Bicopter ardupilot firmware

Hello, I’m new here.
I ve been using apm and px4 for 4 years for various type vehicles (multirotor, plane, quadplane and tailsitter).
Currently, i want to build bicopter vtol like Osprey. I’ve read arduplane documentation, and didnt found specific setup for this type of airplane.
Is there a way to overcome this problem ? ( Using tailsitter setup maybe )

Closest related development that i have found is this. Unfortunately, he is using KK board.

Thank you for your help.

Such a plane is definitely supported, http://ardupilot.org/plane/docs/guide-tilt-rotor.html

Its much more stable in the hover if you add a third rotor near the tail. This setup is used very commonly for VTOL builds.

Yes, i aware that adding the 3rd motor will increase the stability, as it will increase pitch control.

Anyhow, so it is possible for me to run tilting bicopter with tilt tricopter setting ?

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it would be using the bicopter not the tricopter, i think its possible, see how you get on and we can always make some changes but I hope it will work straight away.

The thing is, i cannot find bicopter setting under q_frame_class option, or, did i miss something ?
Cmiiw

what board are you using?

I have put in a PR that will allow this using the tailsitter backend

https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/pull/10793

If you can tell me what board you have i will build you a firmware

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Many thanks pete.
I am using 3dr pixhawk. It is a bit old, i will update it to the newest firmware tommorow, and recheck if there is an option for bicopter.

This is master with my patch. You should be able to select tailsitter(bicotper) with Q_FRAME_CLASS as 10. Then you need to set Q_TILT_MASK to 3, i think it shouldn’t matter but we might need to take another look at this if it’s not doing the right stuff. But you should at least be able to get hovering with this build, i hope

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big thanks pete, i’m going to implement it as soon as possible :smiley:

I have just been playing in the simulator, this firmware does not work yet, will try and get something working in the next few days

Hi, Pete
some of my first tailsitters used bicopter in baseflight and it worked well for all kinds of setups…
also thanks for all the great work and help and will also use your bicopter
Rick …research air

I have now got this working. this is the pixhawk build

Parameters should be set so Q_FRAME_CLASS = 10 and Q_TILT_TYPE = 3. Flys OK, pitch in the hover is very tricky to tune and it defiantly cant go backwards.

updated PR is here Plane: add bi-copter tilt rotors quadplanes by IamPete1 · Pull Request #10793 · ArduPilot/ardupilot · GitHub

I suggest you get your plane built and flying in forward flight, then we can go over the setup for the hover.

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Wooo, looks very promising. Well done. Thank you for the work you did.
I’m starting a project that will be based on this.
I’ll keep you updated.

I’m planning to use pixhawk 2 cube. Is different from pixhawk? Arduplane code & ground station.
What will be the arrangement of channels in this configuration?
1 & 2 Elevon
Throttle @ 3
Right Motor @ 5
Left motor @ 6
Tilt R servo @ Aux1
Tilt L Servo @ Aux2?
Thanks, Itzik

The pixhawk build should mostly work on the CUBE, although some stuff will not work. I will do you a proper CUBE build for you after easter. The arrangement of the channels is whatever your set them to be using SERVOx_FUNCTION 's.

I really appreciate it. Happy holiday.

Dear Peter,
I decided to make my first attempt on a small and simple plane equipped with the usual Pixhawk (the 3DR not the Cube Model). If the system works well, I will move on to a new and larger system.
Saying that, what PR I need to use for this arrangement?

you can use the build here:

its is built from this branch

https://github.com/IamPete1/ardupilot/tree/bicopter-tiltrotor

Thanks Peter,
Should I enter/download something from this branch? Or is it just my info?
Itzik