Today was probably the greatest the day yet on our field, because this guy showed up !  

Inspired by the movie "Avatar"  

Details to follow.

I have had multiple college students PM me about about building tricopters, and now I have a fellow flyer whom I can rely on to provide all the answers !  

More pictures....

The innards...

Here is what I picked up about the whole design.

1.  This is a directional design, as in there is a "nose" (with two motors) and a "tail" (with one motor).  The "fuse" also reflects this (the motors are not equidistant from each other).

2.  There are 3 gyros on the axis parallel to the ground, one for each motor. They two on the two front motors (which act as aileron control) are supposed to keep the aircraft hovering parallel to the ground. One doubt I had was whether 2 were needed  for this (can it be done with one?), did not get much time to discuss it with him.

3.  The motor that is acting as the tail/rudder has the ability to tilt ! As you can see in the attached photo, it is driven by a 50 size heli's (Trex 600) tail blade mechanism A gyro in the axis perpendicular to the ground is use to stabilize the "elevator" control, which is driven by the tail motor.  The 3rd gyro in the axis parallel to the ground (in addition to the 2 used for aileron stability) is used to control the tilt of the tail motor, and it acts as a yaw control (rudder control).

Pretty much all equipment was Hobbycity stuff.

One more thing I forgot to clarify was the rotating direction of the props.  Wonder if the two at the front (used for aileron control) are counter rotating

wow that is one sexy looking orange bug   thanks to pankaj i might as well build a quad or tri !

sahil

Quote from: anwar on February 20, 2010, 09:30:33 AM
One more thing I forgot to clarify was the rotating direction of the props.  Wonder if the two at the front (used for aileron control) are counter rotating

All props looks the same, so no counter rotation.

Never seen a piece of coro on an aeromodel that looks more like it belongs there.

Quote from: RotorZone on February 20, 2010, 11:37:11 AM
All props looks the same, so no counter rotation.

Right, missed noticing that. Typically counter-rotating props are deemed more stable in such applications.

Quote from: RotorZone on February 20, 2010, 11:37:11 AM
Never seen a piece of coro on an aeromodel that looks more like it belongs there.

Yep. And his coro canopy locking-in-place mechanism was so simple

The radio mixing used in this tricopter is the same discussed in this thread :

http://www.rcindia.org/self-designed-diy-and-college-projects/mixing-for-tricopter/

Here is a nice tricopter build thread : http://www.rcexplorer.se/projects/tricopter/tricopter.html

Quote from: anwar on February 19, 2010, 01:26:57 PM
Today was probably the greatest the day yet on our field, because this guy showed up ! 

I have had multiple college students PM me about about building tricopters, and now I have a fellow flyer whom I can rely on to provide all the answers ! 

Hi Guys
We are making a tricopter for a state level Science Project Competition.
I am going to use this motors
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__8622__2213N_800Kv_Brushless_Motor.html
And this ESCs
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__15202__Hobby_King_20A_ESC_3A_UBEC.html
And HK Quad Rotor Board as the brain. We will flash it with tricopter settings.
Is this setup good for the Tricopter?

Looks good, from what I understand. Just make sure your AUW is contained (below 1KG).

OK Anwar Sir

Quote from: Omkar Paranjape on December 30, 2011, 12:18:00 PM
I have had multiple college students PM me about about building tricopters, and now I have a fellow flyer whom I can rely on to provide all the answers ! 

I hope you are talking about this thread below instead ! If not, it has to be.... !

http://www.rcindia.org/self-designed-diy-and-college-projects/new-tricopter-build/

which motors did you use?

Use DT 750 they are awsm maintain price and performance ratio very well