Blogs

The title says it all:

FlightZoomer has been released and the three required apps can be downloaded from my homepage http://flightzoomer.com (the relay server) and the Microsoft app store (the Sensorics- and the Groundstation-app).

What is Flightzoomer?

A smartphone based telemetry, navigation and avionics suite, which brings the look&feel of real airliner cockpits into our RC world...

How to get started?

• Buy two cheap Windows phone devices, one as sensor device which will be attached to the copter and a second which will become the groundstation
• Install the relay server
• Consult the comprehensive documentation here: http://flightzoomer.com/documentation.html

What does it cost?

• Simply nothing! The apps and the relay server are completely free...

In what does Flightzoomer differentiate from similar systems?

• Consequently tailor made for smartphones: no Wifi-, Bluetooth- or radio-connections, Flightzoomer makes full use of Edge, 3G or 4G cell networks.
• No video or image transmission (so far). By sticking to telemetry-alone the restrictions of cellular networks can be mitigated.
• Excellent user experience as you wont find "two short beeps&three yellow flashes mean A" and "three long beeps&two green flashes mean B" and so on. The touchscreen GUI even allows showing little "user hint" explanation boxes on many screens...
• The primary focus is recreating the appearance and functionality of real full scale cockpits for RC usage. As a result the controls and displays of the groundstation whenever possible are directly modeled after the real Boeing 787 cockpit. For some system parts considerable portions of the documentation could even be copied unaltered from real Boeing manuals...
• Fantastic expansion plans for future releases: Shall I recreate the autoflight modes of the real 787 autopilot, control Sony cameras via the remote API, implement smart ROI control, extend the Flight Management System (e.g. in the area of range-, power consumption- or flight performance-calculations) or even go into the area of image transmission? There are so many opportunities for Flightzoomer to "grow" that I almost don´t know where to start/continue...
• For pure fun at one point I am determined to offer a feature that allows sending greeting cards (-Emails) from the airborne copter to configureable recipients (the feature could be called "RC airmail" ;-) ).

More details in my past blog posts:

• When the documentation was released: http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/flightzoomer-news-documentation-finished-introduction-flight
• First introduction: http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/my-project-flightzoomer-realistic-flight-instruments-navigation