Almost Avatar Copter - FPV BiCopter

Support my work / pawelspychalski
It's time for another experimental RC aircraft. This time, it's a 3D Printed BiCopter that uses two tilting motors and two servos to control roll, pitch and yaw. If you watched Avatar by James Cameron, you should remember those copters. Of course, the RC version does not fly that well.
In total, my 3D printed bicopter was a partial success. It flies, only not very well. OK, comparing to quadcopters, it's just abysmal!
BiCopter on Thingiverse www.thingiverse.com/thing:461...
Previous episode • FPV BiCopter part 1

[@emtrax]

same to me and my bicopter... pitch pids was a nightmare! still remembering the pain of the uncountable un-/plugging of the copter to the configurator.

[@bumbleboltfpv3707]

This is so frikin awesome! You win the Doc Brown award for the month :D

[@Maduk2008]

it's completely crazy because ... it works! well done! but ... it flies like a wardrobe

[@BuZZarDFPV]

Big thumbs up for the music while flying :)))

[@GuyA]

hello pawel, thank you for this interesting video !, wanted to ask if you have a video explaining the basics of port mapping in inav. i cannot find something like that. thanks !

[@MCsCreations]

Awesome work, Pawel! 😃
But yeah... Some things don't really work. 😬
Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

[@beefybeef1326]

Very nice Pawel. Thanks for sharing this. I really am interested in these less mainstream vehicle designs like bi copters and vtol planes. Are there pland to support vtol planes with inav in the future ?

[@jacktheaviator4938]

I built one of the RCexplorer bicopters a couple years ago, and it flew like a champion. Not sure why you had so much of an issue. It is by far my favorite multirotor, it is more like a fixed wing, which I like more anyway. Every quadcopter I ever built was boring and got parked immediately, while the bicopter has been flying for 2 years now.

[@Terry_Fritz]

I think you did as much as you can with that design. As you suggested; unbreakable servos with zero delay, maybe grease from flying pigs? Only thing I can suggest is to have gimbals instead of the tilting axles but then it's twice as complicated. I'll bet you keep trying though. :D

[@DronoTron]

I wanna make a hunter killer model that flies. This is something I was looking for

[@alberticojavier]

Awesome, you the boss. Quick question, my buzzer is not able to sounds on my speedybee f7 .is there any known bug about buzzer ?

[@steve_beatty]

Where would we be without experimentation based on curiosity...thanks 🖖😊

[@EineCrew]

Hey nice Challenge 👌🏼 are u going to reveal a Diff or Dump for inav ? 🥰

[@emtrax]

Plz post your technical expierences and settings on your website - because this informations about bicopters are vere rare in the web!

[@marcusmckay8120]

Can you fly it in a front back instead of the side by side motor configuration that should take care of the pitch authority ....

[@gamaxgbg]

waiting for this answer

[@Zeesneakyninja]

Would it maybe be easier if it had a tail with a slight amount of weight in it. Maybe that would make the pitch control a little smoother

[@kaptn_kapton]

How do you still have time for this? ;) Like

[@juergenstremmler2286]

Well I have built and I am flying the bicopter being designed by David Windestal (rcexplorer.se/product_archive/2020/05/bicopter-kit-product-archive/). Mine has been modified with VTOL tilt axis and flies very well. (motors are rotated on an axis 45° angle to the bicopter arm) But of cause Pawel is right with FPV flying. This would from my perspective require a mandatory gimbal for FPV camera stabilization and I doubt servos would be fast enough to stabilize the camera.

[@jacktheaviator4938]

I fly one of the RCexplorer bicopters FPV on a regular basis, it's the only non-fixedwing model I own. The tilting does make it a little tougher, but it's definitely doable, as long as you keep some altitude.

[@thirtythreeeyes8624]

I've often thought a twin ccpm bi-copter would work good but, the you'd likely have shitty yaw authority and a much more complex and thus delicate design.

[@helidrones]

I’ve made a dual CCPM bicopter. The yaw authority is not bad at all, also the design is not as delicate as one might expect. In fact it is less prone to failure than servos tilting heavy motors.
th-cam.com/video/krKlME9lic0/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/lUr4eHYXYYY/w-d-xo.html

[@EnglishTurbines]

That Ali has a very nice Bi Copter works great, just like Avatar one...?

[@emteehed]

just add a stick to one side, either front or rear you decide.... perpendicular to the frame.... you decide the length, going for some leverage to one side, might help with pitch authority.... also use larger props, just my opinions....

[@RCOverKill]

The bi copter doesn't seem like a viable design to me. I wonder how it would do if you tried making it fly with a prop in front, and back, of course then there's the roll authority which seems near impossible to achieve, at least with the code not meant to fly a bi copter.

[@ddegn]

I was wondering about the same thing. It's of course possible to fly without roll. It would be like a rudder and elevator only airplane. It wouldn't look very good while flying but it should be controllable.

[@jacktheaviator4938]

IMO, this is just a poor design. Some weight to the front and back would have made it much more stable. Bicopters are definitely a doable design, just because this was a failure, doesn't doom the whole concept. I love flying my bicopter, quads are boring, I feel like I'm just pushing them around in the sky. It takes a real pilot to keep a bicopter airborne.