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Variable Pitch TriCopter Flies !

Posted by Al Ros on March 4, 2012 at 10:10pm

Hi Folks

I have been building a variable pitch tricopter and wanted to share my results so far.

Basically - I chose a tri and not a quad, because the tri geometry is the same as a traditional heli 120 deg swash plate. Since I can't write a firmware on my own, I wanted to use an off the self solution.

I used a home made simple frame

3 e-flite park 370 hollow shaft motors with their variable pitch props

3 castle ESCs that I had laying around.

Here is a picture of the motor and blades on rear arm


Al

IMG_0048.JPG

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Replies

  • Al Ros March 4, 2012 at 10:50pm

    Here is a video of the tri on a table

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI_8KCJyjcA

    Al

  • Al Ros March 4, 2012 at 10:24pm

    Here is a list of my various attempts

    1 - radio programed as 120 deg swash and used airplane stabilizer - worked but not great

    2 - used a commercial heli flybarless system - it flew , but could not set gains low enough

    3- used my ardupilot mega - with traditional heli firmware - worked, but could not remove oscillations

    4- I retried the APM with heli firmware and reduced the swash upper and lower limits to 1400 to 1550 and lowered rate p to 0.8 and stabilize p to 3.5 no I term and stabilize D of 0,07

     This allowed me to fly and hover, but very touchy

    Check out the video - and now I need suggestions .

    http://youtu.be/xz1iJRmywms

    I think one point is I need to redesign the pitch servo so that I use more of the servo throw, but mechanically reduce the movement - I have lost alot of resolution using such a narrow pitch range in mission planner

    suggestions welcome

     

    Al

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