About

Gender

Male


Location

San Diego, CA


About Me:

Father of 3 (mostly) grown kids. Former full-time aircraft mechanic - A&P, IA. Now working in optical and mechanical engineering and systems integration.


Please tell us a bit about your UAV interest

I've always been intrigued by RC vehicles and more recently UAVs. I have recently been discovering the whole maker movement and DIYDrones in particular through a colleague which has sparked my interest further.


Hometown:

San Diego, CA


Activity Feed

Tom Gibson left a comment on ArduRover User Group
"I second the motion by Doug Chevrier on the dual throttle feature for boats. I would love to incorporate it myself but am not familiar enough with the code. Either the elevator or rudder channel could be used for this I think.  Glad to see this work…"
Dec 22, 2012
Tom Gibson left a comment for Doug Chevrier
"Doug, 
I can only tell you what I have gathered.  I think you will find what you need here.  I have the same thoughts on the second motor.  I have looked over the code myself and had a programmer friend look at it but we couldn't find anything that…"
Oct 9, 2012
Tom Gibson left a comment for Doug Chevrier
"Doug,  
Yes, if you only need two modes you could probably use your B switch fine, as long as it goes to ch8 input.  
You're also right about APM passing through in Manual mode.  In Manual, you could use whatever channel for any function as long as…"
Oct 3, 2012
Tom Gibson left a comment for Doug Chevrier
"Doug,
I can relate to your frustration - it takes a while to learn how to navigate the site with so much information. I think the best place for APM2.5 info is in the ArduPlane Manual, Setup, APM2.x.  Keep in mind that ArduRover was begun as a…"
Oct 2, 2012
Tom Gibson left a comment on ArduRover User Group
"@TCIII,
I use the same TxRx for my boat. It works great and I presume it would be just as good for a land based rover. More intuitive than stick, IMO. 
Regards,
TG"
Oct 2, 2012
Tom Gibson left a comment on ArduRover User Group
"@TCIII - Haven't tried Ublox on APM2.5, but it works great on 2.0!  Much better than MediaTek.  TG"
Oct 1, 2012
Tom Gibson left a comment for Doug Chevrier
"Doug-- The Z-Boat and Q-Boat are very similar from what I have gathered - size, control, mission, etc.  I currently have APM2.0 with the U-blox GPS.  Don't even bother with MediaTek!  Haven't gotten an accuracy measurement yet but +2.5meters would…"
Sep 20, 2012
Tom Gibson replied to Tom Gibson's discussion APM2 GPS non-functional
"This thread is getting a bit stale but thought I'd add one more comment for future searchers.  I ended up getting a U-blox GPS in place of the MediaTek I was originally using and it seems to have solved all my problems.  Even gets a lock fairly…"
Sep 15, 2012
Tom Gibson replied to Tom Gibson's discussion Differencial thrust with twin motors
"The motors are counter-rotating, otherwise I could just drive them off the same channel."
Sep 14, 2012
Tom Gibson posted a discussion
Has anyone done a mod for using twin motors for thrust?  The application I would like to implement is on a boat with twin screws but I am not sure where to start.  I think it shouldn't be too difficult to modify code to drive the motors in unison…
Sep 5, 2012
Tom Gibson replied to Tom Gibson's discussion APM2 magnetometer in ArduRover 2.20 in ArduRover User Group
"I think I found a reliable solution to this and other problems I have experienced.  Got a Ublox GPS and so far I get almost instant GPS lock, indoors or out. That should preclude any issues with Rover requiring a GPS lock before magnetometer kicks…"
Sep 5, 2012
Tom Gibson posted a discussion in ArduRover User Group
Not getting heading indication using Rover 2.20. Checked my board by loading ArduPlane 2.6 and got an indication.  Is there something I need to turn on in Rover, or anything else I might be missing?  Thanks, Tom
Aug 29, 2012
Tom Gibson posted a discussion in ArduRover User Group
Where do the default standard parameters get loaded to APM?  I reloaded ArduRover 2.20 but the parameters did not change.  I can change params manually but when do they get loaded initially, for the default settings?Also, when I set Max Throttle in…
Aug 27, 2012
Tom Gibson left a comment on ArduRover User Group
"@Jim - Well I can hardly call myself a "youngster" but I am new to this game.;)
@ All - I have APM installed and pretty much ready for autonomy tests - just waiting for a UBEC I ordered to clear up a GPS interference issue, and new Tx.  Wondering...…"
Aug 23, 2012
Tom Gibson left a comment on ArduRover User Group
"Glad to see some conversation here, even though it's about not working on rovers!
Hey, it would be awesome if some of you "veterans" could direct us "youngsters" to an explanation of the differences between ArduPlane and ArduRover, if such a…"
Aug 22, 2012
Tom Gibson left a comment for Tom Gibson
"I'm afraid that's way beyond me, my friend. I do well to have things work when they're plugged in to their standard ports! I have the external GPS that came with APM1 and it works well as long as I have clean power to the board. Maybe someone else…"
Aug 22, 2012
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