Well it has been a long time since I have been in here and posted something. It appears there have been some advances during my absence. To start I have an Easy Star that I am turning into a drone. Just yesterday I have received the couple parts I needed to finish my plane off to at least get it off the ground and be a functioning craft. I have 0 flight time and I am hoping to play with it today to learn to fly and get a feel for it before I load it up with all sorts of expensive hardware.
I kind of know what I need or at the very least know what I want to do. I will first list what I want the drone to do, then mention what I DO know I need.
What I want the drone to do...
*Take areal pictures
*Take areal video then transmit it to notebook/netbook
*Be able to program points where I want drone to take pictures
*Be able to program routes for the drone to fly on its own
What I know I need but am not sure if this is all I need...
*Canon camera capable of being flashed with the CHDK firmware. I think I have the model picked out.
*A small camera from the DIY drones store.
*Xbee Telemetry Kit.
*I will also likely get/need the Easy Star Electronics Chassis w/ pan/tilt camera mount
*ArduPilot Mega Kit Soldered (since I know they can solder better than I can and will come programed)
*GPS UBlox5
Questions
When it comes to the video camera, I don't want really crappy video so what video camera should I consider using?
Why is 900Mhz antenna $1.25 more? Isn't it better to have the 2.4Ghz?
UBlox4 (I think) was the rave when I used to be in here all the time, so is the UBlox5 GPS better than the one that comes with the Mega Kit?
I also noticed the PhoneDrone Board for Android and the DroneCell in the store. These are entirely new to me and since I have JUST become an owner of the new HTC Thunderbolt I am VERY interested in what I could do. I did read the description but not sure if it satisfied my hunger. So if I am running video on the drone can I have it sent to my phone live? It sounds like pictures can be texted to me. Can I operate the drone via my Thunderbolt much like you would with a RC controller? Are their videos or something available of this being used that shows its potential or examples of it being used? What all can you do with it? How does it get implemented? Ok Im going to stop with that im sure you get the point I want to know more about those boards....lol
Any help on these questions and figuring out what all I need to get it all together and do what I want to do would be greatly appreciated. Ill be sure to post up some pics of my EZStar for you all once I have it together. :)
Replies
Hi Wayne, short reply from someone not-so-different from you (at least in terms of thirst for knowledge :)
You write you have zero flight time (which I interpret as never-having-flown-a-RC-plane) then I would strongly recommend you that you either start with a simulator (e.g., FMS, a free simulator that has a quite realistic model for the EZ built in) or you go to some RC club and get some friendly experienced person who guides you into this adventure. Both sounds boring, I know, but I have been there (e.g., I reversed both rudder and elevator on the first flight, crash landed several times and managed to break my first EZ in two, all in the first 2 weeks or so). Learning to fly turns out to take longer than a day for most people. Being a little patient at first actually pays off later big time..
cheers, good luck, Andre