Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. I am ridiculous... How my wife hasnt killed me by now I do not know.

I have been buying RC explorer type Tricopter Frames from Louis (flyhigh300) at Myrcbuild.com for some time now. I really like the quality of his g10 kits. A few months back he mentioned possibly building a Purpose built FPV tricopter and my eyes light up. After a little back and forth he cut me a kit to demo.

Here are some things on this kit that I find very unique.

1. TONS OF ROOM FOR EVERYTHING!!!! A true FPV rig needs lots of room and this birds got it.

2. The bottom plate where the FC and Cam is mounted is soft mounted to the top frame using 4 pieces of soft foam. THIS IS JUST TO COOL!!!! I have a picture of it below, you can tighten it or loosen it, however you prefer. This should help tremendously with vibrations.

3. Built in cam mount / cage w/ full tilt ability. Also pictured below the cam cage is very nice. It fits my RMRC 540 cam with ease. The night lens was a little to big for the barrel but that's no big deal, I just took the barrel part off the cage. I am sure Louis will adjust this though so those of you with night lenses don't you fret

4. The arms are not connected to the top and body panels they are only connected to the top plate which should help protect the frame. This way the g10 wont crack from pressure, worst comes to worse you just loose an arm.

5. STRONG STRONG STRONG STRONG tail control assembly. I mean this thing is bulletproof.

6. The arms are swept further back making it more "T" shaped.

I will be using:

RMRC 540 cam w/ night lense
RMRC 500mw VTX
Hobby King easy OSD
Inverted Vee Antenna
Dragon Link

OP Copter Control
Motors: https://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...8622&aff=61689
Turnigy Plush 18a ESCs
Dragon Link
2200-4000 3s lipo
9x5 props (currently I have 10x4.7 till they come in.
Lost Model Alarm

Maiden flight:

First flight of my FPVDM (dream machine) tri / T copter (0 min 33 sec)

First FPV flight:

FPVDM Tricopter FPV maiden (9 min 27 sec)

Very choppy lots of tuning to do.

Second FPV flight:

Second FPV flight with the FPVDM tricopter (8 min 13 sec)

Much better still have some tuning to do. Have to turn down the KP on my roll as it still twitches a little. I noticed while descending she wobbles around to so I probably have to lower my KI.

I like!!

I'm interested to learn what final weight is and what flight times you get.

-Sia

I like too! I like the thought of the design.

However I disagree with.........

"4. The arms are not connected to the top and body panels they are only connected to the top plate which should help protect the frame. This way the g10 wont crack from pressure, worst comes to worse you just loose an arm"

G10 plates are pretty darn strong, and it would take a heck of a hit with some dense/hard wood arms to crack a G10 plate before the wood arm itself cracks absorbing crash energy.
With the lower part of the arm not "clamped" between equal size frame pieces, I could see more stress being applied to the "hinge point" of the wooden arm.
However I do see a hidden plate I think in the 3rd picture that clamps the arms from the bottom? I cant quite tell. I would recommend extending that piece to the same width as the top frame piece.

Cant wait to see more!

Does the FPVDM have the same yaw mechanism as his previous tricopter?

Originally Posted by rcbif

I like too! I like the thought of the design.

However I disagree with.........

"4. The arms are not connected to the top and body panels they are only connected to the top plate which should help protect the frame. This way the g10 wont crack from pressure, worst comes to worse you just loose an arm"

G10 plates are pretty darn strong, and it would take a heck of a hit with some dense/hard wood arms to crack a G10 plate before the wood arm itself cracks absorbing crash energy.
With the lower part of the arm not "clamped" between equal size frame pieces, I could see more stress being applied to the "hinge point" of the wooden arm.
However I do see a hidden plate I think in the 3rd picture that clamps the arms from the bottom? I cant quite tell. I would recommend extending that piece to the same width as the top frame piece.

Cant wait to see more!

Yeah there are two small plates underneath, It may be a good idea to extend them the width of the frame as you suggested. i will mention it to louis.

Originally Posted by Davidpe

Does the FPVDM have the same yaw mechanism as his previous tricopter?

Not the one on his website but the RCexplorer type frame that I recently posted in the Classifieds section.

Hey guy,

had not had time to look at the thread..

So some yes and no's here..

The top plate is 2.5mm thick .. I made a "fender washer" of G10 also 2.5mm thick.. thats on the bottom.. ( the part you cant quite see)

So the washer puts pressure on the boom.. its about 1-1/8 wide..

The boom can be locked in with a screws or zip tie as there is a screw hole for that.. and slots for zip ties...

zip tie slots are for those of us who plan to crash ...

But even if you drill a second hole..it could be that.. you will weaken the boom and it will break in a crash much easier..

I've slam .. and I mean slammed .. a Tri on the ass-fault ..( copter with 1/2x1/2 Aluminum booms slotted) .. and G10 came way chipped but no breaking.. while the booms where all twisted..

In any case its strong..

The Ideas with the second plate is that its mounted on a vibration isolation pad, (soft mount)

No metal or hard parts touch the top ..with the bottom plate.

You have an option to mount the flight board on top or bottom..

So far one person bolted there Power Distribution board on top and bottom for FC..


GoPro version cumming soon also guys..

OK enough talk..

Well as they say.. "Video or it did not happen".. well its not a crash video.. :-(

but here is the vid..

FPVDM tricopter beta + Naze32 (2 min 2 sec)

Originally Posted by rcbif

I like too! I like the thought of the design.

However I disagree with.........

"4. The arms are not connected to the top and body panels they are only connected to the top plate which should help protect the frame. This way the g10 wont crack from pressure, worst comes to worse you just loose an arm"

G10 plates are pretty darn strong, and it would take a heck of a hit with some dense/hard wood arms to crack a G10 plate before the wood arm itself cracks absorbing crash energy.
With the lower part of the arm not "clamped" between equal size frame pieces, I could see more stress being applied to the "hinge point" of the wooden arm.
However I do see a hidden plate I think in the 3rd picture that clamps the arms from the bottom? I cant quite tell. I would recommend extending that piece to the same width as the top frame piece.

Cant wait to see more!

Finished my FPVDM 1.2

Pumping the throttle a bit:

FPVDM v1.2 test (0 min 42 sec)

She is rock solid.

Cruising the streets...

I chase cats like it was yesterdays news (4 min 18 sec)

Have you flown a Tricopter 2.5? How do you rate this in comparison of stability and fly ability?

Not sure what that is, post a link.

Also I would note that this is my second FPVDM which is a lot larger then the first.

The rcexplorer design with 750kv motors. I feel like mine is always wondering, a bit lumbering and shakes or wobbles some at speed.

Thats just tuning with your FC. The RCexplorer frame flys sweet. Multirotors are a pain to tune but once you have it down its pure sex.

That being said this frame flys amazing. I would fly it over the standard RCexplorer design any day.