[GAntonjo]

Ahhh… sorry, you are right. I mixed it up with the Ch7 and Ch8 options that was equal, so that it is possible to choose Ch7 or Ch8 for desired function (among the possible ones).

Regarding the Turnigy 9x, I think it should be possible. For my JR 14XG I was able to remap the different channels above 4 to other functions/channels, but it was not well documented in the manual;-)

[GAntonjo]

What about channel 7? You can use that too for tuning;-)

[GAntonjo]

Hmmm… WordPress is filtering all my attempts to show you the HTML code needed, here you have a screenshot showing the bad and good way to add links.

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[GAntonjo]

Sorry to hear about that.
Know how it feels – when converting from my V2.x wooden frame to the V3 frame, I managed to let the smoke out of the HK Pilot Mega 2.7:-( New one received from HK some months ago.

To top it off I too ended my 2014 flights with a technical setback as I crashed into a bench at the field where I was flying. Result: back boom broken off at exit from the center plates 🙁 New booms are in the snail mail on their way from David;-)

Better luck to all of you in 2015;-)

[GAntonjo]

My current setup.
Frame: David’s signed tricopter V3;-)

Parts from HobbyKing.com:
Battery Monitor 2-6S
Carbon Fiber Propellers 11X4.7 LH and RH Rotation Pair
HobbyKing™ Lipoly Low Voltage Alarm (2s~6s)
HKPilot Mega 10s Power Module With XT60 Connectors
HKPilot Mega 2.7 Flight Controller USB/GYRO/ACC/MAG/BARO
Hobby King 20A ESC 3A UBEC
BMS-385DMAX Digital Servo (Metal Gear) 4.2kg / .15sec / 16.5g
hexTronik DT750 Brushless Outrunner 750kv
Ublox Neo-7M GPS with Compass and Pedestal Mount

From Elefun.no:
JR XG14 Radio with 7ch receiver
Haiyin 4S 5000mAh – 25C – LiPo

From Biltema.no:
RGB LED Strips
And some 50A flip switches to power on/off APM and Motors separately without needing to pull the XT60 connectors.

In addition I made a canopy out of 2mm plastic plates.

You’ll find some photos of my tricopter, as well as a video from one of my test flights.

Flight time up to 18 minutes before the LiPo alarm starts beeping;-)

[GAntonjo]

That was strange. My first flight with my V2.x version flew very well without any tuning. Only after I started to “mess” with auto tune and so on, I managed to make my tricopter too unstable to fly;-) At least for me the stock parameters of ArduCopter were OK to make it fly nice.

However when switching into any GPS-enabled mode, the tricopter had some issues causing it to fly off in wrong direction (including a panic crash with my first frame – read throttle off crash). I figured out this was due to bad calibration of the compass, where I had forgotten to remove the external compass jumper before calibrating the compass. I use the UBlox Neo-7M GPS/Compass from HobbyKing. I am not 100% happy with this unit, because it drifts off from one day till the next. One day I had it 100% correctly calibrated at my home, but when I took my tricopter to a flight some kilometers from home, the heading of the tricopter was 45 degrees off real heading. So, be 100% sure that the tricopter heading is correct with respect to real compass heading before attempting any GPS enabled modes. In Stabilize mode the tricopter should behave well, and also in Altitude Hold. This is at least my experience with ArduCopter 3.1 and 3.2.

[GAntonjo]

Forgot to tell you, it is wise to always store the parameters using the Mision Planner on your PC before you do any change to the parameters. This way you will always be able to reverse the possibly disastrous changes with just a few mouse clicks;-)

[GAntonjo]

Hello, Mippen.
First of all, you will have to reverse the RC7 so that the APM tilts the tail motor the correct way when trying to keep the direction – Arducopter: RC7 reverse. Without this, the tricopter will spin faster and faster in one direction.

Other than this, I did not need any tuning to make my tricopter flyable with the HK Pilot Mega 2.7. That is, you WILL have to follow the setup instructions at ArduCopter initial setup and especially impotant mandatory hardware configuration. These pages are pretty well written with respect to getting the tricopter airborn.

After you have managed to get the tricopter airborn, you may want to use auto trim and auto tune functions, but be aware the forces applied to the propellers at auto tune. If the propellers are not securely fastened, the auto tune may loosen the locknut and cause the tricopter to crash.

[GAntonjo]

The different classes at QuadCopter 101 may be of good help to many of us, especially “how to tell in which direction you are flying“. Of course you’ll need a large enough R/C airfield so you may level out and let the tricopter rise high enough to follow these tips;-)

[GAntonjo]

Arendal, Norway.

[GAntonjo]

(Copied from the old open blog)

Great thanks to David for creating this great set.

My first tri was a monstrous V2.x, with 50 cm long arms of 12mm x 21 mm pine. My wishes for the tri was to have GPS functionality, so I ended up with a HK Pilot Mega 2.7 with an UBLOX Neo-7M external GPS and compass. First flight with this one really showed the potential of the tri – it flew very nice with no tuning needed in the HK Pilot Mega 2.7 with the ArduCopter V3.2 firmware. When David opened his web shop, I managed to get hold of one signed version of his frame kit. It has been fun moving all parts from my first tri to this new, smaller frame. Except, I managed to “let the smoke out of” my HK Pilot board, so I had to order a new one. To be able to have more control of the status of the HK Pilot, I ordered the 400 MHz Telemetry radio set as well. Motors are the well known hexTronix DT750 accompanied with the HobbyKing F20A ESCs (SimonK flashed) and a set of 11×4.7 Carbon Fiber propellers. Powered by a 5AH 4S LiPo this gives me almost 20 minutes happy flight time on the new frame.

To make it easier to control the power to the flight controller and the ESCs, I added two 12V 50A flip switches from Biltema before and after the HK Mega power module. Not very nice looking, but very functional. Now I can easily power on the Flight Controller before I power on the ESCs. Emergency power off is also just a “flip of the switch away”. At the same time, I added some RGB LED strips from Biltema as navigation lights, red to the right, green to the left and white on the tail. These are bright enough to help seeing the directions of the tri even at daylight, and I guess it will be cool when I dare to fly in dark night;-) As extra landing gears, I cut some 12mm metal bands covered by shrink tube and created some flexible rings that I strapped to the booms. These brakes any rough landings enough to save the rest of my tri from worse damages;-)

Finally I made a cockpit of 2 mm Plexiglas to protect the electronics. In addition it gives quite a nice touch to the tri.

This all looks good, but I have found a couple of minor problems. First of all, when using such a huge battery, the wires holding the battery tray could have been made with larger diameter and thus allowing better distance to the screws of the frame. 1 cm larger diameter would be perfect, so the landing feet would need to be higher as well. As it is now, I had to turn the screws upside down so that my huge battery is not damaged by the screws.

Second is that I had to make a bigger front piece for the frame in order to strap the GPS pole securely without having to drill a hole in the nice frame (I learned the hard way on my first, wooden frame, that GPS mounted in a drilled hole will brake something at a crash;-) My new front piece is wide enough to allow putting on the cockpit and then strap the GPS pole to the front piece outside the cockpit. It would be nice having such a wide front piece as an option from David.

Third is the sharp edges of the carbon fiber arms. You all should ensure the cables are protected by some type of rubber so they are not cut when you crash.

Four, one day my tri started yawing on centered stick and I was not able to get it out of the spin even with full counter yaw. After a pretty nice landing, I discovered that the servo had moved from its neutral position. Thinking this was an SW issue, I loosened the screw and re-positioned the tilt mechanism on the servo and took off again (yes, I’m an amateur;-). Some minutes later the same happened and I then realized the teeth in the 3D printed tilt mechanism were broken. I have now glued and screwed on the servo horn like on the V2 tilt mechanism. I have now learned that I was wrong in using blue Locktite on the screw, because this dissolves the plastic of the 3D printed parts. So, be careful with the mounting of the servo to the 3D printed tilt mechanism, DO NOT use Locktite, instead use a very small amount of CA to secure the screw.

Finally, I discovered that the arrow on my GPS is off by many degrees, pointing at SE when real heading is S. Be aware of this and check your directions with a manual compass. Actually, Turnigy and the Quanum LEA 6 GPSes seem to be having the arrow printed in correct direction when the GPS is mounted as I had to mount it. Well, I finally managed to make my compass show correct direction. It is depending on a perfect calibration, WITH “auto declination” enabled and GPS 3D lock, it seems. After many attempts, I finally got it correct.

Ahh… before I forget it. Mounting the propellers to the dt750’s can be tricky. I have been using nylon lock nuts, but so far this has not been good enough. Especially when running Auto Tune on the HK Pilot Mega 2.7, the motors are throttled pretty aggressively, causing such a momentum that the nut is loosened and a crash will happen. This has happened at least 2 times, that I remember, but luckily no big damage on my tri as result of these.

You’ll find some photos of my tricopter, as well as a video from one of my test flights.

[Author]

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