Raging Rotors: Make Every Rotor Count!

Another week, another installment of Raging Rotors! I was just talking with 3DBill after he got back from E-Fest, and we got to talking about all things multirotor. He made a great observation while he was there: Many people when thinking of multirotor just think of quadcopters and maybe hexcopters (since hexcopters have been taking action shots for the Winter Olympics). With that in mind, I thought I’d talk about what other options there are in multirotor, because there are more numbers in the world than 4, 6, and 8 in RC Multirotor.

A multirotor helicopter can start with just 2 motors!  A Bicopter/Dualcopter flys with two motors controlled by two servos in order to maneuver like any other Rudder/Aileron/Elevator (aka 4 channel). A little unconventional, but its as simple of a start as any. The picture above shows a basic bicopter, though the designs vary by imagination. Granted with two motors, payload lifting (like a camera) is a little harder to pull off without large motor/ESC setups.

Now a tricopter is an interesting build. I recently built one as a reproduction of one that 3DBill made and showed of at HobbyTown with the intention of getting the frame work mass produced. This setup uses 3 motors (obviously) and one servo to attach to the rear motor mount for a means of rudder control. You can see the one I built flying on my Instagram. With its design one can easily set up a camera mount and use it for either aerial photography or FPV flight. This design is no stranger to us here at BigSquid, as we had a lot of fun at Halloween with tri- and quad-copters in this video. Common tricopter designs when it comes to motor layout are either a “T” or “Y” format. The above picture is the T-design as used by 3DBill and myself (this is 3DBill’s ‘copter). Also, for you Kickstarter fans, there’s a tricopter project that’s quite popular on there (1849% contributed to their goal, and that’s no type), so check it out Right Here.

THE MOMENT IS ALMOST HERE! The joy that is the 2014 Quadcopter Championship, is almost upon us! HobbyTown Orland Park is also excited (and it’s not just me!), and have a video featuring the flying skills of the owner, me, and another employee just to show what everyone has to compete with on March 1st. Details regarding the event are Right Here.

With that, I will stop with the lecture of the day. Next week will be a pop quiz (kidding!), but I do want to get into the heart and soul of any multirotor (or collective pitch helicopter): the gyroscope, aka the multirotor control unit. Until next week, Stay Shiny and Keep Flyin’!