Hunter VTail 500

Last modified by Eric Nantel on 2023/02/07 12:54

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Table of Contents

Description

VTail Origin
The VTail frame you see here was originally made after Bledi contacted DiaLFonZo, requesting a professional platform design based on his prototypes. After many hours of design and talk, they came with this awesome flying beast.
     
About the VTail 500
The VTail multi-rotor UAV is a high performance quadcopter. Unlike other 'x' (where the front of the UAV is facing between two legs) or '+' (where the front is facing one of the legs) quadcopters and Y-shaped tricopters, the VTail concept uses two angled rear propellers, merging both concepts. Many tricopter designs use a servo to angle the rear propeller to rotate the aircraft clockwise / counter-clockwise, and have an issue with asymmetry (only two propellers can counter-rotate while the third causes a bit of rotation). A 6-rotor tricopter solves the symmetry issue, but is more expensive as it requires three additional motors and ESCs.

The Mechanics
The frame uses G10 fiberglass composite which is incredibly rigid and lightweight and offers significant price advantages over carbon fibre. The hardware is entirely metal, using lightweight aluminium standoffs, steel screws and lock nuts. 

The VTail 500 is larger than the VTail 400. The "400" refers to the diameter of the circle which passes through all four motors and is commonly used as a size reference for multi-rotor UAVs. See specifications below for more information.

Electronics
The VTail design requires a controller which has is VTail compatible. The controller's function is to stabilize the aircraft using onboard sensors (usually a multi-axis accelerometer and/or gyroscope). In addition to the main controller, each motor needs an electronic speed controller (ECS) ideally designed for the very fast response time needed by performance multi-rotor aircraft.

  • Controller: FLIP (Multi-Wii compatible flight controller). This is one of the least expensive flight controllers on the market and uses the Arduino programming language. Onboard is an ATMega328 chip, a 3-axis accelerometer and a 3-axis gyro. All pins are pre-soldered.                                    
  • Alternately you can incorporate your own controller which uses a standard 30mm x 30mm or 45mm x 45mm mounting hole pattern (and includes compatibility for VTail designs)

Important!
To keep costs down we are not providing printed Assembly Guides. They are provided online, so you will need to print them when you order the kits. By providing the assembly guides online we can provide more detailed and up to date information than the old hardcopy method allowed.

User Guide

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Created by Eric Nantel on 2023/02/06 14:45
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