Category: Open Blog

hello everyone,

first i want to congratulate David for the great job he made in FT and I wish him the best on his career…
I just want ask for help I already have the kk 2.1 hard case but I have no idea how to update it… I already read a lot of post but all of them are related with the no case one but anything about this one… could be a silly question but I really need your help… here all the pictures of the element I have…

1. homemade 6 pins cable and usbasp

2. this is the scheme I followed to connect the usbasp

3. orientation: How the pins are placed?????

4. kk2.1

5. always I get the same result….

I will really appreciated your priceless help….

I’ve been flying David’s tricopters for years now and recently took one on a 4WD trip to the Simpson Desert in central Australia.

Enjoy:

Dave

So, I built a quad copter with the anycopter from flitetest at the beginning of the year.  I’ve had all kinds of problems from getting 1 bad (out of 4) ESCs and having to re-order, to unbalanced props, to other various vibration issues…  I couldn’t get that thing to fly nicely 1 time 🙁  I added a battery/gopro tray, removed it, tested, diagnosed, tested, diagnosed…

Anyway, I got tired of it after a slow 6 months and just took off with vengeance over 40 meters in the air and started banging sticks.  Throwing caution to the wind and flying carelessly was kind of relieving for the few minutes I had it in the air.  The flight was actually not bad, but 1 motor kept vibrating so violently that it’d loose all it’s lift and the quad would fall toward the ground.  I’d cut the throttle and slowly recover several times until I just went all out and crashed it right into the ground.  It hit so hard in the soft muddy grass that 3 booms broke as it stuck about a decimeter in the ground.  Needless to say, I was done with that frame and I need to start over.  All the electronics still work, so I’m ready for a new frame and I’m thinking about David’s new tri copter.  It looks stable and fun.  It’s also geared toward my gopro/fpv setup.

If anyone has experienced 1 motor vibrating so badly that the prop slows down, let me know what you did to fix it.  Here are things I’ve already tried:

1) replaced props

2) balanced props (tape and sanding) several times

3) remounted motor mount

4) removed and mounted motor mounts directly to the booms with bolts.

Basically the only thing I didn’t try was to balance the motor someh0w? or maybe remount the Control Board to a softer vibration dampening system (tho I don’t think that’s it due to the violent vibration).  It feels like it’ll snap the boom it vibrates so hard.

Anyway!  That’s it for me today 🙂   Have a great day!

RCExplorer tricopter + a homebrew gimbal.

Im really loving the results now!

I took my tricopter to a local meet recently.

I think the addition of a gimbal worked out well!

🙂

Hi!

Back when David returned from the USA, I built my first DW Tricopter. The result looked a bit like in the picture below.

Of course the thing with the Ixus didn’t work at all due to the camera not coping well with vibration, but we know the possible enhancements.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYccXNaGWvk

Over the course of the next month, loads of friends of mine had their first experience flying this tricopter. It was a bit like casting a spell, people wanted their own, some never had flown anything RC related before, some others went to the basement and got out their old kit, in the end, five people took it totally serious and we set up a “workshop” to build five DW tricopters (tricopterouses? ;-)).

The happening will be in the last week of August and I will post some pictures of the results. Today was “prep day”, checking that everything is available in required quantities and preparing the wood.

Some of the tricopters will have special paint jobs, this one was inspired by “Tigerente”. The rest will be painted on the day before the workshop.

You get a lot of bang for the buck with these copters, a full set with everything that stays in the air including the lipo costs around 145 EUR. (Add charger, add transmitter) Loads cheaper than a Phantom, fully self-made, easy to repair, and much more fun in the long run 🙂

Thank you David! Your design still rocks!

Spec/parts list for this incarnation of the DW tricopter:

3x EMax MT2213 motor with prop
3x Simon K 20A ESC
1x Plywood 4mm and 2mm, screws 16mm and 25mm, booms 12mm, 4mm carbon rod
1x Tilt mechanism
1x Digital metal gear servo
1x Receiver Lemon
1x Flip-Board 1.x Multiwii (funny thing, if you turn the receiver around, you can solder it directly to the flip board, nice and tidy)
Cable, many zipties, servotape
1x Lipo 3S 2200er

Kind regards, Blomdoft

To anyone who can help,

I was inspired by David’s Tricopter builds, but finally decided to go with Jason Peterson’s http://www.instructables.com/id/Inexpensive-Wooden-Tri-copter/
My list of parts is exactly as his, i.e. RCTimer’s 2830/8 1300KV Outrunner Brushless Motors and
Hobbyking SS Series 18-20A ESCs, etc., except for the battery.
The ZIPPY Flightmax 3000mAh 3S1P 20C was not in stock, so I bought this one instead: Turnigy 3300mAh 3S 20C Lipo Pack.

I also went for the: Hobbyking X900 Tricopter Glass Fiber Multi-Rotor Frame, instead of his wooden frame.

As I am a newbie to all this I took things very slowly. I flashed the controller with the V1.6 firmware.
The receiver was already bound to the T9X. I chose the Helicopter 90 degree setting.
I checked that all the motors were rotating in the correct direction and the that the yaw mechanism was working via the T9X.
I then tried to get all the motors to start at the same time by trimming the controls on the T9X and managed to get them right but not always.

Finally I balanced the props and mounted them on the motors.
I tried to repeat the process by just giving the T9X just enough throttle to start the motors,
so I was not revving them enough to lift the tricopter, when I noticed the left front prop alternatively turning in both directions then the motor started to smoke!
I switched off and disconnected the battery immediately.
I let the motor and ESC cool down and tried to power up again, but instead of the usual chirping and silence, I got several chirpings from the ESCs.
When I disconnect the motor and powered up again I got the normal chirping from the ESCs, so I guess the motor is fried, the windings do look a bit darker in parts.

What do you think? Was I just unlucky with a duff motor, or did I do something wrong?
Perhaps the LIPO is too powerful for this configuration? (It is only a 3300 20C as opposed to Jason’s 3000 20C)
Perhaps the frame is too heavy although I did not try to get it off the ground.
Or can you think of something else?

I have ordered a new motor from RCTimer and a new ESC from HobbyKing, but I will wait to hear from this site before trying to connect it all up again,
in-case you have some good advice?

Regards,
Chris.

David,

My wonderful wife purchased a Storm Drone 6, from Helipal.com, for my birthday this summer. I have been flying it a lot and have even started my own YouTube channel. My only issue with it is that is has such limited flight time. About 5 min without camera payload. Is there some way that I can extend my flight times? I’ve put two batteries in parallel and try to keep my throttle input smooth and steady but I’m not sure what else I can do. Should I start to look at swapping out the stock escs and motors? Any input you have would be great. I have been following you and the rest of the flite test crew for a few weeks now and have watched almost all of your videos. Keep up the good work!

Thanks!

Tim

2 years worth of crashing in 1 video = fun!

🙂

An ultralight flying spheroid is similar to an insect bumping into things.

Enjoy watching,
Jesper