Setup:
RCExplorer Tricopter V3.5
Naze32 Tricopter top frame
PDB+BEC bottom frame
Tricopter electronics package;
BE2217 motors
LittleBee 30A ESC’s
HQ 8×5 props
BMS 210 Servo
GoPro 4 black
300mW 1.3GHz video transmitter
EZuhf longrange system
Lately almost all my flying has been with the Mini Tricopter. I haven’t flown the Tricopter V3.5 in FPV for quite some time. When I finally found the perfect V3.5 motor I decided to build a really nice, pimped out long range setup and get out there and do some flying, in the style I used to do.
As soon as I took off I fell in love all over again. I had forgotten how smooth and swooshy this thing is. It feels like the air is thicker, smoother and more flowing than when flying the smaller platforms. After landing it feels like you’ve had a 15 minute long hug. Man I’ve missed flying this thing.
I really like testing new electronics. Improving the performance, feel and quality is something I continuously strive for. With the new LittleBee30A ESC’s a broader range of power setups are possible and I think I found the perfect combination for the Mini Tricopter. The Emax RS2205 2300kV drew too much current for the SN20A’s that we previously used. I was also concerned that the flight times would suffer with such a tiny motor. But it turned out that hovering flight time actually is the same (~14 minutes) as with the BE2208 on a 4S1800mAh battery. It’s not quite as efficient in the hovering throttle range, but the lower weight compensates for this, and it provides more thrust.
At full throttle this little motor draws 31A, producing 1200 grams of thrust, while swinging a 6×4.5 HQ prop. You would think this would fry the poor little copper strands in the motor, but with its built in cooling system which sucks air through the motor, cooling both the motor and the powerful N52 magnets, it can do this without overheating. This is quite amazing considering that the Emax RS2205 only weighs in at 30 grams with wires! It’s also incredible smooth thanks to the Japanese NMB Bearings, really high quality stuff right there.
With the Emax RS2205 the copter does feel more perky and crisp. The breaking force of the Emax motors are amazing, which gives a very accurate feedback.
If you plan on going over to the Emax setup, I highly recommend using some good quality batteries with high C-rating to feed these power hungry little beasts.
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!
Just added some small items to the store, such as;
Some really nice quality 6mm and 3mm Wire Mesh Guard different colours,
A loud 5V active beeper/buzzer to use with the Naze32,
Separate BEC components for when you have a really bad crash, or want to upgrade your non BEC PDB,
Separate pin header in case you accidentally soldered it to the wrong side, or smushed it in a really weird crash.
This is our new RCExplorer F3FC Tricopter flight controller/PDB frame. Designed based on all the feedback we’ve received since the release of the Naze32 frame. This frame has it all.
Equipped with a SMT32F303CC processor which runs at a higher clock speed than the previous F1 chip. It also has a dedicated float point math processor to reduce processor load, freeing up resources to run other fun stuff like GPS, RGB LED’s, compass, blackbox logging, SBUS, OSD and such. This processor also allows for 3 dedicated UART’s which vastly improves connectivity. It’s now possible to run GPS, LED’s, OSD, external compass(via I2C) and SBUS at the same time. The board also has a I2C port and CAN bus which allows for future expandability. It also has a direct connected LED pin for controlling those really cool addressable RGB LED’s.
To save weight and make the build easier and more streamlined, the F3FC tricopter frame is also a power distribution board! Instead of having 2 separate boards and wires going everywhere you now just solder everything to one board and no extra wires between the boards are required. It makes assembling the copter easier, as you don’t have to juggle both boards and arms around at the same time while trying to get everything in place.
That’s not all when it comes to power. The F3FC frame also has a built in 3A switching BEC! This BEC can easily drive the servo, flight controller, OSD, UART devices, RGB LED’s without even running warm. It’s super clean and it also has selectable output voltage of 5V, 6V and 8V, the latter mainly used to power high voltage servos. If you have the BEC set to 8V you can, by bridging two solder points power the UART ports via a built in linear 5V regulator, so that you don’t fry your sensitive 5V expecting devices. The components for the switching BEC are well protected in a crash as they are hidden within the front spacer.
Also mounted inside of the front spacer is a MS5611 high sensitivity, high quality pressure sensor. Together with an external GPS the copter can now do position hold. Mounting the sensor inside of the front spacer keeps it out of direct airflow giving much more accurate readings.
Another great feature is the built in current sensor for monitoring mAh used. To me this is huge. It allows for a much more accurate way of knowing how much juice is left in your battery. This information can easily be relaid through telemetry to your RC transmitter together with the real time current draw and battery voltage (which naturally also is built in to the board).
To give the best flight experience the MPU6000 Gyro/accelerometer chip is used. It’s the least vibration sensitive chip commonly available, which means crisper performance due to lower noise. The MPU6000 is connected through SPI instead of I2C, which allows for much higher update rates. This together with the F3 chips capability of running lower loop times also improves the flight performance greatly.
Another huge leap in flight performance is the feedback enabled BMS210 servo. The flight controller now knows where the servo is at all times, which allows it to much more accurately control the tail. The F3FC frame has a dedicated feedback pad straight on the board for very easy hook up. All ESC’s also have surface mount pads straight on the board, which makes for a very clean build and saves a ton of space on the top of the frame.
To clean up the wiring even more there is now through holes that matches the pin spacing of the beeper. You can now solder the beeper straight to the board without any cables. There is also RAW battery voltage pins to power FPV equipment and such on the top of the frame. No more having to run wires on the side of and then in-between the frames.
Lastly the frame has 2 PWM channels, one of which can be used for PPM receivers. Serial receivers can be plugged into any of the UARTs, but UART1 has a selectable 3.3V/5V selector solder bridge for powering 3.3V spectrum satellites or “normal” receivers.
The F3FC frame is a drop in replacement for the Naze32 frame. You can use it with both the Mini Tricopter and the V4 without any modifications.
90° pinheader + tail tube stopper pinheader are both included in the F3FC Tricotper frame regardless of which (or none) bottom frame is chosen.
Specifications:
Light weight, stiff and super fancy. Made from 3K Twill weave carbon fiber. It weighs 25% less than the G10 version. The super deluxe bottom board to go with your F3FC!
The original Tricopter frame. Made out of durable and light weight black G10. There are two varieties:
The top board has a hole for routing servo cables through, so that you no longer have to run them on the outside of the frame. Makes things a bit safer and neater.
The bottom board is without the hole.
Weight bottom piece: 22 grams
Weight bottom piece: 22 grams
A Naze32 board integrated into the frame itself! No more trying to figure out how to mount the flight controller and get the wiring pretty. No more worrying about damaging the flight controller in a crash. You also gain more space on the top of the frame, sleeker looks and a reduction of weight.
Together with the power distribution frame very little of the wiring is visible making for a very clean looking tricopter. The optional built in 5V BEC on the power distribution frame was designed to very easily connect to the new Naze32 tricopter frame. Both frames have matching 5V pads that are very easily soldered together with two short pieces of cable. The BEC then supplies the flight controller, receiver and servo with super clean power with minimal effort and clean looks.
This is the Acro version of the Naze32 which is equipped with a 32-bit ARM Cortex M3 processor running at 72MHz and a Invensense MPU6050 MEMS accelerometer + gyro. The gyro/accelerometer is mounted close to the CG in the center of the frame to deliver the best performance possible. After many tests with different mounting solutions for the standard Naze32 I, along with many others, have concluded that the Naze32 performs the best when hard mounted, that way the the sensor can’t move in any direction that the frame is not, which if it does, throws off the PID loop feedback, which leads to a weird flying copter and bad performance. Having the board integrated straight into the frame is by far the stiffest possible way mount it. Vibrations also effects the chip less as the chances of the entire frame oscillating is lower than the small, light standalone version.
Learning and setting up a new flight controller can be both frustrating and time-consuming. That is why I made the setup for you. All the PID’s, servo settings, deadband, orientation and so on is already pre set in the setup file you can find in the tab named “Preconfigured CleanFlight setup” just above. Watch the video or read the instructions and you will be in the air within minutes instead of hours.
On the top of the frame there are conveniently placed through hole pads for connecting add-ons like a bluetooth module, OSD, telemetry, buzzer and voltage monitoring. For the the tech-savvy, there are also SMD pads for 3.3V, SCL, SDA, GPIO, GPIO/FT, ADC and BOOT available on the bottom of the frame.
The hole in the middle of the frame is there to make the signal wiring cleaner and better protected. The input and output pins of the Naze32 is arranged in a row and the motor and servo outputs are clearly marked with L,R,B and S so you don’t have to consult the manual every time you unplug a cable. L=left, R=Right,B=Back and S=Servo (when looking at the craft from behind and from above)
A 90° pinheader is included which helps keep the profile of the board low even after you plug in all the servo connectors.
Included:
1 x Naze32 Tricopter Top frame
1 x Tricopter bottom frame (1.5mm black G10)
1 x 90° Pinheader 3×14
Not included but required:
A Micro USB cable and a computer is needed to make the initial setup of the board.
You cannot fly your copter without going through the setup process described under the “Preconfigured CleanFlight setup” tab above.
(Don’t forget the male to male servo connectors to connect your receiver to the board)
Specifications:
The original tricopter frame with Power distribution! This makes the wiring much simpler and a lot cleaner. It also saves weight and the cables are less stressed during folding and unfolding. But wait there is more! The frame also has an option for a built in 5V linear BEC. Perfect for powering the flight controller, servo and receiver and it doesn’t take up any extra space on top of the frame! It’s hidden in-between the two plates and provides super clean power.
The frame is covered with 0.2mm thick copper which makes this board capable of distributing well over 100 amps. The pads are placed close to the edge of the frame to make it possible to change an arm without taking apart the hole frame. The pads are also gold plated and easy to solder. Also two pairs of extra pads are available for LED’s and other electronics.
The 5V BEC is a linear voltage regulator called LM2940-5. It delivers an exceptionally clean and stable voltage yet it’s powerful enough to power both the flight controller and tail servo on up to a 4 cell lipo. This regulator is so clean that it actually eats up noise from the main voltage, up to 72dB of it! It’s completely RF silent compared to the noisy switching BEC’s that spew out all kind of radio frequencies. This means it won’t interfere with any other electronics on your tricopter, ensuring the maximum range from your RC link.
The BEC is powerful enough to power the BMS-210MH, flight controller and receiver. The regulator is thermally connected to the large copper surface on the board to dissipate as much heat as possible. It’s not recommended to power a OSD, High power LED’s or similar from the BEC at the same time as the servo. It will overheat.
The recommended cable lengths for the power cables from the arms are;
Front arms: Positive – 57mm, Negative – 68mm
Back arm: Positive and Negative – 42mm
(Also see pictures above for soldering reference)
Warning! If your ESC’s have built in BEC’s, It is highly recommended to disconnect the red wire from the ESC’s servo cable. This way the BEC’s don’t “fight” each other causing either the built in BEC’s in the frame or in the ESC’s to overheat and cause damage.
Specifications:
Specifications 5V BEC:
Components needed for adding your own BEC (can be bought separately in the store):
LM2940-5, 33uF Tantalium capacitor with an ESR between 0.1 and 1 ohms and a 0.47uF capacitor
Remember that I always say in build and setup videos to remove the props (or not to mount them) when doing setup on the computer while having the battery plugged in?
I though I would do a demonstration video as to why you should do just that.
Charpu had his quad going bananas while doing throttle calibration. His story is very entertaining and a great reminder that it can happen to anyone of us. Watch the RotorRiot episode here:
Have you’ve had any similar experience? I would love to hear about it in the comments!
Stay safe