EAGLETREE and FLYING GIANTS BIG PROJECT

[Kiwi]

Gents.

This project has been in the oven for a good few months while I assembled the items we needed and got the courage worked up to start it.

Here's what we are going to try and do. Note thet I said we. This is a community involvement project to try and raise the awareness of the simplicity yet interesting technical side of electrics and telemetry on model aircraft.

What are we going to do here.

First off we will be doing some simple testing on a small electric trainer showing things like motor choice, battery systems, props, esc's etc. Data such as prop to battery compatibility, Esc compatibility to battery packs. Fun simple stuff to encourage people to take the plunge into electrics with a lot of the hard answers in hand.

Stage two we will go to a bigger electric model and again look at data and then telemetry to see what's going on in flight so we can get the maximum from our setup and of course have fun doing it.

Stage three is downlinking the data so we can see real time data while we are in the air. This will be a gasser and hopefully my 35% or something like that. We will look at engine data, G forces, speeds, etc. All from the ground.

Stage four is the big one. This will be a fully setup 40% model equipped with a virtual reality system with full heads up display for flight data, altitude. speed etc, just like the real thing. The idea is this will be as close as we can get to be bum in seat. I have in mind a head mounted camera so if you look left, the pilot will look left, look down at your feet, you see feet.

Get the idea. But I'm not doing it with text. This whole project from A to Z is going to be in high definition video, it will be in the M4v format from Apple as it is really so far ahead of windows that it makes it worth it. We will be able to watch it here or download it to your iphone or Itouch.

Guys this is all new to me, uncharted territory and if were not for Mr Bill Parry from Eagle tree helping me out on this one it just would not work.

So my first vid due up tomorrow night is purely introductory, to set the pace, test the format and then lets have some fun guys. Please post questions in the forum so everyone can see and answer. As I said I'm a petrol head and this electric stuff while not new to me is really a black hole for ideas.

What do you say guys. Can we build a semi autonomous plane flown in real 3D real time.

Did I hear motion sickness mentioned???

Lets go guys.

[DesertHucker]

Kiwi sounds great, Look forward to see what you come up with.
You should come back to Kalgoorlie

[SleepyC]

Oh boy.... Kiwi is using big words, and assembling electronics... RUN!!!!!

Just kidding. This whole project sounds amazing. And the idea of running video casts is a great one. When dealing with electronics you can write 12 paragraphs trying to describe what you did and what wire went where, or you could shoot a 30 second video and get your point across quickly and with precision.

GO KIWI! Can't wait for the whole series.

[videocruzer]

very cool
I have wanted to do this the very first time i saw the full scale races.
I started experimenting with video gear on my planes.
the live video was very stable and clear on the eletric foam planes but on the nitro I am having to come up with a much better way to isolate the vibration from the camera gear.
I have a micro video switcher onboard that lets me switch the 2 cameras from the transmitter. I have one more component to add to the system and thats a gps overlay device. it will give me speed, alttiude,heading, even way points to fly to overlaid on the live video from my plane.
the glasses have been modified and has a 640x480 screen thats just over a 1/2" square mounted in the sunglasses.
there is commercial products $500(320x200) up to $7000. for 7 grand you get OLED (Organic light emitting diode) transparent micro srceen that has your data (video) overlaid infront of one eye.
I am also working on a live wireless video server that would be online (onsite)so any wireless ip device could view the realtime video.
Attached Thumbnails

one prblem with the vr googles, at AMA or MAAC fields is the rules are clear.
you must have your naked eyes on the aircraft. ie nothing blocking your naked eyes from the aircraft.
there is no mention of a buddy box system though.
a guy i was chatting with said there insurance say max is 7kg or about 14lbs for vr aircraft.

[Kiwi]

OK guys and Gals, This attempt no 568 to get the video to upload. Because its in a format we have not used on the site before it has caused some pain for SleepyC but I figure we have it beat now.

Ok whats the deal? This is test upload mostly of my ugly mug talking BS about what we going to do. Some of the hardware is still in transit and I have not pulled the trigger on the video equipment yet. Guys I really need as much input and facts as possible about what to use. I would rather spend a few dollars more on something that works perfectly than waste my hard won hobby dollars on something that barely functions. So any suggestions, videos or what ever showing what you have, how it works and what you have learned will be greatly appreciated by everyone.

If your on another site or forum and into this stuff please come on over and join in with me. We can cross post this stuff on RCG if the demand exists but it gets hard to keep track of two threads that often go off in different directions.

The basis of this whole project is the support and help from www.eagletreesystems.com

Bill Parry has been an absolute wealth of knowledge and help in getting started and aimed in the right direction and if you want to go down this path please give him a thought when you go to look for hardware. He is really a modelers friend at heart and a great guy.

Ok the video format is m4v. That is Apples HDV video format and it plays in Quicktime, Itunes and it downloads to your Ipod or Iphone with no reformatting or third party software. I dont have a clue if it can be made to run in windows but I will try to find a way. I purchased a bundle of software to convert .mov to .wmv but the result is an embarrassment. It might be me, I need to work some more on it.

So guys this series is a cry for help, a call for inter action between anyone who wants to take virtual reality a few steps up the ladder in RC. I cant wait to get it all together but I also want to learn to crawl with this stuff before I walk.

I'm excited about the project gents, please call in any friends who have gone down this path before to join in and have some fun.

Darned video wont load guys, keep an eye for the next try, No 587 I think. Uggghhhhhh. Computers.

[Edge 540]

Hey Kiwi.sounds like an awesome project. I have the eagletree pro equipment setup in my 35% imac plane right now.

Last year I was running data on a q-500 and pulled 30.9G's in a wall.

[Kiwi]

OHHHHH,, I was flying my 35% in some basic Imac stuff last weekend and constantly pulled +7 g's and -9 g's in outside loops.

That was using the seagull system with sample rates at a low rate. I did not download the onboard logger as this a shake down flight before I start doing the install for this series. Call it a dry run so I dont put my foot in my mouth when showing people the setups etc.

Join in, the end result is hopefully a 40% flown from the ground like your in a full size simulator.

[Kiwi]

Ok I had to revert to Windoze guys. Just cant make the M4v format work, maybe its a Mac protection thing, not sure but we cant make it fly here even if the file type is approved.

So here is the first boring 7 minutes to make sure we have a system that works and is clear enough to see the detail we want later on.

[Joacim]

Would be cool to have a logging system in my 15kw Extra, the logger i have now can only rate 100A, but its eguiped with Deans so i do not dare to use it over 65-70A setups.

[Kiwi]

How about some photos of your setup Joacim. That sounds to be an awesome setup.

[Kiwi]

Phew,

Been a busy week or two with work and we are still waiting on parts to arrive for stage three of this series. That will be a V3 ELogger in a pattern plane, running 10S pack and a some good bells and whistles.

But for now here is a really roughed out video so you dont think I went to sleep on this.

I'm a darned pedantic old fool on being neat with this stuff so I do a lot of things three or four times to get them right. I tend to believe (from experience) that a very neat setup pays you back in longevity with your models. What do I mean by that? Well loose servo wires, antennas flopping around, bad battery installations to name a few will bite you so bad and you will never know what caused your loss. I love this interference as being a cause of losses. I think 99% are self induced interference from faulty setups. It can be something so minor as a sloppy servo extension. Trouble is after your pride and joy has taken a dirt nap you wont ever find out why.

So prevention is the best cure in my books.

Here's the setup as it stands tonight. I'm happy with the way it sits and nothing is floating around. The servo cables need more work but will be OK for static tests.


So far I have not made my mind up on the on board video equipment. I'm really open to advise and locations to source the stuff. I prefer 900 Mhz as it stays away from 2.4 that is becoming very popular at the field now but I want range. At least a mile with good video resolution if possible.

I'm open to suggestion here guys, fire your ideas here.