Tricopter setup with kakuteF4 v2 and Copter 4.1

ArduCopter Copter 4.1
1

Hi,

I want to convert a Tricopter I have to Arducopter to test some of the new stuff in 4.1.
The tricopter flew great wit dRonin, and is later used to test a special tricopter firmware with iNav.
But being more into Ardupilot, I also want my Tricopter moved to Arducopter.

I have some question marks about if the setup will work as I have in mind so am asking to see if there is anyone who can answer some of those to calm me down :wink:

First things first, I’m currently using the kakuteF4 v2.
The uarts on it are limited. I use a kakuteF4v2 on a 7" quad with ardopter to test some of the new features also… so know the board works fine with ardupilot.

I’m a bit confused about the motor setup and what pins to use.
Currently the motor order is that from the inav build and was hoping I could just change it in mission planner without having to resolder, but I think it’s better to start from scratch and rewire the motor order anyway.
I’m using d-shot and want to keep using that (one of the test criteria), the motors spin fine with the motor test and have the esc’s set to dshot 150.
The servo is what is confusing me… I know there are only 4 pwm ports on the kakutef4v2 and that they are basicly 2 timing groups? (someone told me)
Can I use the wiring as shown in the attached picture, using M3 for the servo and setup motorxfunction as 39?

One other thing i want to test is the Yaapu telemetry script with crossfire and mavlink on openTX.
For that to work I need 2 uarts, but reading the documentation on the Ardupilot wiki uart 3 seems to be RX only. Is this still the case.
The plan is to use crossfire rx/tx on uart 3 and mavlink telemetry on uart 4.

Any help will be greatly appreciated :wink:

Naamloze notebook (1)-2
Naamloze notebook (1)-21668×2154 306 KB

2

I don’t think you can use Dshot with 3 motors on an FC with 4 outputs split evenly into 2 timing groups.

Timing
Timing2074×557 89.3 KB

This is what you have:

Uarts
Uarts2007×645 68.4 KB

2 Likes
3

If you can build the FW yourself then its possible to change either PWM3 or 4 to TIM9, which is ok for a servo, this would give you 3 banks of timers.

1 Like
4

I’m still thinking about what to do.

I don’t really want to go back to pwm for the motors.
I’m checking for options to replace the FC with something that suits what I want to do with it.
So I need more motor outputs so the servo is not in a same timer bank with the motors.
Motors with d-shot and 1 pwm for the servo.
Then maybe try finding something with more uarts because I don’t have enough.

5

You have some choices. Kakute F7, Matek H743-Slim (lot’s of outputs).

1 Like
6

I have a matek 765 here doing nothing, but that is a bit bulky.
The H743-Slim is a great idea! I did not know it was already supported in arducopter.
I think I’m going to see if I can find it somewhere.

7

I have the Mini version in a sub 250g quad. If you have the space for the Slim I would go with that. These mini’s get pretty hot!

1 Like
8

You wouldn’t have to go back to pwm, having 3 banks of timers would allow you To run Dshot and pwm… the uarts are set so can’t do much there unless you have other pads that could be configured.

10

…

Don’t double post.