Rob's ground station... evolved

rob.thomson · February 17, 2014, 01:03:13 PM

Its actually not much at all.

For most flying I just take the suitcase. So essentially one shoulder bag.

If I do want too, the tracker actually fits in mg back pack, and the tripods attach to the side.

This is everything. Battery.. Tracker and ground station, goggles etc..

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lrosm · February 18, 2014, 04:47:44 PM

Think I will get one of these! Looks exactly what I need.

lrosm
Bixler 2

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rob.thomson · February 18, 2014, 05:31:29 PM

Uhm... What part exactly :)

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rob.thomson · February 19, 2014, 11:41:50 AM

Just made a magnetic snap on antenna mount :)

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rob.thomson · February 25, 2014, 02:56:31 PM

My final bits on the station are now down.

I stripped it down a bit to make end maintenance easier.

- shortening cables.
- internal immersion RC power box to provide LC-filter function.
- magnetic clip on UHF relay.
- more compact antenna bracket on top.
- strap on back to prevent lid closing in wind.
- side strap anchors for shoulder harness
- rubber feet to enable it to be used when on a table

Quite happy with the whole thing now.

Every single item is effectively power filtered, and end diversity is working well.

The new antenna from fpvlr is super compact - so now fits easily in the storage bay in the case.

The final bit to still plug in will be the new dvr. This will not need the case to be opened so a result all round.

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skyscraper · February 26, 2014, 07:52:21 PM

magnetic clip is a nice touch..so long as it doent upset the tracker :)

regards
Andy

rob.thomson · February 26, 2014, 07:54:29 PM

No chance of that.

Tracker would have to be on top of it (less than 20cm)

It sits a meter away, well out of the effect.

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rob.thomson · March 06, 2014, 01:38:10 PM

Its funny now some things cause do much hassle!

I have had two different intermittent issue on my ground station with the video display going bad.

One on the main 8 inch display, and one on the wireless feed to the goggles.

After pulling EVERYTHING apart, and rebuilding - I finally found the source of both issues.

For the 8inch monitor - a screwy RCA connector. Probably a dry solder joint inside the sealed unit!

For the video relay - this is a strange one.

If I take the feed direct off the eagle eyes diverisity, and into the 10mw relay. - I get a wobbly display.

If I take the feed off the eagle eyes, feed it into an video amp/splitter. - I get a perfect display!

Strange!

rob.thomson · March 10, 2014, 10:07:27 PM

I am so fussy.

I opened up my ground station earlier this week.

I took every video and power lead and reduced them to the shortest they can be, and routed them away from one another.

I also shielded every video feed by wrapping it in foil tape, then some heat shrink over the top.

It took some time - but I am VERY pleased with the results.

I used to get a really small flicker on the monitor & goggles. Its now clean as! No flickers, lines - nothing. Just the clear image.

It makes me think that there is value in shielding the video leads on all my models too! It just takes that last bit of rubbish EMI out the equation.

Rob

Coyote · March 10, 2014, 10:12:59 PM

Were your RCA cables not shielded anyway in the GS Rob ?

rob.thomson · March 10, 2014, 10:28:14 PM

You would think they are - but you will be surprised to find as I did that a large number of AV cables you buy on the net have non shielded wires!

The units all come sealed, so you gave of way of knowing unless you cut the cable!

I large selection of mine have been found to be utter crap :-)

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Coyote · March 10, 2014, 10:30:20 PM

Yeah had it a few times with the pre molded wires, picking up noise, trace it to the cable then when I chop the coax its not coax at all but just simple two core sold as coax