Posted by borneobear on January 15, 2009 at 9:32pm
I've been looking around for an altitude hold device for RC Helicopters using GPS for nearly a year now, and all have miserably failed.I just joined here, and am wondering, has anyone done this yet (Heli altitude hold)?Someone has tried it with barometric sensors, but unfortunately that didn't work out.I need altitude hold for my AP heli
In my opinion the best is to use an ultrasonic altimeter up to 16meter, then the GPS shall do the work. If you do not trust it , you could use a barometric sensor in order to have redundant data, and mixing both with a kalman filter.
Best,
GPS altitude was good enough for heli's last year if you flew when satellites were directly overhead & had a real clean GPS signal. This year, the satellite coverage has been intermittant. Better get a big airframe & an SCP1000. That thing is pretty solid. You need a big space to put it in, isolated from rotor wash.
Rather than start yet another thread on "how do I build a stabilizer" I think attaching my question to this thread might be the best.
Unlike most members who want to design their own, I just want to buy a stabilizer that will allow a helicopter to be very stable and have only 3 remote controls -
1. Altitude with just an up/down control
2. Yaw to select a direction
3. Fly in a direction/stop
No banked turns, etc, just fly straight and level to a point, stop, slowly yaw around, then fly in the new direction.
It should be very stable so that flying it would not need any helicopter experience.
ie a very simple device, but very stable.
Can anyone suggest a suitable device?
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i really don't know anything about all this automatic UAV stuff at all, just the mechanics/electronics systems of an aircraft but as Chris said a GPS module that is rigged up to only go to a certain height is the best option.
I know there is a way to set up throttle hold at whatever throttle you are at when you flick the switch but am not sure. Neither am I sure that's what you want but its a good start. I gues to stay in one place you could put some gyros rigged up to the cyclics (turn off heading hold!). I don't know about some fancy gizmo that will do it for you but i'm sure there is one.
GPS modules from the SirfIII chipset on can all do a reasonable job of altitude measurement. We use the EM406 with ArduPilot and get about 1m resolution, and the Mediatek (Locosys) and Ublox chipsets are even better.
Replies
Best,
Unlike most members who want to design their own, I just want to buy a stabilizer that will allow a helicopter to be very stable and have only 3 remote controls -
1. Altitude with just an up/down control
2. Yaw to select a direction
3. Fly in a direction/stop
No banked turns, etc, just fly straight and level to a point, stop, slowly yaw around, then fly in the new direction.
It should be very stable so that flying it would not need any helicopter experience.
ie a very simple device, but very stable.
Can anyone suggest a suitable device?
i really don't know anything about all this automatic UAV stuff at all, just the mechanics/electronics systems of an aircraft but as Chris said a GPS module that is rigged up to only go to a certain height is the best option.
I know there is a way to set up throttle hold at whatever throttle you are at when you flick the switch but am not sure. Neither am I sure that's what you want but its a good start. I gues to stay in one place you could put some gyros rigged up to the cyclics (turn off heading hold!). I don't know about some fancy gizmo that will do it for you but i'm sure there is one.