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Thirty Days (#23): New Product Preview

Posted by Joshua Ott on June 2, 2013 at 11:00pm

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Chad Amonn, one of our mechanical engineers, has been busy designing some new products. He created this package to hold electronics designed by:  Craig Elder, Sam Kelley, Kevin Bretney, and Jeff Wurzbach.

Any ideas on what this thing does?

(Edit)

MAV Station is part of MAVelous
What is MAVelous?
MAVelous is a browser based Ground Control Station that John Wiseman, Pat Hickey, and now Kevin Hester have been working on.  It is an alternative to Mission Planner or Droid Planner, QGC etc.  In order for MAVelous to function you need a server that converts MAVlink messages into HTML.   MAVStation is that server in a box.  It is small enough you can easily carry it around and take to the field with you.
Basically you have a radio and MAVLink between the vehicle and the MAVStation, and Wi-Fi link between the MAVstation and a tablet.
Inside the MAVStation is a Raspberry Pi computer running the server, plus a rechargeable battery to power it.  There is a Wi-Fi connection allowing you to connect to a tablet running a browser.  You also get a GPS and a 3DR radio to connect to the vehicle.  There is a charger that runs off of a USB connection or an external power supply and there are also servo outputs available to steer an antenna tracker.
But wait, there's more....By the time you have all of those elements in place, you only need to add a handful of additional buttons and you now have a box that can be used as a Follow Me device.
In the best of all worlds, the Follow Me device would be optimized and made smaller and easier to carry around, but this is a great development platform and a great place to start.
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Comments

  • Kim McGinnis August 3, 2020 at 10:53am
    I know this is a really old post. I have purchased one of these. Does anybody have a clue where to get software for it. The sad card on it is empty. The vendor has no access. He is selling surplus 3dr hardware. TIA
  • Joshua Ott June 4, 2013 at 8:22pm

    Sam, it's real purpose is beyond comprehension...

    but yes, Pez is involved. 

  • Sam Kelly June 4, 2013 at 8:11pm

    Some kind of overly complicated pez dispenser.

  • Joshua Ott June 4, 2013 at 12:52pm

    Hi folks,

    Sorry for the delay in getting back to this post... busy morning here.

    This is called MAVstation

    (I'm going to just share Craig Elder's explanation, he is the one overseeing this product after all)

    MAV Station is part of MAVelous
    What is MAVelous?
    MAVelous is a browser based Ground Control Station that John Wiseman, Pat Hickey, and now Kevin Hester have been working on.  It is an alternative to Mission Planner or Droid Planner, QGC etc.  In order for MAVelous to function you need a server that converts MAVlink messages into HTML.   MAVStation is that server in a box.  It is small enough you can easily carry it around and take to the field with you.
    Basically you have a radio and MAVLink between the vehicle and the MAVStation, and Wi-Fi link between the MAVstation and a tablet.
    Inside the MAVStation is a Raspberry Pi computer running the server, plus a rechargeable battery to power it.  There is a Wi-Fi connection allowing you to connect to a tablet running a browser.  You also get a GPS and a 3DR radio to connect to the vehicle.  There is a charger that runs off of a USB connection or an external power supply and there are also servo outputs available to steer an antenna tracker.
    But wait, there's more....By the time you have all of those elements in place, you only need to add a handful of additional buttons and you now have a box that can be used as a Follow Me device.
    In the best of all worlds, the Follow Me device would be optimized and made smaller and easier to carry around, but this is a great development platform and a great place to start.

  • Paul Feely June 4, 2013 at 11:59am
    Joshua, put us out our misery

    Cheers Paul
  • zoom June 4, 2013 at 1:57am

    Good guessing game I hope the real purpose will be revealed soon

  • Dean June 3, 2013 at 11:45pm

    bomb?

  • Jack Crossfire June 3, 2013 at 11:34pm

    An all in one 3D printer/plastic injection machine/FLIR cam/brushless gimbal/blimp inflator/gesture sensor/ADS-B receiver, using battery breakthrough technology which packs 5Ah into the uBlox 6 battery, enough to power the raspberry pi for 5 minutes.

  • Sean Miles June 3, 2013 at 10:19pm

    Marital aid for a robot???? ;P

  • Sebastian S. June 3, 2013 at 10:13pm

    Why a RasPi as follow me box? A ATmega would be enough. Same price but smaller ;-)

    It's something where you need the connectivity(USB, HDMI, Audio, ...) or the power(Linux).

    Would qcontrol run in the little box?

This reply was deleted.