All-in-one portable "ground station" was born in Hungary....

Hi, I'm Adrian from Hungary.

Let me introduce my vision which became reality!

My idea was to make a portable ground station that includes all necessary components for FPV flying or piloting an Arducopter. I decided to use these parts from my previous ground station:

Futaba FF9 transmitter with FASST module
868 MHz 3DR telemetry module + USB FTDI panel
8" LCD screen + control panel
time base corrector (for screen to avoid sleep)
Iftron nano 5.8 GHz video receiver

I decided to add extra functionality to my ground station. Instead of using my Mobile phone, I bought an Android MiniPC (MK808b sunvel clone) and connected to the LCD via HDMI. My first idea was to use a touchpad for input, but I couldn't find any that could match my requirements. So finally I bought an USB ring mouse! The mission control app is Droidplanner.

After I had all the required parts in front of me, I started to design the shape with a 3D engineering software. Here is the final result (rendered 3D images):

Basically it has a top and bottom layer made of 2 mm black glass-fiber plate and FDM-printed spacers/side plates.

The ground station has the following sockets/peripheries:

2x USB and 1X USB OTG port
balancer port for battery
video and audio RCA output
trainer port for simulator
12V DC input for using external power supply
3 antennas: 2,4 GHz transmitter, 5.8 GHz video receiver, 868 MHz telemetry
port for teach panel of time base corrector

I'm using 9 cells of 18650 size Li-ion (3,7V) in 3P3S configuration. With 1.3A measured consumption ground station can operate more than 4 hours!

After I received all parts, I started to put it together. It took 2 weeks, with endless amount of soldering...and also had to make some PCBs for trim buttons, LCD control, power distribution, etc.

Here is the final result:

Both video input or mission control can be shown on the screen:

Here are the external connections:

The ring mouse and the power switches:

UPDATE: Under the hood...

Finally I'd say thanks to the following team/people:

Ground Zero (www.groundzero.hu) for help in 3D printing
Arthur Benemann for Droidplanner
my friend for sharing his CNC mill station

For further information, please connect me by mail: nhadrian@gmail.com

I'm not planning to produce since it would need serious investment. For example, the FF9 and the 8" LCD screen that I'm using are discontinued, so replacement should be bought...

Best regards

Adrian

Hi,

Thanks for you all guys!

The side parts are all 3D printed, and the spacers under the switches, generally all black plastic parts except transmitter gimbals.

The top/bottom/battery holder plates are black 2mm GF plates (glass fiber). First I thought in carbon but it is really expensive. And also it is conductive, so isolating would be even more important!!!

So finally I decided to use GF. It is still strong enough and looks great, and way cheaper.

The main reason why I shared my project was to give idea for DIY members, how to integrate everything. It is possible even in household conditions, but takes LOK of work and also money. But POSSIBLE!!!

So never give up to step from prototype one to the next!!! (I had 3 different ground stations before, they were look terrible.)

Best regards

Adrian

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Comments

Ahmed Rehan September 5, 2013 at 3:41pm

very nice try to add another screen at 45 degree for video so that you dont have to change between video and planner.

good work keep it up.
Adrián Nagy Hinst September 5, 2013 at 11:08am

This was V3.0. I don't have any photos of V1 and V2...

Electronics were built in the bottom "box" under the transmitter.

And later I built a small case for my mobile phone next to the screen.
Adrián Nagy Hinst September 5, 2013 at 10:27am

Hi,

Thanks for you all guys!

The side parts are all 3D printed, and the spacers under the switches, generally all black plastic parts except transmitter gimbals.

The top/bottom/battery holder plates are black 2mm GF plates (glass fiber). First I thought in carbon but it is really expensive. And also it is conductive, so isolating would be even more important!!!

So finally I decided to use GF. It is still strong enough and looks great, and way cheaper.

The main reason why I shared my project was to give idea for DIY members, how to integrate everything. It is possible even in household conditions, but takes LOK of work and also money. But POSSIBLE!!!

So never give up to step from prototype one to the next!!! (I had 3 different ground stations before, they were look terrible.)

Best regards

Adrian
Rob_Lefebvre September 5, 2013 at 8:35am

So have you used it outside? How visible is the screen in direct sunlight?
Romushock September 5, 2013 at 7:48am

Nice work, Adrian, congrats! I'm walking around this thema about 6 month. Hope to give birth my Frankenstein soon. "I'll be back" (c)...
Crashpilot1000 September 5, 2013 at 6:47am

"Meister" is up to a similar Task here: http://www.multixmedia.org/Multi-GCS/index.html

and there: http://fpv-community.de/showthread.php?25594-MultiGCS-f%FCr-Linux-u...

Maybe you can team up?
Crashpilot1000 September 5, 2013 at 5:46am

Wow, nhadrian!

Now I understand why mwii never accepted your good codechanges :) :)
Erik Unger September 5, 2013 at 2:11am

Wow, this is _really_ cool. Make it a Kickstarter project!
Nicholas Witham September 5, 2013 at 1:07am

Any chance in getting hold of any drawings or plans for this.
Marooned September 5, 2013 at 12:58am

DIY, level hard

This is amazing job!

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