Things to consider before takeoff

Things to consider before takeoff
When thinking about the first take-off of the tricopter you have to consider some specialties (I think these apply to all multicopters):

When starting the motors, Shrediquette instantly tries to control its attitude. If the floor is not 100% leveled (this will always be the case…), the tricopter thinks that it is not in level flight. It will try to correct for that, but the poor thing can't! It's still on the ground and leveling is only possible in flight. The integral parts of the PID control loop are responsible for this behavior. The measured error sums up and becomes bigger and bigger. Therefore the tricopter tries to correct more and more. There are two work-arounds: You can start the motors and immediately take-off, or you can simply get used to this behavior and accept that the tricopter won't level perfectly during the first 1-3 seconds of flight. The latter is what I do.

When switching from hover mode to acro mode and vice versa, the integrals are deleted (or replaced with the angle estimation from the accelerometer). So if you think that Shrediquette was desperately trying to level without succeeding, switch to acro mode and back to hover mode to let it try again.

If you want to turn off the motors, bring the 3-stages switch to the off position. Your motors won't turn off until you also brought the throttle stick to a position close to minimum. That’s a safety feature, because I already managed to accidentally turn off the motors while I was flying pretty high. Shrediquette is not a good glider I must admit.

First flight should be done in hover mode by holding the tricopter in your hands and increasing throttle slowly. Keep in mind: Don't grab it too hard, the tricopter must be fully able to control its attitude in all axes; otherwise "strange" things might happen.

Have fun with your tricopter and please always give me some feedback or videos & pictures…! All the best,

William

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