Hi all,

I'm working as a test pilot for a very large heavy-lift multi destined for use in the motion picture industry.  It's been custom-built and uses 12 motors in a 'double-hex' or 'dodeca' format. Two counter-rotating motors are on each of six equidistant booms, one top and one bottom.

We're using the A2 system now and have conducted some flight testing.  We used a Y6 program and doubling up arms to create the 'Y' that the controller is expecting. We're ganging 2 ESCs turning the same prop direction on each of the boom pairs and feeding them into the six motor control channels from the A2.

With the 'Y' progam, the A2 thinks we had two booms forward and one in the back.  In reality, we had both the two booms forward and the two side booms all making up part of the forward part of the Y plan.  We noticed that the motors on the rear two booms (the single boom in the standard Y program) were warmer than the others and drawing more current.  This was more than expected for normal, slow flight operations.  We're wondering if this is due to the faking the Y6 with double the motors or does this imbalance also cause similar issues with a normal Y6 because of the design with 2 motors in the back and 4 in the front (or vice-versa)?

This image illustrates how to use the Y6-I control for 12 motors, but we had it backwards with the standard Y6 program (not my illustration):  http://bit.ly/1TUO4dw

We've since found another way to use 12 motors with an A2.  This uses a stacked and offset Hexarotor-I program instead.  This image illustrates it (also not my illustration): http://bit.ly/1OLRmQb

Some people here may have seen these images before as they've been floating around other forums.

We're thinking that the Hexarotor-I will give more control fidelity and also remove the issue where you have a thrust imbalance for forward/rearward flight.  Does anyone have any experience using these workarounds for 12-motor UAVs in a heavy-lift project that can offer some insight?  Has anyone used the Hexa-I program for 12 motors?

Thanks in advance and cheers.

T.

Hi all,

I'm working as a test pilot for a very large heavy-lift multi destined for use in the motion picture industry.  It's been custom-built and uses 12 motors in a 'double-hex' or 'dodeca' format. Two counter-rotating motors are on each of six equidistant booms, one top and one bottom.

We're using the A2 system now and have conducted some flight testing.  We used a Y6 program and doubling up arms to create the 'Y' that the controller is expecting. We're ganging 2 ESCs turning the same prop direction on each of the boom pairs and feeding them into the six motor control channels from the A2.

With the 'Y' progam, the A2 thinks we had two booms forward and one in the back.  In reality, we had both the two booms forward and the two side booms all making up part of the forward part of the Y plan.  We noticed that the motors on the rear two booms (the single boom in the standard Y program) were warmer than the others and drawing more current.  This was more than expected for normal, slow flight operations.  We're wondering if this is due to the faking the Y6 with double the motors or does this imbalance also cause similar issues with a normal Y6 because of the design with 2 motors in the back and 4 in the front (or vice-versa)?

This image illustrates how to use the Y6-I control for 12 motors, but we had it backwards with the standard Y6 program (not my illustration):  http://bit.ly/1TUO4dw

We've since found another way to use 12 motors with an A2.  This uses a stacked and offset Hexarotor-I program instead.  This image illustrates it (also not my illustration): http://bit.ly/1OLRmQb

Some people here may have seen these images before as they've been floating around other forums.

We're thinking that the Hexarotor-I will give more control fidelity and also remove the issue where you have a thrust imbalance for forward/rearward flight.  Does anyone have any experience using these workarounds for 12-motor UAVs in a heavy-lift project that can offer some insight?  Has anyone used the Hexa-I program for 12 motors?

Thanks in advance and cheers.

T.