The Ground station is not finished, i am still waiting for my 500mHz RX and EagleEyes....and i need to do some minor mods.

This Ground station rotates with out getting the wires in a mess. All the wires needed (A/v, 12v....) rotates around copper contacts inside the shaft.
I have set the trim on my remote ( still waiting for the EagleEyes) so that the patch will rotate in a direction for about
a hour ( in one direction, and then the other direction).... no problems....so far

FPV CONTINUOUS ROTATING GROUND STATION Phase 1 (1 min 24 sec)

nice.

now the million $ question. Howd you make it

Remember the old power wheels toy cars and the electric two lane track you put together. You could make the track any way you wanted.

Anyway, after it sat for a while, the track would get this crud on it and you'd have to use some emory cloth to clean the grid before the car would make contact all the way around.

What's to say this won't happen to the copper tracks you made?

Originally Posted by Carlyle Harper

Remember the old power wheels toy cars and the electric two lane track you put together. You could make the track any way you wanted.

Anyway, after it sat for a while, the track would get this crud on it and you'd have to use some emory cloth to clean the grid before the car would make contact all the way around.

What's to say this won't happen to the copper tracks you made?

Not if he used a high quality slip ring (mil spec)

http://www.moog.com/products/slip-rings/

Tnx

Here are some pix of what i did.
The copper tracks i am talking about is "de-soldering copper braided wire" , this is on the main shaft and the
contacts running on them are normal electric wire from an extension cord .

The main shaft just fits in to the lower part ( if i can call it that ).
I have drilled holes through the lower part and, fed the bare electric cable (Cm bare) through the wholes.... this
bare cable makes contact with the de-solder Wire on the main shaft.
There is no chance for a short what so ever
because the groofs in the main shaft are 4 mm deep, and the main shaft and the lower part just fits in
to each other.... meaning that the cables wont slip out of the rail / groofs.





Originally Posted by Carlyle Harper
Remember the old power wheels toy cars and the electric two lane track you put together. You could make the track any way you wanted.

Anyway, after it sat for a while, the track would get this crud on it and you'd have to use some emory cloth to clean the grid before the car would make contact all the way around.

What's to say this won't happen to the copper tracks you made?


Yea, i did not think of the "crud" factor.... This only means that i have to fly more to keep the copper clean
I am sure there are something one can put on the copper to protect it from "crud"... i will do some searching... and experimenting

Thanks aney way for the eye opener

Good effort.
Two better ways to make a DIY slip ring...

http://letsmakerobots.com/node/9883

even better

http://www.carlpisaturo.com/_ElNo_SLIP.html

Now you need to think about feedback for panning position - think old style 'roller ball' computer mouse or shaft encoder

Why does nobody think about putting only audio and video over the slip ring by placing the battery above the slip ring?
This way, you only need 3 tracks, 1 for video, 1 for audio and 1 for ground.
Then, there is less chance of making wideband RF from the arcing DC on the slip ring !

Nigel.

The crud you should fear is oxidation of the copper.

Each ring should have two brushes to make sure one bad spot doesn't ruin your day. Also just make sure to use it often to knock all the nasty crud off.

Originally Posted by Devonboy

Why does nobody think about putting only audio and video over the slip ring by placing the battery above the slip ring?
This way, you only need 3 tracks, 1 for video, 1 for audio and 1 for ground.
Then, there is less chance of making wideband RF from the arcing DC on the slip ring !

Nigel.

Why not get an 3-4 pole ear phone jack and use that? They can spin and not cause any problems...

Idea=Awesome... However my friend, in execution, I think I would had revealed my plan to the fine ppl on rcg first, man2000me had a great idea with the phone jack spinners... but it looks like it works all good anyway, great job... now just watch out for the formation of corrosion and you'll be set

I'd use separate RXs and batteries on top and bottom instead of slip rings (unreliable and expensive). Look at at robotic snakes and such - each part has its supply and radio.

I have never used a antenna tracker.

But how does the antenna know where the air plane is ?

Originally Posted by Devonboy

Good effort.
Two better ways to make a DIY slip ring...

http://letsmakerobots.com/node/9883

even better

http://www.carlpisaturo.com/_ElNo_SLIP.html

Now you need to think about feedback for panning position - think old style 'roller ball' computer mouse or shaft encoder

Why does nobody think about putting only audio and video over the slip ring by placing the battery above the slip ring?
This way, you only need 3 tracks, 1 for video, 1 for audio and 1 for ground.
Then, there is less chance of making wideband RF from the arcing DC on the slip ring !

Nigel.

Thank You and Thanx for the links.

""Now you need to think about feedback for panning position"" ........Mmmmm did't think of that

I dont know if i got it rite, but lets say when you use a 180* pan servo, you must program the EagleEyes to stop rotating the servo before it strip the gears, for my system woun't it work if i just don't tell the EagleEyes where to stop rotating the sevo ?

Originally Posted by BushmanLA

The crud you should fear is oxidation of the copper.

Each ring should have two brushes to make sure one bad spot doesn't ruin your day. Also just make sure to use it often to knock all the nasty crud off.

Maybe one can use some other material or method, that does not need to be maintained....... if only i could get my EagleEyes (backorder), then i will start knocking the crud off.

Originally Posted by man2000me

Why not get an 3-4 pole ear phone jack and use that? They can spin and not cause any problems...

I did not think of that.