Hi Lads, well i eventually got the Ground Station built after a long wait for the Servocity Pan and Tilt Rig.
My design spec was this :
I wanted a easily transportable tripod based station, with manual and Diversity switching, i had to mount a tracker to it, it had to be light, it had to be power wise self contained and long battery life. I want to run multiple screens off it and record and of course use my goggles. The video had to be switchable for best reception, but so did the audio so the tracker had the best signal it could. Any extras are great but not necessary unless practical.
So heres what i came up with :
Starting from the battery, its a 12v sealed lead, which will and has under test given me hours and hours of power. Being 12v its perfect for recievers and step dows alike. Its housed in a cloth carry bag which protects it and sheilds it from the elements. Along with this i fitted velcro straps so it can easily be removed for the tripod to collaps or for charging. Charging can be done while still fitted though.
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSCF0507.jpg)
The 12v that leave the battery make there way up the tube to feed the receivers, and as seen in the picture to a 5v Bec, this BEC provides power to a USB connector that the goggles plug into and power / charge the goggles as you fly. No more worrying about the batterys running low in them :)
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSCF0511.jpg) (http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSCF0510.jpg)
Here you can see the 2 seperate receivers mounted on either leg, Both video and audio are used, the audio for the tracker data, Receiver 1 is for the 8 dbi Patch antenna mounted on the tracker, No.2 is an Omni 3dbi antenna for close range fast flying. Again the audio goes to the manual switch i mounted to the video splitter, so both video and audio are switchable for me and the tracker. The receivers are mounted at different height so when the tripod is collapsed they dont meet up.
Something i noticed was as the patch antenna pans round, the movement was loosening up the SMA connector to the receiver, never a good thing, easily fixed with a cable tie, but something for others to bear in mind. Sudden video loss and you would think of allsorts before thinking it had come loose ;)
The third leg has the 12v onVon Video Splitter mounted. It splits the signal cleanly to 5 seperate outputs. I have also added a Double Pole Double Throw switch, one pole switches the video its supplied with the other pole switches the audio to the tracker and the two audio outputs ( Red and White Plugs ) Also is the USB connector which the supplied power lead with the Firstpersonview.co.ok VR1400 Goggles can be connected and powered / charged directly.
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSCF0506.jpg)
As we work our way up, the 12v supply and the audio signal for the tracker have been wound up to form a spring wire, as the platform winds up if needed i did this so there was no hanging cable, but they will stretch in the rare event i need to extend in this way.
The 12v goes directly to a Turnigy 6v Ubec which supplies the 6v for the EZTracker and the GSW 125 1t 360 degress Pan servo and the Futaba S3001 Tilt servo
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSCF0509.jpg)
The Business end. Here is the EZTracker mounted to the side of the GSW 125 1t, also mounted to the GSW is the Servocity DDP125 Pan Base. To the pan base is the DDT500 Tilt mechanism. Mounted to that is the 8 dbi Circular Polarization Patch antenna.
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSCF0504.jpg)
This makes the system complete. I have also added a fully extended pic :
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSCF0514.jpg)
And a collaped pic for transportation, i will add a carry strap too at some point
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/th_DSCF0512.jpg) (http://s108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/?action=view¤t=DSCF0512.jpg)
Ill add a video later of it all in action so you can have a good look. It took me a while to get it super neat :) But im really fussy :)
Looks great.. Cant beat the 12v gel cells, they last for ages, everything runs off them. Although I like the USB connector, might have to steal that idea ;)
loolks superb nice and neat well done on the build log
Great job Ian, Well done!
That looks Good!
The USB power point is a good idea! :)
"Looks like it will rock" ;D
Very neat indeed, I was on the verge of a similar build but then I found an old flight box that changed my direction. Well done.
Coyote
How did you attach the receivers to the tripod? Did you use velcro or did you drill holes in the receiver casing and feed through some cable ties?
Also, what make of camera tripod have a you used? I guess it would be easier to mount the receivers to the tripod if they were flat surfaces. The tripod I have is round.
Cheers.
I attatched them by roughing up both surfaces for a better grip and glued them with epoxy.
Ive just had a look round it for make and cant find one, its a cheap one i got from Jessops years ago, the legs are flat to the outside which made the job a lot easier. Think they were around 15 0 20 wuid new :)
Thanks for that mate, nice GS by the way.
Cheers a new one coming soon, totally diffeent concept case design, recorders and screens, another example of a totally different way of going about it.
Still keeping using this one, just doing the other for a bit of fun :)
Nice! When i get my stuff i'll probably do the same-all the stuff on a tripod and the patch on top.
Sheldon
Ok so after a few trips out with the GS im more than happy with it. However with everything improvements can be made.
One thing was the battery, yes the sealed lead was good, lots of power on tap. Long battery life. But it weighs a bit, and more importantly takes forever to charge. So i swapped it over to a Flightmax 5000mah lipo. Yes its 2 amps down on the 7ah sealed lead but at 1 amp draw max thats still 5 hours of power. More than enough and more importantly if i were to move location then i can charge in car in 30 mins if i needed too.
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSCF0797.jpg)
Second on the list was the ability to record. Ive purchased a Bru BR3000 for it, so decided to mount it to this GS. What i wanted was it to have its own output so it can record by itself without interfereing with anything else.
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSCF0796.jpg)
I had to move the video splitter to do this, then take an audio and video output and hard wire it to the DVR. Sounds simple enough but to access all the sockets meant i had to make the video splitter lower. Which meant extending every single video and audio wire :( To make this look good meant not extending but replacing every wire so there were no nasty looking joins, oh the joys lol :)
While doing this i managed to push against my EZtracker screen and snapp the bugger !! Dam, oh well a bit of googling later i fond a UK company that stock the screen at £6 plus vat and shipping, £12 in all to get it to my door. The hard part was soldering it. 30 pins ! Took a while but thats all done too :)
Anyway, all finished for now, ive got two more mods, to make a bracket to take the 16dbi yagi to replace the omni antenna and fit one of Simons 7" LCD monitors. The idea being it can be mounted on site to any of the tripods legs so its out of the sun and viewable and second to have a bracket so it can be mounted sideways on for transport so i can still collaps the tripod legs.
This is how its looking tonight, the next few days though will see more progress :)
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSCF0795.jpg)
again a nice looking build ian well done at this rate you could build them to order ... ;)
Built, if you can call it that my standalone yagi antenna rig.
It houses 2x 16dbi yagi antennas. You can adjust height, tilt and polartization of both antennas. Folds away really small for transport.
Just an add on for those long range days :)
Heres the thread on making it : Yagi Antenna Stand (http://www.fpvuk.org/forum/index.php?topic=1132.msg6387#msg6387)
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSCF0803.jpg)
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSCF0806.jpg)
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSCF0805.jpg)
Well, ive now begun the 5.8ghz swap over. To do this mean taking all the receivers off the ground station so i thought i`d change a few things while i was at it. Last week i took the high standing tracker off and cut into the base plate of the tripod. This enabled me to drop the pan servo and tracker base 3". This made it a lot stronger for the tracker and transportation.
I replaced the BEC and neatened up the wiring.
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSCF1252.jpg)
Because the 5.8ghz rx`s are so small, i decided i`d prefer them mounted on the tracker. The idea being that antenna cable lengths are kept to a minimum and because im experimenting with various antennas, swapping them over is very easy to do. With the tracker moving normally the antenna cables are placed under stress and constantly turning and bending. This way round the video and audio wires which are much more suited for movement are instead.
I mounted the rx`s to a mounting board. Then stripped the video and audio leads and joind them to one single lead.
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSCF1249.jpg)
The power was ran seperatly from the signal wire, i ran it with the tilt servo wire so only two cables come off from the tracker to the tripod.
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSCF1254.jpg)
I then installed the antenna mounting plate to the front of the rx`s. Ill add velcro to it so i can sway antennas over quickly
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSCF1256.jpg)
The Emprex recorders now on as well. I also changed my switch configuration. Because the 5.8 rx`s are stereo i now have 2 channels to use. Now the left switch flicks between the two rx`s untill i get Eagle Eyes installed. The right switch is no for audio. In the left position the left audio channel feeds both left and right audio outputs for on board mic. If i flip it right, my right audio channel passes to the right audio outputs so you can hear the telemetry if needed
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSCF1253.jpg)
I also added an extra set of audio outputs for any recorders etc that are plugged in.
I hadn't seen this thread - outstanding work mate, looks great.