Quick update. The Mini Tricopter Electronics kit will now come with the LittleBee30A ESC’s. After testing them properly it’s evident that they are more robust and better performing than the SN20A’s on the Mini Tricopter. They are slightly heavier but the benefits they bring, in my opinion, outweighs the small weight increase.

The Mini Tricopter arms are finally back in stock, which means that the Mini Tricopter kit is also off backorder. The Full size arms are, according to the tracking, scheduled to arrive on the 31st of March.

In the meantime I’ve done some tests with 6×4.5×3 props on the Mini Tricopter and it’s pretty awesome! The motors have so much torque that they still come down almost cold. Will do more tests to see how well the setup holds up compared to the standard 6×4.5 which have phenomenal performance. Have any of you tested out any other prop configurations?

We’ve run out of arms for both the MiniTricopter and the Tricopter V3.5. The sharp corner arms turned out to be too difficult for the manufacturer to make reliably and the yield was low. (Though they didn’t inform us of this until we put in the latest order). So now we’re going back to the rounded corner arms again. But from the new manufacturer, so the quality will be improved compared to the very first arms we sold. The new arms are being made and will ship out to us soon.

In the mean time we can offer the tricopter kits with “second quality arms” at less than manufacturing cost. A $7 discount is available for the Tricopter V3.5 kit and $5 discount for the MiniTricopter. Use the discount code uglytriarms for the Tricopter V3.5 kit and uglyminiarms for the MiniTricopter while in your cart. For spare arms (both full length and 1/2 length) that are not part of a kit you can use the coupon code uglyarm ($1 discount per arm). Make sure that the coupon code works before proceeding to the checkout page.

By “second quality” we mean that the arms have not passed our usual quality control and may be scratched, somewhat uneven on the surface, of a little bit uneven length/width, or with other minor faults. They are still straight and fully functional (maybe a bit of sanding down of a bump might be needed, but not more that that). These arms are available and in stock even if the “normal quality” arms are on backorder, which means that your tricopter would be shipped without delay. The arms may be of the rounded or sharp edge design, but they will not be mixed. You cannot choose which type you will get.

Finally! After months and months of testing different motors, ESCs and props, I’ve finally found the optimum combination of components

The kit contains the brand new, custom wound 2217 stator size, 1300KV motor. Tuned specifically to provide the best efficiency during hover yet still have tons of power for when you need it.

The über awesome motor uses a 4mm shaft to better handle impacts and abuse. It weighs 77g with cables, which means it has a lot of copper in the windings which provides mounds of torque to swing 8×5 propellers on 4S, or 9×5 on 3S.

To turn the super awesome motors 3 LittleBee 30A ESC’s are used. These ESC’s use the Silabs C8051F390 processor with dedicated gate drivers to achieve super fast switching which increases efficiency, throttle response and thrust generated by the motor. They work on 2-6S and are flashed with BLHeli 14.3 with dampened light enabled by default. They are also Oneshot125 compatible and together with the active breaking they give a really crisp and precise control over the copter.

Also included in the kit are 3 – 432mm long 18 gauge power and servo wires, the perfect length for the Tricopter V3.5.

A power package is only as good as the propellers providing the thrust. After testing many, many props these are by far the best ones I found. The 8×5 Thin electric by HQ. They are carbon fiber reinforced to provide good stiffness, they are light weight which improves quick throttle response (which makes the copter more stable as the updates from flight controller is executed quicker), They also have the best “out of the package” balance out of the bunch (you should still always balance your props!). They are also very efficient on this setup and they cut the air better than other multirotor specific props.

Lastly, the kit also includes the raining champion of tricopter tail servos, the Blue Bird 210 DMH. Tough, powerful, precise and reliable, this servo performs again and again.

The price tag for the Tricopter V3.5 power package is $150. Get them while they’re hot!