Transmitter for tricopter

[KJ4CCH]

Hey guys,


I am really interested in building a tricopter, but do not know what kind of transmitter is usable.
I have a Futaba Skysport 6 which is 72 mhz and looks kinda like this:



I looked around and found it hard as people say if it has four channels it is usable. Also, are there any resources to learn to fly one of these things hahaha. it will be my first Multirotor. I might stop by a local hobby shop to look at some wood, and maybe play on the sim they have on display, maybe I can get in some stick time.

balsa booms good for arms?

 

[Craftydan]

Hey guys,


I am really interested in building a tricopter, but do not know what kind of transmitter is usable.
I have a Futaba Skysport 6 which is 72 mhz and looks kinda like this:

View attachment 14749

I looked around and found it hard as people say if it has four channels it is usable. Also, are there any resources to learn to fly one of these things hahaha. it will be my first Multirotor. I might stop by a local hobby shop to look at some wood, and maybe play on the sim they have on display, maybe I can get in some stick time.

balsa booms good for arms?

Welcome to the forum KJ4CCH!

4 will do, 5 or 6 is better. Beauty of a multirotors is the control board flies the airframe, it just takes instructions from the radio. It makes setup of the radio dead simple (just need to trim everything to center on the board, then set the endpoints) . . . after that comes the hard part -- teaching the control board how to fly

I haven't found a sim that trained well for me -- too hard to really see what's happening. These guys are very attitude sensitive, and it's surprising how hard that is to see on a monitor.

I picked up my heli orientation from experience with fixed wings and flying around full-house fixed-blade microcopter (Blade MSR). If you can tolerate the toy controllers, most of the RTF microquads are very stable and will teach orientation well. After that, all you'll need to do is get used to a heavier, more powerful platform.

And balsa booms will work splendidly . . . assuming you never have to land

 

[KJ4CCH]

Sweet! so more or less i have to build it and learn to fly it I head they are easier to fly then helicopters, and i have flown some of the smaller helos around my house! looks like this will jave to be the next project

 

[vk2dxn]

KJ4
Be warned!!!! It is addictive.
You won't just stop at one, once bitten by the multi bug you will keep constructing

 

[Tritium]

KJ4
Be warned!!!! It is addictive.
You won't just stop at one, once bitten by the multi bug you will keep constructing

Yes I have 8 multirotors now (soon to be 11)!

Thurmond

 

[xuzme720]

I thought I was bad with 3.

 

[kah00na]

I bought a small quadcopter from banggood.com to learn to fly on. After I had several hours of flying time in it, and lots of crashes, I was able to fly my tricopter with a lot smaller learning curve. If you do get one, I'd suggest the Hubsan H107 X4. It has lights so you can even fly it at night. Also, because it is small, you can fly in your house to get practice in even on bad weather days. The Hubsan X107 has a real good auto level which makes learning to fly easier too.

 

[KJ4CCH]

Thanks guys! I priced out a quad to around <90 bucks, depending on the flight controller i use. That is cheaper than my airplanes hahahaha. I am gonna paint mine black, with a gold(ish) tail. maybe bright yellow, that might help with orientation. I was surprised at how cheap one can be built for! but I know they can also get expensive Cant wait to show up to the field with the only multirotor.

There is a local guy that might help me. I have yet to meet him, but i heard he is a nice person and might be willing to help

 

[kah00na]

What part of which country are you in? Anywhere near Kansas?

 

[KJ4CCH]

I am located in Florida. Stuck in the sunshine state

 

[Craftydan]

Don't knock it KJ4 -- we in the southern latitudes aren't stuck in build season yet

Might want to check out Massive RC:

http://www.massiverc.com/

He's a reseller out of Brevard county. It's mostly the same RTF kits sold on Bangood and Amazon, however he disassembles, inspects tests and reassembles the quads he sells -- you'll pay more but you'll get a known good quad. He also sells spare parts, batteries, props, upgrades, and even a tiny monster called the "Frankenquad" -- a conglomerate of all the better parts of diffrent models into one quad.

I have never dealt with him, but I keep hearing good things about the shop -- along the lines of "If you're gonna buy a cheep Chinese micro-quad, this is the place you can expect to get a good one."

It does list "BNF", however I believe it's not to Spektrum TXs (which is what that usually means), but the Tx's used on those quads. He does have a neat transmitter box that can run multiple protocols, including the Chinese micro-copter and Spektrum. I have no experience with this radio, so I don't know what it can and can't do, or how easy it is to do it, so buyer beware.

 

[KJ4CCH]

haha true, year long flying season. actually, I tend to think now that it is cooling down, the season just started But I printed out David's template, and the scale seems to be 1mm too small. How do I bump up the scale by a mm on a computer?

I am gonna try and cut it out with a router, then sand her into shape, then find me some pine dowels.

anyone know when the kk2.0 boards normally come in?
Also, could I solder the esc straight to the motor? or do I have to get the billet connectors?



Those micro quads are super neat! really small, and are roughly the size of my hand! I honestly thought they were bigger! reminds me when the micro helicopters started to come out. I loved them things when I was a kid!!!

 

[Cyberdactyl]

Be very careful with quality-check resellers.

I'm sure massiverc is ok, but we aware of this sad story. . .

 

[Craftydan]

Be very careful with quality-check resellers.

I'm sure massiverc is ok, but we aware of this sad story. . .

Fair point CD.

I haven't dealt with this guy before, but have only run across kudos and not complaints for him. One man businesses, however, can go south quickly, leaving a select few stuck.

As always, caveat emptor .

 

[jhitesma]

I mentioned it in another thread, but the Syma X1 is another cheap quad to take a look at for getting a taste. It's available on amazon from a number of sellers for <$35 shipping included. I picked one up about a year ago - got the bumblebee body because it was cheapest but quickly learned it had the side benefit of being a BIG hit with my daughter. She'd come home from nursery school and beg me to "Fly the bee daddy!" She liked it so much she even helped me "fix" it when I bent a prop...though she did mix the CW/CCW props up so she's got a few things to learn still. But for 2 years old I was impressed:


I'd like to pick up a hubsan since I've heard lots of good things about them. But for my first quad I went with the X1 because it as more proven at the time than the Hubsans, it was able to bind with my Turnigy 9X TX with the stock RF module, and it was available in the US from Amazon so quick cheap shipping FTW. I did pick up a 5 pack of higher capacity (600mah) batteries on banggood for <$15 and I have had to replace one arm (I didn't actually have to replace the whole arm, all I did was bend the shaft the prop mounts on on one arm...but when I ordered a replacement shaft from HobbyPartz they shipped me 4 new arms for the price of one shaft so I just replaced the whole arm!) Other than that the X1 has proven darn near indestructible and I've really bashed it up hard. I've gone vertical until out of radio range (the stock TX does have pretty limited range and is very susceptible to 2.4g interference) and it survived the fall with no damage at all. I've also flown it full speed into the side of my house and again no damage. I've yet to actually break a prop on it in fact - though I have bent a few but usually I can just bend them back and they still work just not as efficiently.

So if you're wanting a cheap taste of quad flying and don't want to risk ordering from overseas the X1 is IMHO tough to beat.

And while I'm really tempted to try a hubsan (I bet my daughter would love the one that comes with a bubble blower attached) I truly enjoy building as much if not (gasp!) more than flying...so right now my very limited hobby budget tends to go towards parts rather than RTF/BNF models. I have dusted the X1 off though the past few weeks and have been running a few lipo's through it to make sure I'm ready for the quad I'm currently building.