I've been gathering parts to build my own Tricopter, after being inspiried by the Y-UFO, but being turned down by that $400 price tag.

Control will be through 120 degreee CCPM mixing designed for helis (good thing I already have a DX7 for my T-Rex 450), and rudder will be done by pivoting the motors.

Heres pics of the parts so far...

Order from HobbyCity at a hefty $125


A trip to Michaels a few minutes ago left me with this $3 pre-built center frame


Also have carbon rods, plywood, and wooden sticks to finish up the little bits.

Looks interesting..
Keep the pics and write up's coming...

Started on my motor mounts, made from 3mm thick plywood. It took a while to mark and drill the holes, since the motor mount holes and the wires coming out are in different positions on each motor.

Finally finished all of the mounts!

Razor_Racer,

Very nice. keep it coming. BTW, I don't see any gyros. U do intend to use some gyros don't u? No gyros = super fast hands to balance the craft.

Regards,
Joe Ling

Holy Moly, That looks like it should have a good deal of lift.

I've got one of those motors on my fundango (plane) and it will pull it out of my hands vertically. I also used one to electify an old gentle lady I had laying around. I've been happy with the motors so far as they seem to run pretty nice and cool, for what I'm using them for on some 3s lipos.

Very interesting thread, looking forward to seeing it fly...

Thanks guys. No gyros on this one, but later I can add an AP2000i stabilizer designed for helis if I wanted to. I already have some experience in a T-Rex 450, so hopefully this wont be too much harder. At least it will be cheaper to crash, though

Since I finished the mounts I'm getting started on the little things that allow the mounts to attach to some 5mm carbon tubes. Dunno if the tubes will be stiff enough for the thrust, but they fill stiff enough...

Anyways heres how I want to attach it. When I'm finish arranging everything I'll glue the carbon tubes to the mounts. Note my building doesnt look completely clean, I'm 14 so I have yet to fine my building skills





EDIT: Finished all three! Thats enough for tonight.

Hi Razor_Racer,

Originally Posted by Razor_Racer

Thanks guys. No gyros on this one, but later I can add an AP2000i stabilizer designed for helis if I wanted to. I already have some experience in a T-Rex 450, so hopefully this wont be too much harder. At least it will be cheaper to crash, though

Since I finished the mounts I'm getting started on the little things that allow the mounts to attach to some 5mm carbon tubes. Dunno if the tubes will be stiff enough for the thrust, but they fill stiff enough...

Anyways heres how I want to attach it. When I'm finish arranging everything I'll glue the carbon tubes to the mounts. Note my building doesnt look completely clean, I'm 14 so I have yet to fine my building skills





EDIT: Finished all three! Thats enough for tonight.

I'm impressed ! Keep up the good work ! You are 20 years ahead of me !

I think this thread may be useful reference :

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...ight=tricopter

Regards,
Joe Ling

Couldnt do much past two weeks, but finally tonight I finished up a little more. The little hexagon box is also from michaels, sure makes my life easier

Originally Posted by Razor_Racer

Couldnt do much past two weeks, but finally tonight I finished up a little more. The little hexagon box is also from michaels, sure makes my life easier

Lookin' great ... only concern is the wood might add too much weight ... carbon fiber is a lot lighter and strong.

--Eric--

Razor,

I have been trying something similar to your build. I was originally going to do only mechanical movement of the motors but have decided I need to vary thrust. I see you have a dx7, hopefully you can help me. I have a dx6 and cannot figure out the setup for heli mode. I have no heli experience so this is all new to me, it just looked like a fun project. Can you tell me what settings you are succesfully using on your dx7. Also for your esc's if you don't have one in throttle how are you powering up the esc's. Any help would be great.

Thank you in advance
Stefan

I havent programmed my DX7 yet as the model isnt ready to be programmed. I dont know how tbe DX6 works, so check your manual.

For the DX7, I will set it to 120 degree CCPM heli mode. The ESCs will go to elevator, pitch, and aileron plugs in the reciever.

When the radio is in the 120 degree CCPM, when you move the throttle up, the elevator, pitch, and ailerons also go up, because that is how CCPM helicopters increase the pitch of their blades.

Woo! Finally parts came in, took a couple weeks... possibly last time I order from bidproduct.


3 Beefier servos than the HXT 9 grams, along with 34 5mm wheel collars. I only needed a couple collars, but I couldnt understand from the web site how many are included, so I ordered some... oh well, the more the merrier



Oh yeah, old pic of steering set up:

Finally got around to doing more work



I basically got the steering setup finished after getting some threaded rod at the LHS. The servo is mounted with some double sided servo tape. I thought it would just be temporary, but I feel like it's sturdy enough to actually fly with it. Also the motor mount is CA'ed in, thats the only permanent part of the setup.

I mounted the motor on the very end of the carbon rod. The servo can handle the load just well, but the motor wires will be two feet long! Will it be okay?

Looks good...and unique. I'm interested in how this turns out, as it looks to be a different design that what I've seen around. Keep up the good work!