Updates-- trying to control a micro indoor helicopter with PC and transmit wireless video
I just bought a wireless camera for my micro heli E-Flight Blade MSR. More on this below....
I took a few weeks to digest everyone's suggestions, and I think I now have a better grasp on my project and where I should take it. For a while I couldn't quite understand why everyone was telling me that I should loose the complexity and stick to simple designs, but then I remembered a term that I supposedly learned in college: "Reynolds number". Doh! Okay okay, I'll keep it simple (stupid). Thanks everyone for knocking some sense into me :-). I really, really appreciate the comments.
Before I try to make my own scratch built MAV, I'm going to experiment with a few easier projects. (BTW everyone, my future MAV is heading more towards a quadcopter...you can say "I told you so")
The above picture is a LTS LTCMW203E1, which is a 2.4 ghz wireless video camera (CMOS). It's arriving tonight, and I hope to tear it down to the board and pop it on my micro heli Blade MSR and hope that it's light enough to fly. I don't expect great results from this, as I'm not really interested in POV (point of view) flying a Blade MSR, but it's a start. I read a lot of concerns about using 2.4ghz transmitters interfering (or receiving interference) from the 2.4ghz system on the MSR, but I've also been told that they work fine. So I guess I'm going to just try it and see what happens. If I had a choice I would have gone w/ 900mhz, but long story short I'm taking a chance and will share my results.
On another note, I am concurrently working on interfacing my transmitter from my RTF blade MSR kit w/ my PC. I've been following the same procedure from http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=721024 , and am hoping to be able to read the DSM2 serial tonight. I have been pulling out my hair because for the past few nights I was trying to monitor the serial transmissions without level shifting (I did not realize that microchips speak in 0 - 3.3volt, while my PC RS232 is looking for higher voltage than that, so I need to make a circuit to bump up the voltage in the signal coming from the transmitter). Whoops!! I'll breadboard one tonight and hopefully i should be able to read the serial no problem. Once I can read, writing a program to write the DSM2 serial in LabVIEW shouldn't be too bad, and then I'll use my joystick ( Saitek x45 ) to control my Blade MSR.
Sooooo long story short, once I get the above to work (cross fingers), I'll throw an accelerometer on my Blade MSR w/ a tiny simple transmitter, and experiment with flight stabilization. this is all to help me understand the basics, so I can try to tackle more complex projects like my scratch built MAV.
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Comment by Jeff on February 24, 2010 at 8:46pm -
so it works, and flies! but i fried a capacitor on the camera tx before i could record the video. wiring mishap.... going to have to look into this tomorrow and try to replace it
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Comment by Morli on February 24, 2010 at 9:01pm -
looks good Jeff, pls keep us posted
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Comment by Joel Ryan on February 25, 2010 at 8:56am -
not really the main theme of your post, but how do you like the saitek x45 joystick? Do you have the throttle with it? I've been considering getting one for flying fpv, and I wanted to get the opinion of someone that already has it
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Comment by Jeff on February 25, 2010 at 10:30am
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it's a fantastic joystick. I used it for microsoft flight simulator a few years back, it is very responsive and feels solid. I have the throttle and joystick set, and I would recommend it. haven't yet used it for flying point of view, but i'll be posting my progress and will let you know the results.
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Comment by James Turner on February 26, 2010 at 1:32pm -
nice work Jeff, I used the same camera setup when I was getting started. With the right antenna you maybe suprised at just how far these things can transmit. The only problem I had was having to use the tuning knob again during flying as the battery voltage dropped and they dont handle changes in light very well, but great for starting out. IMO the x45 /x52 are probably one of the best joysticks you can use if your flying from a PC.
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