Tricopter V2.5 Build

Thanks bud

wOOd - Think of his "KK" board as three heading hold gyros.  That's all it really is!  In fact, the early quads and tricopters were built with three gyros mounted on the X,Y, and Z axis.  The only other difference is that the gyro output drives a motor rather than a servo.  Not much to it really. 

The more advanced controllers like the Open Pilot and NAZA also have three accelerometers.  The ones in X and Y sense the orientation with the earth so you know if you're level.  This is the basis for "auto leveling" when you let off the right stick.  The accelerometer in Z senses vertical displacement to help stabilize vertical movement.  This is the one doing the work in those videos where you see someone walk over and force the thing up or down.  The Z axis accelerometer sees that and restores the altitude just like your heli gyro would return the tail after a gust of wind.

You can see some of this action in my old heading hold video.  Just imagine it happening in X,Y, and Z.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiluABaE954

Now you're an expert!      ...Tiger

Thanks Tiger

Tiger, solved the motor mystery. Took motor off, put in lathe, dial indicator on bell and aluminum threads. .004" TIR on bell, .023" TIR on aluminum threads. lightly tap aluminum and rotate until within .003" or so TIR. Run motor, still reeeeealllly bad vibs. Take motor apart, main shaft TIR .005" Hmmmmm does not seem like that much TIR would make a motor into a coffee grinder.....

New shaft installed, assemble, .002" TIR, run it, still grinding coffee and a marble or two...... think bell was bent, check, not much TIR again. take apart and stare at it.

A few magnets very slightly lower in bell than others (but not much), push magnet, nothing happens, get angry say something like @#%* and grab screwdriver and really push magnet, slides waaay up into bell, huh?

Push ALL the magnets way up into bell, no glue, put together, runs as smooth as a brand new motor.

I drilled holes in wood sticks and just zip tied two ends of the + motor mount right to the stick, none of the bottom shaft sticks out of the bottom so it's totally protected now. fly's much better than when you saw it, can probably even lower the gains some. I think the flexing of the lexan did affect it after all, totally rigid now.

Need to rebuild my tail thing since it is still bent from the last crash, but will be easy fix. Don't know how I would ever glue ALL the magnets in and have then be straight, might run it till she blows and just junk the motor.

Tyson - Push all the magnets up to where they should be and then mark one of them with a Sharpie so you know where you're starting.  Then sequentially stick the tip of your xacto knife under the end of each one to raise it ten or fifteen thousandths so you can flow a "tiny" amount of thin CA under the magnet.  IMMEDIATELY move to the next one in case the CA got a little wide.  Work your way around to the last one and you should be good.  Even though it's flying nice now, the magnets are going to continue to be a problem unless you glue them.

We need to try those colored props again once you get everything spinning true and mounted rigid.

...Tiger

It sounds like you put $75 labor into a $14 motor?

Which is fine, however it's only a number if this time is usually wasted time to begin with ... When we use the term 'Hobby' this in itself implies "FREE Time", no ??

Now if I were a 'Corporate-GO-Getter' maybe MY TIME would worth more than the cost of certain items ...
... But being a retired old fart looking for ways to pass the time before they BOX me for the eternal journey, then SAD to say No


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I agree w00d, and I have certainly put plenty of my "spare" time into unprofitable endeavors.  In that sense every one of us here does that every time we play with our toys.

I get it that sometimes the forensic techie in us wants satisfaction to know why something is not working as we expect, or as it should.  Been there, done plenty of that too.

Sometimes in life we have the money and not the time.  Sometimes we have the time and not the money.  Maybe that all balances out somehow.

hehe, sometimes the excuse 'LAZY' works well in my world, time no, cost no ... Sometimes I just don't have the energy to DIY so then we simply BUY it

PS: Not forgetting any 'academic' losses when we 'purchase', nothing to be learned by maxing the old [acronym=Credit Card, painless payments {LMAO}]CC[/acronym]



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Yeah, but I won! Made that motor finally listen to me and do what I was telling it to do, "be smooth"

A guy I know used eBay for the first time a long time ago, he kept bidding and getting out bid, then at the last second he kept bidding higher than the other people as fast as he could by raising the bid $1 at a time. When he won he jumped up and down claiming victory as he had just won the auction.

We just sat and stared at him until someone said, "you didn't WIN anything, now you have to pay for that thing."

update, re-did my tail setup, sort of better I guess, at least not bent anymore, but could use more work. But with all the motors rigid now it is totally different again. had to lower the gains a lot, but works ok so far. more smooth i guess.

I found that the aluminum prop mount (the one with 4 screws on it and a threaded shaft) was mis machined on one motor and would not screw down straight. This gave the prop a sort of blade tracking/wobble issue that caused vibration, it is now smoother than ever before.

The colored props came in yesterday, I changed the rate of which the rear servo operates at by moving a ball link, made the motor mounts a bit more rigid and installed the color props with green in front and one orange in the back. I also have them counter rotating now in the front. It flew real nice, need to re-do some of the gains now, but even as it is now the tri flew real smooth. But, I attached by big camera box onto it and flew, no jello, real easy to control, but when it came down the motors were HOT!!!! Like burn my hands hot, so I think the thing is just too heavy, but the concept has worked out so I will continue to play with these multi rotor things...........

Do you have any plans to get a quad so you don't need the tail servo?

If I end up with a naza someday then I guess I won't have a choice. I don't really like the Y6 things so Quad would be it.

What influenced your decision to get a Tricopter instead of a Quadcopter?

Tricopter with a servo is my favorite, I like how they look when they fly. As far as a multirotor it is the closest thing to looking like a regular helicopter 

But I suppose i could hang a tail on a quad  ;D

Actually if I could set up a true "X" version with a tail on it and landing gear then it would look cool. I mean X as in a X not a + turned like a X. Meaning that it is wider than it is long because of how a X is shaped. It would be slower with alierons and faster with elevator.

If you want something with a different shape you could get one of these:

http://www.hoverthings.com/frame-sets/htfpvblack.html

I know FPV is important to you and the format of that Hoverthings frame, as well as the TBS Discovery, are designed to keep the arms out of the way of the propellers.

The Quadcopter format has a lot more going for it in my opinion and also there are more controller types readily available.  I don't think the Tricopters have any mechanical advantage, maybe even a slight disadvantage.  Cost can't be a issue either because the cost of a good fast tail control class servo is probably close to the same, or more, than a fourth motor and ESC since a lot of guys are running those Hobbypartz jobs with good results.