Some of you guys might remember my receiver pelicase I made a while back pictured below :
(https://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/IMAG0480_zpswzl6um13.jpg)
The idea was ok. It worked fine, but we didn't do many meets after that and the reception was limited to the channels on the receivers at the time. After trying it out again it also because clear that the old USB / DVR capture device was not supported by newer Windows versions so that was obsolete now as well.
I have decided to redesign this concept but with a couple of major changes :
- Retain the 2000mah 3S lipo power supply system
- Retain the 12v cigarette socket for powering external devices
- Replace the 2 small 640x480 screens with an Acer 15.6" 1080 monitor
- Improve previous 2 channel of display with 4 channels that are able to be displayed simultaneously.
- Previous DVR recorders capable of recording 1 channel each onto an SD card to be replaced with a 500 GB HDD to record all 4 channels at once.
- 4 channel simultaneous playback
- HDMI capture device to forward 1080p to laptop for live broadcasting via OBS broadcast on Twitch
- AV outputs of each channel for anyone to "Piggyback" onto someone's feed via goggles
- A 5.8GHz transmission of a selected channel for others to piggyback wirelessly onto their chosen subject
First was to strip the old case apart for the new panels and equipment :
(https://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190104_203905_zpsp6cqq3bu.jpg)
A lot of wiring went into the last box, this time I look forward to a lot less wiring with loads more functionality to boot :)
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190104_203917_zpstbfvkffm.jpg)
The old DVR was now pretty much useless and the old line drivers were not needed for this new design so were skipped :
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190104_204738_zpstdjm5q3x.jpg)
The new DVR is a Cenos 1080 at just £25 it was a pennies to buy, H264 video compression, 12v 2A, Sata port for HDD, will record 4 streams at 1080 25FPS max
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190105_170121_zpsedkdxxt2.jpg)
Of course, the first thing to do was strip it down to its component parts ( which would be considerably smaller and throw the rest away :
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190105_170236_zpskp2srjpj.jpg)
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190105_170354_zpspexg46qq.jpg)
I now have to finalize a design for the control panel and work out what's going where. I don't want to strip the old laptop just yet as its still in use until I get the new one in a few weeks, but I did cut and fit the new bezel which will house the 17" screen once it is out:
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190112_193248_zpsxc15qg80.jpg)
Holy overkill, Batman lol.
That's a work of art - looking forward to seeing it in action :D
Why do you need 4ch output just out of interest?
Also - how much power will the 17" monitor draw compared to those smaller LCDs?
The 4 channel is so if we were at a meet with mini quads viewers online can watch 4 competitors at once, or if a few of us went out on a fixed wing sorte with a chase quad or something again we could watch all at the same time.
Current unknown but the driver board for it is rated at 3A max
Ah right I get you, that's cool. Really cool actually I kinda like that idea.
Very nice.
I acquired one of these https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gaems-Vanguard-Personal-Gaming-Environment/dp/B00H0R9DSG?th=1 (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gaems-Vanguard-Personal-Gaming-Environment/dp/B00H0R9DSG?th=1) recently and have plans to do a similar thing. Ive got a CCTV DVR lined up for it, and a few other bits, just got to get my arse in gear and finish it :+
Interesting Dave, look forward to seeing how that pans out.
This a week I've took delivery of the new laptop, its working fine, so I copied everything over from ole faithful so it could be decommissioned ready to be transplanted.
So I very carefully and skillfully removed the other casing to expose the internals I will be harvesting :)
(https://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190125_131023_zpsy24ctwsp.jpg)
Stirling job ! So now I could get hold of the 500GB Hitachi Sata HDD for the CCTV DVR
(https://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190125_154814_zpsbqzg3ruf.jpg)
Then I could carefully ( but this time I actually was ) remove the display I will be using which was even thinner than first thought.
(https://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190125_131031_zpscne6rxw5.jpg)
More importantly I now could see the rear which has the important model number so I can now order the correct display driver board I need to continue
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190125_130846_zpsjuvt5z9e.jpg)
In this case its a B156XW04 V.5
£19.11 later its on its way from China :)
Nice, you might even be able to sell some of the unused laptop bits. It's surprising how difficult some weird bits can be, so you might get a few quid on ebay.
Can I have your old laptop keybo... ah bugger.
Quote from: ched on January 25, 2019, 05:49:32 PM
Nice, you might even be able to see some of the unused laptop bits. It's surprising how difficult some weird bits can be, so you might get a few quid on ebay.
That's not a bad idea ! :)
QuoteCan I have your old laptop keybo... ah bugger.
I still have your address so threw it in a box and it's on its way to you as we speak, glad you mentioned it before I threw it out :)
The live broadcast with say 4 feeds will be interesting....I would be interested to see the quality of that DVR recorder, what is its power requirement..?....Im assuming it has no onboard memory or SD Card slot and this is why you need the HDD to capture with..?
I hope you can crank up the LED Backlight on that big Screen, it might be a little challenging in bright sunlight, but I suppose live viewing is not what it's all about anyway.
:vulture:
The DVR is 12v at 2a max current draw. Yes it's primary recording is a hard disk. I hope a simple sunshade will suffice for the broadcasting, it's not really used other than to quickly check feeds, but if it does get bright enough it could be used as a viewing screen.
lmao if that turns up imma play holy hell at the post office and get some compo :D
Onwards ! :)
Today I got a spare few minutes away from work and collage to crack on with this a bit.
Now I have verified the screen is operational I went and mounted that into the case top, there is very little room at all the edges so that with the antenna wires is as far as the lids going. However I think I will be changing out the RG316 for RG402 at some point because it will more than likely be 5.8GHz receivers used on them so the swap will negate any RF losses.
(https://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190215_142856_zpsmdrkezac.jpg)
Next was to arrange the boards on the lower plate, trim the plate ready to be glued into place later. Due to the monitors pretty short cable the layout I went for was this :
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190215_145410_zps5fgtrsxz.jpg)
I decided to use some more spacers from that handy kit I bought, it helped in two ways.
1) It allowed the boards to be off the deck so plugging in is easier
2) It allowed the HDD to be mounted under the DVR board saving a lot of space on the deck.
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190215_145406_zps4gluk9s0.jpg)
I can now start to plan out the main board and what it will be populated with, but so far it's looking nice and neat :
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190215_145652_zpsv3evl4e7.jpg)
*drool*
Looks nice Ian, very well laid out..
:vulture:
So the new DVR turned up today for it ............
Yes another brand, there was nothing functionally wrong with the other one but one thing really just kept grinding on me, the missing letter "A"
Yes it might be ridiculously picky I know but loading is spelt with an A and the old DVR decided it was spelt without it :
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190225_160959_zpsgacqqnwe.jpg)
It drove me nuts, as with a few other Chinglish errors in the menus I bought another instead :
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190225_160738_zpsutaur4jb.jpg)
It has a slower loading time, but apart from that it works much better and doesn't need camera system types setting up each time as well which is a bonus, comes with a remote too so I could ditch the mouse / trackball.
So after stripping the DVR board apart and receiving the HDMI splitter I could then decide on a final mounting point for them all. I then realised I could get away with shorter spacers on each board freeing up vital space above for the parts mounting to the panel :
(https://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190226_141210_zpsldiwqd12.jpg)
Some of the wiring is in, enough to test the equipment but none that will be modified to suit the custom functions yet.
With those components in place I then could start mocking up the main panel, I'm still waiting on several parts turning up which should be here this week but got done what I could.
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190228_071614_zpskcmqhyxp.jpg)
I was going to see if I could get an actual carbon sheet CNC'd but instead went with cutting down the DVR panel to utilize the switches, then printed a trim for it. I'm still using that crap filament trying to get rid of it all so the trim is just a test piece for now.
Do you have a link for the recorder?
Sure : eBay link (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4CH-Channel-1080P-AHD-DVR-NVR-XVR-5in1-HDMI-CCTV-Security-Video-Recorder-System/112856190670?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649)
So a few more bits arrived, so I linked them up to make sure everything plays nice together, it did :)
Progressing along nicely now..............
So as all the parts had been initially laid out, moved, tweaked and then settled on, I could then start trimming the panel ready for final fit. I first covered the panel, without stretching, then cut out the necessary bays which looks like this :
(https://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190301_154845_zpsp3pzfgts.jpg)
Once that was done I then very carefully too the iron to it to shrink the creases out, I tried stretching previously and this ended up looking awful so adopted the shrink fit which went fairly smoothly, and doesn't look too bad :
(https://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190302_121751_zpsgwxfagr7.jpg)
As you can see a few extra bits have materialized, one of which is the line of holes that will have the display driver board controls behind it. As you can see below the tactile buttons are very short so it would be best if I extended each of them, and the LED so it was much easier to install :
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190302_121742_zpshn0kdago.jpg)
A few minutes later and jobs a buck, just waiting on the LED turning up :
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190302_122532_zpse5mtnxds.jpg)
You can see now how extending the buttons has now enabled them to poke clear so I can put some button capos on them now :
(https://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190302_164833_zpsx513puww.jpg)
Also now added is the surface mounted USB for transferring footage from the hard drive, the HDMI output is now fully operational, the battery connectors for charging is in. I will be extending the HDMI splitter LEDs to the panel too so I have fit the LED bezels ready for them turning up too.
To accompany the voltage reading I also added a battery gauge in percent too which I think might be more useful than the readout tbh.
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190302_165523_zpsao6iv98j.jpg)
So what's left ?
5mm LEDs to turn up and fit
4x BNC to RCA connectors
Fit RCA to the lid to replace the SMA connectors
Then that's it ! :)
Looks really good Ian, nice one.
Looks good Ian, well thought out....:)
:vulture:
Thanks guys
Now question .......
Does anyone know where I can get labels made up, the type I want are the plastic engraved ones, so black with etched writing so the lettering is white ?
Looks great.
As for labels you could get some white letters on clear tape with a label maker?
If you want the engraved ones there are a few people doing it on ebay, might be worth asking them for a quote if you need a few.
Yeah it's the engraved sort I'm after, but don't know the name of the type. It's the two layers of plastics type
Quote from: Coyote on March 02, 2019, 09:29:36 PM
Yeah it's the engraved sort I'm after, but don't know the name of the type. It's the two layers of plastics type
A dymo embossing labeller - old skool!
Quote from: chris-s on March 02, 2019, 10:19:54 PM
A dymo embossing labeller - old skool!
Hehehehe :) I was just talking about those on Friday! In an unrelated conversation, proper old skool
Quote from: Coyote on March 02, 2019, 09:29:36 PM
Yeah it's the engraved sort I'm after, but don't know the name of the type. It's the two layers of plastics type
Try searching ebay for 'plastic engraved plaque'. Seems to loads if it's what I think you are looking for. They seem to vary in size and colour but I am sure one of the sellers would do you a quote for a few if you know what you want.
Quote from: ched on March 02, 2019, 11:40:13 PM
Try searching ebay for 'plastic engraved plaque'. Seems to loads if it's what I think you are looking for. They seem to vary in size and colour but I am sure one of the sellers would do you a quote for a few if you know what you want.
Ah yes that's the type I was referring too :)
Ive used these at work quite a lot, engraved plastic laminate labels is what I know them as.
https://theengravingshop.co.uk/laminate-plastic-signs/laminate-weather-proof-signs (https://theengravingshop.co.uk/laminate-plastic-signs/laminate-weather-proof-signs)
That's the company I've always used, probably not the cheapest but quality is top notch and VERY quick.
Excellent cheers guys :)
Still waiting on the last bits, but today I dropped the screen down, fit the 4 RCA sockets so connection to feeds can be done via the lid to keep the controls clear :
(https://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190305_085606_zps6uhbrok7.jpg)
Obviously done in free time and not while at work :)
Also the tactile button caps came in various colours and rub on decals. These are for the screens video board switches
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190306_151516_zpswux0llnl.jpg)
Still waiting on the bi colour LED after ordering Common Anode instead of Common Cathode to replace the original ..... D'oh :( Once that arrives the board can go back in the panel and that's the case side of it pretty much finished.
So the last LED turned up, so that is all the wiring now done, here is the organised chaos before it gets closed up :
(https://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190308_195301_zpsy9jercqs.jpg)
A hell of a lot less than last time, but no 6 position rotary switches thank god :)
A very quick rundown of what's going on in there :
Nice job man, it's almost as if you know what you're doing.
Nice job Ian, looked like a lot of planning and work, but its satisfying to see the end result Im guessing....:)
:vulture:
Thanks lads
It was getting there, today Paul came over and I was live testing a camera on it, when we discovered a slight issue, really bad lines in the 4x screen resolution, that did appear better when you switched each up to full screen but by no means acceptable. On nights tonight though button bopping through the options it turns out 1080p is a no no and 1080N is the winner, so that's that sorted out.
Then I am fitting a Raspberry Pi in for two reasons :
1) So I can have a cool splash startup screen when powering the ground station on, comprising of a mp4 video. As well as looking cool, it is there to hide the ridiculous boot up time of the DVR and the uninspiring screens on the way :)
2) I can have a Pi Mission Planner feature also incorporated into the unit, as well as a Rasbian OS.
Well fitting the Pi has started, first thing was to work out how to get rid of the DVR boot up when powering on the unit, my thoughts are power a Pi up at the same time, have the monitor show a boot up I made myself instead, then switch between the Pi's OS and the DVR.
Turns out this was a pain in the arse, getting rid of as much of the Pi's splash screens as I could and its status updates wasn't too bad, so far I have a boot up sequence that at least looks better then A) The Pi starting with all the writing blah blah or B) The DVR test colour bars and blank screens.
So that's sort of done, next I changed that Raspbian splash screen at the start to a FPVHub opening which is miles better !
(https://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190310_222804_zps8enxhaj0.jpg)
The picture is not finished yet, but wanted to try it for proof of concept.
So with all that together I get this below, which I tried out to see how much DVR time it fills in while it gets readys, the closer to the DVR being ready the better :)
Nice work mate.
looking really good - how heavy is it???
Thanks Anthony, good question Steve, I will take it into work tomorrow as my scales only go up to 5kg and it shows overload so I'll weight it tomorrow. In the meantime, surprisingly light to be honest, a lot lighter than I thought but plenty of weight in the base to stop it ever falling back over.
Great stuff!
:o Fantastic build Coyote .If I had a hat , doff it I would.
Thanks guys appreciated :)
This weeks foray was to integrate that Pi part into the actual system. You see what you are seeing there is the screen plugged into the Pi, no way of swapping between the two.
So all I needed was a hdmi switcher ....... :) Yeah ...........
Well it began like that and snowballed lol So lets see how it went, first the HDMI switcher :
AUKEY HDMI Switch Bidirectional 2 Input to 1 Output
(https://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190311_161542_zpspnp40kmm.jpg)
This normally duplicates 1 signal into 2 but you can run it 2 into 1 with the switch choosing which unit to go with. All good apart from I cant mount the unit in the panel, and the switch is built into the PCB :( So I stripped the unit down, extended the switch to the panel and made a connector :
(https://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190315_154652_zpseu1l6cfj.jpg)
All is good in the world ! .....
Well no, for a few reasons, firstly I don't like the look of it for a start, then the rest I will explain the issue in this video :
OK so that's that solved so hardware wise for the case that's pretty much it ! So a few minutes mounting and cable management and the finished base is :
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190315_172536_zpspeuzzult.jpg)
The top panel with most things plugged in :
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190315_174056_zpspqfbmpux.jpg)
So tomorrow I will do a soak test to see just how long I get out of it while everything is on. This will be interesting to find out, if I'm spending the day out will I get a full day, if I need to stop for lunch though a 20A charge means the lipos are full again in just one hour so if I can't get a full days use out of one charge I will still easily be able too.
Soak test time :)
(https://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190316_141037_zpsfgu0mrnd.jpg)
I have set the Ground Station off on a soak test
1) Fully charged before turning on
2) 4 camera feeds going to DVR
3) DVR HDD recording constantly
4) Pi system fully operational
5) Camera feeds are powered from a mains adaptor ( because in normal use the receivers will be powered separately. )
So that's how it will be used in the field, so I will find out today just how long the GS will be able to be used in a single sitting.
I will stop it at 20% battery capacity, it has 20A of 3SA on board so 16A of useable power.
So ................
How long do you think it will get too ?
Place your bets to how many hours :
Looks the business mate...really cool....:)
Im going to say 4.5 hrs
:vulture:
I'll hazard a guess at 6.2 hours.
Sent from my phone, 2 u 4 free
Pretty good guesses I'd say
I'm thinking 2-3A per hour would be great, 3-4A per hour would be fine
1A would be 16 hours - Finish at 6am tomorrow ( Dream on Ian )
2A would be 8 hours - Finish at 10pm
3A would be 5.3 - Finish at 7.15pm
4A would be 4 hours - Finishing at 6pm
So Anthony is going for a 8.09pm finish and David a 6.30pm finish.
Anymore bids ? :)
5 hours 23 minutes is my prediction !
1A would be 16 hours
2A would be 8 hours
3A would be 5.3 hours
4A would be 4 hours - Finishing at 6pm
Anthony 8.09pm
David. 6.30pm
Paul 7.23pm
At 6:00pm ( 4 hours use ) it shows 11.9v and 80% battery left so its not drawing 4 amps
At that rate if we say it uses 20% every 4 hours and we have 80% to play with then "in theory" it should be good for 16 hours ! But I don't think it will work out like that as we continue into the pack.
7:00pm and it shows 11.7v and 70% left. This means its consistently and useful for maths 5% use every hour !
With that in mind 16 hours for the whole battery is actually looking on the money lol
David - You're out !
Paul - Its not looking good :)
Anthony - You're closest so far
This is why I dont do gambling....lol.
Yeah, you definitely have more than enough Lipo power in it then....:)
:vulture:
To be fair I had it down for 8 hours myself and I'm going to be miles out too.
Its 9:00pm now and its hit 11.5v @ 60% remaining so it looks like it's on track for another 8 hours yet which will take it to 20% at 5:00am so a total of 15 hours run time which is way past my expectations.
So fully working it's looking like all bells and whistles on pulls a mere 1.06 amp. I will set my alarm to acknowledge it but fit a lipo alarm for "just in case it doesn't" lol :)
You certain it's not still plugged into the charger round the back ;D
Lol I checked just in case
On about plugs, it has a 12v cigarette adaptor for powering receivers if needs be or to charge lipos so that will reduce its overall run time, this has not been factored in.
Oh well that's the test complete, I stopped it at 25% at 12 hours because it wouldn't have completed another hour at the rate it was discharging.
Here are the results :
Theoretical Estimate Time Actual Drop
100% 0 hours 100% 0
95% 1 hours 96% 4%
90% 2 hours 92% 4%
85% 3 hours 85% 7%
80% 4 hours 79% 6%
75% 5 hours 71% 8%
70% 6 hours 64% 7%
65% 7 hours 60% 4%
60% 8 hours 56% 4%
55% 9 hours 52% 4%
50% 10 hours 47% 5%
45% 11 hours 36% 11%
40% 12 hours 25% 11%
10.6v ( 20% ) was reached at 12.25 hours
(https://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190317113204_zpszgd0elkt.jpg)
Interesting to see how the discharge more than doubles as it passes the 50% capacity mark.
So 12.25 hours gives us a average current draw of 1.30 amps. Happy with that
That's the case part complete, onto the receiver / transmitter side of the GS :)
Not bad at all that - means you won't need to charge it up every single time you go out.
Yes 12 hours is more than enough, it put 17 amps back in this morning charging it back up in 1 hour 10 so happy with that too.
Had a fun filled morning of trying to get Mission Planner onto a Pi.
Everyone said you have to pretty much use Ubuntu and Raspbian won't run it but I wanted Raspbian as my OS. So a lot of chew later after realising none of the online tutorials worked I sussed it out.
It's a bit slow on the load up though but not the end of the world.
Nice, apart from the endless hours you've put in, how much has this all cost?
Sent from my phone, 2 u 4 free
Quote from: Lola on March 17, 2019, 12:20:18 PM
Nice, apart from the endless hours you've put in, how much has this all cost?
I dunno :)
The screen and HDD was part of my old laptop but lets say you wanted to buy it all :
HDD - £15
Acer screen - £28
Pi - £30
CCTV DVR - £30
Video card - £20
HDMI Switcher - £20
HDMI Splitter - £9
Panel Mount USB wire - £2
RCA Panel mounts - £8
TrackPad - £20
Arduino Nano - £3.55
Relay Board - £2.79
Buck Converter - £2.80
HDMI Leads x 4 - £16
SD Card - £10
4xz Zippy 5000mah 3S - £112
Other bits like LEDs Etc - £20
So a grand total of £349.14 if you had the case and bought everything ( which I didn't I just used spare parts )
It cost me £154 to actually build it.
That's really good I think. Some 7 inch screens with a vrx cost that much lol.
Sent from my phone, 2 u 4 free
Its not finished yet :)
I have to enable it to receive FPV streams, so to do this there are two options
1) Plug a spare ( if there is one ) feed of the pilots receiver into the RCA connection on the box
The problem with this is the wire lengths would be crazy as everyone will be spaced apart
2) Make a receiver module and transmit each stream on 5.8GHz to the module.
To do this I will be making 4x small self contained 5.8GHz 25mW transmitters which attach inline to the pilots main feed so no spare video outputs required, this is for people on 1.2GHz, 2.4GHGz if they are on 5.8GHz already then the receiver module simply receives their feed anyway.
So I am waiting for parts but as the batteries for the receiver module turned up and a few of the receivers I could begin.
The receivers I will be using are the RC832 x4
(https://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190320_131919_zpsbapkufow.jpg)
Battery wise I went with 3S 3P Li-ion which will give me 10.2ah. I chose this so the receiver module will have the same runtime as the GS so over 12 hours. 9.6ah hits the 12 hour so I have some to spare.
(https://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/edited-image_zpstk4rrve2.png)
The same battery monitor will be used as was used in the GS case :
(https://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/edited-image_zps5vzkoopn.png)
So in my break I designed a simple module bay, it will house the 4 receivers each facing out, the batteries will be housed on the inside bay, the lid will house the battery monitor in it. The base will incorporate a thread for mounting to a tripod :
(https://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190320_131631_zpsm96vpzvp.jpg)
The design I am happy with, but then running it through Simplify3D showed 28 hours for the base alone to print !!!!
OK some fine tuning of the way it's designed needed :)
(https://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/edited-image_zpsk6dwdeoc.png) (https://s108.photobucket.com/user/cayote64/media/edited-image_zpsk6dwdeoc.png.html)
Hollowed out the 4 legs, removed the box inside as it will take me 5 mins to cut 4 pieces out of ply instead and separated the top ring so no support material needed. Over 18 hours of printing saved by doing those few tweaks.
A tidy 3D model, are you printing it overnight or while you're at work tomorrow?
I've just ordered the filament so will have to wait, I'll do it at work though for the longer print.
OK so started on the receiver pod, first cut the 5mm ply plates and covered with carbon film :
(https://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190323_122957_zps47d8nywm.jpg)
Started printing all the bits out, lots of hours printing :
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190323_172443_zpsrwmtfkgw.jpg)
The plates get glued to the inside, so the receivers can mount like this :
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190323_172302_zpshhiist2b.jpg)
The two triangular sections are to let the large plugs through, then grip the thin cables inside the battery bay in the middle :
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190323_201434_zps44vassqc.jpg)
Tripod thread was fit and glued in place :
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190323_202628_zpsoklxshxz.jpg)
This is how it will look, only 2 receivers in so far ( more coming )
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190324_102609_zps1bc670ll.jpg)
Waiting on 2 more receivers, 2 more Li-ion holders turning up and the battery health meter, then I will start wiring it up and making the battery holder which will sit inside.
That's coming along nicely 🙂🙂
Sent from my phone, 2 u 4 free
OK finished part 2 of 3 of this GS :)
I got my hands on another 2 receivers so I could then wire them all up and make a bottom base that hides the wiring and neatens it all up. I then fit 4x RCA sockets to connect the video signals to the case.
I made the battery pack up from 9x Li-Ion 18650 3400mah cells. This can be found in this thread (https://www.fpvhub.com/index.php/topic,53934.msg281833.html#new)
It fits nicely inside with room to spare, I could have made the whole unit I tiny bit smaller width wise but I won't bother.
(https://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190331_182736_zpsizinpqff.jpg)
I then tested the power consumption of all 4 units on as well as the battery health meter and was disappointed that it actually takes 888 milliamps :(
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190331_192433_zpsm1umle7x.jpg)
I had factored in 800ma so that for 12 hours I would need 9,600ma of battery
Being 888ma instead meant that 12 hours of use takes it to 10,600ma so over my packs 10,200ma rating, bugger ! Nevermind, 11 hours + is enough I guess :)
So that is that part done, just the transmitters x4 to design and make now and then that's that done and some field testing required :)
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/20190331_195955_zpsnaz9gr7h.jpg)
Looks cool bud!
Sent from my phone, 2 u 4 free