Beginner questions

[michielvw]

Hi!

i’ve been flying a syma x5c for a while now, it’s a dirt cheap quadcopter but it’s great to get te hang of flying multirotors and it’s almost indestructable!

Anyway… i’m planning on buying davids tricopter for a while now to get into some real rc flying. My plan is to build it with wooden booms first and replace them later when i’m getting more the hang of it.
I’m doubting between the normal and speed setup, i don’t care i will get some less flight time and i won’t have much benefit at the start since i’m a beginner. I know i will appreciate the extra speed and don’t feel like buying two sets of motors over time.
Anyone some advice?

Secondly: anyone some advice for a propbalancer?

Third and last: i’m planning on securing the NTM motor on the wooden booms using zipties (suprise suprice!) on the NTM mounting set. Does anyone know if the mounting set is strong enough so it doesn’t bend on a crash? otherwise i’ll have to buy multiple.

Thanks!

[coolblaze19]

Honestly for what you want to do wooden booms would be pointless, the reason being that for wooden booms there strength is like 1000 times less then the carbon so if you are really gonna bang it around the wood is just a pointless hassle. Maybe you could do the wood for a flight or two but beyond that stick with the carbon fiber.

As far as the mounts go they haven’t bent for me so far.

[RCExplorer – David]

Get the dubro prop balancer: http://hobby.dubro.com/videos/tech-tip-videos/du-bro-tru-spin-prop-balancer-2_21
Best one I’ve tried so far.

Hmm it could be a bit tricky mounting the ntm’s using zip-ties, but definitely doable. It’s important that the motors can’t flex, if they can they will at one point get into oscillations and fly off (don’t ask me how I know)

[nbpicklesno2]

Wood is good. Cheap, light, strong, available….

[Plano Chad]

I’m new to multi-copters as well as electric RC and FPV, so I’m facing a steep learning curve. I come from old school gas RC aircraft. Here’s my newbe question: I’ve ordered David’s Tri-copter kit along with all the extras. What I did not see in the build video is where the power plug for the FPV transmitter connects. Does it use a separate power supply or is it powered from the main battery? While I’m at it, i might as well ask another “dumb” question. If I’ve ordered the Afro speed controllers, will I need to flash them with any updated software? One additional question….. David, could you recommend your favorite version of Fatshark FPV goggles you’ve used?

Best,
Chad

[coolblaze19]

Well answering your first question david hooked his up to the balance plug on his battery, to your second question all afro escs come with simonk pre flashed so as long as you want that your good, in my opinion its the best out there. To your third question im cheap so i use the quanum diy goggles
which are a little less immersive than fat sharks but they do the job of goggles for $30.

[JoshuaWerbeck]

Questions on range and interference:

(1) How far will my tricopter travel away from me before I lose control?

(2) Do I have to maintain eye contract with the tricopter? Or, if I am in FPV, can I control the tricopter with objects (i.e. buildings) between me and the tricopter?

Thank you!

[Plano Chad]

Coolblaze, Thank you for responding. I’m so new to electrics that I didn’t realize that the battery would have a balance plug to power the FPV transmitter. I received my battery today in the mail and it now makes perfect sense. Again, thank you!

[Terje]

Hi Chad, that all depends on the FPV gear you buy. To take my setup as an example, the FPV transmitter it self (TS5823 V2 VTX) will run on a wide range, from 7-24v (2S-6S) but the FPV camera that comes with it will only run on 7-13v (2S-3S) The GoPro I use instead for better video recording will only run on 5v (BEC)

The Afro ESC come pre-flashed but I would highly recommend getting a USBasp programmer off eBay for a few $$. This enables you to reflash and even reverse the direction of the motors on the ESCs without re-soldering.

Because I want to be able to run 3S as well as 4S, I have a complicated setup where I feed the KK2 mini (m2-M8) on a 5v BEC along with the GoPro with power directly from the main battery, the M1 + RC Rx on the Afro 30A BEC, and power my LEDs from the balance plug of the 3S. When running 4S I have no LED lights.

[michielvw]

Joshua, the range is verry dependant on where you are flying (open field versus allot of trees by example) and what transmitter you are using, some people use a wifi booster bought of ebay to boost their signal. Such a modification is however illegal in many countries just as flying out of your line of sight.

[michielvw]

Hi,

Using the feedback i got over the forum here i assembled a list on google drive with the complete setup i plan on buying to get into this hobby. Anny advice or suggested modifications are more then welcome. Keep in mind that the current price is as high as i’m planning to go. I convinced that everything that i need is in the list (except wooden booms) so in the case i forget something please let me know. I’m planning on powering my charger with a PSU, does anyone have some experience with this? i shouldn’t have anny problem getting my hands on a powerfull one (450Watts+).

The link:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DDCTDLXEuDmTABsI11JY99C8NCufI3dBUuwVfKSYAXk/edit?usp=sharing

Thanks!

[ty2001]

hi

I was setting up my tri I set up kk2.1 with everything but the motors wont spin up they beep can anyone help?

thnx

[coolblaze19]

yes you have to arm them you do this by moving the throttle stick to the bottom left hand corner, i had a problem with this because i was new to the kk2 when i built my tri.(just look up how to arm a kk2 if my explanation didnt explain well enough)

[tomtebloss]

If you have updated the firmware to stevies latest, it’s armed throttle down and rudder right. Can’t remember what stock does for arming it.

Make sure the copter is leveled when you put the battery in. Otherwise the accelerometers will fail when the KK board boots up. You can’t arm it then. You should also trim the sticks on your transmitter so you get the right scale. You might not hit idle (0 throttle) and therefor not be able to arm.

EDIT: In the manual it says throttle down and rudder right as well for stock firmware. But try coolblazer tips as well.

[ty2001]

thnx I will try

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