Ardupilot assisted RC plane with video link and telemetry to ground station

Still gathering project ideas and parts for an RC airplane that would have Ardupilot as autopilot and some form of a telemetry with laptop ground station at distances NOT MORE THAN 300-500 meters in radius, probably mostly up to around 200 meters. My primary focus is auto-take-off, auto-landing, small scale precision navigation.

I have many considerable hurdles to come over due to some serious gaps in my knowledge of just about everything related to flying an RC aircraft, coding, airborne telemetry systems, and anything more than basic electronics. However, with the help of this forum, other sources I will eventually overcome these temporary shortcomings. I want to thank everybody for their hard work and making the results of their work available for those like me who do not have at this time much to bring to the table. Without you, this hobby and interest would not be reachable for many like me.

Let me go to my current plan, which I am sure will adapt due to costs, my capabilities, available information, and more realistic objectives.

Features:

- Around 1 meter wingspan electric airplane
- Minimum 6 Channel radio TX/RX
- Autopilot with stabilizer and waypoints
- Forward looking, or close to 180 tilt, or FPV video link up to 300-500 meters
- Telemetry link (300-500 meters) to laptop ground station with video
incorporated on screen (OSD for video link not necessary)
- Air speed sensor
- Altimeter or range sensor (0-5 meters) with high resolution of .1m or less
- Altimeter (5-and above) with resolution of .5-1m
- RPM sensor for engine(s), or fans/prop
- Current/voltage sensor for ESC system
- GPS




Objectives:

- Stabilized flight (autopilot)
- Return home, pattern following via waypoints (autopilot, GPS)
- Take-off and landing assist or auto (autopilot, GPS, altimeter, range sensor, air speed)
- Crash sensing emergency parachute deployment manually or automatic- (GPS, altimeter,
range sensor, air speed, RPM, current/voltage, acclerometer)
- Manual control and /or monitoring plane via video and telemetry data from ground station


Parts/system status:

- Purchased ($199 new): 4ch F-22 Nitroplanes electric dual ducted fan with 4ch Tx/6chRX,
1300mh 3S lipo, dual 18A ESC , 3 servos(decided to use slower and easier to control plane
until I learn to fly RC)
- Purchased ($159 new) //still being shipped//: 4ch J3 Super Cub, 1010mm wing span,
brushless 1750kv, 3S Lipo 1250mh, 25 ESC, 3 servos, with 4ch Tx/Rx
- Ordering ($25 new): Ardupilot 328 (will have 2.2 version software) (as autopilot)
- FTDI basic brake out ($14 new): for Ardupilot and for any FTDI connection
- Purchased ($40 used): FMA Copilot system with Z sensor (for autopilot)
- Purchased ($65 new): Parallex Propeller based development boards from Ebay (for possible
OSD, other onboard control, sensors, onboard telemetry-interface, etc? still not sure what I do
with it: http://www.futurlec.com/P8X32_Controller.shtml
- Purchased ($45 new): 2EA 2200mah 3Lipos (for longer flight)
- Ordering or making ($5 or $20 new) : Attopilot current/voltage sense board
- Has already: 1.6 ghz Atom laptop with composite video-in USB adapter ($25 new)
- Purchased ($35 new): 800mw 1.2GHZ video transmitter with camera and receiver (video link)
- Ordering ($60 new): 5HZ GPS, LS20031
- Not decided yet: XBee Pro 50mw ($32-42ea) for telemetry and possibly for control
- Ground Station: hoping to use Jordi’s system once done can be used standalone (without
Labview) and with Ardupilot and Xbee
- Not decided yet: range sensor ($28) Maxbotix EZ-4 sonar (0-6m) or Sharp IR proximity sensor
($15) (0-3m) or SCP1000 ($27) barosensor (for take-off and landing assist)
- Not decided yet: Altimeter SCP1000 ($27) barosensor (altimeter and/or take-off and landing
assist)
- Deployable parachute: no plans yet, but will deploy when computer via sensors sense
unrecoverable dive or total loss of control resulting in unrecoverable dive
- IR TX/RX pairs ($5 new) RPM sense
- Air speed sensor: 0-100Mph) have several free Freescale and Motorola pressure sensor samples (for take-off and landing assist)
- Accelerometer: (0-4g?) have several free Freescale and Motorola samples (for take-off and
landing assist input, and input for parachute deployment)


How will I pull it all together? Good question. But I hope to find the pieces of the puzzle and learn how to connect them into a single working platform. That’s the fun part! And in the process, I hope to learn to fly RC and may pick up some C++ and Spin coding too :)


Feel free to comment and suggest. Appreciate your input and I hope I can assist others if help needed.