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Welcome to The Phlatforum PhlatPrinter III

Quad and Tri-Copter Build Tips....

Discussion in '* Scratch Built Section *' started by rjarois, Dec 5, 2009.

Page 11 of 14
  1. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

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    Jan that post was awesome! I love to lurk in this section, I don't know much about these copters yet but I am listening and learning here in the background :D
    Great thread guys, thank you
    Mark and Trish
     
    kram242, Jan 6, 2011
    #251
  2. johnbernard36

    johnbernard36 Member

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    I am building a spin on the tricopter. A bit bigger and will eventually replace the gyros with a full autopilot, or at least an active stabilization system based on a Wii controller and an Arduino.

    I used aluminum tube, lightened with machined cutouts, and 1/8" ply for the frame. Esc's fit between the two frame plates, and battery is on bottom between the skids, and used to balance the tri-copter.

    I used Alpha 480 motors, 40A ESC's, 10-8 3-blade props, 4S 3300 lipo, trex 600 skid, trex 450 canopy, cheap HK 301 gyros (4).

    I'm just starting to "tune" it now. Attached files [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
    johnbernard36, Jan 6, 2011
    #252
  3. rjarois

    rjarois Moderator Staff Member

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    johnbernard36, wow very nice!!!!. love the arms you cut out. light and strong looking. get that baby tweaked, and try to get some video.....great job, randy.
     
    rjarois, Jan 7, 2011
    #253
  4. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

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    Nice! I love the look of that with the heli canopy on there. Like Randy said the arms look awesome. Did you weight them before and after to see what the weight gain is? Great idea
    Thanks for posting
    Mark and Trish
     
    kram242, Jan 8, 2011
    #254
  5. johnbernard36

    johnbernard36 Member

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    I lost about 30-40% of the weight of each arm by machining the lightening/access openings. The thin-wall tubing is actually lighter than ply or birch arms by a couple of oz's. I mainly used the alum for strength, as this is a lifting platform for cameras and test packages.

    One motor can lift it on it's back, so i'm hoping the payload it can lift will be substantial.

    Once I get it set, I'll measure the lift it can produce.

    Lots of great ideas out there for tri, quad, hex and even octo platforms. I have even seen a tri copter with six motors that was fully acrobatic!

    John
     
    johnbernard36, Jan 8, 2011
    #255
  6. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

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    Wow that's a huge difference in weight, I love the fact that you routed right into the tube.
    An idea I was thinking you may want to try, just to satisfy any worry of the drilling weakening of the arm and it collapsing or bending, is to do another one just for a weight test to see what it can endure. Thin wall alum bends so easy. I think it would be fine since there are three, but it never hurts to know when your carrying expensive cameras and such.
    Now that would be a cool video to see! :) Do you have any links for this one?
    Looking forward to seeing your in the air it looks so sci fi to me, I love it :)
    Mark and Trish
     
    kram242, Jan 8, 2011
    #256
  7. rjarois

    rjarois Moderator Staff Member

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    john, i can tell you for a fact, that my heavy 1/4 birch ply can lift my 14 oz. camera with ease. although i am not sure what the max payload is, i don't think i would go any heaver. in this video i am flying my 14 0z. camera. randy.
     
    rjarois, Jan 9, 2011
    #257
  8. blindflight

    blindflight Moderator Staff Member

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    Nice flying there Randy.... :D
     
    blindflight, Jan 9, 2011
    #258
  9. rjarois

    rjarois Moderator Staff Member

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    yea al thanks bud....but as you know I'm a raw tri-quad flyer, lols. the spring and summer coming up will be nice to learn, man i feel like im new to r/c....randy.
     
    rjarois, Jan 9, 2011
    #259
  10. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

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    kram242, Jan 10, 2011
    #260
  11. johnbernard36

    johnbernard36 Member

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    Mark,

    I have the old ArduPilot I use for simple aircraft. The newer ArduPilotMega is the platform, in my opinion, that would give folks the flexability to fool with multiple airframes. Traditional aircraft, tri/quad/hex/octo, and there is also a code branch for traditional heli's being worked on. I have the ArduPilot currently in a Raven UAV, and use the ArduPilotMega in a 98" Predator as well as a couple other airframes. With the Ardu Mega as the microprocessor, it has quite a bit more expansion potential than the previous version.

    For the TRI, I'm bringing it up initially using just gyros. I'll then step it up a bit with a Wii-based stabilization. Lots of good threads for this type of build as well.

    The aluminum arms are probably "simi-thin" wall, LOL. .90 wall gives me enough material to thread the wall to mount them to the frame. Also, cutting material only from the sides seems to not have weakend them appreciably. I loaded 5 lbs on an arm without any deflection, so I feel safe with an overall weight of 10lbs max for the vehicle, which is way beyond what it would ever carry fully loaded.

    I'm thinking a wii based setup would be small and light enough to make a small balsa/foam tri or quad that would be ideal to make with the phlatprinter.

    I'll post my progress here, once I get back on this project. Too many projects and not enough time!

    Just for laughs, I attached my test setup for the ArduPilotMega. It lets me move it between airframes as well as provide a "box" for me to fool with it on the test bench. It has a GPS, Airspeed, Magnetometer, and a 900mhz command link for the groundstation. When I use video downlink on 2.4ghz, my RC is running on 50mhz.



    John Attached files [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
    johnbernard36, Jan 10, 2011
    #261
  12. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

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    WOW now this is what I am talking about :D Talk about flying out on missions and collecting Intel! This is the setup and its all open source you have to love that. :)
    Now all we need is a transmitter for the distance.. but wait is that an Xbee 900 on there? That means you can get a range of 10 miles give or take?
    Too cool John! One of these days I am going to attach a set up like this to my quad and sit in the house and fly missions! :D
    We know that feeling all to well.
    Thanks for sharing this cool project, we will be watching
    Mark and Trish
     
    kram242, Jan 10, 2011
    #262
  13. kneedrag

    kneedrag Member

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    I have been playing with a Tri for the last few months all hand cut unfortunately but as soon as the MK3 is up I plan on developing a nice ply frame for it. Currently it is Alu and MDF and weight about 1.8Kg with all the video and FPV equipment on it.

    However here is a quick snippet of me playing around by a small waterfall by the beach here in NZ.

    Longer clip still being edited. ;-)
     
    kneedrag, Jan 13, 2011
    #263
  14. Crash

    Crash Moderator Staff Member

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    Well, it's time for me to post something here as I, too, am working on a TriCopter! Mine will also be based on using the Wii electronics with the Arduino technology.

    So far all that I have is the motor mounts that I cut last night. They are cut from 1/8" Birch ply (Revell Brand purchased from Hobby Lobby Craft Store for $4 for a 12" X 24" sheet). I will be using some aluminum C channel that I bought some time ago so as to cut down on the investment. :) I am heading to the shop after this post to cut the center frame sections.

    I will be covering all of the specifics of this project on TheCrashCast as well as documenting each stage of my build in one of my thorough build articles so that any rank newb can follow along and build his/her own. While I have found there to be significant data on the interwebs for building these things, there is no ONE place to look to give you the data from start to finish for a successful project. I intend to remedy that! :D The goal is a minimal investment project that teaches ALL aspects of this technology.

    PS - I cut these parts on my big CNC machine, but all of the design was conceived in SketchUp and coded with the PhlatScript. I will be sharing the files eventually so that PhlatClub members can join in on this madness when the project has been completed. Attached files [​IMG]
     
    Crash, Feb 6, 2011
    #264
  15. rjarois

    rjarois Moderator Staff Member

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    mike, great start man.....i drew up this t-style tri copter frame. i may cut a new frame when i get my printer online. keep up the good work...randy.

    Attached files t-tri.skp (140.1 KB)Â
     
    rjarois, Feb 6, 2011
    #265
  16. Crash

    Crash Moderator Staff Member

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    I got a little more done on mine today. As you can see, mine is a spin-off of what John has done. Lot's of similarities, but also many changes. For one, I'm using 1/2" x 5/8" C channel for the booms, and mine are significantly shorter since I am using the TowerPro 2410-09 motors. I should be getting back on it tomorrow morning when the kids go back to school (they were out today due to another bout of ice) and will commence the challenge of wiring this little beastie. :D

    Attached files [​IMG]
     
    Crash, Feb 9, 2011
    #266
  17. ToxicToast

    ToxicToast Down in the weeds. Staff Member

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    Mike, that is looking awesome sweet. I'm doing a boat load of research on tris and quads myself. Although it may be a summer project for me.

    Looking forward to seeing this progress.
     
    ToxicToast, Feb 9, 2011
    #267
  18. rjarois

    rjarois Moderator Staff Member

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    looking good mike.....prepare for the soldering.....the most time consuming part of the build, at least for me, lols...nice yaw mechanism also... i cant wait to see that control board, it sounds real sweet. peace, randy.
     
    rjarois, Feb 10, 2011
    #268
  19. iflyos

    iflyos Member

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    Crash, Looks good!! At this rate you will be spending some time in the heli area at SEFF!!
     
    iflyos, Feb 10, 2011
    #269
  20. johnbernard36

    johnbernard36 Member

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    I will say that these Tri and Quad copters are a blast! I'm using a bit larger motors, and have no problem flying around with a fully loaded GoPro HD camera with the LCD back. It doesn't seem to matter where the CG is with the controller board we are using.

    I did have a crash earlier today as I was getting a bit too fast too close to the ground and lost orientation (translation=dumb thumbs). I bent all three arms, so I'm going to cut them shorter to use the pieces that are still straight. This will be a good test to see how short you can go and still have control. :D

    We have made a board that interconnects all the pieces to get rid of the rats nest of wires, and this makes it pretty easy to "plug and play". I'll add some pictures of the "converted" (rebuilt) version of my basic Tri shown below.

    My Tri-Copter in ready to fly state


    The interconnect board that has the Arduino, Wii Motion Plus and Nunchuck accelerometers.
    Attached files [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
    johnbernard36, Feb 10, 2011
    #270
  21. navionflyer

    navionflyer New Member

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    John,

    With your GoPro in that location, do you get the props in the video? I am going to build a tricopter, but was going to go with the T configuration to try to get the props out of the shot.

    Thanks,
    Tim
     
    navionflyer, Feb 10, 2011
    #271
  22. rjarois

    rjarois Moderator Staff Member

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    johnbernard36, that control board looks great!! nice work, randy.
     
    rjarois, Feb 10, 2011
    #272
  23. johnbernard36

    johnbernard36 Member

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    Depends on how high I mount the camera. I get the props and canopy in the shot now. When I mounted it higher, I could get a clear shot. Remember, the setup for a "T" or a "Y" is the same, so it's strictly your choice and what works best for you. The CG is relatively insensitive compared to a fixed wing or standard chopper.

    I just shortened my arms from 18" to 8", and flew it with the same settings. I really should tune it for the shorter arms, as I could see a bit of oscillation in the roll axis. But still, that's a radical change.

    Here is the modified "Stumpy" :D .
    Attached files [​IMG]
     
    johnbernard36, Feb 10, 2011
    #273
  24. blindflight

    blindflight Moderator Staff Member

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    Your design is really clean. great job! :banger:
     
    blindflight, Feb 11, 2011
    #274
  25. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

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    Nice work on the board! and I love the stubby version of the copter!
    John we would love to have these awesome boards available on the PhlatStore! :D If you are interested please send us an email with details so we can help to promote this cool project and make it available to others. :good:
    phlatboyz@phlatboyz.com
    Thank you
    Mark and Trish
     
    kram242, Feb 12, 2011
    #275
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