Hi All,
I posted this in the ArduPlane user group section but that may not be the correct place for this, excuse the double post.
I've been reading these forums and the wiki for a couple weeks now and decided to introduce myself. So I’m an ex electrician and am currently a systems and network engineer. I have a pretty good grasp on computers and electrical stuff. I am, however, a complete newbie to the world of RC planes and especially to UAV RC planes. I have a couple nitro powered RC trucks though so do have some experience with general RC concepts.
So obviously I want to get into this cool new world of drones. So far I have ordered the following:
Bixler 2
Some carbon tubes for wing reinforcement
2200 mah 3S batteries and charger
25amp ESC
5amp BEC
Turnigy 9x radio
FrSky module for the 9x
Parkeflyer 9x kit to install er9x
800mw 1.3ghz video system
The plan is to learn how to fly the Bixler without the APM, try some FPV, and then move on to installing the APM with all the add-ons (telemetry, air speed, etc). So that’s the plan for the next couple of month. Any suggestions/concerns/advice with this plan?
The interesting part is what I want to do next… I do a lot of off-roading and would like to build something like the X8 or another airframe that can stay in the air for 2+ hours. The goal would be to have the UAV scout ahead of us and/or circle us with the camera (mounted on a pan tilt) locked on the ground station to get some cool aerial shots of the trucks going over rocks, mud pits, etc. The ground station would be a laptop mounted in my truck so it would obviously be mobile. So the first question is: Can I plug a gps into the laptop and have the plane track a moving ground station and/or circle a certain distance in front of a moving ground station? I know the new MyFlyDream antenna tracker/GS software can do this. Also, can the camera be set to stay locked on the GS or a point on a map?
I have a lot more questions but I will stop here for now.
If anyone with more experience in this then myself lives in or around NYC I would love to buy you a beer and pick your brains a little.
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I have since learned that the camera can be locked onto a stationary target.
Thanks,
Roman
Replies
That sounds like a good plan to me. You would be surprised to find that there are people who don't know how to fly and rely on the AP to do it for them. They watch there planes crash or fly away for what ever reason and never switch to manual mode because they don't have a clue I guess.
As far as the camera control, it can point to any location that is sent to it with mavlinc protocol. The mission planner supports clicking on a point and the camera tries to point there within its' mechanical limits. What could be easily done is make a tracker module and attach it to your buddy's truck. A gps, an arduino mini, and a xbee or 3dr radio link. There could be a Tx collision between the GS and the tracker, I know xbees can handle this, not sure about the 3dr.
The nav stuff would be just as easy, as the same data is used, gps. Offsets and such can be calculated relative to the POI.
POI is 'point of interest'. It's better than using 'target'. Ya, loiter a distance and angle from the POI. It's all doable, just not done yet. Ok you have picked my brain a little, you owe me a beer :)