Shrediquette - the award-winning multirotors by William Thielicke

Almost every 'serious' FPV racer is tilting the FPV camera up in order to have a better image during fast flight. Angles between 10 and 35 degrees seem to be common. E.g. I am using 25 degrees. But tilting the camera with respect to the multirotors horizontal plane has a side effect on the controls (maybe you never thought about it, because you are so used to flying with this side effect). Just to make the effect easier to visualize: Imagine you drank a beer too much and now you suddenly think you are Charpu , Mr Steele or Mattystuntz . You mount your FPV camera with 90 degrees tilt (pointing up vertically) because your best friend told you that all the pros do it like this. In this case, your roll and yaw control will be interchanged: When you move your RC sticks to roll left, your copter will roll left, but looking through the FPV camera, it appears as if you are yawing to the left! And if you move your RC sticks to yaw left, your copter will of course yaw left, but the im...

Why future racing copters really should look different. by Dr. William Thielicke aka Willa aka Shrediquette ABSTRACT In this article I try to demonstrate why FPV racing multirotors need to look different. Some small modifications to the frame would (in theory…!) result in 70 % higher top speed! All that needs to be done is to align the arms parallel to the propeller flow, and to tilt the main body of the copter by about 40 degrees. I am presenting a very simple and robust racing copter design that incorporates these ideas. Furthermore, I am calculating the aerodynamic drag of different copter concepts using basic equations. The aim of this article is to make you realize the importance of aerodynamics and to stimulate people to design more innovative racing frames. INTRODUCTION Until recently, multirotors were mainly used as a “hovering device” and the top speed of these copters did hardly matter. Now, multirotor racing has become popular and all competitors are seeking ...

News...: A completely new version of the copter recently did it's first flight. I rebuilt chassis, electronics and replaced the battery. I was able to save 35% weight (996g -> 628g). Outdoor flight tests still have to be done. But I am really looking forward to that. Lowering the kinetic energy might significantly increase flight performance. P.S.: In the meantime I did three outdoor flights: Absolutely great!! I can hardly believe that I built this thing on my own ;-D. Lots of power, very agile and absolutely precise and fun to fly! Currently, I am working my way through the source code (cleaning up and adding comments), so I can post it here. The electronics circuit + PCB will also be made available.