aussieuav
May 28, 2007, 06:27 PM
(Passing this on from an acquaintance)
Hi guys,
Last week a 9ft polyhedral glider with brushless motor and small prop was placed on a carpark near a beach in Sydney, Australia. It took off and I followed it in a car for just over half an hour where it landed at another carpark not far from the beach. Distance flown was about 30kms.
No one here in Sydney was flying it. The pilot was in Perth.
Here is how it was done:
1. board and hard drive from an intel mac mini computer running windoze. hooked up to 12V lipos. details of how to do this came from one of the mac mini websites where they show how to put a mac mini in a car and wire it up for 12V.
2. two ninja pan/tilt controllers plugged into the mac mini. these are x10 products and they were taken apart and hooked (metal rods) up to run elevator, rudder and microswitch for the motor.
3. nextg broadband wireless usb modem which put the mini on the 'net
4. logitech webcam on bottom of glider facing downwards and forwards
The plane was set up to take off when the microswitch was closed by one of the ninja pan/tilts, this switched the motor on. When it reached 300ft or so the other pan/tilt adjusted the elevator so it flew level. From time to time it moved left or right (rudder via pan/tilt) to follow the coastline.
The pilot was in Perth logged onto a wireless network with his laptop. Every 2-3 seconds he looked at a jpeg on a website (which the webcam had taken) and the mini uploaded to. That was compared to google earth so he knew where the plane was and made small adjustments from time to time, controlling the pan/tilts over the internet. About halfway thro the flight, the plane turned in two circles to demo the level of control.
Landing was done by cutting off the motor over the sea and gliding into the carpark. Spinner was knocked off when the plane hit a kerb. otherwise it was fine to fly again.
That's control from 3,300kms away . Total cost was $1,200 and build time from the idea to finished plane and testing just three weeks. Remember we aussies did it first and with off the shelf parts, common sense and no over-engineering.
Hi guys,
Last week a 9ft polyhedral glider with brushless motor and small prop was placed on a carpark near a beach in Sydney, Australia. It took off and I followed it in a car for just over half an hour where it landed at another carpark not far from the beach. Distance flown was about 30kms.
No one here in Sydney was flying it. The pilot was in Perth.
Here is how it was done:
1. board and hard drive from an intel mac mini computer running windoze. hooked up to 12V lipos. details of how to do this came from one of the mac mini websites where they show how to put a mac mini in a car and wire it up for 12V.
2. two ninja pan/tilt controllers plugged into the mac mini. these are x10 products and they were taken apart and hooked (metal rods) up to run elevator, rudder and microswitch for the motor.
3. nextg broadband wireless usb modem which put the mini on the 'net
4. logitech webcam on bottom of glider facing downwards and forwards
The plane was set up to take off when the microswitch was closed by one of the ninja pan/tilts, this switched the motor on. When it reached 300ft or so the other pan/tilt adjusted the elevator so it flew level. From time to time it moved left or right (rudder via pan/tilt) to follow the coastline.
The pilot was in Perth logged onto a wireless network with his laptop. Every 2-3 seconds he looked at a jpeg on a website (which the webcam had taken) and the mini uploaded to. That was compared to google earth so he knew where the plane was and made small adjustments from time to time, controlling the pan/tilts over the internet. About halfway thro the flight, the plane turned in two circles to demo the level of control.
Landing was done by cutting off the motor over the sea and gliding into the carpark. Spinner was knocked off when the plane hit a kerb. otherwise it was fine to fly again.
That's control from 3,300kms away . Total cost was $1,200 and build time from the idea to finished plane and testing just three weeks. Remember we aussies did it first and with off the shelf parts, common sense and no over-engineering.