What is the recommended FC firmware?

[Bumblebeast]

Dear all,

With my Baby Tricopter in the mail and arriving hopefully before the weekend, I have a brief question for you all. I’ve seen Windestal’s build video, AndyRC’s build video and read through a few forum threads. I see different flight controller firmwares being used. Triflight and the dRonin firmware.

What is the current recommended firmware to run? This will be my first tricopter and I’m so excited yet I also feel that I am having to learn everything all over again.

While I’m at it. I downloaded the dRonin firmware as linked to by Windestal from here: dRonin

Upon installation, my anti virus went off. Please see the attached photo. Thought you all would like to know. Take it it’s the false positive that others has been writing about inhere?

Cheers,
David (another David, not the David)

• This topic was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by Bumblebeast.
• This topic was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by Bumblebeast.
• This topic was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by Bumblebeast.
• This topic was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by Bumblebeast.

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[Kevin_Erik]

1) dRonin is what you should use. Betaflight “works” but unless you’ve lots of experience with it and plan on giving up days to tune the copter, don’t using this.
2) The AV notice is a false positive. Setup an exclusion within your AV for this.
3) This canopy will make wiring up your build much easier: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3571841

Tuning advice…

As you’ll soon discover, there are times when this Bicopter can oscillate in reverse flight or when strong winds come from behind. To fix this, requires setting your Yaw PID’s as low as possible while still getting the desired amount of Yaw. Tune Pitch and Roll as you would a Quadcopter yet with a one difference. Pitch much be the strongest as it’s the most critical to the stable flight of the craft.

Roll and Yaw are linked together and induce each other when one or the other is applied. Hence Yawing your Copter will induce Roll, which will require counter Roll from either the Auto-Level mode or the pilot directly. This can quickly lead to a situation where Roll and Yaw form a feedback loop that leads into uncontrollable oscillations. This is why Yaw’s PID’s are Kept really low and why Roll should be kept moderately tuned with respect to Pitch.

Lastly, never add D-Term to a Yaw Servo. They’re just not fast enough to manage and often can induce oscillations due to the added lag from D-Term. Case in point, most HV Servos are rated for 330Hz PWM, while a basic ESC can do 30 kHz or faster.

[Bumblebeast]

Dear Kevin Erik,

Thank you very much for your prompt response. I see that you a few times mention the bicopter whereas my question pertains to the Baby Tricopter. Can I assume that your advice is relevant for both platforms?

I have had the nerves to ask Windestal about the recommended firmware platform. He has let me know that one of the major advances of dRonin is that it makes use of a servo feedback loop and that Betaflight/Triflight is not capable of this. I thought to mention it here such that other tricopter noobs in the same position as I does not need to ask again.

Cheers everyone, I’m so excited about getting started with the build.
David

[Author]

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