Hey everyone!
Long time lurker first time poster. I have been into RC for quite a while but recently became interested in quads and uav's in particular. I just ordered an ht-hpv frame and hope to build up my new quad piece by piece as my budget allows. I am a long time mac user and have been fiddling with MP using mono however I think I not only want to use windows for MP but to actually have a designated machine for my UAV's. My question to all of you is, what type of machines do you use? and what are the recommended specs? Having not used windows in over a decade, all I know to look for now is portable, and windows lol. Looking forward to everyone's input!
Jake
Denver, CO
Replies
I am using a Mac Book Pro with Parallels with Windows 7 and I am able to run the Mission Planner in a VM without any problems. With boot camp you can boot directly into same the partition and run it natively as well. Also, looks like Colorado is well represented in this thread (Colorado Springs here).
Jake,
I just finished building my first Quad down in Colorado Springs - good to see another CO person getting into it :-)
I will likely be in the market for a new laptop in the near future as well. The only laptops I have at the moment are my work system (running linux) and a chromebook. I've been doing most of my setup from my gaming desktop, which is Windows based. I did commander my girlfriend's EEE PC the other day for doing some config in the field, and it worked quite well. If you're looking for ultra-portable and inexpensive, that might be the route to go. The screen is a bit small, but APM worked fine on it. I imagine the long battery life on the netbooks would also come in handy. When I start looking for one, I will probably look in the ultrabook category - something like an Asus Zenbook Prime or Lenovo X1 Carbon (if I decide to splurge). Those should give the ultra-portability, and good battery life with a bit larger screen and more power for other things. As I mentioned, though - a netbook will be less expensive and will get the job done just fine.
What I'd REALLY like to see is an interface to my Android devices (tablet or phone). When I get time, I may look at trying to get the 3DR radio to work through the USB Host dongle and see if I can port the mavlink bits to Android.
Good luck!
-Brint