What would a RCExplorer mini tricopter look like?

[2ma]

Hey,
Just shopping for mini 🙂 What do you think of this.
I also find this, do you think it can be placed beetween the 2 plates, beetween the 2 frame plates ?

[Terje]

Did a complete rebuild of the mini last night – using what I have learned by building the micro. The previous weight of 546g was reduced to 519g. Most significant weight reduction was achieved by replacing my own design cut from 3mm plywood with Davids original design cut from 2mm plywood (18g reduction). The rest by shortening wires, using a smaller canopy and a new battery tray.

Completely wiped my Flip32+ board and will try PID controller 3 for a while now. (still have issues with YAW authority)

Almost ordered new Turnigy multistar elite 2204 2300Kv motor, but as they (of course) were on backorder from Hobbyking I had to investigate instead. Turned out to be a bad solder point on the ESC (my bad).

Oh, and just for kicks I added 7.5 degrees of dihedral 😀

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[2ma]

Very nice ! Do you use bullet connector beetween esc and battery or everything soldered ? I think I will solder everything, because the chance of breaking one of those carbon arm is very small. I think it will avoid a faillure point. Which BEC do you use to powered the naze? Still fit into the front piece ? I downloaded your 3D parts and I’ll try to make it printed somewhere 🙂 Is your Canopy still 3D printed ? Or you vacuum molded it ? I’ll try to vacuum mold mine, still looking how I’ll make the mold 🙂

[Terje]

I hollowed out the nose and slimmed down a Hobbywing UBEC to fit. Distance from pivot hole in arm to end is 10mm. Not a lot of force on those short arms. The canopy is still 3D printed.

[2ma]

Thank you ! Nice job by the way 🙂

[2ma]

Everything Ordered. Oops, forgot the prop ><“

[Jippa]

Hey Terje, can you share your pids for your 295 wheelbase tricopter? Looptime? I’m building one from you’re schematics on thingverse.

[Terje]

Looptime is default settings, I haven’t adjusted those. PIDs? I find that unless you use the exact same ESCs, motors, propellers, Lipos, Cleanflight version and PID controller within Cleanflight – you really can’t use the PIDs from one craft to another. Example: Switched from 6×3″ to 6×4.5″ gemfan props. Now get oscillations. Had to lower roll and pitch P gains from 4.1 to 3.7. (and I and D along with it). Switched from 1400 to 2200mAh Lipo (115g vs. 195g) had to lower P gains.

My sub-mini (220mm wheelbase) flys perfectly. Copied PIDs to mini (295mm wheelbase). totally out of control.

Attached are PIDs for this configuration:
Flip32+ flight controller
Cleanflight 1.7.2
PID controller 3
295mm wheelbase
Multistar elite 2204 2300Kv motors
20A Afro slim ESCs
2200mAh 3S 40C Lipo

As a rule of thumb: Higher weight = lower P gain.

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   Mini-PIDs.png
   

[2ma]

Just a little question, how do you guys mount your Naze32 on the frame ? I wanted to use a kind of sticky foam tape as I did with the KK2 but I saw that most people on quad use plastic screw…

[2ma]

Hi everybody !

Do you know guys if I can use 20AWG wire for power distribution and everything ? I managed to do it with 16AWG wire (it’s was hard xD ). Next time I’ll use the new PBD 🙂

3s 1300mAh, Afro slim 20A, Emax 2204-2300 kV, Naze32

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[2ma]

Hey I finished finally the build of my mini tri 🙂 The weather is hooooorible in France so I couldn’t resist to try hover it in my room (I know it’s bad…) I find out that it take a 50% throttle to have it start leaving the floor, is that normal ? I con’t remenber how it took for my 2.5 tri …
I have Naze32accro, Emax 2400-2300kv, Afro slim 20amp, Turnigy nano-tech 1300mah 3S 25~50, and Gefman 6 4. It weight without FPV gear around 500g

Pictures comming soon 🙂

[Terje]

Hover at 50% is pretty perfect. The Lipo is a bit on the weak side. 32.5A continuously from the lipo, and the Afro ESC’s will easily draw 60A continuously, peaking at 90A. Guess it all comes down to how many Amps the motors will draw 🙂

Consider getting the Turnigy nano-tech 1300mAh 3S 45~90C Lipo Pack if you plan to restock on lipos 🙂

[2ma]

I think the motor draw 12amp… As I am new I always have trouble with battery selection xD

Thank you for your help Terje I’ll go for the 45-90C when I’ll take new battery 🙂

Did you put a fpv cam on your mini tri or do you fly through your Gopro ? I have now a Xiaomi Yi and it’s awesome but I also have a combo from Banggood with 200mW transmitter and 110°fov cam. It works perfectly but I don’t find a place for the fpv cam… For now the solution is the fpv cam strapt on the Yi but it make the tri ugly 🙁

[Tim]

A bit off-topic but has anyone found out the minimum arm length possible (and it’s pros and cons) while using 8″ props?

[Terje]

It depends on how close you want to shave your antennas 🙂

I managed to fit 9″ props on 160mm booms, but no room for the FPV antenna on top. I guess you could get away with 150mm booms running 8″ props.

Pros: It looks crazy, and you would get a more efficient setup compared with the 6″ props, if you run with the appropriate Kv motors. Ability to lift heavier payload.

COns: Less responsive than smaller props. Props are more expensive, motors are heavier and more expensive.

[Author]

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