Jack Crossfire's Posts

The first results using a 35mm sensor to capture an autopilot program from underneith, giving the same view as Google Earth.

Posted by Jack Crossfire on April 19, 2008 at 4:34pm

The first results using a 35mm sensor to capture an autopilot program from underneith, giving the same view as Google Earth.

"affordable motion sensors may be at hand"

Posted by Jack Crossfire on April 6, 2008 at 4:30pm

http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=GW53B4ZAN3QNAQSNDLSCKHA?articleID=207001827So for UAV booms to become the dot com booms of the future, sensors need to cost under $1. Basically another year, another wave of startups, but no affordable motion sensors. Interestingly, this year they're not making the mistake of attacking gyros like Invensense did. They're focusing on accelerometers, not saying they're accelerometers, and selling the application rather than the measurement.The artificial neural network experts category on Craigslist is still a few decades off.

Hi res daylight

Posted by Jack Crossfire on April 1, 2008 at 11:00am

Had enough daylight to get 1/400 ISO 80 out of the A560. It definitely does a better job with those 7 million pixels. 1/400 is probably just below the minimum shutter speed. In dead calm air, the camera was much more stable. With the current yaw program & the instability of 1Hz GPS, only had enough battery power for a 270' turn on autopilot.

Daylight timelapse from autonomous hover

Posted by Jack Crossfire on March 29, 2008 at 9:00pm

Got some timelapse of a hillside in wind. Wanted to face away from the sun this time but there was nothing to see. Note the sun reflecting off water on the hillside. These were 3k images.

Daylight timelapse from autonomous helicopter from heroine worshipper on Vimeo.Ning is the only game in town for 3k images. Had to go up to ISO 400 to get enough shutter speed to overcome vibration. Crummy camera kept going for smaller iris instead of faster shutter.

Small landing zone, but still $40,000,000 for those 5 sq ft.

Night timelapse from auto hover

Posted by Jack Crossfire on March 28, 2008 at 11:40am

Night timelapse from autonomous helicopter from heroine worshipper on Vimeo.A bit more detail is visible in the HD download.

Robotic sky writing 4 U

Posted by Jack Crossfire on March 26, 2008 at 3:39am

Is she a really bored UAV or a flight computer being tested to the limit? The only way to view sky writing this slow is to render the flight recording in Google Earth.

diydrones vs rcgroups vs runryder

Posted by Jack Crossfire on March 24, 2008 at 6:25pm

Rcgroups & runryder definitely seemed to dry up after diydrones appeared. They're now more focused on promoting businesses while diydrones has attracted the hobbyists, but Ning really needs more organization than the Latest Activity list. Here's a robotic copter update.

Had to point into the wind for more stability. That's also where the sun is.

More autonomous hover in wind from heroine worshipper on Vimeo.

Amateur vs. pro

Posted by Jack Crossfire on December 4, 2007 at 3:40pm

Reading http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=572000&page=5 definitely puts the amateur UAV business into perspective. If U want to work for a Lockheed or a Boeing, a top engineering degree from MIT is pretty much the price of admission. The qualifications they hired for the Hummingbird UAV make U want to hang up your transmitter and go into used cars.