Will 3D Print a Tricopter, need advice on cheap setup!

[AdamsView]

Hi everyone,

I'm glad we have a newbie section.. it's much needed when just starting out with multi-rotors!

I wish to 3D print the following Tricopter - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1658497 and I have a very limited budget to get this in the air.

I'd appreciate any advice or if people have some starting out kits for sale to get me off the ground? I've looked into some of the kit advised on the link but feel people here could suggest better alternatives

Sorry if this is completely basic.. but I rather not suggest parts i've been viewing if they won't go together well in the first place, so i'll rely on what you've found/previously used.

Hope you can help!

Many thanks,

Ad

 

[AdamsView]

Bump!

 

[LitterBug]

I started with a cheap tricopter frame and had problem after problem with the build, breakage and repair. Unless you have a lot of experience with tricopters, I'd recommend starting with a frame and/or electronics kit from RCExplorer.se. David has a good size variety of high quality frames and parts that are very reasonably priced. I have his BabyTricopter frame.

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[AdamsView]

Thanks LitterBug, I'm going to be printing various frames from PLA and ABS to start out with, the good thing then is the amount of replacement parts I can keep producing if something was to go wrong.

I'll take a look at RCExplorer to see what electrics they have, but ideally spare parts from someone else would be a bonus! plus much cheaper

 

[cranialrectosis]

Tricopters are for madmen! This is mine.
http://forum.flitetest.com/showthread.php?14472-CranialRectosis-Twitchity-Mini-Tricopter-build

Seriously, tricopters are harder than quads.

Do you have a transmitter and lipo charger yet?

David W over at RCExplorer is a fantastic resource. Check out the electronics for the Baby Tricopter.

The copter you linked to is a re-mix of mpbiv's 3D printed tricopter. He worked through a few versions of it here on the forums.
http://forum.flitetest.com/showthread.php?14547-mpbiv-s-Hybrid-3D-Printed-G10-Tricopter-build

http://forum.flitetest.com/showthread.php?16432-mpbiv-s-3D-Printed-Folding-Tricopter-a-work-in-progress

The creator of the TRiForce remix (felicia22x) is running smaller motors (1806) than mpbiv (2204) and is running 5" props on 3S. 1806 on 3S will fly just fine but it won't have much power. If the motor mount holes are 16x19 you can probably go to 2204s/2205s. The felicia22x here says you can run 6" props and if you are going to fly 3S I would recommend 6" props.

If you can get away with it, you will have better performance with 2204/2205 motors running 4S on 5" triblade props. The key will be the motor mount holes.

F1 boards like the Naze32 are old and running out of time. F3 boards like the F3FC racer or the Lux will be supported by CleanFlight and BetaFlight after the F1 boards no longer are. Consider an F3 board instead of a Naze32.

I ran SimonK ZTW Spiders like mpbiv on my mini-tricopter until this year. I swapped over to the F3FC, 4S on 5" rotors a nice PDB and Aikon BLHeli-S 30 ESCs. The performance upgrades going to this hardware is HUGE. Mpbiv and I originally built our tricopters before this technology was available. I recommend the upgrade as the cost is about the same.

A 20C lipo is going to suck big time. Go 35C or better (I fly 45C or better) for flips.

 

[AdamsView]

Thanks for that reply there's a lot of good information to take in there! We're all mad to want to fly anything RC related.. so that's right up my allyway, might as well start in the deep end.. and the links to the other two builds are superb especially the G10.

I do like the setup but shopping around for them parts seems fairly expensive and I understand the quality of the components are key, this is why I was hoping someone may have too many parts and wouldn't mind selling a kit of electronics for me.

I have a couple of batteries from when I made a few balsa builds (20c - 35c) but will need to obtain a TX/RX again... i'll consider the F3FC board for sure!!

 

[cranialrectosis]

IMO one of the keys to shopping for components is source.

It takes <> 3 weeks to learn to fly one of these things. You ARE going to break parts. It will happen. 3 motors won't do you for long. You will tank one into a wall or sidewalk or fence, crack a bell or bend a shaft.

Get your parts where you can get more and in a reasonable timeframe. Waiting 2-3 weeks for an ESC is a drag.

Oh and start off with AT LEAST 5 whole sets of props.