Y6 - Yupiter Hexacopter

By nic4wtf on May 01, 2018

38  3,308  26

Available at https://armattanproductions.com/pages/kit_detail/1811

Overview

The Yupiter is a mid range craft intended to be smooth, reliable and... exquisite.
Let's talk numbers. 6 motors, 3 arms, up to 7" propellers, 6s battery, 10+ minutes, this monster is systematic chaos.

I know the Y6 config is not super efficient, but I was in love when I started messing around with the firsts sketches.
Also, I don't mind losing some performance to make this beast fly it's best.

The kind of flight I do with this is a few kms out, staying in the air for 10 or 15 mins, mostly high-speed cruising or divings mountains. 

I'm 900 MHz RC Fr R9M link and the regular 5.8GHz video.

Setup

The currrent setup is listed at the bottom.
I'm building one Li-Ion 6s 3000mah battery to used on it. But sucessfully flew with duo 1500mah CNHL and with 2700mah. Even regular 4s 1500mah will give more than 6 minutes of flight on these 1600kv motors.

Running Betalflight and sadly this board doesn't support DSHOT on all 6 motors.
3d printed files will soon be posted here.

Regular park cruising

Photos

Part List

Frame

Yupter LRH
Armattanproductions.com
$58.93

Flight Controller

Holybro Kakute F4 AIO All in One V2 Flight Controller STM32 F405 MCU Integrated PDB OSD for RC Drone (42 builds)
Banggood.com
$43.91

ESCs

Aikon AK32 V2 32Bit 35A 2-6S 30x30 4in1 ESC w/ BEC (37 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$62.99

ESCs

2 x Aikon AK32 35A 6S Esc (8 builds)
Dronebuildz.com
$31.98

Motors

6 x TMotor F40 PRO II - 1600KV (35 builds)
Getfpv.com
$149.40

Propellers

2 Pairs DALPROP CYCLONE T7056C 7inch Crystal 3-blade Propeller for RC FPV Racing Drone (17 builds)
Banggood.com
$4.16

Propellers

3 x Gemfan Flash 6042 Bi-Blade 6" Prop 4 Pack - Choose Your Color (17 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$9.72

Propellers

3 x 2 Pairs Dalprop Cyclone T6040C 6040 3-blade Propeller For RC Drone FPV Racing Multi Rotor (3 builds)
Banggood.com
$8.97

FPV Camera

RunCam Owl 2 - Low Light FPV Camera (5 builds)
Getfpv.com
$44.99

FPV Transmitter

Eachine TX526 5.8G 40CH 25MW/200MW/600MW Switchable AV Wireless FPV Transmitter RP-SMA Female (120 builds)
Banggood.com
$12.92

Antenna

Foxeer Pagoda Pro 5.8GHz Short Stubby SMA Antenna - RHCP - Black (33 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$9.99

Receiver

FrSky 900Mhz R9MM-FC 16CH Long Range Telemetry Receiver S.Port Enabled for RC Drone (43 builds)
Banggood.com
$22.00

Batteries

2 x CNHL 14.8V 4S 1300mAh 100C G+ Plus LiPo Battery - XT60 (141 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$30.98

Radio

FrSky 2.4G ACCST System Taranis Q X7 16 Channels Transmitter Remote Controller White Battery and Battery Trays Not Include (263 builds)
Amazon.com
$124.99

Goggles

FatShark Dominator V3 RTF Bundle FPV Goggle with OLED Receiver Battery Case for RC Drone (63 builds)
Banggood.com
$299.99

HD Camera

GoPro HERO5 Session (302 builds)
Getfpv.com
$199.99

Misc Parts

Dual BN-220 NEO-M8N GPS GLONASS Antenna Module Ublox M8030 TTL Level RC Drone Airplane (17 builds)
Banggood.com
$10.99

Radio Module

FrSky R9M 900MHz Long Range Transmitter Module for FrSky R9 Series (69 builds)
Banggood.com
$61.80

Battery Charger

ISDT Q6 Pro BattGo 300W 14A Battery Balance Charger (47 builds)
Getfpv.com
See Site

Soldering Iron

TS100 Ltkolben KIT + TS-I inkl. XT60 Kabel (264 builds)
Flyingmachines.de
See Site
Show stores (7)

Discussion

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OrionGalaxy   Jul 19, 2021  
1

Built mine in december

i absolutely felt in love with this design , and made it my dream built , and after months of savings and few weeks of nights spent building it , she was ready , after her maiden flight i decided to name her Violence , because thats what this beast is , pure violence

she rips like a mosnter and fly as smooth as butter on stock betaflight settings

i'll have to learn how to tune this setup , to make her even better

thanks for bringing this idea to life and allow people like me to build a real flying dream

( Are the printed mount gopro files availables ? i really want to mount mine on it )

nic4wtf   Jul 20, 2021 

That is awesome, I appreciate your comment!

I'm very glad you are enjoying her! Violence is a great name, I can see you profile pic, she does look amazing! (feel free to share more photos =D)
I've uploaded the original canopy + a couple gopro session supports I've made for her on thingiverse:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4913419

OrionGalaxy   Jul 21, 2021 
1

thanks a lot ! cant wait to record some amazing sessions !

(thanks ! i really put effort and time into making her as beautiful than amazing , my profile pic is her 6 inch config , and i have a 7 inch biblades config too )

OrionGalaxy   Jul 21, 2021 
1

the website apparently wont allow me to post pics for some random reasons , but you can go check out her activity on my Instagram if you want ! (orion_fpv)

Angstromfpv   May 27, 2021  

You can try some combinations of propellers and motors, such as
1 Both the upper and lower motors are equipped with two-blade propellers;
2 The lower motor is equipped with a propeller with a larger pitch
3 Let the lower motor spin faster
I don’t know if this is feasible, I also like the y6 layout, but it’s still being designed

nic4wtf   Jun 07, 2021 
1

The setup I fly the most has the top propeller with a 6030 and a bottom propeller using a 6042 - both triblades.
It is very efficient, I usually fly for 15 minutes cruising on a 6S-2600mAh Li-Ion.
I tried running a 7inch propeller on the top motor but these motors were definitely overpropped.

Might be interesting to see how a biblade will affect the results. Usually other counter-rotating systems go towards many blades approach.
Do you mind sharing your thoughts on the biblade use? Looking for higher efficiency?

nono   Apr 18, 2020  
1

Hi,
i'm interested, but i would like to understand how you manage the setup ?
Config = Y6, ok but most of FC only drives 4 motors including Kakute.
=> how did you do that ?
Thanks Nice build by the way.
I would like to build a huge y6 - 900mm

nic4wtf   Apr 18, 2020 
1

Hey! thanks!

The kakute I used (F4v1 AIO) has 6 motor output, the motors 5 and 6 pads are dispersed on the board but other than that not much trouble to setup. I also cannot use any dshot protocol but that was fine for me.

Even if your board doesn't explicit state motors 5 and 6 sometimes you can get away by reassigning the FC pads

thegreen4me   May 05, 2018  

best of luck landing without breaking a prop

IronMew   Jul 20, 2018 
1

Easy: find a thick bush, fly above it, disarm. Voila, you've landed :D

nic4wtf   Feb 18, 2019 

After all this time flying I still didnt manage to break a single prop with this copter, landing on the battery is super easy

shmulikb   Feb 06, 2019  
1

Hi nic, great work!
Can you publish the drawing of the frame?or send a link to by t?
What kind of software did you use on your fc ?

nic4wtf   Feb 06, 2019 

Thank you!
I just set up the armattan production link for this copter
https://armattanproductions.com/pages/kit_detail/1811

I use regular betaflight (3.5 iirc), just need to change the mix from quad X to Y6

IronMew   Jul 20, 2018  
1

You should do some research into counter-rotating configurations - using the same motor and prop top and bottom really hurts efficiency. You're supposed to use props with specific design on the bottom: since most of the inner part of the prop wastes its power on air that's already turbulent from the prop above, you need props that are much heavier on the tips than the top props. Ideally you'd have different motor speed as well, though I no longer remember how you're supposed to figure that out.
A properly designed counter-rotating configuration can work pretty well, but finding the right props is a huge pain. Unfortunately winging it like this can lose you anywhere between 20 to 30% efficiency compared to a traditional hex.

nic4wtf   Jul 21, 2018 

At this point I'm not too worried about the efficiency itself of the coaxial vs regular hexa configuration, I'm really focused on experimenting with this type of copter. I should be able to carry a large battery and my plan is to stay up for about 10 minutes of cruise, so this shouldn't be a problem.

I'll test different propellers on top/bottom motors to see how it would behave, but I'm stuck using the same motors... At least for now.
I'm kinda curious to see how the FC will accelerate/decelerate the motors on it's own to maintain a stable flight. If the FC commands both motors to be, for example, at 50%, the bottom motor should drain less current.

However, my main concern is about the oscillations, I have a feeling that if I use same diameter props I'll have a lot of oscillations. I'm also planning using a combination of different 5", 6" and 7" to see how the copter will behave.

The maiden flight is coming, I'll keep updating this build with the results.

SkyLine FPV   May 03, 2018  

have a look at the long range hooligans facebook group. very helpful

nic4wtf   May 04, 2018 

Thanks mate, I already asked to join

Pit   May 04, 2018  
1

Nice toy concept. Done this (Y6 builds) myself in a distant past. Get rid of the canopy and make it battery on top. Or alternatively move the stack on top and leave it bottom mount battery. Right now its a waste of space and practicality. Y6 flies nice if done correctly. However, it's not really convinient nor is it practical or efficient.

nic4wtf   May 04, 2018 

I'm using the fpv camera at the front because I need free space for the gopro at the top... and then I have to use bottom mounted batt. Also I'm not planning to use landing legs, so the quad will have to sit on the battery while on the ground.

QuadConnect   May 02, 2018  
1

Looks awesome dude, can't wait to see it built!

nic4wtf   May 02, 2018 

Thanks mate!
Hopefully soon enough =D

dafunk   May 02, 2018  
1

wow i love it !! When seen from the top it the perfect mix between a racing machine and military aircraft.
Is your objective to make it flyable without a servo ? Do you know of anyone who build a flying 'Y hexa' without servo ?

nic4wtf   May 02, 2018 

Thanks mate! Yes, the Y6 and the Y4 configs do not need a servo, only the Y3.
But I do think they have a very specific set of flight characteristics, compared to regular quads.

BloodyLordV   May 01, 2018  
1

I realy hope you'll build it. I just say- it is the first hexacopter I consider as beautifuly and agressive looking. My advice - give us the posibility to use 20x20 hardware and print the canopy in nylon or ninjaflex.

DiAleksi   May 02, 2018 
1

Ninjaflex (85A) shouldn't be used for canopy, as it is too flexy and requires very thick walls. 98A is the best tpu hardness for canopies and is much easier to print than nylon.

nic4wtf   May 02, 2018 

I will see if the 20x20 hardware mount points are ok whitin the design, but in the worst case there are some 30mm>20mm adapters.

Thanks for the advice on the material, I'm still fixing some design issues on the canopy, but soon enough I'm going to print one.

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