Tricopter Questions

[Toby Carleton]

im making this thread to concise my questions and others questions into one spot.
How important is balancing, is it worth the work and effort?(props, motors ect...)
Is it common to have bad turbulence when descending?
Thanks for the help. Heres my channel to see my progress.
http://www.youtube.com/user/NewTheLabel/videos

 

[Shadow74]

Hey Toby,

in my experiences, balancing is pretty crucial. if your copter is balanced perfectly, the motors will all run fairly equal rpm's.....if it is nose heavy lets say, (using my quad-copter as the example) and you input some back trim to level it out, the front 2 motors will have to run higher rpms than the back to compensate for the weight on the nose. then it will fly a little wonky, plus as your battery starts to go down, the nose will increasingly drop. (at least that was the case with mine prior to balancing it out really well)

As far as balancing props, I used a magnetic balancer to balance each prop as precision as possible, then I install each prop separately and run up the motor, moving the prop clockwise around the hub till I feel and hear the sweet spot. That helps even more to reduce vibs. Gyros on a multi-copter, or a reg heli.....do not especially like vibrations. the more you can eliminate vibs, the better your gyro(s) will work for you.

I have a Tri-copter based off of Davids design, a miniature aircraft rotor x 404 quad, and also a quad frame that I designed running the latest KK blackboard. All of them experience turbelence while descending in a hover, so far, every multi-rotor that I have ever flown has this tendency. Just part of the deal i guess. One thing that I have done to sort of eliminate this, is gently lower the nose so that it descends in forward flight rather then descending in a hover. I have also lowered the nose and done a gentle spiral to lose altitude.....both of which get rid of the wonkiness that happens when descending straight down in a hover.

I watched your "tricopter flying high" video....great job flying man! It also looks like you got your gopro attached really well....cuz there are zero vibrations in your footage. Excellent work!



Hope this helps man!



Cheers,


Eric

 

[Toby Carleton]

Thanks eric! That definitely helps. When you balance your props, what method do you use? Because i believe there are a few different ways. (glue,tape, sanding)
I set up a throttle curve to help on descends to make it smoother. it seems to help with the turbulence. My gopro dampener works pretty well because i had a broken prop. That created lots of vibrations and it didn't have the jello effect ( first clip in "flying high")
Glad you liked the video it was really sketchy for awhile, i could hardly see my tricopter. (not smart)
Once i get my fpv stuff hooked up im gonna take it up to bogus basin in idaho and get some snow boarding video. i need to work my editing and maybe i can put together a descent video.
I made a bomb drop mechanism today. Im gonna be dropping parachutes from my tri. if everything goes well i will have the video up. have a merry christmas. thanks again

 

[Shadow74]

Hey Toby,

When I balance my props, I use a Top Flite magnetic balancer and I use electrical tape, or clear packaging tape to add weight to the lighter side....it works really well, and it is very fast.

WOW! to have no jello effect while flying with a broken prop, that is just impressive! Hats off to ya for making such an awesome camera mount design.

Cant wait to see the snowboarding footage! What software do you use to edit with?

I had a bomb drop on one of my planes once, Bixler and I used to drop beanie babies that we collected up from our kids' toy boxes onto the field where we fly. good times!

You have a Merry Christmas as well......talk to ya soon!

Cheers!

Eric

 

[Toby Carleton]

i have recently got final cut express 4 from a friend. Witch i hear is not the best for dslr video, i hate rendering too ive been trying to figure that out, mostly just imoive for now. i know im not that good at editing and shooting video. but its totally my passion and im trying to learn more. i try to learn from watching flite test and other poeple videos to get an idea of shots and and editing styles

 

[Shadow74]

actually iMovie is pretty powerful these days. I use Premiere Pro CS5 for doing all of the work for my company, but lately on the side, for small vids and home movies and such, I have been filming on my iPad, and then cut the vid in the iMovie app for iPad. Its pretty cool, all touch screen editing is actually quite fun. camera's not as good of quality, and iPad is obviously not nearly as powerful as an editing station....but quick and very fun.

As far as getting better at editing, it just takes time....and.....you will always be getting better no matter how long you do it. Watching other people's work is the best way to improve.....there is alot of talent out there to get ideas from.


Eric