AP4 and Co-Pilot combo, which way?

[Medve]

Hey guys, just wanted to get some opinions on this from ya' all.

Coming from my RX, I'm not sure which to put first. My AP4, and then the Co-Pilot, or the other way around. I know both will take a secondary seat to anything they see comming in, because they'd see it as coming from the RX.
Now, do I have the AP4 adjust course first, and then let the Co-pilot level it out, or the other way around.
Lastly, as this is going in a flying wing, the signal will be going into an on board v-tail mixer. Yes, my radio has mixing, but the AP4 does not, so when it is doing the flying, onboard mixing is required. I'm pretty certain that the mixer comes last, right before the servos.
Any thoughts guys?

[CenTexFlyer]

I'm really interested in how all this turns out for you!

Gene

[kd7ost]

You might look for typicalaimster for some idea's. He's flying with an A or Cathedral tail section and some autonomous parts. I don't know if he's running a co-pilot though. Also ask Dave Jones http://www.auav.net/ or Matt Klarich. They both come to this site from time to time. They have linked co-pilots with autonomous systems. They would know where in the chain to put the co-pilot.

Dan

[typicalaimster]

I'm pretty certain that the mixer comes last, right before the servos.


Yes the V-Tail mixer comes last. You are correct sir!

--Scott

[Medve]

yup, I'm in the process of dummying this all up to see if all the components are happy talking to each other.

Gene,
in our news last night, they ran a secment of the government using a "high tech weapon" in the flooding disaster. Turns out it's UAV's. They said they fly between 500-1000 ft., and then showed a clip of a predator flying. Has any of these geniouses tried using your planes? Heck of a lot cheaper.

[lvspark]

The news only knows what what is on the tele-prompter, and they give it thier own mix for the entertainment value... With all the GA around there, it is highly unlikely that any preditor class UAV's are in the arena.

I would hook up the ap4 then copilot then the mixer..

[CenTexFlyer]

Mike hit the nail on the head. We were "standing by" with four aircraft for since about a day after the storm. We were told to "stand down" Thursday because there was so much chopper traffic in the air. Their perception is of Predator type aircraft buzzing around being a hazard and not some 3-1/2 lb foam wing that could get out of the way quickly. Most of the UAV's down there now are LOSPIC (helis) and they are from the Univ. of Fla (something called SARCARS or something like that). We didn't get in with the right people apparently at the start, but think we are "in the know" now. For what that's worth.......

[Medve]

Well, it would be great if for next "event",be it forest fire, flood, earthquake (a personal reality), or anything else, the AP community would be there and assisting. If we can get in with an ARES (Amateur Radio Emegency Services) group who is already accepted by the city, we can provide the video downlink to the control vehicle, that can forward it, real time to city hall via ham band, Fast Scan TV.
just a thought.

[sesat]

RX -> AP4 -> CoPilot -> Vmixer -> Servos


Ram.

[lvspark]

Well, it would be great if for next "event",be it forest fire, flood, earthquake (a personal reality), or anything else, the AP community would be there and assisting. If we can get in with an ARES (Amateur Radio Emegency Services) group who is already accepted by the city, we can provide the video downlink to the control vehicle, that can forward it, real time to city hall via ham band, Fast Scan TV.
just a thought.

That is a good plan. I had the same idea with a slight variation.
I met with my county's Emergency Management Advisory Council just recently and have partnered up with wireless ISP's in my area. With high performance wi-fi connected to my laptop, I can stream live video to the web from the aircraft.
I have to be in a wi-fi coverage area, but we have pretty much our whole county covered. I can only serve a couple clients before the frame-rate suffers. I would need a multi-cast server to bounce off of to serve many clients without affecting my bandwidth to the field, but that service is $$$
What freq does the HAM FSTV operate at?

[Medve]

lvspark,
Hams have do a lot of FSTV on the 70cm band (440Mhz range) and sometimes even higher. They can legally put out hundreds or thousands of watts depending on the band. I've read of 100miles transmissions of FSTV.

[rjet]

Anyone know what type of video transmission the Predators use? I wish we could use video over the cellular network or digital compression of video over amateur radio. Most of our wireless equipment is still a similar format as it was 50 years ago with the big companies working on other applications.