Tricopter Crash Update #2

by ghostrider03z | November 24, 2013 | (0) Posted in Projects

After my previous crash of my tricopter while testing the flight times, I was trying to figure out was wrong. Me along with some other people on forums thought that my servo could be pulling to many amps, causing a brown out. Now the reasoning behind that is because, well, tail servos for tricopters aren't small and the afro esc's only put out .5 amps...So I bought a 5v 5amp external bec and have it all wired up like I said in the video and went to test it out.

I flew it very fast like when it crashed the first time, pulled it back because it was getting futher away, it pulled back for a second (with my input), then rotated itself a bit, stopped pulling back, and flipped towards the right motor while speeding up the other motors(all against my input). You can see this better in the video.

Now I'm almost sure its not my radio since my planes all fly fine, I dont think it is the firmware since so many people use 1.6 on tricopters and dont have problems. So it could be my board, my receiver or how I have my bec hooked up.

I wouldn't even bother rating this, this article is not really helping anyone besides me.

Any input from you guys would be awesome!

COMMENTS

nickhall55 on November 24, 2013
How do I power the KK2 board?ΒΆ

Unlike other boards, the KK2 board benefits from the stability of two regulated power supplies, one to prevent receiver brown-outs and a second to power the servos.

Do not connect the 5V supply from M1, or the receiver to the servos on M2-M8, else the electrical noise from the servos in flight will cause the KK2 board to reboot and crash your aircraft.
Hope this helps, (copied from http://code.google.com/p/nextcopterplus/wiki/OpenAero2_Getting_Started)
Cheers,
Nick.
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ghostrider03z on November 24, 2013
Thank you, that means that my BEC's were setup correctly.
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nickhall55 on November 24, 2013
After doing more reading there seem to be several ways to power the FC etc, this is some other info I Found:-

As such you need to use a standalone UBEC to provide power to the flight controller. You can power the KK2.0 by using a UBEC that connects to your Rx battery input, the power will then go through the Rx to the KK via the channel connection leads between the two.

Another method is to use a Y harness to combine the motor 1 esc and UBEC into the M1 connection on the KK.
I'm certainly no expert such trying to help, I understand myself.
Nick.
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nickhall55 on November 24, 2013
I meant to say "I'm no expert just trying to help, and understand it myself"
Just me typing and thinking too fast, soz!
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hollywoodfox on November 24, 2013
Hi, I had a similar problem. One engine would die randomly and it would roll out the sky. By part swapping I located the problem to be caused by one ESC . Worked fine on aircraft,and worked fine 99% of the time on the tri too. But once replaced, it never crashed again. Might save you some complex wiring time.
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Sonicg on November 24, 2013
Try flashing the firmware of the KK board to 1.2 and then back to 1.6. Maybe during the first flashing some code was written wrong. Make sure your esc's have the same firmware. If that doesnt work I would try replacing the right ESC first, instead of the board. The dipping of the right side indicates that the right motor can't keep up.
If that doesn't work try the other ESC's.

I would keep the board for last, safes waiting time and money.

Good luck!
P.S. this is more a forum post than a page post in my opinion.
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ghostrider03z on November 24, 2013
Thanks for the info, yes this could go in a forum but if anyone else is having the same troubles, this could maybe help them, that is why I am doing these videos.
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Sirglider on November 25, 2013
What about dampening your KK2 board? It looks like directly screwed on your main plate. Any foam in between?
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johanjonker on November 25, 2013
Looks like a bad ESC or Motor..
I have a quad doing the same thing.. Its was a ESC that would overheat and did the exact same thing. I also blamed the KK2 board. and bought a ArduPilot. and it did the same thing. I swapped the ESC and its all working like it should..
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Splatwillicrash on November 26, 2013
Yeah, I wondered the wisdom of wrapping electronics in plastic for protection, vs the obvious need for cooling.
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Splatwillicrash on November 26, 2013
Stupid Question, have you re calibrated your ESC's Lately? Also, make absolutely sure you don't have one of voltage protection settings on the ESC's set to the wrong setting. Silly stuff like this has me rebuilding my tri in the past. Replaced an ESC and forgot to check settings......
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ghostrider03z on November 27, 2013
Thanks guys, Ill mess with the esc's and get to work on it.
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cranialrectosis on November 29, 2013
I would check the solder joints. Cold solder joints can do this. Vibration can also cause cause funny stuff to happen. Make sure nothing hard (no frame at all) touches your KK2. The FCB needs to be isolated by a foam pad.
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HansEenink on December 1, 2013
During the previous crash the tri flipped to the left, this time it tipped to the right, which doesn't allow the assumption that only one of the esc's is broken.
I wouldn't wonder if the problem would turn out to be a broken connection of some kind, especially since you seem to pull around those poor cables and handle that fagile electronic parts in quit a rough way!
Actually, I could almost not watch the video till the end, feeling so sorry for those cable strands and solder joints...
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ghostrider03z on December 1, 2013
A) The electronics aren't that fragile and if I wanted to get higher quality, I'd dump $800 into something I know will crash.
B) You sound really silly "Actually, I could almost not watch the video till the end, feeling so sorry for those cable strands and solder joints..." Lol that is laughable, that means you can't watch any rc video out there. Also I'd really like to know how I am, from what you are making it out, murdering all my electronics by just flying my copter.
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ulwur on December 1, 2013
I had a similar problem on my GetFPV Tri with APM. After pushing the envelope for a few seconds the Tri would just flip in the air and crash into the ground.

The APM controller has excellent built-in logging, and I could rule out brown-outs, radio problems, vibrations etc by downloading the logs.. So the problem had to be with ESC and/or Motors.

I ran the motors (with props) full throttle on my bench, and sure enough; when one of the motors heated up because of the load it practically seized up! It needed just a few seconds to cool down and loosen up again, that's why I, at the crash scene, never could see the problem (need to run faster to the wreck I guess).

Put your motor on an arm clamped down in a vice and give it full throttle with a big propeller for a minute or two and check the bearings.
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ghostrider03z on December 1, 2013
Ok I'll try that, you seem to have had the exact problem I have with my copter so hopefully I get some results.
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Iron Butterfly on December 4, 2013
whoa i watch your YouTube channel and just fond you on FT didn't know you had an account here.
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Tricopter Crash Update #2