"It would be possible. It's a good idea and I'll keep that in mind."

"I suppose there are really two kinds of UAV markets: the diydrones community hacker kind and the professional user who just want a closed box. The thing is, I think, the user wants a complete quad that works out of the box, so doing an open source…"

"That actually does sound pretty good.  Experimenters would probably get it doing some cool stuff and that would really add some value."

"Oyvind, Yes.  I'm salivating! - Don"

"Hi Oyvind, I use it for measuring animals on the ground, or in the water, with high precision. I use an old Honeywell RT now in full-size aircraft (up to 400 meters) and depend on GPS and pressure sensor for my UAS work (up to…"

"I have gotten the feeling that people working with UAV's are quite technologically capable people (at least on this forum). We have started playing around with the thought of offering an open-source hackable radar altimeter. It would come…"

"Do you mean a copter that is 3000 feet away? In that case, no. The radar technology we are working with is more suited for close-range. But the technology could be used to detect helicopter type if the copter is in the radars range. But it would…"

"The hardware we have now can work at distances down to 10 cm with an accuracy of 4 cm. That could be improved even further if that was what would make it interesting for this market."

"Some planes have radar altimeters, but only the military uses airborne radar. I'm just not sure what the real utility would be.  Sonar can keep you from hitting the ground, do obstacle avoidance at slow speeds, handle altitude holds at…"

"I'm more on the copter side but my understanding is that the sonar isn't used in the arduplane code for auto take-off and landing although it's been discussed and possibly attempted by Doug Weibel.  My understanding is that it…"

"I've just used it for telemetry so far.  I haven't gotten brave enough to use it for takeoff/landing and haven't really looked into how the APM is using the various sensors. Stabilize and FBW modes help a lot for landings and…"

"Hi Jake. How does your sonar system work for airplane take off and landing... can it guarantee a perfect landing every time even for a rookie pilot?"

"I haven't had any problems with mine.  With good design they work pretty well. There's no question that radar would be better, but with the added weight and expense it would really have to meet some sort of specific need for the…"

"Interesting. But if it is windy, does the sonar still work good enough for auto takeoff/landing?"

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