Tricopter LR 8000/5200

[touchthebitum]

Hello
Here is my first Tricopter build 😉
Kakute F4 V2
DRonin firmware
GPS
VTX : Atlatl V2 5.8ghz
Frsky R9mm 868mhz
Escs : Holybro Tekko32 F3 45 Dshot 1200
Lipo 3s 8000mah / 5200mah

Total weight with lipo : 956gr / 721gr

It flies well …. at home (bad weather)
I need to do Autotune.
I’m curious on the flightime

Attachments:

1. 

   Tricopter8000.jpg
   

2. 

   Tricopter-5200.jpg
   

[swissfreek]

Nice. I use the 5200, good for about 25 minutes of flying around (not a hover). BillyD (I think) uses an 8000, he gets something like 35 or 40 minutes I think?

[touchthebitum]

Thanks 😉 It is far away from the ” over 1 hour ” advertised flightime.
I’ll post results.

[swissfreek]

He advertised an hour of hovering time. That should be achievable, but obviously that requires much less power than acrobatic flying. There is no way to give a good flight time as different people fly very different ways.

[touchthebitum]

I’ll test 😉

[billyd]

Yes I was getting about 30 minutes with fairly aggressive flight. In a hover it’s probably over 50 minutes. But my LR is out of service awaiting a new flight board.

[touchthebitum]

Good!
If the weather is ok, I’ll test this weekend.

[touchthebitum]

Yesterday I tested my 3s 8000mah lipo on my tricopter LR and we are far far away from the hour flightime. I flew with hovering and circle flightpaths and I only got 28.5 min with a 9.65V final voltage.
I’m very surprised of this result. It was a little windy but I’m very curious to see the results if I made acrobatics flights ….
Any ideas ?

[Kevin_Erik]

Hovering close to the ground allows the copter to use WIG (Wing-In-Ground effect). Gaining a small boost in lift efficiency. The closer you hover and the larger your props, the larger the effect.

[billyd]

What is your altitude above sea level? I am just a few feet above sea level. This has a significant effect on copters.

[billyd]

Just flew for 23 minutes with a mixture of aggressive flight and cruising. Put back 6100 mah.

So I am still getting about 25 minutes normal flight putting back 80% with the 8000 mah lipo.

But I agree 1 hour hover is not possible because of the increased weight of the larger lipo. Of course I have a full FPV/nav setup too and that’s a fair amount of weight. Based on my current sensor I can hover for 40 minutes and put back 80% although I haven’t actually tested this.

So bottom line my rig flies for about 25 minutes normal flight and that’s all I’m ever going to get out of it. It’s enough for my purposes.

My AUW is 1001.2 grams.

[touchthebitum]

Tests were made at 1100m above see.
It was a bit windy.
Temp was about 25 degrees.
It ended up with 3% and 9.65v as total remaining voltage.
Total weight with lipo was under 1kg.

[billyd]

Ok that’s the reason. The air is much thinner where you are flying, and the copter has to work alot harder to hover.

[swissfreek]

Sounds like a nice summer day in the Alps 😉

[touchthebitum]

Yes!!
Nice temperature and weather after a long bad time with rainy days 😉

[Author]

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