze and receiver.

It's looking good anyway.
The tail pb could be software (PID) or hardware (sure your servo is strong enough? got myself some funny results with weak servos on tricopter).
Yes, 500mAh is surely not enough juice. I use a cheap standard 5V/3A bec from hk.

 

[califrag]

It's looking good anyway.
The tail pb could be software (PID) or hardware (sure your servo is strong enough? got myself some funny results with weak servos on tricopter).
Yes, 500mAh is surely not enough juice. I use a cheap standard 5V/3A bec from hk.

The servo I've got on there now is a cs-929mg which I think is strong enough (I saw some other people recommend it for the rotorbits tricopter tail kit).

Operating current on the servo is 200-240mAh I was just hoping the 500mAh might work but I'm just gonna put another pololu regulator for it which will be a lot smaller than what I currently have.

I'm thinking it's likely just PIDs needing to be adjusted, when I tried the luxfloat pidc the tail wag was a LOT worse to the point where it wouldn't even fly.

Will need to comb through the other mini tricopter threads and see what the PIDs are lookin like.

 

[zenguerilla]

Somewhat related, I saw the N32 integrated V3 is to likely be available with tuning/setup video (at RCE) in the next couple to few weeks (production weeks, which could mean longer in real time for actual purchase, from my recollection with similar things.)

 

[ztoon]

The servo I've got on there now is a cs-929mg which I think is strong enough (I saw some other people recommend it for the rotorbits tricopter tail kit).

I've looked at your corona mg servo datasheet (got some Corona servos myself on my dlg, good products). It says torque is 2kg.cm at 4.8V. Honestly I don't know how much is required for a mini tricopter tail meca, but my servo got double value (BMS385DMAX = 4.2kg.cm). Just sayin'

 

[califrag]

I've looked at your corona mg servo datasheet (got some Corona servos myself on my dlg, good products). It says torque is 2kg.cm at 4.8V. Honestly I don't know how much is required for a mini tricopter tail meca, but my servo got double value (BMS385DMAX = 4.2kg.cm). Just sayin'

Same here I have no idea how much actual force is generated by the mini tri during a full-speed yaw rotation and sudden stop/flip the opposite direction, but so far the corona is holding up really well.

I do have one of those BMS_385DMAX, but I thought that it would be a bit overkill, it's what David recommended for the Tricopter V1 which was swinging DT750's and 9" props:

http://flitetest.com/articles/tricopter-scratch-build

I've done a few tests getting it yawing full speed in one direction and then 100% yaw opposite, and the servo seemed to hold up but just needed a bit of tuning (continued to overcorrect for a split second until it settled).

I got some video recorded over the weekend I just gotta edit it together.

 

[ztoon]

I updated my mini tricopter with rceplorer new naze32 integrated frame (very nice product I must say).
As usual when I've some flight testing to do, strong winds outside, grrrrr.
My small cheap scale announced me that the tricopter lost 50gr in the update (from 460 down to 410gr without battery).

 

[jipp]

looks good with a boom cut,

 

[CharelZa]

Very nice mini Tri Well done.
very clean build too.