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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