furyphoto
Jan 16, 2009, 07:02 PM
So this is just an out of the blue hypothesis, and even if it were possible I would not have the skills or the gumption to pull it off.
But...
I was looking at Helicommand Units today, I have been thinking about getting one, because I live in an area that is difficult for my AP2000i. Lots of trees and mountains make it difficult not to drift if I need to turn the heli around.
I realized after a bit of reading that, since the Helicommand can hold position a few meters off the ground, using it's down pointing visual sensor, It already has "Position Hold" functionality built into the unit.
Would it not be possible to swap out the visual sensor for (and here is where it turns into a hypothesis) a GPS unit, and some sort of PIC controller that takes a sampling of GPS data, does a little math (or a lot!) and emits output that imitates that of the Helicommand's visual sensor?
I'm thinking a GPS receiver like the one in my Cell phone (which is amazingly accurate), a power supply, some sort of PIC microprocessor, some smart coding knowledge, and a bit of know how (none of which I have) would be able to emulate the signals that the visual sensor provides to the Helicommand thus giving relatively affordable GPS position hold.
Any electronic geniuses out there care to support, ponder, or utterly debunk this theory?
-A
But...
I was looking at Helicommand Units today, I have been thinking about getting one, because I live in an area that is difficult for my AP2000i. Lots of trees and mountains make it difficult not to drift if I need to turn the heli around.
I realized after a bit of reading that, since the Helicommand can hold position a few meters off the ground, using it's down pointing visual sensor, It already has "Position Hold" functionality built into the unit.
Would it not be possible to swap out the visual sensor for (and here is where it turns into a hypothesis) a GPS unit, and some sort of PIC controller that takes a sampling of GPS data, does a little math (or a lot!) and emits output that imitates that of the Helicommand's visual sensor?
I'm thinking a GPS receiver like the one in my Cell phone (which is amazingly accurate), a power supply, some sort of PIC microprocessor, some smart coding knowledge, and a bit of know how (none of which I have) would be able to emulate the signals that the visual sensor provides to the Helicommand thus giving relatively affordable GPS position hold.
Any electronic geniuses out there care to support, ponder, or utterly debunk this theory?
-A