Interestingly enough we all seem to go for either a suitcase, backpack or tripod when deciding on a GS. Most of us do not have the £££ to purchase a custom made flight case to suit our needs however has anyone seen other "usable platforms"?
I'm thinking:
(http://sports-motion.com/smi-images/dualtray.jpg)
Tripod trays - great for placing other bits!
(http://www.kingmagic.com/images/G0614-2.jpg)
Suitcases on tripods?
(http://altomusic.com/shop/images/product/105217-45689de6dac36bb89acbdd757c143141.jpg)
Music stand Clamp ons..
(http://i00.i.aliimg.com/img/pb/416/847/427/427847416_362.jpg)
DJ Cases
(http://www.inta-audio.com/images/products/zoom/1251303271-71972000.jpg)
Speaker stands?
Thoughts welcome - i just look at things these days and seem to think "how could i use that?"
That DJ case could have loads of cool potential, looks massive though
The first stand I would be permanently paranoid its going to get blown over and bye bye laptop
I was thinking more of alternate options tbh rather than the exact specs above. I'm sure there are smaller cases etc, just beats strapping everything to the leg of a tripod!
Sunday and i'm thinking out loud! ;D
Check my thread - I am going for an interesting option. :)
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk
I think people stick with the same idea because they are tried tested and proven. Not that others arnt.
When looking to build one, whats the first thing you do, look up other peoples that work and go from there.
Doesn't hurt thinking outside the box once in a while though :)
You can however use tent pegs and/or weights to pin the groundstation down but .. yea .. I wouldn't be happy using my laptop as a sail heh
I'd love to build a GS into a case that I could simply "attach" somehow to a tripod, but I could never find a good solution to enable that idea.
You could 'start' with a quanum ground station?
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__40265__quanum_fpv_ground_station_with_8_34_monitor_and_voltage_display.html (http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__40265__quanum_fpv_ground_station_with_8_34_monitor_and_voltage_display.html)
Quite cheap with the dollar rate at the moment. They are in stock on the EU store if I am correct.
Quote from: chrisbrit81 on February 10, 2014, 06:38:31 PM
I'd love to build a GS into a case that I could simply "attach" somehow to a tripod, but I could never find a good solution to enable that idea.
my Mark one GS had this.
I used the tripod mount for the bottom of a camera and attached it to my flight case at the balance point with the lid up and it worked well.
I have just changed it out to a rucksack ground station as the case was awkward to carry any distances with my other gear.
I don't have any photos of it on the tripod but this is the GS.
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-IHc_0Eqvr58/Ulko59Top_I/AAAAAAAAFNs/CGrMC-Lz2PQ/w359-h638-no/20131012_113756.jpg)
the balance point was 2/3 of the way back in the middle to get it neutral on the top of the tripod with the lid up.
I felt it was quite important to get the unit to balance on the top of the tripod because the tripod was rated for 5 kg, and the case weighed 3.5 so with the case balanced right there was less stress on the tripod mount.
cheers
Steve
Think it was TerrorTrooper on here who had a great little G/S in a case.
I don't understand why so many people seem to want to have their GS so tall. Obviously this makes them much less stable. My FPV screen is on top of my tripod but I never extend the legs and I don't need to as I can see the screen perfectly well. There's no point in raising the aerials higher - even if they were 6ft up it wouldn't make any difference over their present 2.5 ft. unless you're intent on standing in front of them. Additional stability can be achieved by hanging a weight from the centre joint of the tripod - beach fishermen often use a poly bag with stones in. OK it might not look pretty but maybe a sealed Yuasa type battery attached to the bottom of the centre tube would help.
I agree with Heliotrope. Having the monitor/screen at eye level is important, but the receivers/antennas... there's no real difference between having them 2 foot off the ground, compared to say 6 foot off the ground... your aircraft is going to be making more sizeable altitude changes than that, so that's not the issue.
HOWEVER... :)
If you're basing your GS near to any kind of structure or with bushes/small trees nearby, I can see the point in having the antennas mounted such that the obstacles dont cause any signal blockages... this being said... why would you bas your GS in such an area?
Some people dont have a choice really, e.g. if you're at your club then there'll likely be some small structures nearby (brew hut, clubhouse, toilet block etc...) so in those circumstances the only way you'll get the best out of your antennas is by mounting them up really really high, perhaps actually on top of one of the structures, or a pole stretching up to clear the structures blocking the signals. again, in this situation, having the antenna mounted 2ft or 6ft there's no difference.
personally, I just want to mount my RX/antenna at a height that means my body doesn't block any signals. Hopefully, with my current project (case based repeater station mounted on a tray of some sort) this will not be much of an issue as 1.2ghz video will be received at a GS placed around 10-15ft away from my seating area, and send a 5.8ghz video signal to my fatsharks... wire free and away from my GS :)
browsing the web today I came across some ideas for tripod trays/platforms... these are far too expensive for what I'll need, but I'll take some design cues and make something similar myself. My first idea is a simple MDF(heavy) or other lighter wooden material tray, with velcro, and velcro on the underside of my GS case. Tripod pinned to the ground using a dog spike screw thingy (you know what I mean) in the centre underneath and a strong bungee or paracord.
http://www.calumetphoto.co.uk/category/accessories/bags-tripods/tripods-monopods-accessories/tripod-trays/ (http://www.calumetphoto.co.uk/category/accessories/bags-tripods/tripods-monopods-accessories/tripod-trays/)
I don't know what makes of laptops other people use but I've had a few different makes of laptops and they've all been useless in bright light. I don't need a laptop for what I do and use an FPV monitor bought from Simon's website last year. It's only 3 ft off the ground on my tripod but it works really well for me. I haven't had to use the hood yet and I hate hoods anyway. My setup is pretty basic with a screen, Yuasa battery, voltmeter, diversity receiver with patch and skew planar, and just one switch to power up everything. I' be adding a DVR from Hobbyking when it's eventually back in stock.
I can highly recommend the one from BEVRC.com... I've tried many different DVRs including:
CCTV SD Card Recorder (can't remember the website now) - This was OK during bench testing, it produced a decent quality recording but for some reason I could never work out, when I was recording an actual flight, the recording would "freeze frame" for a few moments whenever there was some (even a small amount) of static. This was quite annoying... I think it might have been something to do with the motion detection that I couldn't turn off, the pitfalls of using something designed for a specific purpose (CCTV) for something it was never designed to be used for. Also, due to it's no internal battery design, it had to be built into an actual GS setup and powered externally, so no real solution for simply plugging into your goggles to record what you see.
Archos 604 wifi - This was actually brilliant, I got some of my best quality footage from the archos. with a big screen also, it was good as a secondary passenger/observer monitor. the bad bits... being an old and discontinued bit of kit, the battery life on it was disgusting. Eventually I made up a simple field charging system for it consisting of a hacked power cable, a BEC and a LiPo. another downside was that you needed a DVR adpter for it to accept AV input, this adapter increased the size of the unit by about 2cm all along the bottom edge. This, combined with the hacked Lipo charging system, meant that this too needed to be built into a powered GS, so was a massive pain in the bum when just flying off your goggles internal rx.
Angel EYE PVR w/5v button cam - bad, just bad. The AV input also had one of the pins as 5v out, in order to power the included "button cam". This unit is actually designed for covert surveillance, a small battery powered DVR to be hidden on your person, and the button cam poking through your clothes. it worked perfectly with the included cam, but was incompatible with any other AV cable I could find when used with my goggles or other FPV receivers. even when I managed to hack a cable myself to remove the 5v feed, there were issues with aspect ratios and the DVR cutting off parts of the image, most of the time cutting off the interesting parts of the OSD such as GPS co-ords, and battery levels etc... making it a bit pointless.
Laptop with EZCAP USB device - Too bulky, pointless and risky taking a computer to the field unless using APM or some other waypoint/autopilot system with data link. Also, crap recording quality.
"old fashioned" DV Camcorder - once again, this would need to be built into some form of GS or stored in a bag etc... also bulky and messy, what with all the wires etc.
BEVRC PV700 - Excellent unit, perfect for FPV. Self powered with it's own internal battery (which is a generic, easily sourcable nokia mobile phone style battery), this unit creates top quality recordings, takes up to 32GB SD card (I only use 8GB) and uses a single cable (with small adapter for goggles end) to connect to the AV out on the fatsharks. simply plug it in to your goggles, press record, switch the button lock over and pop it in your pocket. It would also be the best option for a fully built up GS also as it has the right connections (phono av plugs) and the ability to be powered without the battery installed (or keep the battery inside charging). If I were really pushed to say anything negative about it, I would mention that the screen was too small for passengers/spectators and definitely too small to fly from.... but you're an idiot if you buy this as a main flight screen/monitor.
http://www.bevrc.com/bevrc-pv700-high-quality-digital-video-recorder_p297.html (http://www.bevrc.com/bevrc-pv700-high-quality-digital-video-recorder_p297.html)
Thanks for the recommendation. I'm fed up with waiting for Hobbyking and I might go for this. More expensive than the HK one because it has a screen which I don't need, but at least it's in stock. I guess it's only a week to get from China.