Ground Station

[Nicholas]

Hi guys!

after flying around with the tricopter and getting my basic stuff up... i realized the need for a nice ground station to keep all the messy wires and stuff... Why? you ask? because it looks more presentable, and makes everything alot easier to carry around!

Note: Unlike many RC FPVers in the world i do not fly near Air bases or government installations, i do not fly in populated areas (at most there will be 1 or 2 people around me or in the entire park), and i am limited by height and distance by the 200mw transmitter =) So if you manage to see a guy flying an RC Explorer tricopter... thats me! Ofcourse with my GF as my spotter/reporter or people in the vicinity!!

Everything is held together with velcro to allow for accessibility and modular capability, for example if i would want to remove certain components or shift them around. i'll just pluck out and push it into another area!
i got the concept off some picture i saw off googling "FPV ground station" (yes, i used a dremel for most of the cuts, this design is not the best... but whatever works!!! )

Using a simple RC305+200mw setup with a non-blue screen 8" LCD monitor from skyhobbies and a CL antenna from HC.

Some pictures to go with:







What im left to get:
- Eagle Tree FPV Ground station
- RC305 RX x 1 (for diversity in Eagle tree)
- FPV pan and tilt camera mount system (for Eagle Tree Tracking)
- 3s 5000Mah battery
- Patch Antenna maybe?
- Male to Male AV converter to reduce the overall weight.

What im left to do:
- Painting the wooden parts black
- securing all the wires

Any comments or suggestions? feel free to ask me! If you're interested in my platform, i am willing to create another post regarding my final tricopter FPV setup (after much advice from all forumns and bros here in DH)

Cheers!
-Nicholas

[Aramid]

Get a crosshair rather than a patch for your second Rx. This, specifically:



That'll give you a beamwidth of 120deg and 10dBic gain.

Note that this is RHCP. I noticed that your current skew-planar antenna is LHCP.

[newmanhyde]

that is one huge investment. pls show how you eventually will transport this.

[Nicholas]

Get a crosshair rather than a patch for your second Rx. This, specifically:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]127677[/ATTACH]

That'll give you a beamwidth of 120deg and 10dBic gain.

Note that this is RHCP. I noticed that your current skew-planar antenna is LHCP.

Interesting... But i already bought a helical from sky hobbies so, i'll use that instead?

Whats the advantage/disadvantages of helical vs cross hair?

[Nicholas]

that is one huge investment. pls show how you eventually will transport this.

PART1 of 2

the size isnt really an issue, i'll be driving to flying fields as they are rather inaccessible nowadays. But how it is transported from point A to point B, That i can show.

Firstly the platform:

in my random adventures, i prefer to stop and look at stuff rather than constantly fly around. REMEMBER! im looking for close range flying and not trying to intrude into anyone's private rights! haha!
Remember, it may be fun for you, but it would end up screwing the entire hobby over for everyone else.



my tricopter, the packs on the right are all 3s2200mAh ones... the really cheap ones you can buy off hc.




This would be the tricopter folded up with the same 2200mAh battery as a reference. notice the reduction in length, the antenna will be removed for storage as per the later pics.




picture of the case used to house the TX, Batts, Tools, Zipties, the tricopter itself and the antenna. the hole at the top right of the box would be to deposit used lipos so that i dont get mixed up.



Everything packed and ready to close! (im leaving the battery wires messy as i realised that folding the wires kinda makes the wires go lose over time (sparks galore when that happens. i know...)
You can see 2 extra packs of smaller batteries compared to the 2200mAhs. That would be my emergency Ground station batteries, They can also be run parallel for 3200mAh for the tricopter or the ground station (but the main idea is for the ground station -.-)

And thats for the platform, i really like the concept of seperating the FPV gear from the tricopter. This would allow me to get and FPV plane (if i ever decide to) and have a seperate supporting box for the plane compared to the tricopter. Atleast thats in theory =). CONCEPT IS MODULAR!

[Nicholas]

that is one huge investment. pls show how you eventually will transport this.

on the investment part: Space and size investment? or cost investment?

Space and size investment: its totally worth it... instead of random strings of wires hanging off the back of my screen, it is now all nicely housed in the confines of the wooden frame. the CL antenna is also nicely stored away for transportation.

Cost investment:: No one ever said RC let alone FPV is cheap =) and everything is relative. For example, relative to a 90 sized nitro, mine is definately cheap! relative to a simple GWS E-starter... maybe expensive? To each his own... and everyone would desire their own stuff in the hobby! Stuff like the camera stand and the wood used are stuff which i had lying around the house from projects which i never did start or results of last minute project dimension changes!

ANYWAY on to the main point.

PART 2 of 2


This is the 'finished' project.


with the antenna kept (i think i'll change this down the road. or risk losing my antenna after awhile )



'Legs' of the stand folded up. Looking thin! (shroud can be removed or kept on. I keep mine on to prevent the monitor from getting directly damaged, although it would take up alot more space...)


Size comparison with the box containing the tricopter. It isnt big, and it isnt small as well. But by gripping one of the legs of the camera stand and the box's handle, would allow you to carry the entire setup with 1 hand (illustrated in the next picture, with maybe abit of imagination). its heavy (bulk of the weight coming from the box rather than the ground station) but manageable if you really require one hand to do something else... like unlocking the car, or maybe to hold your early morning flying field lunch, unlocking and locking your house door, and even a flying field chair!

Personally, I would carry all the stuff with one hand, unlock the door, split to two hands, walk to the car, switch to one hand, open car boot, get the stuff into the car boot

*Drive to field*

Reach FF, Bring out 1 by 1, maybe even leaving the box in the car.



Side view of the box with the ground station above (shroud attached and shroud kept).

I hope that this answered your question about how i go about bringing everything around.

Firstly the valcro holds everything in place regardless of the angle (except maybe the antenna which i will change later) on the ground station. So in theory (again) I can swing my ground station lightly and nothing should fall out... Lightly: like knocks and bangs on stuff.

Other crazy stuff like the platform itself for flying would be kept in a 450 heli transportation case.

To everyone in this hobby: I am actually being rather open about this, although FPV as a topic is shunned by many... Why? because FPV fliers exist, so long as we keep to the standard rules and regulations and be disciplined with other people's (be it rc flyers or not) privacy, safety and security, everything should be fine. for example, not exceeding 200ft or 61m height, not flying near or into bases/camps, not peeping into windows -.-, not recklessly flying your platform into people or animals... Basically don't do anything which will get complaints by the general public or authorities.

Cheers!

-Nicholas

[elmosan]

Nice.
Alternative is go with a backpack ground station with everything in the bag. Quad is folded and strapped on to the backpack. 2 hands free to carry other gear (kopi, coke, MacDonalds' etc.)

[eric goh]

nice updates elmosan and nicholas
Well i might setup a backpack GCS intend of my current one

[schwarm]

Nice Case

Care to share where I can get a similar case to what you are using for your tricopter? Been looking for something like that.

Btw, what sort of range are you getting from the 200mw boscam?

[Nicholas]

Care to share where I can get a similar case to what you are using for your tricopter? Been looking for something like that.

Btw, what sort of range are you getting from the 200mw boscam?

Hi Schwarm,
I bought my case for about 70bucks about 5years back from a RC Shop in simlim TOWERS, which i dont really know whether it still exists or not -.- But what i can recommend is going to ROTOR or maybe taking a look at HC for deals?

200mW gives about... 200~400meters? cant go far, cant go high, but good enough for shortrange flying imho. But that could also be because of the antennas on my video transmitter and my video receiver.
Probably changing to patch and changing to directional antennas could improve the range by about a 100 or more meters. Hope i answered your question =)

[newmanhyde]

Since you are driving i think nothing is too big for you. i am still trying to backpack everything so i can cycle to the field

[Aramid]

Care to share where I can get a similar case to what you are using for your tricopter? Been looking for something like that.

Btw, what sort of range are you getting from the 200mw boscam?

In theory, and using conservative estimates, a 200mw (23dBm) Tx should give about 1km LOS if you are using the typical skew-planar antennas on both ends before the signal becomes non-flyable. If you use a 10dBic helical or crosshair at the Rx, then that distance increases to about 3km.

[newmanhyde]

In practice, my 200mw can still see something about 1km using directipnal antenna but the band is pretty narrow.

[elmosan]

In practice, my 200mw can still see something about 1km using directipnal antenna but the band is pretty narrow.

I went to 2.1KM with the cheap LHCP Helical from sky hobbies... I wanted to go further as the picture was good, but my 2.4 DSMx control kicked the bucket sooner and failsafe activated sent the quad back. To date I still have the video to prove the excellent range a 200mW transmitter can provide. Of course I might be lucky that conditions that day was good, low noise floor, no interference...

Bro aramid was the witness in the long range attempt.

[newmanhyde]

maybe i did the ground test surrounded by flats n trees hence the poor result

I went to 2.1KM with the cheap LHCP Helical from sky hobbies... I wanted to go further as the picture was good, but my 2.4 DSMx control kicked the bucket sooner and failsafe activated sent the quad back. To date I still have the video to prove the excellent range a 200mW transmitter can provide. Of course I might be lucky that conditions that day was good, low noise floor, no interference...

Bro aramid was the witness in the long range attempt.