#272013 - 12/12/2005 17:22
New Hobby...
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addict
Registered: 11/11/2001
Posts: 552
Loc: Houston, TX
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I've been getting into RC Helis and Planes, and after flying a couple different Hobbyzone planes, and a cheap micro heli that's been waiting for parts to repair more than I've flow it. I went out on a buying spree, and picked up what I needed to get started, and keep things going for a while. Radio: JR 6102, very nice, and the price makes it even more so. Charger: Duratrax Intellipeak Ice, More charger than I'll need for a while. Planes: GWS Slow Stick (Talk about that one in a bit) E-Flight Ascent (It's in the building stages right now) 3 Cell 1600mha battery for the SS. 2 Cell 2100mha batter for the Ascent. Realfight G3 Flight sim(Hey, cheaper than breaking planes) Servos and other misc parts. Don't ask how much I've spent, I'm not wanting to know that myself. Now this weekend, I built the Slow Stick. Tthe winds were behaving themselves this morning, so I decided to take the SS out on the maiden flight. First attempt was a ROG, and the prop just broke, couldn't figure out why. Replaced prop. Second attempt, Decided to do a hand launch, started off smooth, then I go to pull back, and it decides to nose down instead. Pushed up, and then it started climbing...Yes, the elevator was reversed. So what I did next was say: "I can fly this back close to me.", instead of just cutting the throttle and letting it glide back down. 30 seconds later, the plane did its imitation of a lawn dart into the parking lot, the gearbox shattered, saving the prop, and the landing gear fled like a rat on a sinking ship. I pulled the Lipo off, and let it sit, then looked over the damage, and then I found that the control rods had also come loose in the conectors, even though the screws were tighened all the way down. 5 min later, looked at the lipo, and it was fine, unplugged the motor, plugged in the battery, and did a quick check on the rx and servos, and they were working. Here's the pics of the crash damage on my gallery. At least it was as fun building it as it was crashing it Good news is that a new SS would only cost me $35  New gearboxes with a motor run about $10 each, I think I'll be picking up a couple anyways.
_________________________
--Ben
78GB MkIIa, Dead tuner.
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#272014 - 12/12/2005 17:49
Re: New Hobby...
[Re: BAKup]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 15/01/2002
Posts: 1866
Loc: Austin
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Fun! (Aside from the crash) I just started getting into it, too. http://gallery.l0ser.net/v/adventures/rccrafts/planes/I crashed mine into a lightpole 75ft up. That was exciting. My friend picked up a 2 channel cheap one at Harbor Freight for 29.99. Sweet deal for beginners like us!
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#272015 - 12/12/2005 18:07
Re: New Hobby...
[Re: RobotCaleb]
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addict
Registered: 11/11/2001
Posts: 552
Loc: Houston, TX
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Quote:
I crashed mine into a lightpole 75ft up.
I got my Areobird Commander 2 stuck up in a tree about that high up, it came back down the next morning, not too much worse for wear.
What I'm going to end up doing is when I get my SS back up and running, and get comfortable with it, I'll be sending up one of those hacked CVS camcorders, and videotaping some flights.
_________________________
--Ben
78GB MkIIa, Dead tuner.
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#272017 - 19/12/2005 13:22
Re: New Hobby...
[Re: bootsy]
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addict
Registered: 11/11/2001
Posts: 552
Loc: Houston, TX
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Quote:
That wouldn't be the Blade CX would it? I got mine a couple of weeks ago and now it's grounded until I can find a new weighted fly-bar... Mine didn't break, it's in the yard... some where. 
This is my first RC heli. I am glad I talked myself out of the CP. 
No, I got a Saber(Big mistake, parts are rare in town, I'm about to sell it off.), and I'm wishing I had gotten either of the Blade Helis(The shop I'm now using carries plenty of spares for both).
Helis are like trying to balance a glass marble on a glass plate, and the plate is convex, and spinning. Not even remotely easy, that's why I'm flying planes now...When I can find the time...
_________________________
--Ben
78GB MkIIa, Dead tuner.
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#272018 - 20/12/2005 13:31
Re: New Hobby...
[Re: BAKup]
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addict
Registered: 11/11/2001
Posts: 552
Loc: Houston, TX
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This morning, the weather decided to be nice, and I got a chance to fly my plane  I ended up not needing any of my spare parts during my flights.  I did have an "Oh shit, oh shit" moment though, on my first takeoff that wasn't a hand launch, I went to pull back on the elevator, and the next thing I knew it was flying inverted about 5 feet off the ground. It's a good thing this craft has power to spare, so I pushed the elevator stick all the way up, and ended back right side up. After that it was pretty much uneventful, just flying it around the park, doing some loops, tried to do some inverted flying, but the Slow Stick isn't really designed to do that, so I stopped doing that fairly quickly. The worst that happened is it nosed down on landing twice but that was because I didn't land it directly into the wind. (It wasn't a steady wind, so it was a bit difficult to judge) Of course, now that I got some flight time, and want to do more, I'm going on vacation and don't have the space to take a plane with me 
_________________________
--Ben
78GB MkIIa, Dead tuner.
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#272019 - 20/12/2005 15:04
Re: New Hobby...
[Re: BAKup]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 05/01/2001
Posts: 4903
Loc: Detroit, MI USA
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Very cool! I've always wanted to do this since I was a kid. It looks like it's getting a bit more affordable now? Some guy locally on the radio was saying he has a PC program his radio plugs into and he can practice flying without breaking anything. I assume flying "backwards" while the plane isn't pointed away from you would be hard to learn.
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Brad B.
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#272020 - 20/12/2005 15:34
Re: New Hobby...
[Re: BAKup]
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old hand
Registered: 09/01/2002
Posts: 702
Loc: Tacoma,WA
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I got into RC planes last year. It took me several crashes before I learned how to fly my Slowstick, so don't feel bad. My biggest mistake was flying in too much wind- and having a broken, glitching ESC that caused me all kinds of problems until I finally replaced it. My Slowstick got so beat up actually that I ended up replacing the tail control surfaces totally with a BluCor foam tail that I made myself. I now am in the process of building a faster, aeirlion plane out of BluCor. It's roughly modeled on WWII warbirds like the P51- and it's going to have a direct drive 400 engine. I guess I will find out real quick if my Slowstick experience and lots of time in the simulator will pay off. BTW I just made a PPJoy cable for the FMS simulator this weekend- if you have a trainer jack on your radio and haven't already got an interface I recommend it! PPJoy is the best because it means you can use your TX as a joystick in other games too..
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#272021 - 20/12/2005 16:09
Re: New Hobby...
[Re: SE_Sport_Driver]
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addict
Registered: 11/11/2001
Posts: 552
Loc: Houston, TX
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Quote:
Very cool! I've always wanted to do this since I was a kid. It looks like it's getting a bit more affordable now? Some guy locally on the radio was saying he has a PC program his radio plugs into and he can practice flying without breaking anything. I assume flying "backwards" while the plane isn't pointed away from you would be hard to learn.
It has, if you're not sure you want to get into it, but would like something easy to fly out of the box, get an Aerobird Commander 2(It was my first plane), or the Aerobird Freedom(like the commander 2, but has 3 channels). Either of them should run under $150, and they come with everything you need to fly. There is one downside to the Aerobird planes, you can't take the electronics and move them to another plane
My SS cost $35 for the airframe and motor, then $250 for the radio and the rest of the parts to make it fly, but I can move the rest of the parts over to other planes as needed. And most of the parts will survive a major crash, so I'd just be buying another SS...With the exception of the LiPo battery which can get damaged more easily than a NiCd or NiMh battery.
Yup, there are sims out there where you can just plug in a radio to the computer, and fly that. The whole "backwards" flying isn't an issue once you get used to it, you'll quickly get used to turned based on the plane instead of youself.
Oh, if you want to go the real cheap way out, go to a Toy's R Us, and buy an AeroAce biplane, $30, and it's the only one in the Airhogs line that flys worth a crap, and they take a lot of punnishment.
_________________________
--Ben
78GB MkIIa, Dead tuner.
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#272022 - 20/12/2005 16:23
Re: New Hobby...
[Re: siberia37]
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addict
Registered: 11/11/2001
Posts: 552
Loc: Houston, TX
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Quote:
I got into RC planes last year. It took me several crashes before I learned how to fly my Slowstick, so don't feel bad. My biggest mistake was flying in too much wind- and having a broken, glitching ESC that caused me all kinds of problems until I finally replaced it. My Slowstick got so beat up actually that I ended up replacing the tail control surfaces totally with a BluCor foam tail that I made myself.
I now am in the process of building a faster, aeirlion plane out of BluCor. It's roughly modeled on WWII warbirds like the P51- and it's going to have a direct drive 400 engine. I guess I will find out real quick if my Slowstick experience and lots of time in the simulator will pay off.
BTW I just made a PPJoy cable for the FMS simulator this weekend- if you have a trainer jack on your radio and haven't already got an interface I recommend it! PPJoy is the best because it means you can use your TX as a joystick in other games too..
I built a cable that goes with my Heli controller and was flying with FMS. Yesterday I went out a bought a copy of Aerofly Pro Delux with an interface cable, and flying that one with my JR6102, it's real nice, and has tons of scenery and models, and plenty of others on the net.
I'm still learning to fly, right now in the sim, I'm seeing what I can do, and then taking it to the field and really flying it.
I've already got my next two planes, just need to build them when I get a chance. Next up will be an E-Flight Ascent powered glider, I still need to finish gluing it together, I'll be doing that in Jan, and giving the maiden flight soon afterwards. Then I've got a T-IFO to put togther, that'll be fun bending all those carbon fiber rods. After that I'll be looking into building my own designs with the Blucor. But I'll be going BL first on my SS.
_________________________
--Ben
78GB MkIIa, Dead tuner.
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#272023 - 03/01/2006 18:24
Re: New Hobby...
[Re: BAKup]
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addict
Registered: 11/11/2001
Posts: 552
Loc: Houston, TX
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Well, after more flights, and a few more crashes, this morning I snuck in some flight time at a park that happens to have an open to the public(just need an AMA license) rc airfield too. I was the only one there, so my channel was open Flew for 20 minutes, had a couple of close calls with the ground, but I've pretty much got flying the slowstick down, and at the end, I was flying at 10 feet above the ground seeing how slow I could go without stalling and hitting the ground. I've also started building my IFO, and with all the CA(super glue) I had to use to bind the kevlar threads to the carbon fiber rods, I don't have any fingerprints for a while. Here's a pic of the plans and partially completed frame of the plane: http://www.konosky.org/gallery/album06/IMG_0504If anyone around Houston wants to see me fly, or give flying my slowstick a shot, just let me know, and I'll arrange something. I'm looking at next week for some video from the plane, I'm needing to make something that'll hold the camera.
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--Ben
78GB MkIIa, Dead tuner.
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#272024 - 04/01/2006 14:11
Re: New Hobby...
[Re: BAKup]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 15/01/2002
Posts: 1866
Loc: Austin
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#272025 - 04/01/2006 15:39
Re: New Hobby...
[Re: RobotCaleb]
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addict
Registered: 11/11/2001
Posts: 552
Loc: Houston, TX
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Quote:
http://gallery.l0ser.net/v/adventures/rccrafts/planes/?g2_page=2
Phoenix and Houston aren't really close.
Nice slowstick, I see you've got a 400 speed motor turning a 1060 prop. I couldn't see how many cells is in that battery pack though, If it's only 6 cells, get a 7 or 8 cell pack, and you'll notice a big difference in performance. Also try a 1080 prop for a bit more thrust if you decide to try lifting a camera with it. Also the COG on that plane should be at 4-1/8" behind the leading edge of the wing. The instruction book that came with that plane has nice pictures, but crappy instructions. rcgroups.com is where I've been going for info, good signal to noise ratio there.
Yes, Houston and Phoenix aren't even remotely close.
Have fun flying the slowstick, I've been having a blast with mine.
_________________________
--Ben
78GB MkIIa, Dead tuner.
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#272026 - 06/01/2006 16:17
Re: New Hobby...
[Re: BAKup]
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addict
Registered: 11/11/2001
Posts: 552
Loc: Houston, TX
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I got my new motor for my slowstick installed and tested out. It's sweet, I now am only using 1/4 to 1/2 throttle, a bit afraid to go WOT now since I'm hearing the rubber bands creak when I turn at that speed On my last flight of the morning, I took up my cheap CVS video camera, and got some footage from the airplane. It was edited for time, since I didn't think anyone would want to watch 7 minutes and 28 seconds of the camera sitting in the grass while I walked out to where I "landed" it. Oh, the plane is in good shape, no damage, but it did flip over and eject the camera from the rig when it "landed" http://www.konosky.org/gallery/album06/First_AP_AttemptIt's in Divx format, so you'll need that codex.
_________________________
--Ben
78GB MkIIa, Dead tuner.
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#272027 - 07/01/2006 01:26
Re: New Hobby...
[Re: BAKup]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 15/01/2002
Posts: 1866
Loc: Austin
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You're scaring me. I too took my hacked CVS camcorder up today. Not with my SlowStick, though. I threw it on my Commander 2 because my stock prop on my SlowStick busted on landing tonight. I lost my mini usb cable in my move, so when I find it I will have the movie up. I flew for about four minutes the first time, but it didn't seem to record. The second time it did record for about a minute in the air before I had an accidental landing.
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#272028 - 07/01/2006 02:40
Re: New Hobby...
[Re: RobotCaleb]
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addict
Registered: 11/11/2001
Posts: 552
Loc: Houston, TX
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Quote:
You're scaring me. I too took my hacked CVS camcorder up today. Not with my SlowStick, though. I threw it on my Commander 2 because my stock prop on my SlowStick busted on landing tonight. I lost my mini usb cable in my move, so when I find it I will have the movie up. I flew for about four minutes the first time, but it didn't seem to record. The second time it did record for about a minute in the air before I had an accidental landing.
You mean the ground reached up and grabbed the plane?
I got some more flight time in this evening before it got too dark, and make another AP video, it's in the same gallery where the first one is. Much better landngs than the first time.
Now to work on my editing and flying skills
Remember, a good landing is one that you can walk away from, a great landing is one where you can use the plane again.
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--Ben
78GB MkIIa, Dead tuner.
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#272029 - 15/02/2006 02:14
Re: New Hobby...
[Re: BAKup]
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old hand
Registered: 20/07/1999
Posts: 1102
Loc: UK
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Hi.
I finally got a moment tonight to upload some video from my own experiments with in-flight cameras. I haven't been able to fly for a month or more due to work and weather, so this is from before christmas.
This is an edited down version of a 16 minute video. It's quite large at about 30MB, but shows the interesting bits quite well. Here is a few seconds of the full-bandwidth video. It's about 15MB. The entire 16 minute clip is nearly 2GB, so not really suitable for uploading
The video is taken with a high-resolution board camera with a pinhole lens, connected to a sawn-off Canon minidv camcorder. The camera is mounted under one wing on a small piece of high-density rubber foam to absorb vibrations. The camcorder (bought from ebay as faulty and repaired) has had all the unnecessary bits such as the camera and lcd panel removed to save weight. It's all fitted into a multiplex magister powered by a biggish brushless motor and 6 2200mAh lithium cells.
All up it weighs about 2.9kg, but still flies for more than half an hour on a charge. There's some pics here of the plane.
pca
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Experience is what you get just after it would have helped...
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#272030 - 15/02/2006 02:42
Re: New Hobby...
[Re: pca]
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addict
Registered: 11/11/2001
Posts: 552
Loc: Houston, TX
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*drool* That's some sweet video. I'd be showing off more, but on Thursday, my Slowstick decided not to love me any more, and flew off for parts unknown, I spent several hours looking for it, but wasn't able to find it. When it flew off, it had my CVS camcorder with it...and the brushless motor, and my 1600mha Lipo I've picked up an Easystar, but she doesn't fly anywhere near like the slowstick, so she's already on the table getting repairs. I'm going to have to pick up a new slowstick, I just love the way it flies too much. I've also picked up a Stryker, and outfitted it with real equipment, and had a blast flying that...Stock motor still, but she screams with a 3S 2220mha Lipo
_________________________
--Ben
78GB MkIIa, Dead tuner.
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#272031 - 15/02/2006 05:34
Re: New Hobby...
[Re: pca]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31596
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Awesome. Now, what about forward-looking stereo video?
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#272032 - 15/02/2006 22:10
Re: New Hobby...
[Re: tfabris]
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old hand
Registered: 20/07/1999
Posts: 1102
Loc: UK
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Experience is what you get just after it would have helped...
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#272034 - 16/02/2006 09:56
Re: New Hobby...
[Re: RobotCaleb]
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old hand
Registered: 20/07/1999
Posts: 1102
Loc: UK
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Ah. Those nasty little low-res CMOS cameras with built-in transmitter I'd guess, judging by the funky colours and the way extremely bright light wraps to black. Decent range, but iffy video. Pretty good otherwise, though, given the limitations of the hardware. I assume you were recording onto a laptop hard drive? How were you capturing the video? The easystar is a very nice airplane. It's very stable and will lift a surprisingly large payload, assuming you can find somewhere to put it. I have one I've used for some years as a camera plane. I removed some foam below the wing, reinforced it with liteply to form an instrument bay, and stuck a canon Ixus 400 in it. This is about 230g of payload, which is about 35% of the entire aircraft weight! Mind you, with a small brushless motor and 1500mAh Lipo pack you save nearly 100g to start with, and get a lot more performance. The magister flies very well indeed. It, again, really needs a brushless motor and lipos for best results, but doesn't everything? That said, it will fly quite adequately on the stock geared brushed motor, although with NiMH batteries it's pretty heavy. I've found that I seldom use all four channels, not touching the rudder much except for steering on the ground. It will turn quite nicely on either ailerons or rudder, and I normally only bother with ailerons. Adding rudder can make the turns neater especially in the wind, but I'm not usually fussed with that It will fly well in fairly high winds, I've flown it on days where it was blowing at around 12-15 mph. It doesn't like gusty weather much though. Be warned that such an aircraft reacts much more vigorously to control inputs than the easystar, so you have to be gentle with it, at least until you're used to it. The things do bounce quite well if it all goes wrong. I've wanted to get one of those boat/plane things for some time, but at the moment feel I have too many aircraft already There's at least seven fixed wing aircraft and two helicopters kicking around in flyable condition, and perhaps 5 or 6 more in the loft, three of which I haven't even built yet! The collection starts to grow rather rapidly when you get into the hobby. The damn things are all over the house, like computers and cat hair. pca
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Experience is what you get just after it would have helped...
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#272035 - 16/02/2006 10:31
Re: New Hobby...
[Re: pca]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31596
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Quote:
One channel of an early test
Love the telemetry data overlay. You are THE MAN.
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#272036 - 16/02/2006 17:45
Re: New Hobby...
[Re: tfabris]
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old hand
Registered: 20/07/1999
Posts: 1102
Loc: UK
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I try 
The telemetry works pretty well, although it's only a crute prototype. At the time the video was made the instrumentation for the voltage, current, rpm, and artificial horizon wasn't connected so they remain static. There's also a bug in the gps position, as I changed the packet format for the transmitter end and forgot to change the code on the receiver
I'm pretty pleased with the genlock circuit that does the live overlay, though. The graphics come from a small ARM7500 board I did a while ago, and work very well, although the power consumption is high and it's only mono analogue overlay.
I'm designing a new overlay system that does full colour, in the digital domain, so the quality is much better. Don't have a lot of time for it at the moment, but as soon as the current round of work is done I'll be getting back into it. Some of the UAV stuff I've got on the drawing board or half-built is fairly cool, if you're into robotic tracking antenna arrays and fly-by-wire systems at least!
Now if only I could find someone who wanted to buy some, so I could get back a little of the stupid amount I've put into the project over the last ten years
By the way, below is a picture of the latest camera plane. 2.1 meter wingspan, 3.5kg flying weight, 105 Wh 24V power system, 680W brushless motor (nearly 1 HP, capable of up to 1.5 continuous, 2 peak).
pca
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Experience is what you get just after it would have helped...
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#272037 - 16/02/2006 19:09
Re: New Hobby...
[Re: pca]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14491
Loc: Canada
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Quote:
Now if only I could find someone who wanted to buy some, so I could get back a little of the stupid amount I've put into the project over the last ten years
I think you could quite easily sell about 5000 systems (cameras + related electronics to make it all work) for pretty much whatever you wanted to charge for them.
There's just bound to be at least 5000 people out of 6 billion that would want their own nifty toy that did all that!
Cheers
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#272038 - 16/02/2006 19:16
Re: New Hobby...
[Re: mlord]
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old hand
Registered: 20/07/1999
Posts: 1102
Loc: UK
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It would be nice to sell even a couple of dozen. The problem is that it wouldn't be all that cheap, largely down to the cost of good stereo VR goggles. There are some new ones coming out in the near future that may help in this though. Oh well. Once I've got the current 3rd (or is it 4th, I've lost track) generation system working, I'll have to look into some form of production, perhaps. The whole thing is mainly for my own amusement anyway, although if I could get back some of the money it would help with the bills pca
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Experience is what you get just after it would have helped...
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#272039 - 16/02/2006 21:55
Re: New Hobby...
[Re: pca]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31596
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Something I was thinking of with the stereo VR thing. Have you experimented with placing the cameras farther apart than human eyes (say, on wingtips or some such), to give strong depth perception for more distant features? (essentially, reducing the apparent size/scale of the visible world, making it feel like your plane is bigger than it really is)
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#272040 - 17/02/2006 00:32
Re: New Hobby...
[Re: tfabris]
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old hand
Registered: 20/07/1999
Posts: 1102
Loc: UK
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I have experimented briefly with large separation, and it give me a horrible headache I may have got the angles wrong, I'll have to try again at some point. pca
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Experience is what you get just after it would have helped...
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#272041 - 17/02/2006 01:02
Re: New Hobby...
[Re: pca]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 15/01/2002
Posts: 1866
Loc: Austin
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Yes, specifically this one. I captured using a Dazzle DVC 85 (composite inputs, usb connection to pc). You can briefly see how I mounted it at the beginning of the video. As for them being everywhere, I only have three planes and I am stumbling over pieces. My Easystar has seen a lot of abuse. I really enjoy flying it. My Slowstick didn't provide me with any entertainment. Rather boring to fly, actually.
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#272042 - 17/02/2006 03:31
Re: New Hobby...
[Re: mlord]
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Quote:
Quote:
Now if only I could find someone who wanted to buy some, so I could get back a little of the stupid amount I've put into the project over the last ten years
I think you could quite easily sell about 5000 systems (cameras + related electronics to make it all work) for pretty much whatever you wanted to charge for them.
There's just bound to be at least 5000 people out of 6 billion that would want their own nifty toy that did all that!
Cheers
And he could cut down on shipping costs by flying the products to his customers.
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