Tricopter build

[CarolineTyler]

Ok, built my first tricopter and tonight it took its first little hops...
Main parts are 3D printed, booms carbon fibre. Micro cc3d as the flight computer.

Caroline

 

[PsyBorg]

Ground effect is crazy indoors. I would be very careful trying to get that up out of that effect inside unless you have a larger living room or some place for the air currents to go and not bounce off of everything around it.

Sounds like it wants to go for sure though so I would call that a success for sure. :applause:

 

[CarolineTyler]

Tomorrow! Maiden

Weather forecast for tomorrow morning is mild, dry with winds less than 5mph. I will be trying its first maiden
Yay!!

 

[PsyBorg]

Sounds like the perfect day to do it!.. Make sure to get us some video so we can share in your success.

 

[CarolineTyler]

It flew!!!!!

Poor quality video - but I'm home with a successful maiden and no crashes!!!!

 

[PsyBorg]

Wow your skies look like mine do for most of the year hehe. Looks like you are off to a very good start!

BTW if you click the icon in to the tool bar that looks like a film strip you can link videos and have them show up right in your posts. they will get more attention that way.

Keep up the good work :applause:

 

[CarolineTyler]

Second flight!!! Got sunnier in the afternoon lol!
This time, not only did I find my video camera, I got someone to hold it

 

[Resin_Smoker]

Had to tell from the video but is the Tricopters tail wagging much ?

 

[CarolineTyler]

It's definitely unstable. Just tried turning down the rates but although it reduced the wobble, it was a lot harder to fly as it was very slow to respond to control input.

 

[CarolineTyler]

It's definitely unstable. Just tried turning down the rates but although it reduced the wobble, it was a lot harder to fly as it was very slow to respond to control input.

Think I have it nailed down to an unbalanced prop. These backup props I had to drill out the prop hole to fit and I most likely screwed that up.....I thought I had balanced them, and the two front props spin nice and smoothly but the rear hits a certain speed and a vibration sets in, in turn upsetting the flight computers accelerometers.

So...
Going to wait until the proper props arrive - these motors use the DJI style shaft (M6). Back to waiting for a delivery

 

[PsyBorg]

Hey.. just a heads up Caroline. Setting rates before tuning is best. so if you lowered them and the craft feels sluggish raise them back up and fly a bit til you find a happy place with them. Then you can start tuning out shakes and bad tendencies.

If you spend the time tuning say with the lower rates and you change to higher rates then the craft more then likely will inherit oscillations due to the FC trying to do faster changes at a higher degree per second.

In all cases keep a close eye on motor temps as some changes can really work the motors hard and that is where people get into problems with tuning.

 

[CarolineTyler]

New blades have arrived!!!! Yay! This time, I bought six pairs of blades....hope these will last for a while!
Oh and a Firefly S6 action camera....the 4K video is okay but the 1080 HD with gyro stabilisation is really good.

 

[LitterBug]

CT,
Great to hear there is more Tri insanity going on! I don't have any as big as yours in the air currently but have a monster HobbyKing Y-3 80% redone. I reworked the tail on all three of my RCExplorer tricopters with better 3D printed tilt mechanisms over the weekend. Weather is looking up for the next few days. Hope to get some vids and better pictures posted up to my build threads too.

Cheers!
LB

 

[JimCR120]

I've been away and now catching up. A late welcome to the forum Caroline and also to the tricopter fun. I haven't messed with mine since FFE'17 but really want to.

 

[Merv]

Let's have an update please.

 

[CarolineTyler]

Let's have an update please.

It's long dismantled, I could never get the rear servo to behave. I prefer the more full on thrill of quads.

 

[LitterBug]

 

[Merv]

I was hopeful you could give some pointers now that David Windestål is shutting down

 

[CarolineTyler]

I was hopeful you could give some pointers now that David Windestål is shutting down

Sorry, @LitterBug is your go-to for tricopter assistance