Mini TriCopter

The Mini TriCopter was a quick creation that ultimately proved to be unworkable. It is constructed from styrene plastic hollow barstock that I purchased from a local hobby train company. It is very light and allowed me to run the motor wires through the center of the stock to improve the aesthetics. The vehicle was to be powered from three motors salvaged from cheap mini RC-helicopters. The props provide a good deal of lift and only drew about 300 mA each while running. The propellers are powered from small pager motors and geared down. The engines were super glued into th barstock and were very stable. The Mini TriCopter was powered from three, very small, LiPo batteries - 50 mAh each. These were extracted from the mini RC-helicopters also. Finally, the vehicle was to be driven via three I/O lines, coupled to transistors for high power, via a MSP430 RF2500 demo board. This board provides a low-cost and easy means of RF wireless connectivity to a microcontroller. It's also ultra-low power.

Unfortunately, this creation was/is a failure due to its fatal flaw - all the motors turn in the same direction, thereby causing the vehicle to spin wildly when attempting to take off. In order to make it work I'll need to get either 1) opposite turning motors, which don't seem to exist in the min RC-heli realm or 2) counter rotating motors that have two props that spin in opposite directions. I have yet to find a small version of these.

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.