PSoC 4 Tricopter (Smarter Life Challenge) part #12

If you like my project vote for "A Smarter Tricopter - Yuri Tikhonov"

Good day comrades!

1. Earlier this week, I was doing final preparations for the tricopter's flight. TODO list included:

1. Firmware: many small but critical changes;
2. Rx: completion of wiring;
3. Tx: battery replacement;
4. PCB: repair of a defective LED;
5. PCB:  soldering of supply conductive tracks;
6. ESC: brakes off, "Quick Start" on, etc..;
7. ESC/BLDC: three-phase wiring soldering;
8. ESC/LiPo: checking all units of the power supply;
9. LiPo: battery charging;
10. Props: balancing;
11. Frame: balancing, broaching  of all nuts;
12. YAW:  reinforcement of servo mounting;
13. YAW: inserting of wooden components for increased rigidity;
14. YAW: decrease of backlash and lubrication of mechanism;
15. YAW: servo rod reinforcement;
16. YAW/firmware: setting of limiting deflection angles of YAW;
17. Other: preparation of a complete set of tools and parts for outdoor testing.

Precautions were justified: the servo was very poorly secured, and one of the power wires just fell off!

After the elimination of all malfunctions, we were ready for the first flight test.

2. So epic moment: 10.Jan.2014, 4:00PM

we went to search the site. The nearest of suitable, was an empty arking. Ready, Steady, Go!

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PSoC 4 Tricopter (Smarter Life Challenge) part #12

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Mass of the device - approximately 800 grams.

According to calculations, the device should hang at throttle = 50%:

When conducting flight  the throttle lays in the range of 30-50% because I was afraid to raise apparatus higher than 2 meters. In case of a skilled pilot (which I am not) and good weather conditions, the device can easily go up, performing tricks at a great speed!

3. But back to reality The flight was greatly interfered with the wind, and given the fact that the ground on which the tests were conducted was lined with concrete tiles, when planting we broke one of the landing legs. Using plastic ties, the problem was quickly solved! In the end, after the first tests the copter received the damage of about 30 cents If I did not observe precautions and conducted the first flight test at home (with faulty wiring, etc.), I'm sure - copter would be completely destroyed!

During the tests, in addition to weak legs, were found the following shortcomings:

• Pilot (i.e. I) requires long training, both on the real machine and simulator
• PID settings of accelerometer needs tuning (so the flight was conducted in "Acro Mode").
• Data stored in EEPROM for some reason sometimes disappear. For tests we took with us a laptop and an USB-UART Converter, so that the EEPROM did not hinder our testing.
• The power connector is in a wrong position, it is very inconvenient to disconnect it from LiPo, for this we have to make great efforts. Though it is a small thing, but apparently it was the reason of breakage of a wire last week!

4. So, the first flight trials can be considered a success! Maybe it's the world's first working prototype of threecopter on the basis of PSoC 4

As I promised, I put the firmware in the open access (for non-commercial purposes), so that each interested person could try to build one's own three or quadrocopter on the basis of our beloved PSoC 4!

Friends, thank you for your support and interest in the project. These eleven weeks will forever remain in my memory, and the tricopter will have pride of place in my collection. Sad to say goodbye, but this post is the last of the cycle "PSoC 4 Tricopter: Smart Life Challenge", I hope you were just fun to read my posts, as I was curious to build this unit.

After a while I will certainly continue to work on tricopter, I already have a lot of great ideas here! Goodbye comrades!

If you like my project vote for "A Smarter Tricopter - Yuri Tikhonov"