Hi all,

After posting here a few times for guidance I thought it time to show the fruits of my labours.  

This project started as a wracking of brains to conceive a concept for delivering real time data for real time on-the-fly analysis that would make months of learning some new web development and back-end server skills much more interesting - normally the learning scenarios I see are the often repeated "sales order invoice" or "purchase order", yawn!

A software developer by profession I had never owned an Arduino, nor anything rc-related.  I had not picked up a soldering iron in 20 years, nor did I know how to use a multimeter or understand balance charging at 2C or more.

I wanted a robust, reliable platform that could venture outdoors and be controlled comfortably by non-rc enthusiasts in realtime at a distance of 200m minimum, delivering real-time environmental and situational data along with video - all without lag.  Sounds easy, much more difficult to achieve a performing solution.   I think I am just about there today.

The hardware has been through several re-iterations to achieve these aims - I originally built with high-gain wifi but outdoors this failed miserably.  Initial motor and micro-processor control was with a Dagu Thumper motor controller but I was disappointed with build quality.

I am nearing completion of the "build" phase of my project - over time and over-budget, so much more involving that I had ever imagined.  This would not have been possible without the help of the community at large, whether it's Youtube videos explaining the difference between batteries and series and parallel and how to solder, forums on web technologies, amazing libraries available on Github for anything! (why program when you don't have to), and closer to home here, Thomas helping me out with my APM questions.

On that note I have developed my own custom APM 2.6 software - this has been quite an undertaking, consuming process of it's own.  I had no idea of compass calibration but Wayne over at the  Diydrones  google group showed me the way.  There was also a great post by Wayne on the Ublox LEA-6 GPS which helped get me going.  For radio stream packet handling, servo control and sharp distance sensors I managed, but turned yet again to the APM community for gyro help and Randy pointed me to the non-hal repository on Github - I programmed a class wrapper around Ap_InertialSensor and an hour later this was up and running, woo!

I am so grateful there is a community happy to share experiences (and code!) who have forged ahead with projects of this nature - the complexity of APM software as it stands today and the efforts of so many to get it where it is amazes me.  Thank-you!

Indeed throughout this journey the greatest discovery is the vast community of enthusiasts whatever the topic or platform, the help they willingly give and I hope to contribute to that where I can.

So without further ado, a picture or two.  Rover ready to go on outdoor exploits with girlfriend behind the stick!  

• APM 2.6
• Dagu Thumper 6WD chassis
• Sabertooth 2x25 motor controller
• Dagu high-power switch (with heatsinks added)
• Ublox LEA-6H gps
• 3DR radio
• Readymaderc camera and vtx
• Sharp distance sensors
• 2x2S lipo bay for motor, APM etc.
• 1x3S lipo bay for vtx

Camera and headlight pan/tilt.

Rear view to Dagu high power switch sitting under top plate, vtx (1.3Ghz), 3DR 433mHz

View to APM sitting centrally on fabricated standoff plate

Now that the hardware build is nearing completion it's time for the real work, to gain the learning I sought at the outset now I have my data collection platform.  Going forward I will take the ground control station forward from rough POC developments done to prove the solution to production standard.  

The UI is all web based, using HTML5, CSS3 etc, there is a lot of work to be done to make it look all nice and pretty.  Control input initially with Xbox 360 gamepad, now with Saitek X52 Pro - just super nice and controllable.

One area where I would welcome community input is ideas or types of data analysis to be performed  backend on the real-time flight telemetry data collected.  I am aware of Droneshare, however with the ability to process data on tap without computing resource limit any and all ideas are welcome over and above the simplistic ideas I have including:

• Duration
• Average speed.
• Top speed.
• Distance traveled from home.
• Distance traveled.
• Economy (battery usage).
• Safety parameters breached (gyro levels for example, where roll/flip imminent).
• Google map track trace.
• Speed and altitude over time profiles.

Any comments, criticisms and suggestions for improvements are most welcome, thanks for looking.