Double Tricopter Test Flight
September 17, 2012
So what happens if you take two Tricopters and bolt all the bits together? This week I extended the legs of my old frame and made a six-motor tricopter.
After the early morning Tricoptering mission on top of Beacon Hill last week I was a bit miserable. The extra weight of the GoPro and high winds made the ‘copter sluggish and nasty to fly. Performance has been getting worse recently, probably due to ageing batteries as I haven’t changed the design.
The only answer, other than ordering some new batteries, is to make the frame lighter… or increase the power!
The old 3-motor frame weighed about 1kg without batteries. The new one weighs about 1.4kg but has twice as many motors! The legs are 500mm long, so it’s less portable than before. Tested in the garden today and it seems much more powerful.
Most of the complexity is in the cabling. Plus it needs two batteries now, which adds a fair bit of weight. I also beefed up the servo which tilts the back leg. This chunky metal gear servo weighs something like 64g but will hopefully survive the crashes better than the smaller and lighter Corona I used before.
Very happy indeed with the new landing gear. Slices of PVC pipe attached with cable ties. They really absorb the bumps and cost very little.
It flies about OK. More power than the tricopter of old - but not really as much as I’d like. I’m sure it’ll handle the extra weight of the GoPro easily, I’m just not sure it’s worth the huge size. Doubt it’ll fit in the car for holidays!
Need to have a test flight in the wild to really get to grips with it… watch this space!