Lets see your ground stations

[airmcn_3]

Hey all,

I am finishing up my ground station and thought it would be neat to see what others have done.

Unfortunately Streakwave sent me a 19dBi 2.4GHz rootenna instead of a 12dBi 900MHz rootenna so I will not be done until Friday. I was originally going to set both patch antennas on one tripod but the tripod I chose is too flimsy, so I will be going with two for now.

I figured keeping the video and autopilot ground stations separate would eliminate me worrying about interference although I don’t think it is going to be a problem...

So lets see what ya got.

Pics to come

Chris

[dmgoedde]

Hey all,

I am finishing up my ground station and thought it would be neat to see what others have done.

Unfortunately Streakwave sent me a 19dBi 2.4GHz rootenna instead of a 12dBi 900MHz rootenna so I will not be done until Friday. I was originally going to set both patch antennas on one tripod but the tripod I chose is too flimsy, so I will be going with two for now.

I figured keeping the video and autopilot ground stations separate would eliminate me worrying about interference although I don’t think it is going to be a problem...

So lets see what ya got.

Pics to come

ChrisChris - bought the Rootenna in 900MHZ as well, and they sent me a data sheet with it that only said "2.4 GHz"... correct hardware, but wrong description in the sheet only. Is your patch approx 18"x18"? If so, it sounds just like mine. I have used it many times, and can confirm it truly is 900MHz.

[clolson]

Hey all,
I am finishing up my ground station and thought it would be neat to see what others have done.


I'm working on an ocean debris location system for my ground station ... (running on Linux with OpenCV)

(It's a work in progress ...)

[airmcn_3]

Chris - bought the Rootenna in 900MHZ as well, and they sent me a data sheet with it that only said "2.4 GHz"... correct hardware, but wrong description in the sheet only. Is your patch approx 18"x18"? If so, it sounds just like mine. I have used it many times, and can confirm it truly is 900MHz.


Dean,

It is 18x18 but on the back of the unit it has a sticker that says 19dBi 2.4-2.7GHz. I wish there was a way to know for sure.

[airmcn_3]

I'm working on an ocean debris location system for my ground station ... (running on Linux with OpenCV)

(It's a work in progress ...)

Man that is cool, I wish I had those capabilities....

Thanks for posting.

Chris

[airmcn_3]

Ok, so here are the pics of my video end.

7.5" 12V LCD
ZOpid Digital video recorder with inputs. http://www.zopid.com/servlet/StoreFront

1.3GHz RV system with 8dBi patch antenna

KX171 cam

I was told it was a darn good cam for our application given we cant streem much more quality then that. If you have better suggestions please let me know.

Chris

[jetblackaircra]

Chris,

Looks cool man! If only this weather would clear up then you could get some flights in. I'll snap a pic of our ground station tomorrow. It's pretty slick. Two axis gimbal to aim our parabolic 2.4Ghz antenna. The cool part is that we only have to run 110 A/C, stepper motor signals over CAT5, and ethernet over CAT5 to it. So it can be several hundred feet from our laptop or desktop running our software. (Designed to have an antenna mounted on a building and fly from inside, eventually)

Keep up the good work!

Mike

[airmcn_3]

Chris,

Looks cool man! If only this weather would clear up then you could get some flights in. I'll snap a pic of our ground station tomorrow. It's pretty slick. Two axis gimbal to aim our parabolic 2.4Ghz antenna. The cool part is that we only have to run 110 A/C, stepper motor signals over CAT5, and ethernet over CAT5 to it. So it can be several hundred feet from our laptop or desktop running our software. (Designed to have an antenna mounted on a building and fly from inside, eventually)

Keep up the good work!

Mike

Thanks Mike!

Yes this weather sucks but looks like Thursday and Friday will be decent...

Looking forward to the pics.

Chris

[Jack Crossfire]

The autopilot is totally ground based. The aircraft has only sensors.

[airmcn_3]

The autopilot is totally ground based. The aircraft has only sensors.

I see using a 3cell lipo is not that unushual....

Very cool, I like how you don't have much to set up.

[Hueber]

Hi there!

I just found this thread, a while ago I posted some pictures in the "show us your groundstation"-part in the FPV/RPV-section ;-)

Maybe it's also interesting for you, because it's something between UAV and video-piloting..

The UAV-System was half my diploma-project at my university and half private. Everything is working well, but I will ad much more to it next season!

I can give more information, everything (including control/tracking/visualization software, OSD, sensors, microcontrollers) is selfmade..



Anyway, here's the link:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10069625&postcount=10



Cheers, Roman

[Photons]

Roman,

That is very nice! I plan on building a similar mobile set up in the back of one of these...
http://www.americansprinter.com/images/sprinter%20van%20white%20no%20bkgrd.jpg

[reedchristiansen]

That's got to be the coolest ground station I have ever seen.

I really like the OSD - Was that using direct show (Microsofts video sdk) or did you have access directly to the RGB values before the pixels were rendered?

Anyways,
Very cool - does not seem like a big step to close the loop.'

Reed


Hi there!

I just found this thread, a while ago I posted some pictures in the "show us your groundstation"-part in the FPV/RPV-section ;-)

Maybe it's also interesting for you, because it's something between UAV and video-piloting..

The UAV-System was half my diploma-project at my university and half private. Everything is working well, but I will ad much more to it next season!

I can give more information, everything (including control/tracking/visualization software, OSD, sensors, microcontrollers) is selfmade..



Anyway, here's the link:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10069625&postcount=10



Cheers, Roman

[Hueber]

Wow, Photons, I also prefer such a car! Mine is way to small, even the tracking antenna is over 40kg... It's really tight with all the stuff, plane and co-pilot ;-)

@reedchristiansen: yes, I use direct show in my application with a tv capture-card. The OSD is simply a screen overlay on the secundary monitor.

[airmcn_3]

Hi there!

I just found this thread, a while ago I posted some pictures in the "show us your groundstation"-part in the FPV/RPV-section ;-)

Maybe it's also interesting for you, because it's something between UAV and video-piloting..

The UAV-System was half my diploma-project at my university and half private. Everything is working well, but I will ad much more to it next season!

I can give more information, everything (including control/tracking/visualization software, OSD, sensors, microcontrollers) is selfmade..



Anyway, here's the link:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10069625&postcount=10



Cheers, Roman

Thats rather incredible!