Last year I was searching how to fly at safe low altitude to take the higher resolution photos that possible, to identify weeds and insects in crops and trying to know if a laser altimeter can do the task, first I bought a Lidar lite but looks unstable over rought terrain perhaps bad installed or configured and no more support to ask, but, in the way, Laserdeveloper offer me to test the SF11 and send me one, I was little nervous because I'm not have much electronic knowledge, I couldn't make Lidar work yet, and SF11 looks more professional with PC connection and configuration capable, but results an RTF tool, very easy to install, Pixhawk configuration I use as instructions said, I use serial connection http://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-lightware-sf10-lidar.html?highlight=sf10 and SF11 configuration I don't change nothing but have many things for different tasks, standard ones looks nice for me.
It have an intuitive software to test with the pc too, you plug to USB with provided cable, open the program and look readings, I them took a ruler and measured the SF11 with the floor and looks near perfect :O ; many rainy days them (I'm in winter :( ) I did a first little fly with strong wind, the wind hit the copter but altitude didn't change, a better day I can fly more to test and take this video flying over a rought terrain; I'm going to test over different crops with different stages, and different slopes to see what happend.
Thank's to Laser developer to give me the opportunity to test this great altimeter :D
Now I test the SF11 over dry corn and, as Laserdeveloper explain here: http://diydrones.com/group/agricultural-uavs/forum/topics/testing-sf11-altimeter-over-soybean the laser reads the floor instead dry plants so, no issues when little spaces between plants appears, wind isn't a complication too.3 Nov: Now time to fly wheat, searching for insects and diseases, windy, as always, is present
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2o7SXrW6KU
It's curious to compare sonar altimeter with Baro
Comments
Yes I only connect one at a time - I will contact tech support
thanks!
@Steve - Can you confirm that the main cable is unplugged when you are running on the USB port? I know that sometimes a downstream load on the +5V rail can overload the USB power source. For further tech support you can chat to directly to Nadia- nadianilsen@lightware.co.za
I just got the Sf11 in mail. when I connect the cable size I get a constant stream of data - that looks pretty good. When I connect the USB side through lightware terminal no ports show up or are recognized. I am using the most up-to date terminal version..any ideas? If i connect the cable side with an ftdi to lightware terminal I can connect to it and see the data but hitting space does nothing.
I also notice that the top of the device gets pretty warm to the touch when powered..is this normal?
Nice, have you tried with a wall? something like going 2 meters leveled and if a 3 meters wall means a crash without manual correction, may be need a sonar or other distance laser combined for this.
Cool!! share experiences please guys :)
Hi LD,
That looks really excellent, clearly also a great size and form factor for UAS and robotics uses.
Really great to see you guys developing and selling such excellent products in a field where so many others are either prohibitively expensive or out of business in a few months.
Best Regards,
Gary
@ Laser Developer,
Thank you.
Your technical development sounding great. We are looking forward to do tests on them as early as possible.
Best regards,
Robert
@Wally - there have been a few firmware and hardware upgrades to the SF11/C since it was first released and Cala is running Rev 1.21 (the latest as of today's date). This revision has the best accuracy, in part because of a new automatic calibration and test range that we've added. If you want to upgrade your SF11/C then just send it back to us and we'll do it for free.
@Robert Hoermann - that's a very nice demonstration of a servo driven scanning LiDAR in action. We think that this configuration has great potential for both collision avoidance and ground mapping because of its simplicity, reliability and light weight. Later this year we will be releasing a small laser altimeter and LiDAR scanning system specifically designed for commercial applications where redundancy is needed. It includes encrypted laser pulses so that signals can be uniquely identified, preventing interference from other LiDARs or IR transmitters. Additionally it is able to measure whilst scanning towards a sunset or sunrise without giving any false results. The total weight for a single axis version of this scanner is less than 30g. With such a low weight it can of course be driven on two axes as well. Maybe you could test one for us?
@ Gary,
sorry, I forgot.
5. It can also react on the sweeping of the Gimbal. When it looks -30° downward the hexa reacts +30° rearward and upward.
Robert
@ Gary McCray,
Thank you for your positive feedback.
It does have more capabilities.
1. It can turned on or off in every flight mode (even when you are in manual)
2. It can operate as a collision avoidance (so simply back up)
3. It can also act as a distance control (like the downward looking LIDAR, it backs up but it also comes back again to the requested distance to the object)
4. It knows where the (from which direction) short distance is (e.g. -23° left) and we can also back up +23° rearward right.
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Robert
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