Hi, I'm starting to collect, design and gather some 3D parts for the flysky i6 transmitter. I will add them here with links as I get through them, please let me know if you happen across some cool things also. Here I made a replacement cover for the battery compartment
The link is here Also I made a Lithium battery holder so I can use rechargable batteries I have. The design is specific to the battery but you can use it as a guide for your own
Hi, I have been asked (regularly) where I have been and what I am up to. I am still here, just enjoying the sunshine and garden while it lasts, I have to move away from code work from time-to-time, otherwise I face burnout and lose desire to figure things out. I am sure once the storms begin I will be back behind a desk working on projects again. I have a couple of things I have been doing DIY-style so I hope to do a write-up soon. Here are a couple of things I have been making: DIY Guitar amp I decided I wanted a guitar amplifier for my electro-acoustic guitar (A takamine I have had for 15 years), I could not afford to buy such acoustic amps like the Roland AC-33 or the AER ALpha, however I thought I could probably make my own equivalent using cheap parts. The Roland and AER seem to be very popular 'busking' amps right now, but the price is crazy. The amp I wanted had to be battery powered (easy to do), lightweight, and above all sounding good. I found some old Bose speakers which I really liked the sound of, I already knew about the quality they produce. I think I got them for $10 with a bass box included. I wired using a 12v Ubec & 3s lipo battery
(pre-drilled)
Then it was just an issue of having to cut holes in my box, handle, input jack, small amount of soldering for the audio connections to the jack, and I used an old Jute shopping/grocery bag for speaker grille cloth (I looked up Gibson and Fender grille cloth and my god! it is like $40 for a small 30cm square)
I am very happy with the sound. There is no distortion at volume, and the clarity is excellent. The battery lasts forever, well beyond the time it takes for my fingers to really feel the strings. Now, I just have to find a quiet place to practice.
Digital FPV System
One of the things that I have been really hoping to see developed by some in the DIY community has been HD digital fpv. For many years most RC pilots have used analogue/composite video systems which are limited in resolution. However, since DJI released Lightbridge things are slowly starting to change, and other digital systems are starting to appear. The price is astronomical, however. And I am unwilling to buy a $1500 dollar product just for video.
As I have not been completely satisfied with the DIY projects that deal with digital fpv, I figured I might aswell dip my toes into understanding the technology myself and see if I can jumpstart a number of developers to become involved. It's is progressing. Learning as I go along; and others help with input and comments and tests of their own. So perhaps it will workout. Who knows? Here is an overview of what's happening:
What will we end up with? Hopefully video plus telemetry on both a phone/tablet, and also FPV video goggles. I must admit this is a big project to try to undertake, and the vultures will circle and swoop at the nearest opportunity, but I am so far enjoying the learning. So far we have UDP video and telemetry from the drone using UDP which is not the most reliable protocol for fpv. UDT would be more desirable but no-one knows much about it, especially me, yet.
So, there you go. Those are the things I have been doing in between painting a house. Variety keeps the mind going.
Business is improving for me, and I recently got a pair of ready-made fpv goggles and thought I would make a review and comparison to see how things have changed.
The goggles I have now, are by a company called Tovsto who were displaying products at this years CES 2016 show and appear to be quite similar to Headplay HD goggles.
I got them from Gearbest at this link after reading about the various types of goggle on the market and trying to find a good deal to suit my needs. I looked at all the usual locations and found that these were currently on discount so click... checkout.
For the last couple of years I have mostly been flying using a monitor mounted directly to my transmitter
this has proven a general success for me, as I have had zero crashes and always have been able to use the data displayed to locate and recover if I get lost in unfamiliar territory. I like that I can glance up at the sky if I need to check my orientation. orientation helps buckets, when flying via a monitor, which is why we also tend to use OSD data when flying to help us know where we are, how far/high we are, and how to get home.
(My view from the TOVSTO goggles)
What I see when i'm flying, i'm usually concentrating on the digits and arrows more than the sky or trees as once you're up high in the air there's nothing to crash into - you're completely free to roam. The rate of Altitude increase/decrease is deathly important, direction to home arrow helps when lost.
Once I had the grasp of flying using a monitor, I decided like most DIYers, to see if I can craft a set of goggles using some cardboard, a fresnel lens and a strap. It worked for the most part. It blocked out most of the sunlight and gave me a more 'closed' viewing environment. They were a bit front-heavy and would droop down my face a bit, but for practically no money, they were fun.
(DIY and Product)
So, "how do they compare to a purchased pair?"
This is a common question, and up until now I have not really been in a position to compare or answer this as appropriately as I would have liked. But now I can, and well, how do they compare?
Image would be a good beginning point. Here is a side by side:
On the left is my monitor, on the right the goggles
Here's a closer comparison of image quality
left is monitor, right is goggles
What is my subjective opinion on the image? It appears to be similar at first. This is because of the resolution limits of transmitting old-school analogue/composite video over 5.8ghz transmitters. A 5.8ghz transmitter will transmit to both monitors the same picture regardless of pixel ratio of the screens, and it will appear very similar.
The advantage of the goggles are that they block out all light, eliminating sun reflections on the monitor screen. We all know how hard it is to view our smartphone out during a sunny day, it's almost impossible to read articles. By covering or blocking out the sun using goggles we can see much more clearly, we just look a bit silly when doing so...I mean look at this guy:
we only have to search silly man with fpv goggles to see how and why we as men should not really be allowed to walk the streets after dark.
The nice thing about the Tovsto goggles are that they do actually broadcast 1080p 60hz using the HDMI port on the top. I thought what better way to test this out than to plug in my Chromecast and see if I can stream porn youtube videos through them. It appears that after a little cutting I could connect a mini-to-full hdmi adapter I have from a Raspberry pi zero, and plug in the chromecast quite easily
Once connected, I am able to see that the monitor has switched to HDMI 1080p 60Hz mode
(See, it says so in green in the corner)
The chromecast boots up
The picture is lovely, to choose a word. It is bright, crisp, clear, pleasant to view, and there is hardly any pixelation. God bless HDMI. This 1080p would work well with DJI Lightbridge or Connex HD systems, or even my up-and-coming DIY digital HD system!
Here is a piece of footage to show the video chromecast shenanigans
Works for me fappityfapfapfap...
Anyway, so how do the goggles perform as FPV goggles? Well, here is some more video footage showing as best I can, obviously, I can't fly around with a camera stuck inside there it would be tomfoolery. But here is my best test so far
For flight footage I need to think about how I can get footage. I have a DVR I could hook up but the DVR only records 640x320 pixels. I might try flying with the monitor and have someone hold a camera inside the goggles for me, bear with me one that footage, I'll plan it and make some magic happen.
So what do I like about these goggs?
- I like the image quality over HDMI
- I like the lightweight setup
- I like the quality of the mushroom antenna, it bends nicely
- I like neat storage bag that comes with them, it will help me to keep them clean and free from dust and scratches
- I like that the channel selecting is automatic. The goggles auto search when powered on, you also have a small press button which will search for signal
- I also like that these goggles have an inbuilt speaker which produces static when the receiver video fades out to static (they avoid blue screening). This is a nice audible warning for me, I do wish fpv systems incorporated audio more as I think hearing your quad or plane helps you know how the motors are responding and this helps you fly more accurately on the whole. I have a 5.8ghz transmitter with audio so perhaps I will test this out on these goggles.
What do I think could be improved upon? after all, nothing is perfection right? Well, I think the HDMI slot on the goggles could be more accommodating, it's a bit small. It is a mini hdmi port, but to fit an adapter in there you have to snip some of the foam. It's a simple solution and doesn't cause damage. I would also like to see a headphone jack. I'm sure this is an easy DIY addition, but I would have liked to see it installed already.
Also, I would like to see the goggles have an included adapter to allow a user to connect a standard 2s lipo, and lipo alarm. The included battery is an enclosed unit that simply warms the user, then shuts off the monitor - I have no idea what the voltage of this battery was/is when it shutdown. the charger is a 8.4v 1 amp wall adapter with charge on/off light.
If I am attaching a lipo battery to the back of my head I want to know that it is safe, and charged correctly or I might end up Tyler Durden 'end scene':
But I hope not.
I do think the TOVSTO goggles are an improvement for me and my own setup, I also think they are better value than headplay, better quality than quanum, and the single screen is better for my eyes than side-by-side cardboard goggles. I don't think single screen fpv goggles are going to compete with sbs goggles yet, the plain, simple view is beneficial to pilots and their ability to control aircraft.
For some time, I have been experimenting with the idea of 3D printing drone parts to speed up ideas, lower crash costs, and share with others to help create better, more efficient flying vehicles. I experimented with using 16mm Carbon fiber tubing to help reduce printing times and to improve rigidity, lower weight, and improve design.
Here's one example of motor mounts I designed. One of the key important factors for 3D prints is to ensure you have a print-friendly design. I think it's quite a good start for 920kv motor mounting.
Today, 3DR's Chris Anderson decided to release for open-source, his design files for the 3DR Iris drone
It seems 3DR are letting the Iris+ be free, to the public now that they are concentrating upon developing the Solo drone.
This is good news for hobby developers as it gives us a chance to tinker with the design and modify if we wish to. We can now print our own arms, legs, body shells, and frame plates. I'm even considering shrinking it down to a smaller size, something like a 250 size iris would be cool just to send it buzzing on auto-missions.
Anyhow, for me, the full-size iris is a little too big for my printer to handle. So I got to thinking about ways to make it consumer printer friendly.
I decided to chop the arm into two parts - the motor mount, and the frame mount. In between I figure I could use 16mm carbon tubing
Seems to print just fine, I didn't need to use support material to get a good print, although it would do no harm to.
Finished print, I placed a motor inside, added a leg support too.
I like this idea of reusing or redesigning a classic piece of hardware such as the Iris. I think there are some nice things to learn from it.
I think I will be adding the landing leg adapters to my more print-friendly motor mounts in the future. I will also see if it is possible to print the canopy, which would protect the flight hardware from prop-wind, dust, and sunlight. Time will tell. In the mean time I will upload the carbon-mod arms to my Thingiverse page soon, as always free for everyone to use.
It's true, they are! Imagine you are 20-something and you walk into a bar. Sometimes a girl will take an interest in you, sometimes they won't at all, sometimes the cute ones hide in the corners looking out at you like wallflowers.
Now, in this place there are many different interactions going on with many different people all are interacting in their own ways, enjoying, or not so much. Sometimes a girl will be stunningly beautiful and you drift on a cloud for a moment, seduced. You meet up with this girl, and eventually begin dating. Very quickly you realise that she's a bitch. She never cleans, never works, spends your time, spends your money trying to make it work, time and time again she fails no matter how much you invest and try to tell yourself that 'it will work'. You feel cheated, hurt, used, and lied to. It's a lot like this in the world of single-board computing (or SBCs, or Embedded systems, or SOCs). Small shiny devices full of wonder are presented to us to involve ourselves with and to learn with. Some are cheap, some are expensive, some are simple (and that's good), some are just too complicated and lacking in software & drivers. Some don't even work at all.
Here are some of the computers I have and have used
I like all of these boards, they all have their own unique purposes. The arduino uno is good if you want to just take it out of it's packet, write code and send it to the board. C++ is quite a fast learning language to use. The Pro Micro allows you to set it as a HID device which is useful for plugging into a big computer. the 32-bit boards: Pi, Hummingboard, Jetson, are useful for running Linux operating systems, and also then using that to control/read devices. Think of them as tiny, screenless laptops. For sheer processing power (Gpu & Cpu) the Jetson is top, it has good peripheral driver support too. The Pi-2 is the lightest, smallest, and cheapest. I sometimes find myself wishing for more from it though. I wish it had a mini-pcie slot, I wish it had a hdmi-in adapter for the csi port, I wish the usb ports had more voltage power. I'd pay a little bit more for these functionalities. Which leads me to the hummingboard from Israel, which does have a mini-pcie port & powered usb ports. It is a bit larger than the pi-2, and a little heavier due to the chip & heatsink, it also costs a bit more. But it is more powerful on-spec, it is a quad core with 2gb emmc (there are different replaceable options available). The Hummingboard has great potential due to what it is making available in such a small board space, it even has inbuilt wifi + bluetooth 4 (Like the forthcoming Pi 3). For me, at the moment, the hummingboard definitely requires a fully-functional linux distribution which works with all the hardware out-of-box. Ideally, a Ubuntu/Debian-type distribution, which has a decent GUI wifi & bluetooth manager, it needs all the usb ports to function smoothly, the linux software needs to utilise the gpu, hopefully by using ubuntu/debian, there will be good driver support for plugging in devices. It will come with time I am sure, and hummingboard will be a great choice once Solid-Run have figured this out and made a release. Once this is available it will be flying on my drone.
