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After somewhat of a respite from RC hobbies, I’ve decided to build a tricopter. I would like to get into autonomous flight and having a good platform for Arial Photography.  Perhaps even FPV flight in the future.

I’m using this build as my inspiration. As a project it seems to combine 3 of my long time interests: Radio Control Flight, Arduino based micro controllers and building things with PVC pipes.  After test fitting all of the PVC pipes into a frame I was not happy with the overall weight. PVC is very heavy. The bare frame was over 1 Lb!  But I do like the tubular construction and the PVC connectors, so I decided to use Guai 550 tail booms instead of PVC pipe. They are the same outer diameter as 1/2″ PVC pipe and fit into all the fittings. (Trex 600 and 700 tail booms also are the same exact size and can work as well)

After MUCH research, I’ve decided to go with a Multiwii board with GPS. It should work great with a tricopter and allow for automated return to home (RTH) and hover capability.  I went with this board from witespyquad. Massive RC groups thread is here.

First step was ordering all the parts. Here is what I have on order:

From Hobbyking US warehouse:

• 3x #D2826-101400/34108 D2826-10 1400kv Brushless Motor
• 2x #N2650.3S.35/20691 Turnigy nano-tech 2650mah 3S 35~70C Lipo Pack
• 1x #HKS9257/28113 HKS-9257 High Speed Servo 4.5kg/ 25g/ 0.07sec
• 1x #9171000033/28255 Hobby King Quadcopter Power Distribution Board
• 1x #TURN-VP/36891 TURNIGY Voltage Protector
• 1x #SBEC-26V/31991 Turnigy 5A (8-26v) SBEC for Lipo
• 2x #TR-Strip-GR/24233 Turnigy High Density R/C LED Flexible Strip-Green (1mtr)
• 1x #TR-Strip-RE/26489 Turnigy High Density R/C LED Flexible Strip-Red (1mtr)

From witespyquad:

• 3x Flashed ESC SimonK (RapidESC) – 20 AMP
• 1x MultiWii PRO 2.0 Flight Controller w/ GPS Option
• 2x 8 “x 4.5 Propeller pair (orange)
• 2x 8 “x 4.5 Propeller Set (green)

Here are the first pics of the frame. I very much like how it is coming out.  The distance between motors is roughly 25″.

I am going to try to have the deck built out of coroplast. I want this as light as possible and coroplast is stiff, strong and light.

The motor mounts are made using a PVC plug and some 1/4″ Poplar trim:

Finally for the rear motor, I made a mount using a cross PVC connected to a 90deg element to create a U shaped structure where I could swivel the motor. I’m using an old 450 size flybar cage with poplar mounted on top of it and a side mounted servo.

And this is what the final board frame looks like with everything on it except the GPS:

The upper deck with GPS module attached:

Here is the green UFO lighting:

Final weight with battery is around 1050-1100 grams.