Hacking the Hobbyking Talon Tricopter

This is one of the nicest multirotors I’ve built so far. Lifts my GoPro with ease. Flies very stable and powerful enough for acro. And I love the fact that you can fold it in seconds and fit it in a suitcase for travelling.

But to make it perfect you need to hack it slightly.

Turnigy Talon Tri LOS and FPV from Eirik Solheim on Vimeo.

This is my spec:

Turnigy Talon Tricopter
T-Motors MT2016-11 900 KV
Tail Servo: TGY 306G
HK F30A ESC with SimonK firmware
FreeFlight 1.3 FC running Baseflight Multiwii
Battery: TGY 4S 2200 mAh

Props: Have been experimenting with different ones. Best experience with 10″ Graupner, GWS 9x5x3 and carbon 8×4.5 Slowflyers.

The frame in general is very nice, but the tail servo mechanism is not good enough. Fortunately you can fix that by adding two thrust bearings and a longer 3 mm screw.

The problem is that the original tail mechanism is nearly impossible to get really tight and still smooth to move. If you add two thrust bearings this problem is fixed. I used these.

Then you need a 3 mm screw that is longer than the original. Approx 30 mm plus head. The original is 25 mm plus head. I used a 40 mm screw that I cut down to 30 mm.

Now you simply assemble like shown in the images. Screw with thrust bearing, mount, original bearing around the screw, thrust bearing, another of the original bearings, motor mount and then a 3 mm locking nut. Tighten till you have it completely without slop but still smooth to move.

In addition to this I’ve mounted the motor plates the opposite way of what’s indicated in the manual. In a serious crash it broke one arm exactly where it’s weakest: where it has a slit to fit the folding mechanism. I hadn’t had the time to buy extra arms, so I fixed it by fitting a 12mm carbon tube covered with epoxy inside the arm that broke.

So, pack it and get out there and fly!

Hacking the Hobbyking Talon Tricopter

New toy: Micro Hexa Multirotor

Just finished my Micro Hexa. Small, not deadly like the big monsters and lifts GoPro and FPV equipment.

Spec:

Frame: BlueSky RC Micro Hexa

M1822 Motors from Leadershobby (I decided to give them a try. $3.45 is kind of cheap…)

Alternative motors that might work:
Heavier, more expensive, more powerful and high quality: Roxy 2216

Heavier and more powerful but cheaper than the Roxys: Turnigy from HK

Or these on 2S batteries: smaller Turnigy from HK

5x3x3 GWS or gemfan props

10A HobbyKing ESCs flashed with SimonK

Dji Naza FC for now. But I also have OPCC, FF and others.

Turnigy Nano 1300 3S batteries

5A BEC to power the GoPro

FrSky and Futaba 9C

Total Weight: 577 g (645 when I add my FPV equipment)

Rough price estimate:
6 x Motors: $60,-
6 x ESC: $48,-
Frame: $25,-
Cables and connectors: $10,-
Tot: $143,-

Then you need a flight controller. I’m using the rather expensive $240,- Naza. But will fly fine with a much cheaper FC. A rabbit for $90, a Naze32 for $75,- or even a KK for $15,-

Flies 5 minutes on a 1300 mah Turnigy Nano and 8 minutes when I tested it on a 2200 (both tests with the GoPro on board). Will probably get 10 minutes of FPV sight seeing if I remove the GoPro.

The motor mounts didn’t fit, so I had to drill new holes.

And I hate prop savers so I modified the motors to accept collets. The shaft on the motor is 2mm. I simply removed the built in prop saver using brute force…

After balancing the cheap motors and the props I have nice and smooth video and no jello.

Here’s 10 minutes of different clips from my first tests. Raw footage dissolved together. All flying done line of sight:

New toy: Micro Hexa Multirotor