/diy/ - Do It Yourself

Rear View

closeup of the /diy/ camera mount

>>304041
That rear wifi-looking antenna configuration. Is there someplace to download the specs of that and how well does that configuration work?

Nice work on everything, btw.

My first "UAS". (God that sounds so pretentious!) Let's just call it an FPV craft. Made from a Modified EasyStar. I get lots of components from RMRC, which is why thier stickers are all over my stuff. I don't own a stake or anything. Just like 'em.

Another shot from a higher angle. Please excuse my unwashed laundry. :D

>>304047
You mean the funny shaped one with the multiple lobes on it? That is a "Cloverleaf" antenna. I bought it from ReadymadeRC.com as part of a set. It's for the video transmitter and is for the 5.8ghz frequency. You can find instructions on how to build your own cloverleaf antenna over at fpvlabs.com. Just do a search for posts by user "IBCrazy". He is sort of an antenna guru over there, but an awesome and really humble dude.

>>304055
>saved

Thank you!

I've been looking in to alternative antennae design.

slighty blurry closeup of my Vtx and cloverleaf.

I should note that I didn't DIY the antenna because the 5.8 ghz antenna tolerances are super tight and I don't have the proper tools to make them correctly. But they CAN be DIYed, provided you have the correct tools.

corny shot of the plane with a shoulder-mounted secondary recording camera. It's sitting on a toy car I was attempting to use as a launcher. It was a flop. Just caused the plane to spin out, so I went back to the old standby of "rev up the motor and chuck it".

This was the last "living" picture of my plane, as the next day I took it out and crashed it during high speed low altitude manuvers.

And this is what happens when you are hot dogging for yourtalented /diy/erand screw up at full throttle and 10 feet off the ground.

Amazingly, all the electronics work perfectly!

>>304058
>>304062
>antennae info

Good to know. Oh man, what if....what if it crashes into something and mashes the antenna?

Also, there are micro cams for radio controlled blimps that you might want to look into. Their power supply is the only real weight downfall obviously.

>>304064
>this post popped up while I was typing

D=

So what do you do when you've destroyed your FPV aircraft?

Why, /diy/ another one, of course!

>>304065
well, as you can see, it's made of foam and it weighs less than 4 kilos, so it's not gonna do much damage of anything. Also, I avoid flying low over crowds of people. The day I crashed we were at an empty outdoor soccer complex. 10 acres of nothing but grass. Nice thermals too. This mashed up LiPo battery was the worst damage. Obviously I can't use that battery anymore.

New plane body glued together and receiving paint

closeup of the integrated antenna mount for the 2.4ghz rc receiver. I mount a skew planar wheel antenna on this point. Similar to the cloverleaf, but with four lobes instead of three

neodymium magnets and a wall anchor to hold the vertical stabilizer on.

horizontal stab and another wall anchor for the long screw to pass through.

Bottom of tail section and the hole that the tail screw goes up into. So I end up with a sandwich:

Vertical stab
Horizontal stab
Fuse tail

and a metal screw driving up through all three.

This way I can disassemble the tail for transport. (The main wings are held on by magnets and spars.)

Belly bay and more magnets to hold it on. You can get these at a hobby or craft store. They are very small and light but are so strong they will pinch your fingers if you aren't careful. So they are great for holding parts on that need to stay secure in flight, but be easily removable without tools when needed.

Cockpit area with light spruce ply for reinforcement and velcro to help hold on the camera mount. I don't use magnets here as there isn't enough structure to hold on to them. Also, the heavy duty velcro helps dampen vibration from the prop a bit, resulting in a smoother picture.

GoPro camera on my /diy/ mount made from the packing material the GoPro came in!

The GoPro comes on a black plastic "plate" mount in it's lexan packing box. Normally you would toss that mount as it is not meant for regular use, but I found it's perfect for making a camera mount for my FPV plane!

And the (mostly) finished plane!

I added a couple things after this such as chrome pinstriping between the black, white and orange areas, and a plastic front skidplate for landing on, but this is pretty much what it looks like now.

Another angle.

Also missing from this picture is the video wire from the GoPro to the Vtx on the tail so I can see out of it when piloting. (Yes, I actually pilot it using the camera with the video signal beamed to some goggles I wear)

Last shot. Gotta go wrangle the spawn now sounds like my two eldest are getting into a fight.

That's some really cool stuff, OP.

One question, which is better, to have the camera on the top of bottom of the drone?

Depends on the type of plane you are using. Planes like mine that belly land, you really can't put the camera on the bottom. You could cut off the tip of the nose and put the camera there, and I have seen some people do that. My original plane (The one that crashed) had a pan and tilt mechanism for the camera. I could actually look down over the side of the plane while flying. Sadly, that was obliterated in the crash. So I just went with the wide-angle GoPro in a protective case for the second plane.

I have seen a few belly-slung cameras, but they are almost always on planes with landing gear. And having landing gear means that you need smoother landing strips than with a belly lander, so your flying areas are more limited.

ReadymadeRC has a plane with two camera mounts. one on top and forward facing, the other on the bottom and downward facing, with a clear lexan bubble and a landing skid to protect it. Some people are wiring up teo cameras with a switch and they are actively swapping back and forth between them.

>>304338
Good points.

How about a plane with a camera that can be retracted? Better yet a camera that can retract and come out the other side.

Awesome work OP.

Do you use these for surveillance or spying on people?

Sweet planes, OP

I'd show some of my stuff, but I still can't get my quad to fly stable.

>>304380
I have actually seen this. On the RCGroups.com forum there was a guy with a glider that he had modified with a section of PVC pipe mounted vertically inside the fuselage and flush with the bottom. Inside it was a retract mechanism and his flight cam. Saw some videos of it retracting, it was really cool. Dunno if he's still around though.

Heh. I just did a quick google and found this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAk4Lc1s9vc Guy with a retractable belly cam on his Easystar clone body. (I think that's the same body as my new plane.) So there you go!

>>304391

Nah. The cameras these planes can carry are WAY too low rez to do anything like that. If you can even see people they are like tiny little specks on the ground. Even the GoPro isn't any good at capturing detail at range. Keep in mind I'm usually flying at a few hundred feet. From up there you can't see any ground detail. Just the pretty view. Which is why I fly. It's just so damn gorgeous up there and flying RC like this is such an adrenaline rush, but completely safe.

For an example of how you can't see anything, look at the attached screenshot. (Ignore the date, it's wrong.) That shot is from one of my flights this past summer. I am IN that screenshot. Can you see me?

>>304561

Lower left corner?

Any thoughts of transmitting data/video using 3G or 4G or 12G? Sourcing a 3g router from cell company and using that to transmit video and control input. Allowing your vessel to travel at any range worry free.

>>304569

nope. I am actually near the center of the image. just to the right and below the right lower corner of the parking lot you can see three light blurry blobs. these are two small tree saplings and me.

>>304598

Fucking facepalm...

Do you even realize how cellphones work?

Good work on the drone OP.

Your flying 2.4 and video 5.8?

Or are you on UHF?

Also show us your ground station and transmitter.

>>304647
Are you a tree?

Will you make a separate channel for your sensor officer?

>>304660

I'm on 2.4 for control and 5.8 for video. Can't afford UHF right now, but eventually I will look into that. I have a 1.3 video tx and rx I'm planning on using for my Truck as 5.8 for the truck really didn't cut it.

Just using a pair of Fatshark Aviators (with the built in 5.8 receiver) and my RC TX right now, no fancy ground station yet. Just an old '80's era camcorder box as a carry case for my gear. So nothing worth taking pictures of.

>>304685
No, I'm standing next to the trees. The small saplings are roughly the same height as I am and are throwing similar sized shadows on the ground. So it looks like 3 blobs all the same size.

>>304872

Not sure what you mean. No fancy sensors on my plane. Just a camera for piloting through.

>>304598

Lol. That would totally NOT work. The amount of delay (not to mention data charges) would be ridiculous.

Besides. I ALREADY transmit video via my 5.8 ghz video transmitter (the little one on the tail)

There are a very limited range of available unlicensed spectrum available in most western countries. It varies by country, although 2.4 and 5.8 are pretty universally available as they are Wifi spectrum. Of course, the disadvantage is that they are also very "noisy" with all the other consumer items out there.

Also available (in varying countries) are UHF, 900mhz, 1.2 & 1.3 ghz. Most of the "long range" guys use UHF for control and either 1.2/1.3ghz or 2.4ghz for video. Since I don't do long range (I keep it inside a mile/2km) I don't need those frequencies. Yet.

>>306182
Nice build OP love the breakdown of your equipment.

I actually have been tossing around an idea for a blimp but havent gotten anything together (to many other half done projects) do you have any reason why a blimp(airship) would be a bad idea?

Also do you source your parts mainly from readymaderc or do you use other suppliers like towerhobbies and lynxmotion? Any good resource sites that i could read through?

Hey OP, do you have any videos you could post of your flights?

I love the look of what you've done. I never really thought about it, but this would fit nicely with my interests in aerial photography and antenna design...

>>306233

Lol, it will take you a good 1-5 months depending on your internet skills to look through all the forums and read about DIY drones. Shit combines pretty much every aspect of flight you can think of as well as radio.

If your looking to cut cost's you got a long road ahead of you of reading, reading, and more reading. Otherwise you better have a hefty piggy bank cause shit isn't cheap.

OP is flying on a basic setup that is maximized. He probably spent a good while DIY his kit. Probably the next step would be for him to go long range with UHF, he would also need to invest in a nice spectrum analyzer and tracking antenna.

He could also venture into hot wire cutting of foam if he was truly looking for a low budget DIY system.

If anybody is venturing into FPV they will ultimate consider OP's setup for it's low budget cost.

Much respect OP! Keep it up!

>>306233
Sure. They aren't any great shakes, (I'm not much of a video producer) But I can link a couple...

I should note, these are all from my old plane. I haven't had the chance to get out and fly the new one since I built it, it's either been too windy or I've been too busy. But here you go:

Flight from the Old Schoolyard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05VEXavN4tI&feature=g-upl

(It's a bit shaky. It was borderline too windy and the lower air currents were really turbulent. So I had to keep correcting or get flipped over by sudden gusts.)

>>306247

Thanks Bro! :)

Yeah, It was my first build too, so I spent probably about 3 months building the first plane. The second one I had together and painted in about a week. Once I had done it once, repeating it was much easier.

Here's another one:

Soccer Field in the Morning

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPRKcv3SGME&feature=g-upl

That's all I have of my plane right now. I actually have one last video from that plane I just haven't put it up yet. Sadly, the video from the flight where I crashed got corrupted when the recording camera impacted the ground. So that one was a loss. Too bad, I had some nice barrel rolls and loops in it too. :(

Here is one of my FPV truck doing some "speed runs" up and down my block. Please excuse my ugly mug.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj4Dybpdr9k&feature=context-gau

>>306214

A blimp is interesting. Haven't heard of anyone doing that yet. I would be concerned about wind though. Unless you had a REALLY powerful drive system on it, you would pretty much be at the mercy of even a light breeze. If you haven't done FPV yet, I would really suggest starting out with something like mine, a Multiplex EasyStar with an upgraded motor/ESC kit from ReadymadeRC and some basic FPV equipment. Start small and work your way up. FPV can get CRAZY expensive. Trust me, you do NOT want your first experience flying FPV to be kitting out a $1500 plane, taking it up and having it either fly off on you or smash into the ground and obliterate all your gear. Start small with a basic plane and cheap gear so if you lose it or (like me) crash it you won't be out thousands of dollars.

As far as shopping goes, I buy most of my FPV specialized equipment from readymaderc.com, although there are plenty of other places:

nghobbies.com
futurehobbies.com
getfpv.com

and lots more. For basic RC stuff I have bought from Tower, from HobbyKing, from Amazon.com and, of course, my Local Hobby Shop.

For info I prefer fpvlabs.com. There are also the FPV forums over at rcgroups, but most of the best people from there have moved over to fpvlabs, which was founded to get away from the oldfags and rulefags over at RCG who troll the FPV boards there.

One last video. This was my first ever FPV video, taken with my truck. It's a raw video taken straight from the GoPro. No fancy music, no editing effects. I just added text overlays using YouTube's overlay system. Yeah, more of my ugly mug too. Sorry about that. :(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx_OJSNeGnY&feature=g-upl

>>306175
Nah, i just meant a second channel for your pal. You fly the plane, he turns the camera.

>>306627

Well, you COULD do that through the use of a buddy box. For those that are unfamiliar, a buddy box is a feature of all advanced RC TXs (Radio Control Transmitter units) that allows a second RC TX to be connected to the first with a cable that will allow a second person to control either the entire rc craft, or just a few functions. In this case, the pan and tilt camera functions.

Of course, the only problem with this idea is that I am flying the RC plane THROUGH the camera while wearing video goggles. So if someone else is controlling the camera, it would make it really hard to pilot the plane.

I simply mapped the tilt and pan servos to two of the variable pot controls on my TX and controlled pand and tilt that way. it also allowed me to adjust the angle of my camera so that when I was flying with a lower sun angle I could tilt the camera to minimize glare.

The disadvantage of a setup like this is that I have to take my hands off of the control sticks to pan and tilt the camera. So many FPVers use head mounted motion sensors connected to the RCTX through the "buddy box" port, and them mapped to the pan and tilt servo controls. This gives your the same result as using a buddy box and another person to control it, but it uses motion sensors on your head instead. So where you look, the camera looks.

It's not fool proof and has some technical drawbacks in addition to being expensive, but it does work well enough that many FPVers use it.

>>307088
would be cool to adruino that up and have the tilt and pan match where you pointed your head via feedback from accelerometers .