I have been tinkering with the idea of creating a air speed sensor using a differential pressure sensor such as the Motorola MXP5100DP series with a dual two port case which can easily be connected to silicon tubing and then to an external air input tube.An absolute pressure sensor from the same product line if correctly calibrated could be used as an altimeter. Due to the rapidly changing nature of air pressure i would imagine that such a sensor would need to be frequently re-calibrated using GPS data to ensure an accurate reading.Has any one had any experience with building such a device? Are there any commercially available alternatives suitable for use in a small cheap uav?Thanks,Neal.
You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!
Using a pressure sensor for altitude is pretty easy--you'll find loads of them used in everything from EagleTree flight dataloggers/telemetry to the simple pressure sensor used for altitude hold in the PicoPilot. They tend to be better for relative altitude ("keep me at the altitutude I started at") than absolute altitude, but with calibration can do the latter, too.
Air speed is best done with differential pressure sensors, one into the airstream, the other orthogonal. Which is exactly what a pitot tube does.
Replies
Using a pressure sensor for altitude is pretty easy--you'll find loads of them used in everything from EagleTree flight dataloggers/telemetry to the simple pressure sensor used for altitude hold in the PicoPilot. They tend to be better for relative altitude ("keep me at the altitutude I started at") than absolute altitude, but with calibration can do the latter, too.
Air speed is best done with differential pressure sensors, one into the airstream, the other orthogonal. Which is exactly what a pitot tube does.