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The TrIMUpter, a VTOL Tricopter with ArduIMU+ V2 Flat

Posted by Jean-Louis Naudin on November 3, 2010 at 2:05am

Today, my TrIMUpter v1.0 has successfully done its first outdoor flight. This is a VTOL Tricopter fully stabilized by the ArduIMU+ V2 flat and (with my firmware TriStab v1.0). No external gyro here, only the ArduIMU on board... The TrIMUpter is able to flight outdoor and indoor.

More photos at: http://diydrones.com/photo/albums/trimupter-a-vtol-tricopter

Stay tuned on: http://diydrones.com/profile/JeanLouisNaudin

Tags: arduimu, drone, tricopter, uas, uav, vtol, ardupilot
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Comments

  • Developer
    Jean-Louis Naudin February 2, 2011 at 10:18pm

    Hello John, Thanks for your update. My latest firmware of TriStab v1.2 already include these feature. GPS halt hold, realtime downlink to the hand held GCS (ArduStation) via a Xbee Transceiver and full compatible with the HappyKillmore GCS. With some minor update that you can do, you may store some waypoint list in the eeprom to play a flight plan.

    More info in this blog: http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/trimupter-uav-1st-autonomous

    Regards, Jean-Louis

    Full autonomous flight of the TrIMUpter UAV with automatic landing

    3689330546?profile=original

  • John Johnson February 2, 2011 at 5:11pm
    Very nice work.  I am interested in your efforts...I desire to automate my current tricopters for waypoint navigation and real-time monitoring via a GCS such as the Happy Killmore.  When do you think yours will be flying waypoints?
  • Developer
    Jean-Louis Naudin February 1, 2011 at 4:12am

    Hello Magnus, thanks for your comments. I haven't modified the ESC, they are common Esc. At this moment I uses a KKmulticontroller with an Atmega 168 and the firmware (XXcontroller_KR_1_4a)  is able to drive the ESC up to 400 Hz without problem this is one of the reason of the stability of the Quadcopter. In my QRO v6, I use 30A ESC from RC Timer (see below)

    3692156745?profile=original

    Regards, Jean-Louis

  • Magnus Pettersson February 1, 2011 at 3:10am

    Nice work!

    Have you done any modifications to your esc:s? (like i2c, removal of low pass filter etc)

    -Magnus

  • Developer
    Jean-Louis Naudin November 8, 2010 at 10:40am
    Hello, you will find below a video from some tests flights done on nov 7th, 2010 evening in windy conditions with the latest version of the TriStab firmware v1.3:

    TrIMUpter with firmware v1.3 tests flights from Jean-Louis Naudin on Vimeo.

    Regards, Jean-Louis
  • Developer
    Jean-Louis Naudin November 8, 2010 at 2:22am
    Here some photos of the TriIMUpter v1.3 in action taken yesterday evening during some flights tests in windy conditions.

  • Developer
    Jean-Louis Naudin November 8, 2010 at 1:48am
    Hello, after some troubles with my HMC5843 triple axis magnetometer due to a programming error during a test. My magnetometer has lost its working setup and has given crazy datas... So, I have needed to build a special programm to put the correct factory setup... Now, my HMC5843 is working properly and able to give good datas... You will find my HMC5843 setup and test program here...
    No Bug, No fun... Happy building and dev, Jean-Louis
  • Developer
    Jean-Louis Naudin November 4, 2010 at 10:09am
    Hello, the TrIMUpter tests flights are in progress and very encouraging (firmware, now v1.1). Here a video from a 2nd serie of Tests Flights in windy conditions.

    TrIMUpter V1, a new serie of tests flights with wind from Jean-Louis Naudin on Vimeo.

    Below some photos taken during these tests flights:

  • Developer
    Jean-Louis Naudin November 4, 2010 at 6:20am
    Hello, below a detailled photo which shows how to get the serial PPM output from a Graupner R16scan receiver required for the ArduIMU.

    Regards, Jean-Louis
  • Developer
    Jean-Louis Naudin November 3, 2010 at 11:24pm
    Hello Dody, I have already answered you yesterday in French to your email directly through you DIYDRONES mail box... Ok, I answer you here in english on the blog.

    Thanks four your comments about the TrIMUpter. FYI for my TrIMUpter and for avoiding to spend time in mechanical construction, I have used a old Y-UFO (from La-Heli) mechanics as the ArduIMU dev platform taken directly from the shelf. I have already used this mechanics some years ago for another UAV project. I have removed the old original gyros and mixers and replaced them by the ArduIMU. So, If you want to build a the TrIMUpter, I recommend you to build a stronger Tricopter mechanics like my ADAV/VTOL v2.0, it is more robust a able to lift more payload. The Y-UFO mechanics is too much light and fragile...
    Yes, I have planned to soon add a GPS to the TrIMUpter to get a position old. If I got sufficient power in calculation and enough memory I shall try to add some navigation feature... Today, I thing that for the navigation with flight plan (like the project that I have conducted with my Multiplex Cularis), it will be better to use the Ardupilot board with the arduIMU. In this case, the ArduIMU board will remains the main controller for the TrIMUpter and the ArduPilot board will act as the navigation controller with the GPS. I shall try to use the same EEProm mapping like the ArduPilot 2.7.4. By this way, it will be compatible with the flight mission planner software (Planifmission.exe) that I have previously used for the Cularis UAV project... Stay tuned..
    Regards, Jean-Louis
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