Didier's Posts

Hi Guys ,

Few months ago i have bought the HK Bixler and planning to equip this bird with ARDUPILOT Mega and Remzibi OSD.

Regarding the BIXLER is equipped with the following rigs:

-2212-06 28A 2200KV SP Brushless Outrunner Motor

-6X4 TGS propeller

-3000ma 3S 20C lipo Battery

Please note that the battery is providing power supply to the entire plane (receiver, Camera, ESC, OSD Remzibi, Video TX etc …) I am using the balance plug to power up the OSD, Video TX and camera. Basically on the plane i have only one battery in order to save weight and to minimize the mechanical problems and having a single point of failure.

-Video cam : 600TVL SONY SUPER HAD CCD D-WDR Color Board Camera with OSD Menu DNR

Sony 600TVL

-Video transmitter 900mhz 800mw tuned on 980Mhz

-OSD Remzibi with the ARDUV1_72. firmware and Flytron current sensor (100A). The radio signal strength is retrieved from the Dragon Link receiver.

ARDUV1_72 Firmware

-ARDUPILOT MEGA with the ArduPlane2.24+Remzibi+Status_Leds firmware

ARDUPLANE 2.24 + Remzibi addons

-Video TX antenna : DIY inverted V antenna tuned on 980Mhz

-Remote control JR9303 equipped with Dragon Link Module.

Dragon Link Module for remote control

Currently I am not using the Xbee Telemetry system

GCS :

-Eagletree Diversity

-DIY biquad Antenna and DIY ¼ wave ground plane antenna

-Lenovo T400 computer equipped with EASYCAP USB dongle for video recording.

-FRAPS and VLC software for the Video recording.

-Remzibi OSD for Video Signal information and GCS Battery level monitoring.

Remzibi OSD wiring and integration

The ARDUPILOT Mega integration with Remzibi OSD is very straight forward.

Remzibi board GPS RX <--------------- ARDUPILOT MEGA telemetry TX

Remzibi Board GPS Ground <---------ARDUPILOT MEGA telemetry Ground

The stock channel 7 Configuration is triggering On/Off the OSD display.

-The Total plane weight is 1 kg.

-Flight duration : from 17 to 40 minutes and depends of my throttle management.

-Range : More than 10km.

Some Pics :

ARDUPILOT installation with the 980mhz inverted V antenna.

Full plane platform overview and the Dragon Link antenna is located on the plane tail.

The 1/4 Ground plane antenna

GCS pod with Eagletree diversity and the BIQUAD antenna

Remzibi OSD

Regarding the Plane , i have no major comments because simply this plane is flying like a bird. No issue at all and this plane is able to welcome the overall additional payload and rigs.

According the ARDUPLANE firmware (2.24 release) ditto , no issue at all according the tests i have already performed.(well done guys , this release rocks).

I have tried :

-Manual mode

-Stabilize mode

-Circle

-RTL

-Failsafe

-Flight mission with 9 waypoints with circling.

So far no issue and all tested moded worked without any glitch.

The BIXLER configuration files (Many thanks Chris) are from Chris and the only modification I have imported is regarding the Radio Calibration. All other settings are stock setup from Chris and they work like a charm.

http://ardupilot-mega.googlecode.com/files/bixler.param

So far , with the ARDUPLANE 2.24 Firmware , no issues has occurred and I am more than satisfy regarding the current Arduplane Release 2.24 with Remzibi addons.

Cheers

In fact with my installation , i am using currently 2 Remzibi OSD.

-The one in the plane is standard with a Flytron Current sensor which is measuring the Instant consumption and the Average current consumption + Radio RSSI + Home + plane battery voltage + Radio RSSI + GPS Altitude and speed.

-The other OSD is for the Ground station and currently i am using this OSD for Video reception RSSI monitoring and Ground station Voltage control.

Thanks to your wonderful OSD and i manage to overlap the 2 OSD information and Display on my goggles.

In real time , i have on my display all the information regarding the Radio RSSI from the plane and Video Ground Station RSSI and voltage.

Currently i am using HK 900Mhz 200mw and the RSSI video voltage available is -4.7 Volts for a minimum video signal strenght and -0.2 Volts for a maximum video signal strenght. I am using ADC2.

Video from the Plane ------> HK receiver tuned on 980Mhz -------> Video RSSI to Remzibi ADC2 + Video output from the receiver to Remzibi Video input --------> Video Ouput from the Remzibi to video input of the Eagleeyes diversity --------> Video goggles display with both information (plane and Ground station).

With the OSD configuration tool , i am using two configuration sets for the display.

-One OSD Setup for the plane Inboard OSD.
-One OSD Setup for the Ground station OSD.

The information overlapping is very easy to achieve (Remzibi configuration tool) and so far it is working very well.

Currently , i am retrieving the Video RSSI from one receiver only (the one with the 8db patch antenna).

(see picture above)

Hereafter , a picture for the 900Mhz receiver RSSI Pin (The one shown by the philips screw driver)

This configuration is really useful for long range flying and both RSSI information are assisting me for a safe flying.

Didier's Posts (2)

HK bixler + ARDUPLANE 2.24 + Remzibi OSD

Remzibi OSD and video + radio RSSI

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