Blogs

Moderator

Skynavigator - Used for Flight Performance and GPS Triangle Racing

Posted by Brian on April 16, 2010 at 9:00pm

I stumbled upon this and thought others may think it's interesting as well...

Skynavigator

skynav1.jpg

Who knew the SP guys had competitions where they race around a triangle pattern of GPS coordinates? View results on Google Earth, get addional details from the plane to the ground station... Lots more.

Sounds fun but it's a little pricey.

skynav3.jpg

skynavigatorcollage_small.jpg

The equipment seems like it would be very easy to adapt to UAVs...

For additional details check the link below.

http://www.icare-rc.com/skynavigator.htm

E-mail me when people leave their comments –
Follow

You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!

Join diydrones

Comments

  • Moderator
    Brian April 18, 2010 at 3:26pm
    Yea... Palm, PocketPC, and one of those little Toshiba min-palmtop computers that runs Win98... If I just had something to do with them...
  • Moderator
    Brian April 17, 2010 at 10:19am
    Marc, that's cool. I've clenched onto my palm m105 for years waiting for something to do with it... They are POS 3.51.. Also have a PocketPC...
  • Marc Daniels April 17, 2010 at 9:50am
    I wrote a PocketPC interface for a cheap chinese radio but most find the PocketPC's are too hard to see in direct sunlight, someone also wrote a Palm version and it is easier to read but with lower resolution. I'm finishing up a ground station for the Palm this week and will post code,files etc. when done. I'm using a Palm Vx TTL/RS232 level shifter, LiPo, and Xbee. The software is written using HandHeld basic, they have a free version. I've got a small bracket that attaches the Palm to my radio so I always have it near, and using the prototype for flight testing has been easier than using a laptop when I'm fly solo. The touch screen makes for a nice interface. Any Palm running OS 3.5 or higher will work but you'll need to build your own cable, and your model needs to have a serial port. I prefer using the older models like V Vx as they are easy to come by on eBay for cheap$.
  • Michael Zaffuto April 17, 2010 at 8:49am
    They don't exactly say which RF module is used between the plane and the ground station, but it is a 433 Mhz ISM type transmitter, with channel selection.
  • Moderator
    Brian April 17, 2010 at 8:02am
    Bluetooth link from ipaq (or smartphone) to the ground radio... Still can't find details on "HF" module.
  • Moderator
    Brian April 16, 2010 at 11:23pm
    I couldn't find that info, I suspect 900mhz.
  • Moderator
    Brian April 16, 2010 at 10:26pm
    I'm pretty sure I know a bunch of guys that would love to compete in this manner, but these prices would prevent them from anything beyond thinking about it...
  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson April 16, 2010 at 9:49pm
    I'm always stunned by the prices these RC guys charge for pretty basic electronics. That's less than $100 worth of parts, which they're charging nearly $900 for. It's just crying out to be open sourced.
This reply was deleted.