G-day all, and greetigs from Sydney Australia.

Im in the process of gathering some hardware to build my first QUAD and TRIcopter. I dont have much RC experience (just thought I'd get that out of the way first up ) - but Ido have a passion for flight.

I was thinking of building a combination FPV platform with the flexability of being either for endurance, or as a heavy lifter.

Current parts thus far purchased include:

Carbon fiber pultruded tube 12MM x 10MM x1000MM 5pcs<span class="g-vxs">

</span>72" Virtual Video Glasses Goggles 4 xBox iPod PS3 YT350<span class="g-vxs">

</span>XEN XEN 1.2G 1000mW AV TX RX Systems For FPV XEN-AV12G

Arduino MEGA 2560 COMPATIBLE BOARD + LAPTOP USB Cable<span class="g-vxs">

</span>Arduino Nano V3.0 With ATMEGA328P Robotics Media Module<span class="g-vxs">

</span>HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor distance measuring module NEW<span class="g-vxs">

</span>50A Motor Speed Controller ESC Helicopter Brushless New<span class="g-vxs">

and 4X 900ma "Turbojet" outrunner brushless motors.

also 4x 5000ma lipo's

also 2 KK gyro systems - one for tricopter and one for quad.


What Im looking at now, is selecting the right combination of prop and pitch. - interesting note here is that a few people have told me that 3 blade props are better to use (and suggested a size of around 15x8 3 blade for both the quad and the tricopter. ) - Ireally have no idea of how to achieve</span> th prop combination to find that "sweet-spot - that balance between flight time and sheer "grunt".

The reason for the "grunt" component, is that I have an idea for designing either a quad or a tricopter that can be used for searching for downed RC aircraft, and possibly either retrieving them using a neat little combination pilot / semi-autonimous guidence system Ive developed, or to drop a locator beacon attached to the plane for later recovery by a ground party..

Now, in saying that im new to RC aircraft - yes I am in deed (I have had a couple of little buzz-boxes before so Oinderstnd the basics Iguess...but as far as the softwre design using Arduino and robotics goes?...Im no genius, but Ican hold my own. - hence, if you look at the list above, you will see included an ultrasonic sensor which I have already pre-programmed for use with the throttle at a height of 10 meters. for sustained hover.

So, any help or ideas for this project would be great !

Oh yes, and the selected frame is made of (for the most part )carbon fiber with an arm length of 1000mm

Thanks in advance for your input people, and have a great day!