Category: Blog

October 27th at 2PM EST (11AM PST) (18:00 GMT) Chad Kapper and myself will be answering your questions on Reddit. Got any questions about the Rotor DR1 movie, the rotor universe, how the movie was made or general “drone” questions, jump over to Reddit tomorrow and join the “Ask me anything” thread.

For anyone that missed the release this past Tuesday; Rotor DR1 the movie is now available on Blu-Ray, DVD, Hulu and Vimeo.

Update! The chat is now live! Make sure to upvote the room.

Update2 thanks to everyone that showed up!

The new style arms for the mini tricopter has finally arrived! From today all mini tricopter orders will ship out with the new style arms. If you order spare arms and want the old style, leave an order comment and we’ll send the old style arms. Read more about the new style arms here

I finally got some time to fix and compile the final design files for the Mini Tricopter.

The files are available in STP and STL format for free on the downloads page.

It’s finally done! Hope this is a good aid in your quest to get in the air, my comrades. Good luck with your build and maiden flight!

I’ve had some lead time and quality issues with the carbon fiber arms (remember this summer when they were out of stock for a month?) Well it led me to try and find a new, more reliable supplier. I did find one after much searching and last week the first batch of arms arrived! Unfortunately with the release of the mini, I really haven’t had time to post anything about them until now. As the old arms pretty much ran out last week as well, those of you that have ordered the Tricopter v3 recently might get the new arms in your package.

With the change of manufacturer we had to make a new mould. So I decided to make the arms more “square” than the old ones. They turned out great with very crisp edges.

As I’m really pleased with the arms, I have ordered this kind of arms for the Mini as well, but it’ll take about a month or so before they get here (I cheated a bit and used the new kind in the build video though). At this time it’s only the full length arms that have changed.

If anyone feels really strongly against the new look on the arms or need to replace only one on an existing tricopter, you can add a message to your order requesting the “old arms”. If you do, the arms that you receive might have some aesthetic defect, such as scratches or blemishes (as the only arms I’ve got left are the second quality sorting). There is however no technical issues with the arms, it’s just esthetics. This option is of course limited in time, when I’ve run out, they will be out for good and only the new kind will be available. You can mix the old and new arms without any problem. They are the same size and everything fits the same. They are simply more square. All new kits sold will be sold with the new style arms.

I just found out that I made an error when counting the small screws for the mini tricopter.

The pack contains 12 6mm screws when they should contain 14. I’ll be sending out two screws to all orders placed so far.

I’m very sorry about the inconvenience.

Anders Lindström, my wife Johanna and I decided to take a 10 hour drive to Kjerag mountain in Norway. This was before the fantastic custom firmware made by Lauka, which have made a phenomenal difference to performance. So the video is not as stable as it would be today. We also had problem with jello in the footage due to the sloppiness in the laser cut prototypes. The milled frames in the store doesn’t have this problem.

Pictures and such, click the link below: (more…)

As a little thank you to all of you awesome guys that have waited and waited for this frame, the first 100 frames will be part of a Limited Edition, numbered series. So how do you know you’ll be receiving one? Everyone that has ordered one so far will get one. I’ll post the last order to receive one here: 12501, when the frames have run out.

Thank you again for your great support. Thank you for being awesome.

The Mini Tricopter, a different mini multirotor that packs a punch.

The Mini Tricopter was designed to utilise parts from the Tricopter V3. It uses the same Naze and PDB, servo, tilt mechanism, motor mounts, front spacer and arms (cut to half length). Which means that you can convert your regular size tricopter to a Mini Tricopter simply by cutting the arms (or getting new pre-cut ones) and screwing on the Mini Tricopter add-on frame. (Warning: cutting carbon fiber is dangerous and may harm your health. Use proper protection if you try it.) Also, don’t forget to downsize the electronics accordingly.

Flying the Mini Tricopter can be best described as driving an overpowered rear-drive car. It’s not the fastest around the track, but you’ll have the biggest grin on your face when the race is over. The recommended electronics package makes this little beast go almost 160km/h (100mph). The thin arms and smallish body makes it pretty aerodynamic slippery. It requires very little power to cruise at high speeds and it absolutely loves long low-passes with big wide turns. Flips, loops and rolls are quick and crisp thanks to the center of gravity and center of mass being very close to each other.

Transporting the Mini Tricopter is really easy as the arms can be folded back, just like on the larger tricopter. Folded up it’s only 10cm wide and 30cm long (35cm with 6 inch props sticking out straight back) and 8cm tall. The folding design also makes the Mini Tricopter crash resistant, as the arms may fold back, absorbing energy. The tough “cage” protects the electronics and battery on the inside.

I would like to thank the awesome community for stepping up and making the mini tricopter as good as it now is. Tricopters have received very little love in the development of modern flight controller code. With the Mini Tricopter this became very obvious as the yaw performance in the original Cleanflight code was lacking. The user Lauka, on the forums, wrote a special Tricopter version of the Cleanflight code called “Triflight”, which with it’s many alterations, already has improved performance greatly. You can join us in this quest for perfection simply by posting your findings in this thread. Together we can bring back the tricopter with it’s phenomenal flight characteristics from the brink of extinction.

The last pieces have finally arrived and the fit and finish is superb. I have tons of behind the scenes work to do before I can make things live. To save people (and my server) from having to be on constant alert I decided to set a time and date when the first small batch of Mini Tricopters will be released. It’s going to be on Monday September 7th at 13:00 (1pm) CET (GMT+2).

Let the countdown begin. May the odds be forever in your favour.