Hi Reto,
As soon as I read your posting and read the specs I decided to buy some, which arrived in the mail today, nice service! Thanks for the tip about soldering this 3.3V Dc/Dc board. I see what you mean. I am amazed that this tiny board can handle 5 amps.

In my experience 5V to 12V Dc is more challenging. Do you know the mA load of the camera? Have you looked that the Dimension Engineering AnyVolts? http://www.dimensionengineering.com/AnyVoltMicro.htm. Also read their application note on filtering, if you have any video quality problems http://www.dimensionengineering.com/appnotes/video/video_tutorial.htm.

If you need more power there are some boost or switching converter chips to consider, if you will make the Dc/Dc board yourself. Take a look at the low noise Linear Technology LT1533, National LM2623 or LM2700.

Because Lipo batteries are made in so many sizes now, sometimes it is easiest to just have another 3S lipo battery for your video down gear! Also the camera and video transmitter will be better isolated from the electrical noise that the ESC and motor will cause.

I saw these mylar alphabet shaped balloons on the Internet I looked for the o's of course the company also has lettershapes the zeros are nice. I am working on finding a way to mount a motor dead center in the hole of one of these for a type of thru-hull propulsion to include the battery and receiver would be nice but I'm have to make sure its not too heavy.micro motors cannibalized from micro mini heli perhaps

Hi Reto,
I saw you mentioned in one of your posts that you got a Locosys LS20032 GPS unit from Sparkfun. I'm looking for one but couldnt find it on their site, was wondering if you could help?
Thanks,
Fionn.

Hi Reto,
Thanks for that, it's actually the LS20032 that I'm interested (with RS232 output), but perhaps it was a typo in your original post on the DC converter.
Thanks for your help,
Fionn.

Reto,
Any progress on the filtered output on you headtracker?Im working on a similar project but cant get the i2c to update regularly,,,

Salut Reto

Thanks for the message. You can contact me at jarontec gmail com if you'd like.

Reto, dshop in Switzerland has the differential gas pressure sensor (PHID1126) for CHF 48.00.

Reto,
yes i agree with u about emerging problems to a diy'er... im working on a complex project with solar backup powered UAV, Nunchuck Acc stabilization like your head tracker and long-range x-bee telemetry... the spare Ardupiot board im using as stabilizer will also be used for autonomous landing in the future... i carried some promising tests with Ez1 ultrasonic rangefinder for low-altitude ranging and planning to add a pressure sensor for speed ( testing with mpx200a diff sensor but not promising at the moment)...

im making promising tests with 2 boards, one APV1 and one Arduino clone ( a Funnel IO perhaps, very light and has a x-bee port on it but works with 3,3v and very weak connectors, very cheap @25usd) my test prg is around 10300bytes now and consisting of 3stage auto landing. first checks whether UAV is lower than 6mt alt to take over, then 2nd stage prepare for land and disable AP lower aircraft and decrease speed, 3rd stage check whether UAV is lower than 1mt, lower plane to 50cm and keep stabilization, decrease speed and cut motor below 50cm... controlled crash landing... this will work of course on a predefined smooth runway ...

Hi retro,

Just had a look at your comments in this thread and i am very impressed. I am trying to implement something similar but i am having trouble getting the network link to work correctly, How did you link to a local file in the network link? is it possible to just give it the path of the local file or is it necessary to host the file on a local server and stream it that way? also does you're approach require an internet connection once all the map data has been cached?

Any comments would be greatly appreciated,

Regards
nick

Thank you very much for the information much appreciated. just wondering, is it possible to refresh faster that 1s because we are using it on a ground station to visualize the path of the UAV and 1s may not be updating fast enough.

Thanks
Nick

Salur Reto,

J'habite Blonay (au dessus de Vevey) et ces temps je vole souvent à la Saletta. C'est juste au dessus de la buvette du même nom, au pied de la dent de Lys. On est à un (bon) jet de pierre du Moléson, pas loin de la Gruyère quoi. J'ai parcouru ta page, joli projet, t'as réussi à faire quelques jolies photos ?

C'est pas mon premier planeur mais je dois dire qu'avec les premiers j'ai pas vraiment eu de bonnes expériences. Mais avec le dernier (Easy Glider Pro, motorisé), c'est le pied !! Je vois que t'en a un aussi. Jeudi soir je me suis pris 185m de montée dans une thermique à la Saletta (j'ai un petit enregistreur GPS à bord). Génial. Mais effectivement je voyais plus trop bien dans quel sens je volais. ALors je cherche une solution. J'ai aussi volé une bonne heure sur la pente sans moteur, y'avait un peu de vent du nord.

POur aujourd'hui, j'attend, y parait que ça va se dégager un peu, mais ça semble s'accrocher dans les préalpes, je vais aller voir du côté plaine de l'orbe. ou peut être au-dessus du lac léman entre Chexbres et Lausanne y'a un endroit pour la pente, j'ai oublié le nom.

on se croisera peut être sur les pentes...

A+

Excellent, ça fait un moment que je cherchais un site comme ça. Merci.
Finalement la journée de vol était pas si mal aujourd'hui, je me suis promener un peu, j'en profite , ma femme est pas là. Je suis allé voir du côté de la Tour de Gourze, bel pente, mais beaucoup trop de vent pour moi. Ensuite un petit tour près de chez-moi, mais trop turbulent. Je me suis finalement décidé à monter à la Saletta, génial, un peu violent et un peu froid, mais c'était vraiment bien, avec un peu de poids en plus. Je suis parti ensuite en repérage derrière Châtel St-Denis, vers Romont je crois. J'ai volé sur une petite pente sympa, avec un peu de soleil. Belle journée finalement, et pas de casse.
cio

pas mal cette aile, la beuse sur le nez rouge ça doit donner !

Comme le temps était pas terrible ce matin je suis parti en repérage vers la dent de Jaman, je me suis arrêté avant le col, je devais redescendre chercher ma femme au train. J'ai volé un peu c'était pas terrible. Cet après-midi je suis remonté à la Saletta, là ça tenait assez fort merci, j'ai rajouté du poids aussi. Pis ce soir je suis allé voler près de chez-moi dans l'espoir de trouver des thermiques comme le vent était tombé, je suis arivé un peu tard je pense.

Out of topic: y'a un gars qui a mis ce lien dans le forum DIY Drones, je sais pas si tu l'as déjà vu, c'est un gars complètement malade qui vol avec une caméra au Brésil. Tu dois voir ça absolument:
http://www.rangevideo.com/
c'est la deuxième vidéo you tube à droite: greatest moment update.
Le début est un peu long, mais la suite déjante complètement.

Hi Reto,
wandering if you ever figured out solution for, or why, Xbee stops receiving data after a while ( from this thread: http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/xbee-pro-long-range-made ).

I finally found a little time to play withXbee and am observing similar results you reported - after about 1300 data messages ( 164 bytes each) Xbee stops receiving data...although if I just let it be, it will recover after a while (sometimes long periods such as 42 min, or sometimes much shorter ~2 min ). Thanks

Hi Reto,

your project with the ArduPilot looks great. I am considering to build an UAV capable of competing at the UAV Outback Challenge in Australia. As an autopilot I prefer paparazzi today. Can you comment your choice of the ArduPilot and you experience with it?

Best regards, Reto (yes, also Reto!)

I have two friends (PhD) of ETHZ that are designing the target recognition system. I have a couple of advisors for the airframe and radio system. I have met Mark Griffin last weekend near Nyon. He has a paparazzi system running and has also thought of participating the UAV Outback Challenge. He is australian and is an expert in radio communication. As you see on aerovista.ch I have some experience myself. So I can say we have a team now. We take it step by step. From my point of view the target recognition system is crucial, so we need some evidence that it works reliably. My two friends are working hard on that system these days. I am designing the rest of the UAV and ground control. I would enjoy to have a look at your ArduPilot ...

Do I understand right, that you have chosen ArduPilot instead of paparazzi rather randomly and not based on a deep study? It's a double cularis and flew great. Unfortunately we had a bad landing this year, probabely due to radio interference, and it is not airworthy right now. So we are using our last year model, an AeroMaster for aerial photography until I build a new airframe. I will let you know, whenever we will fly west of Bern, which is by the way where I work ...