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So I finally got around to recording some video! I readjusted the AoA settings and it is perfect
Video has two stall demos, a "high g" turn and some general flying. The red stall LED comes on at pretty much the exact moment the plane stalls. Enjoy!
Video has two stall demos, a "high g" turn and some general flying. The red stall LED comes on at pretty much the exact moment the plane stalls. Enjoy!| FPV F-16 With Angle of Attack Indicator (5 min 0 sec) |
Finally got some video! This is of the old setup with the bigger LED's.
I got the aEasyCap up and running. I took the laptop out to the field and could barely read the screen to start the recording. After much struggling I got it done and flew a battery through it line of sight. I did all sorts of maneuvers to show the AoA indicator working. Got home and for some reason the EasyCap cut off the bottom of the vidoe!!
I could not see the LED's
I have to adjust the camera and record it again. Typical
| Angle Of Attack Indicator for FPV (0 min 12 sec) |
I got the aEasyCap up and running. I took the laptop out to the field and could barely read the screen to start the recording. After much struggling I got it done and flew a battery through it line of sight. I did all sorts of maneuvers to show the AoA indicator working. Got home and for some reason the EasyCap cut off the bottom of the vidoe!!
I could not see the LED's I have to adjust the camera and record it again. Typical
So I got the smaller LED's installed. Much better visibility through the camera now that the LED's don't take up a third of the screen
I had my first flight with them last week and it was amazing! I had absolute confidence flying slowly. What a difference a few lights make. I feel that even with more experience judging speed under FPV the AoA indicator gives much more confidence. It really was impressive. Slow it down into the yellow, then easily adjust power and pitch to keep it there. Awesome!
I did some low level tree flying as well, had a blast.
EzCap is on the way so I will get some footage ASAP.
I am working on a custom mini FPV plane and plan to put a Version 2 AoA indicator in it with the small LED's and the other improvements listed in the previous post. Updates to follow.
Oh and please leave some comments, I would love some feedback
I had my first flight with them last week and it was amazing! I had absolute confidence flying slowly. What a difference a few lights make. I feel that even with more experience judging speed under FPV the AoA indicator gives much more confidence. It really was impressive. Slow it down into the yellow, then easily adjust power and pitch to keep it there. Awesome!
I did some low level tree flying as well, had a blast.
EzCap is on the way so I will get some footage ASAP.
I am working on a custom mini FPV plane and plan to put a Version 2 AoA indicator in it with the small LED's and the other improvements listed in the previous post. Updates to follow.
Oh and please leave some comments, I would love some feedback
(Edit : added new led setup pictures.)
Finally got some video though I still need to get a YouTube or Vimeo account.
The prototype is working great but I already have plans to improve on it. Mainly everything will be cleaned up and made more compact. I want to scale everything down and get rid of the extra wiring.
Version 2 improvements -
- I bought some small led's that will be mounted in the nose to be shaded from the sun while still visible from the camera.
- mount the angle sensing chip directly to the plastic bearing tube. This will make it very easy to place it properly near the magnet. I will put the magnet on first then attach the chip which will be mounted to some depron. I will make the whole bearing tube and AoA vane shaft smaller too. Should be much more compact.
- a smaller AoA vane. I think a much smaller one will work just fine and will be less likely to get damaged. I used a larger toothpick and I think a standard one will work. Eventually I might get one 3D printed.
- Smaller connectors for the led's. The servo connectors are squished in at an angle where they attach to the Arduino pins. Micro servo leads would solve this problem although I might end up just soldering them directly.
Here are the pictures of the new smaller led's. The light they give off is very directional. It is very bright seen head on and relatively dim from the sides. I will bevel the back side of the depron so that when mounted in the nose they will be pointing directly at the camera.
Finally got some video though I still need to get a YouTube or Vimeo account.
The prototype is working great but I already have plans to improve on it. Mainly everything will be cleaned up and made more compact. I want to scale everything down and get rid of the extra wiring.
Version 2 improvements -
- I bought some small led's that will be mounted in the nose to be shaded from the sun while still visible from the camera.
- mount the angle sensing chip directly to the plastic bearing tube. This will make it very easy to place it properly near the magnet. I will put the magnet on first then attach the chip which will be mounted to some depron. I will make the whole bearing tube and AoA vane shaft smaller too. Should be much more compact.
- a smaller AoA vane. I think a much smaller one will work just fine and will be less likely to get damaged. I used a larger toothpick and I think a standard one will work. Eventually I might get one 3D printed.
- Smaller connectors for the led's. The servo connectors are squished in at an angle where they attach to the Arduino pins. Micro servo leads would solve this problem although I might end up just soldering them directly.
Here are the pictures of the new smaller led's. The light they give off is very directional. It is very bright seen head on and relatively dim from the sides. I will bevel the back side of the depron so that when mounted in the nose they will be pointing directly at the camera.
Software
So once I had all the hardware put together I needed to get the AoA range set up. To do this you need to know the values coming out of the chip. I wrote a simple program to read the value and display it on the computer screen using the Serial Monitor function in the Arduino programing environment. With the program running you click on Serial Monitor and a small window pops up that displays the output of the chip. Here is the program:
So with this running I set the AoA vane to an approximate 0 AoA and noted the output. It was reading about 800 or so but it was very unstable. As I mentioned before it did not like the voltage from my PC power supply and after much frustration I hooked the chip up to power from the Arduino and it was perfect
Now I got a good reading from 0 AoA to what I guessed was near stall angle. This range was about 800 to 900. I would fine tune this range after flight testing.
I had called Lou...Continue Reading
So once I had all the hardware put together I needed to get the AoA range set up. To do this you need to know the values coming out of the chip. I wrote a simple program to read the value and display it on the computer screen using the Serial Monitor function in the Arduino programing environment. With the program running you click on Serial Monitor and a small window pops up that displays the output of the chip. Here is the program:
Quote:
|
/* AoA indicator test Program This sketch will allow me to read the output of a magnatic angle sensing chip so that the output ran ge can be determined for measuring the Angle of Attac k of an RC plane. */ int SensorOut = A2; // analog pin for AoA sensor output int AoA; // variable to read the value from SensorOut void setup(){ Serial.begin(9600); pinMode (SensorOut, INPUT); } void loop() { AoA = analogRead(SensorOut); Serial.println(AoA); delay(500); } |
Now I got a good reading from 0 AoA to what I guessed was near stall angle. This range was about 800 to 900. I would fine tune this range after flight testing.I had called Lou...Continue Reading
Finally found some time to get a build log started This setup uses a magnetic angle sensing chip, an Arduino micro controller and Led's to indicate the Angle of attack of my F-16. The led's will be on the nose of the F-16 visible from my FPV camera. There will be three green, three yellow and two red led's to indicate low, medium and high AoA respectively.
Original discussion thread here:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=2190654
Hardware:
Arduino Pro Mini
http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardProMini
I chose the 16mhz 5 volt version. I think there should be no problem using the 8 mhz 3 volt version though. You will need to purchase some header pins to attach the programing lead to.
Pins:
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/553
programing lead USB to serial FTDI cable:
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9718
You will need this to download your programs onto the Arduino.
This setup uses a magnetic angle sensing chip to send a variable voltage signal to the Arduino which then lights up led's according to the angle of attack. I found a few different manufactures on line and decided to go with one from a company called GMW due to its simplicity. I called the company with some questions and was transferred to their engineer who turned out to be a great guy named Lou. After telling him my plans he informed me that he had always wanted to try programing and had built R/C subs at one point. He always thought that the programing would be a little...Continue Reading
This setup uses a magnetic angle sensing chip, an Arduino micro controller and Led's to indicate the Angle of attack of my F-16. The led's will be on the nose of the F-16 visible from my FPV camera. There will be three green, three yellow and two red led's to indicate low, medium and high AoA respectively.Original discussion thread here:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=2190654
Hardware:
Arduino Pro Mini
http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardProMini
I chose the 16mhz 5 volt version. I think there should be no problem using the 8 mhz 3 volt version though. You will need to purchase some header pins to attach the programing lead to.
Pins:
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/553
programing lead USB to serial FTDI cable:
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9718
You will need this to download your programs onto the Arduino.
This setup uses a magnetic angle sensing chip to send a variable voltage signal to the Arduino which then lights up led's according to the angle of attack. I found a few different manufactures on line and decided to go with one from a company called GMW due to its simplicity. I called the company with some questions and was transferred to their engineer who turned out to be a great guy named Lou. After telling him my plans he informed me that he had always wanted to try programing and had built R/C subs at one point. He always thought that the programing would be a little...Continue Reading
