Baby Tricopter

By ledimestari on Jul 19, 2020

9  469  5

A tricopter is something I have wanted to build for a long time and I even had this laying in my drawer in parts for way too long.

This build is made from leftover parts so problems like misbehaving ESC were guaranteed from the get go.
I have not yet flown it properly but will update this post with videos and more when I get it to fly well and all.

Photos

Part List

Frame

Tricopter5 170mm Wheelbase 3mm Arm 5 Inch Tricopter Frame Kit for RC Drone FPV Racing (2 builds)
Banggood.com
$23.59

Flight Controller

Matek F405-OSD BetaFlight STM32F405 Flight Controller Built-in OSD Inverter for SBUS Input (102 builds)
Banggood.com
$27.99

ESCs

4X DYS DS30A 30amp BLHeli_S 3-5S ESC BB2 Supports Dshot600 Dshot300 Dshot150 Oneshot42 for RC Drone FPV Racing (17 builds)
Banggood.com
$43.85

Motors

5 PCS Racerstar SPROG X 2205 2300KV 3-4S Brushless Motor for Sprog Beginner RC Drone FPV Racing (3 builds)
Banggood.com
$42.95

Propellers

HQ Prop 5x5x3 V1S Durable Tri-Blade 5" Prop 4 Pack - Choose Your Color (9 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$3.60

FPV Camera

600TVL 2.8mm Lens 1/3" 16:9 Super Had II CCD Camera IR Sensitive for FPV Racing Drone PAL/NTSC (31 builds)
Banggood.com
$16.47

Antenna

Pagoda-2 5.8ghz RHCP Antenna (14 builds)
Armattanquads.com
$6.00

Receiver

TBS Crossfire Nano Rx Special Edition FPV Long Range Drone Receiver (160 builds)
Pyrodrone.com
$29.95

Batteries

Turnigy nano-tech 1300mAh 4S 45~90C Lipo Pack
Hobbyking.com
$19.60

Power Distribution

Matek Systems FCHUB-VTX 6~27V PDB 5V/1A BEC w/ 5.8G 40CH 25/200/500mW Switchable RC Drone Video Transmitter (16 builds)
Banggood.com
$36.50

Radio

Flysky FS-NV14 2.4G 14CH Nirvana Transmitter with iA8X Receiver 3.5 Inch Display Open Source (4 builds)
Banggood.com
$179.99

Goggles

Fatshark Dominator V2 FPV Goggles Video Glasses 600x480 VGA (2 builds)
Banggood.com
$299.99

3D Printed

Baby Tricopter GoPro 7 mount by Ledimestari
Thingiverse.com
See Site

HD Camera

TRIACLE DV 8000ST ACTIONKAMERA - Power.fi
Power.fi
$85.00

HD Camera

GoPro HERO7 Black Action Camera (102 builds)
Getfpv.com
$399.99

Misc Parts

6X MG90S Metal Gear RC Micro Servo (3 builds)
Banggood.com
$12.59

Video Receiver

Realacc RX5808-PRO-PLUS-OSD 5.8G 48CH FPV Receiver Achilles Open Source W/Cover For Fatshark Goggles
Banggood.com
$59.99

Radio Module

Team BlackSheep TBS Crossfire TX LITE (4 builds)
Heli-nation.com
$149.99

Battery Charger

ISDT SC-608 150W 8A MINI Smart LCD Battery Balance Charger AU Warehouse (14 builds)
Banggood.com
$54.27

Battery Charger

ISDT D2 200W 24A AC Dual Channel Output Smart Battery Balance Charger (18 builds)
Banggood.com
$139.00

Soldering Iron

MINI TS100 Digital OLED Programmable Interface DC5525 Soldering Iron Station Built-in STM32 Chip (265 builds)
Banggood.com
$53.99

Backpack

Lowepro QuadGuard BP X3 - Drone Backpack for 4 FPV Quad Racing Drones and 15" Laptop w/Exterior Mounts (Black)
Amazon.com
$286.00
Show stores (10)

Discussion

Sign in to comment

wiytboi   Jul 23, 2020  
1

well thats a copy of the baby tricopter from rcexplorer.. which what ya dont have with the clone is the triflight firmware thats been custom design by larz i beleive. go do some searching on rcexplorer forums and look into triflight firmware and tri-dRonin. there specifily tailored for use with servo tail tri-copters.

Oeliboeb   Jul 23, 2020 

it's a shame rcexplorer doesn't sell those frames anymore...

ledimestari   Jul 27, 2020 

Yea I know it's a copy but since all their designs are now open sourced and free to download (Which I think is great by them to do so) I'd say the frame is from them :)

Jodie Froster   Jul 20, 2020  

That Maytek f405 is likely your culprit if it's flying erratticly/with unreasonable wobbles. They use the ICM 20602 gyro, instead of the MPU6000. It is hella sensitive, and that board, EVEN WITH IT'S OWN PDB, is super hard to get clean enough power to. I have gotten rid of the problems by swapping the ribbon cable out and wiring it all, while adding an LC filter with a medium size, high voltage (50v) cap on both its output, AND input sides. I mostly think it's not worth it. I have been able to get it to handle 4s, but so far on 6s if I go full throttle, then hit a hard 180 and full throttle again it death rolls. Really better to just get a different FC, it's such a hassle.

ledimestari   Jul 20, 2020 

When I was attempting to fly it, it didn't fly at all as one motor didn't spin up and the esc kept rebooting so I don't think that's FC related. Thanks for the tip anyway, I'll know what to look for if it does this. :)

Guides & Reviews

Jun 21, 2021

AirbladeUAV has done it again and this time they've brought long range to the 5" class! Based on the popular Transformer Mini, the new Transformer 5" Ultralight adopts a lot of the same design philosophies with larger props and more payload capacity. It can fly upwards of 20 minutes on a 4 cell Li-Ion battery pack and in ideal conditions it's got a range of over 4 to 5 miles. In this guide I'll walk..

Read more
Mar 04, 2021

With the release of the DJI FPV Drone cinematic FPV has become a lot more accessible, but you certainly don't want to crash a $750 drone! The QAV-CINE Freybott is a compact, lightweight cinematic FPV drone that can take a hit and keep going. It's a lot safer to fly indoors and around people. With a naked GoPro or the SMO 4k you can capture some great stabilized footage. In this guide I'll show you..

Read more