Has anyone heard of or dealt with the STXe module from GPS FLIGHT? Its a pretty nifty telemetry tracking module that would be pretty handy for just about anything we do here on DIY Drones. Anyways just wondering if anyone has heard of or tinkered with this piece of equipment. http://www.gpsflight.com/
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I'm looking for a good and relatively cheap uBlox-5 GPS module. The GPS Flight one looks like overkill for me. Anyone know of a simple stand-alone module?
You really should look into GPSFlight. I saw one at a rocket launch a few weeks ago and compared to a few years ago, their stuff is vastly improved. Their new units uses the new uBlox 5 GPS with hot start times as fast as one second, and the folks there say cold starts are less than 40 seconds. The guy flying the unit said it was really hard to make it LOSE lock! They use the same radio you point to from Digi, but it is built into the unit. For $380-$450 they offer a 4Hz platform called the ST900 that has integrated 17bit accuracy baro, and this uBlox 5 GPS with the digi radio. Reports all position, temp, pressure alt and baro alt, and allows multiple units to operate in the same radio space at the same time. Very cool. Range - up to 40 miles. The software is awesome. Vertical tracking, horizontal moving maps, and a live link to Google Earth.
Check it out if you have not. Free fully working version of the software can be obtained from them also.
I was thinking about using a EB85A Gps Receiver which has 2 COM ports. One of them for navigation and the other connected to a wireless data modem, which at the other end is this software using Google earth.
I have tested the software by connection the GPS receiver directly to my laptop running the software while driving around in the car and it works great! (Laptop has a mobile broadband internet card for the Google map updates) So I think putting the Data modem in between the laptop and the GPS receiver should be no problem. The data modem has a range of up to 64Km (40Miles).With the right antennas. The software is pretty cool as there is alot of options in it. Changing the viewing height, viewing angle, Colours of path tracked and how it is displayed.
We tried GPSFlight a year ago and it worked OK. Very long range. They have a new model out now that uses the new uBlox 5 GPS that I saw at the field. It was awesome. It was providing data at 4 Hz, and the software was displaying in realtime on the PC while in flight. He said it was about $385.
Have not seen the Eagle stuff. Do they have softare too?
I have had a LOT of problems with the GPS Flight unit. It was initially purchased for high power rocketry but never actually worked. More recently we tested it on R/C airplanes and it worked intermittently. Although I do not have experience with eagle tree I think that it is a better bet.
I haven't used that one, but as a reference point for comparison, the wireless GPS telemetry system we use is the Eagletree Seagull flight system, which is about $500 depending on what features you choose: http://www.eagletreesystems.com/Plane/plane.html.
It's excellent and designed for for UAV/RC uses, so the GPSFlight system would have to be significantly cheaper to compete with it, I suspect.
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Check it out if you have not. Free fully working version of the software can be obtained from them also.
http://gpsflight.com/Main/GPSTeam%20Details.htm
I have tested the software by connection the GPS receiver directly to my laptop running the software while driving around in the car and it works great! (Laptop has a mobile broadband internet card for the Google map updates) So I think putting the Data modem in between the laptop and the GPS receiver should be no problem. The data modem has a range of up to 64Km (40Miles).With the right antennas. The software is pretty cool as there is alot of options in it. Changing the viewing height, viewing angle, Colours of path tracked and how it is displayed.
Have not seen the Eagle stuff. Do they have softare too?
http://www.eagletreesystems.com/Plane/plane.html.
It's excellent and designed for for UAV/RC uses, so the GPSFlight system would have to be significantly cheaper to compete with it, I suspect.