For this build I tried to fit together fun, fun and more fun! I decided on a Titan Tricopter frame for its incredible crash resistance. The arms fold and legs shoot off to absorb the energy from a crash. It reminds me of a Formula 1 car, the only thing left is the cage that protects the vital parts.
I'm more of a slow flyer and wanted longer flights, however I still wanted the responsiveness of a Tri. For this I decided to put on larger blades and lower KV motors on the front, and a normal size prop and motor on the back.
I just ordered a pixhawk to continue line of 3DR brains (PX4, APM). It fits nicely in the body of the frame with just some foam holding it in place.
2 x 15x5" CF blades
1 x 10x4.5" Plastic blade
3 x 20amp AFRO esc (1 esc for rear servo)
1 x 30amp AFRO esc
2 x 360kv pancake motors
1 x 750kv motor
2200mAH Lipo
Pixhawk with external GPS/Comp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mme79-4G9o&index=4&list=PLqda967xa8gOfKd-G9YA_Qu_magN6c-4j
Comments
Daniel, Any updates on this project, did you get it to run on li-ion?
where did you buy them?
I think the wiki page is because of commercial interest. Why only sell 3 motors if you can sell 6 for a Y6. The reason why I want the tricopter is the great jaw control. The Y6 will have some redunance against prop/motor failure (important if you have a 3K camera on it). But in theory the tricopter should be much more fun to fly.
Just deciding on what motors and props to buy atm.
Awesome!!! I forgot, I should have mentioned it didn't actually crash into the ground...It crashed full speed upside down into the pavement!!! One of the motors was completely bent. The frame and 2 front blades were somehow still intact. The parts that busted was the rear blade ($3) and that top canopy part used to hold the GPS. Somehow the GPS survived fine lol. With those 2 big blades and 1 smaller, the TRIcopter really feels like an airplane rather than a copter. It is the best of both worlds if you like that feel. Not sure I would say it's outdated until I try the Y6. If that gives the same feel then yeah, I might say so.
Well you sold me on the crash resistance of the frame. I just bought one myself to have a play with tricopters (build a few quads before). Interestingly the arducopter wiki states that tricopters are "outdated designs", "only used when technology was old" and "not worthwhile expanding on further". http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/advanced-multicopter-design/
Where did you get the li-ion batts?
Well the batteries did ok for 2 minutes...then my droid crashed on me and sent some erratic commands to the copter via mavlink :( The end result was an awesome loop then full power smash dive to the ground upside down. Good news!!! its all back together, well sort of. Its much lighter, I just left off the broken parts HA! I'm taking it up tomorrow morning for a test flight.
No server stripping so far. I'm trying out my Li-Ions tomorrow. I'll put up some pics.
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