Helicopteres

[Zerty]

What is the best way to build a helicopter? I am attempting to build one as a drone for my ship and it has been a right faff on. I have looked at a couple video and they all say "Put the propeller where the center mass is". Problem is every helicopter I build doesn't have a center mass slap bang in the middle of a block and it always starts slowly tipping forward/backwards eventually ending up in the water.

[Ynteger]

The only solution to your centre of mass not in the centre of a single block is that you add weight to pull the CoM to the centre. as for just building a helicopter in general i do not know how to do so.

[Julen]

All your vehicles should have a way to control the 3 torque axis: yaw, roll and pitch. If you are using propulsion or pumps to control them, you can then use either AI or Control PIDs to control them. I am going in the workshop to find a good example of helicopter.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2140601165&searchtext=helicopter

[The n00b A]

The Dedicated Blades have a setting to only thrust up when you interact with them (and they are convenient for fast builds as their orientation doesnt matter and you dont have to counter torque). There's also the spin block version (where the orientation does matter and you do have to counter torque and is weaker). Then, just slap some hidden thrusters on the tail with a pitch and hover PIDs and you should be good.

You can also build the body of the heli first then replace some elements for heavier ones close to the edges (like replacing some alloys in the front or tail for metal/lead/heavy armor) till its close to the center. But almost never you will get it "perfectly centered".

[BlackTemplar]

I made a Heli with a main Rotor and two tail rotors.
Main rotor is controlled by two ACB.
ACB 1 tells rotor full power when below 100 meters. ACB 2 says go to 1/2 power over 100 meters. (This keeps it bobbin from 90 to 110 meters)
Tail rotor right is set to yaw right and roll left. Tail rotor left is told to yaw left and roll right. (There both above center point)
They work pretty good for turn control and roll control.

It wobbles a little but that helps the dodge.
6 axis and point at round out the brain controls.

For pitch a single heli blade on both sides in a stabilizer wing. These lil helis are ACB controlled to keep the craft tilted forward 5 to 10 degrees. They turn off when at standoff range of 1k meters. That way the 6 axis works right.

[stoicboss101]

Originally posted by BlackTemplar:

I made a Heli with a main Rotor and two tail rotors.
Main rotor is controlled by two ACB.
ACB 1 tells rotor full power when below 100 meters. ACB 2 says go to 1/2 power over 100 meters. (This keeps it bobbin from 90 to 110 meters)

why are you using ACB's to control your altitude? you can achieve a much better result by assigning the dediblades as a lift thruster with the AI controlling the altitude. it works great for object avoidance and will self-compensate when the blades are damaged, unlike an ACB. im curious about your design choice

[Carolus Magnus]

Originally posted by stoicboss101:

why are you using ACB's to control your altitude? you can achieve a much better result by assigning the dediblades as a lift thruster with the AI controlling the altitude. it works great for object avoidance and will self-compensate when the blades are damaged, unlike an ACB. im curious about your design choice

It's a very oldschool way of setting submarines and helicopters up, from before the ai update or pids.

[Dragon]

You can have a look at a recent helicopter of mine if you want, people don't like it but, it could still help as an example. It uses fairly simple cyclic pitch and roll instead of thrusters/dediblades, which helps with slightly off-balance copters.

You can also take a look at the auto-hover system on the breadboard, it's nothing complicated. It helps a lot to keep a helicopter level, even when the AI is controlling it.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2503882041