I just ran across this this morning on Engadget, Wired online. It immediately struck me as almost a "holy grail" of tablets to use for a ground control station. It has plenty of buttons, and 2 joysticks. We already have the excellent Andropilot app. Now we have built in controls... Maybe we should pool some money to send one of these to Kevin Hester.
The only problem is the specs are a little lightweight:
- 7" 1024x600 display, no mention of brightness
- Android 4.1 Jellybean
- Arm Coretex A9 dual-core 1.6 GHz
- 8GB Flash, 1GB Ram, with a microSD card slot
The really good news is it's only $170. It's definitely worth experimenting with.
I'd kick in $20 to send one to Kevin Hester if he's interested in developing it for AndroPilot use. Anybody else?
Comments
@R_Lefebvre, NuShield seems to be very appropriate for outdoor LCD display usage.
this is perfect for the AR Drone. I just bought mine on Ebay for 180.
oops - I'm really bad at reading paypal emails. Total is at $80...
cool - with Tony's contribution the fund is up to $100.
Yep. I solved this with a dedicated Throttle Hold switch on my box. Arm, and then release the stick, nothing happens. Flick the switch up, throttle stick is now active. Flick it down, throttle signal is "down" and motors shut off. Also, no more accidental mid-air motor shut-downs. Yet you still have a completely rational "kill it now!" switch, with a red LED on it when it's active. It won't arm with the switch up, either. There's no surprises.
@Kevin - Thanks
@R - Its not when you are flying that it is a hassle, its when you are not flying. Throttle is constantly at mid stick unless you are holding it necessitating having some separate motor arming mechanism. Even then, you have to hold the stick down whenever it is armed and you don't want the motor to spin up...
Looks like there's some potential. Kevin I just sent you $20!!
That's pretty much what I expected. Just about any control is better than a touchscreen control.
Again, I think you have to compare the specs with the price. $170 is incredibly cheap. People pay $50 for a crappy Turnigy radio. This does SO much more!
When we have solid FBW capabilities, which is coming in the next release, those crappy sticks will be good enough.
This is another great example of low-cost consumer electronics being able to show-up expensive dedicated systems from the pros. We always just have to wait a few years to catch up. You know how much a custom box that can do this would cost?! I can hardly get a generic plastic case to build it with for less than $150.
Hi,
Is this going to work the same way/use the same code?
http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/feature.asp?t=how_to&c=45227
Thanks Jeremy (have we met, you seem familar? and Robert. Total donations to this project now at $60.
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