One good thing about traveling is that you get some time over for editing. Here is the edited video that I shot in Cancun - Mexico

Here are my 5 top tips for a great flying Tricopter. Brought to you by Flitetest.

Guys, here is the long awaited Flitetest episode on the Tricopter:

Tell me what you think about it

Ladies and gentlemen!
I give you my first FPV video from the United States of America:


The story behind the video:
I was talking to Chad about cool places to fly FPV around here, and he told me about an old abandoned factory/warehouse in Canton, Ohio. Which he thought would be perfect to get some cool shots at. The best part is that he just happened to know the owner.

So Chad, Christian (Chads son) and I jumped in the car and a couple of minutes later we arrived at this really derelict old warehouse. It looked so creepy even during the daylight. It was such a big place as well. There were multiple buildings with multiple floors with endless places to fly and get cool shots. Unfortunately it was to dark to get cool indoor footage with the gopro, so we did most of the flying outdoor.

At one point we climbed up to the roof. Chad brought his FT flyer and we had a blast. Chad flying his plane around over the rooftops and me trying to follow him with the tricopter. It was one awesome day.

The music in the video was created by one of Chads employees at StoneKap, Michael Camenet. He is just amazing when it comes to composing music and editing video and he was kind enough to make me a tune to use in the video.

I hope you guys like the higher tempo and flow of the video.
Be sure to tell me what you think.

I’m proud to present the first HD 3D FPV video!


Don’t have any 3D glasses? You can either watch it in 2D by clicking the “3D” menu on the bottom of the clip, click “other options” and choose “No 3D glasses”. You can now choose only to watch the left or right camera.

Or you can make your own 3D glasses by using a red and blue/cyan marker and color a CD-cover, like this:

Be sure to have the red color over the left eye to get the proper effect.

To make this video I equipped the Tricopter V2 with two GoPros mounted upside down. I flew in “2D” by using the live output from the right camera.

I call it the TriDcopter ^_^

With 10*4.7 GWS props I got plenty of lift. Flight time was about 8 minutes in the cold weather.

Some of you might have noticed the HobbyKing logo in the video. That’s because I am now being sponsored by HobbyKing.com! This means that I can step up my game and make even more videos and projects.

Update: All boards are now sold out. I will not be making any more.

Many, many people have asked me if I sell complete KapteinKUK multi-rotor flight-controllers (the one I use on the Tricopter V2), so far the answer has been no. But this is about to change! I will soon be offering 100% complete and tested KK flight controllers, made with high quality components and a lightweight PCB, programmed for the multi-rotor-type of your choice
(choices are: mono, twin, tri, quad, quadX, hex, hexY)

The first batch will be ready in less than two weeks, so send me an e-mail if you’re interested, the price will be 1000SEK (about $150) shipping included. I prefer payment through Paypal, unless you have a Swedish bank account. I will get back to those on top of the waiting-list when the cards are ready. So, wether you live in Sweden or not, now you’ll have the chance to get you own KK-card, built and tested by RCExplorer!

Update: Clarification and new pictures

• 100% Pre-built, no extra assembly required.
• Includes all components required (including gyros)
• Pre programmed for the multi-rotor type of your choice.
• 100% of all functions tested before being shipped.
• Only high quality components.
• Price: about $150 (shipping included, worldwide).
• The pictures below show a complete board, ready for shipping:

Why buy from me and not the cheapest alternative:

My boards are made using through-hole-components, which are more crash-resistant and easier to repair/replace, if something should happen. I only use high-quality components and the price reflects that as well as that my production is on a very small scale. The alternatives I have found (and some of you) cost around $120 (including shipping). The extra $30 for one of my cards will give you a better product and a closer connection to the maker - I will offer you help if it breaks and repair it for very reasonable sums if you happen to crash. Plus that you support my upcoming projects!

A full guide for how to install and trim out your KK-platform is coming soon!
Update: The guide is now ready!

It’s finally ready! Hydrogen balloons, fireworks and FPV, What more can you ask for in a video?

This has been by far the hardest video that I’ve made so far. So many things that went wrong or simply didn’t work. But I love a challenge. Minus degrees and snow didn’t put me of, those balloons had to be popped.

For pictures and more info click “Read more” Read More...

The Tricopter V2 build log is now completed!

And since you asked for it, I made PDF templates for the center plates for both the V1/V2 and V1.5. Simply download and print.

Be sure to post pictures if you build one.

I just updated the Tricopter V2 build log. Now you can build your own KK controller.

Click here to get to the build log

I’ve just uploaded the first part of the Tricopter V2 build log. The Tricopter V2 was actually started it’s life nearly 6 months ago and during that time I’ve been perfecting it. After many changes, crashes and modifications I’m now very happy with the way it flies. I know many of you have been waiting for this for a long time. I hope you will like it.

Take me to the build log!

It is finally completed. I went trough roughly 900 songs before finding the one that would be my baseline. It then took just over 20 hours to cut, trim and match the video to the music. But it’s finally done! And here is the result:

The airplane is a 3.1 meter (45%) Model Power Yak54 equipped with a 170CC DA170 engine. It was a monster! Weighing close to 18kg the turbulance from the propeller was much more that I though.

Here is a quick teaser of what is to come. I just have to get home and edit some video first...

Photo by Daniel Larson (http://www.pbase.com/larson_daniel)

Do you see the tricopter above? The same picture, zoomed in a bit:

Great job on guessing what the sneak peak was guys! It is a new Tricopter flight controller. The design and software are made by a genius called “kapteinkuk”. By using the gyro sensors from three HK401 gyros, an Atmega processor and some capacitors and resistors, he made an incredibly versatile flight controller that can control a tri, quad, hex or hexY -copter. And it costs no more than 60 dollars to make!
Another great feature is that it takes care of all the mixing. You only need 4 channels to control your copter. It’s quite simple to build as well. You can read more about it on RCGroups.


But the best part is how it performs in the air. The tricopter feels like it’s on rails. The flight controller uses an update rate of 180Hz, compared to 50Hz of a standard gyro. Another great thing is that I no longer need to do the “boot up trick” to get the HK401 to arm the ESC’s. Simply plug in the power and fly.

The new tricopter will get a lot of air time in France and hopefully capture some of the magic of the country from the air. When I get back I promise to make a build log of the new improved tricopter.

It was 6:30am, a blue sky and no wind. The park was empty, the ground was covered in a blanket of windflowers and the sun had just broken the horizon. The GoPro Hero HD was hastily mounted with rubber bands. Anything to be able to capture the glorious sunrise in HD.
Here are the results; Under the bridge and into a tree 2



More info about the Tricopter setup can be found here

It’s done! The tricopter V1.5 is operational.

It’s not as pretty as the old one but I hope it makes up for it in the air.


Comparing the old Turnigy 302 gyros to the new HK401B, the HK401B’s are much more sensitive to vibrations. But once you get rid of the vibrations the HK401B’s perform a little better than the 302’s. It feels a more...
Continue reading on the project page

Since the Trunigy 302 gyros doesn’t work well with my Futaba FASST receiver I decided to try using 4 Hobbyking HK401B gyros instead.

But the HK401 gyros have a larger footprint and didn’t fit the original frame, thus the Tricopter V1.5 was born.

Read more about on the project page

My poor Tricopter has now suffered over 20 crashes and it’s time to do some maintenance on it.

I replaced the two front wooden arms which had snapped after a couple of crashes and just jammed in place to be able to keep flying. I also decided to replace the motor bells, shafts and propellers to make sure that it will fly silky smooth once again.

Since some of the magnets had come loose after some rough flights, I had to disassemble the Tricopter 2213N 800Kv AXN motors.

While I was gluing the loose magnets in place I noticed that the winding wasn’t very neat on the stator and there was pretty much room for extra copper, so I decided to rewind them... Read More...

After cooling down a bit after the disaster earlier this morning, I went out again to make a Tricopter FPV video. This time I finally caught a break and everything worked out perfect! Considering it had 14 crashes in total before this flight, I think it flies pretty darn good.
I proudly present my first Tri-FPV video; Under the bridge and into a tree

This week just keeps on getting worse. After repairing the TriCopter, I went out this morning to the local park with the intention of making a FPV Tricopter video. Since I’ve got some vibration issues from the two previous crashes, I decided to use a “normal” CCD camera instead of the CMOS HD camera. CMOS cameras are sensitive to vibrations due to their “rolling shutters” which creates what is know as the “jello effect” (here is a video showing the difference between a CCD and a CMOS sensor). An other reason was that I expected to crash, and didn’t want any more corrupted videos due to the camera losing power or the memory card popping out.
Read More...

Spring has finally arrived here in Sweden and the snow is almost gone from the ground. The sun was shining and the sky was blue, so the wife and I decided to go outside and fly. I had just finished adding a FPV setup to the Tricopter and was itching to try it out for the first time. We drove out to a field near the lake Vättern and it was quite windy.


Tricopter camera mount done Read More...

I finished it in time for the indoor event, and here is a video from that event;

The Tricopter is a joy to fly. It’s stable and forgiving. I like it a lot!

Link to the project page

It’s finished! I think it turned out pretty nice.

Link to the project page

Now it’s time to go to the indoor event and fly for a couple of hours.

I’ve made a lot progress on the Tricopter yesterday. I even got it into the air! Unfortunately mother nature was in a bad mood and handed out some quite strong winds. So I need to wait for the wind to die down before I can dial it in.

Link to the project page

Next it’s time to make it pretty! Be sure to come back tomorrow.

I made some good progress yesterday. The motor mount, tilt mechanism and frame is now done. So far I’m pretty satisfied with the results.

Link to the project page

I will continue updating every morning until Saturday so stay tuned!

My fellow hobbyist, the Tricopter build has begun. The plan is to have it ready by this saturday, since I’m going to an indoor event and I would like to participate with the tricopter.

Link to the project page
Next update will be up tomorrow morning!