First test of my Eagle Eyes tracker and ground station

Antkol · December 06, 2015, 10:15:22 PM

Ok, so I haven't finished making it look really tidy (note the batteries dangling), but I couldn't wait to actually test whether my homemade tracker worked.
Based upon two electrical boxes and a lazy Susan bearing, a slip ring in the middle, a couple of gears and a sail winch servo with the Eagle eyes as the brains inside. My phono plugs can send video and sound to the monitor and googles, and I'm using a diversity receiver with a homemade 5 turn helical and spironet.

I was flying fairly close as it was quite windy. I noticed a slight lag on the tracker, but I put this down to proximity and the speed setting of the pan servo which can be altered in the software.

http://youtu.be/gqWp7hPX7hc

Coyote · December 06, 2015, 10:20:35 PM

Looks like its working pretty well :)

BlueFlyer · December 06, 2015, 10:57:15 PM

good on you for doing this all DIY... but my god that's a massive unit lol

Antkol · December 06, 2015, 11:35:40 PM

Quote from: BlueFlyer on December 06, 2015, 10:57:15 PM
good on you for doing this all DIY... but my god that's a massive unit lol

Yeah, it's quite big, but the bottom box is not too large. I think it measures about 200mm on the long side, and it had to be large enough to house the eagle eyes inside too. In fact I don't think I could have got away with anything smaller, as all the connections and the servo take up some space inside making it a bit of a squeeze.

Dizzy · December 13, 2015, 08:42:39 PM

Well done indeed a bit of fine tuning and your going to enjoy i suspect :D

dizzy :)

Miles · December 13, 2015, 10:11:03 PM

Looks great :)
Are you using a Vector, or a OSD Pro?

Antkol · December 16, 2015, 07:02:56 PM

Quote from: Miles on December 13, 2015, 10:11:03 PM
Looks great :)
Are you using a Vector, or a OSD Pro?

Hi Miles.
Sorry for the delay in coming back to your question. Have been busy with getting Christmas sorted - call me a humbug, but it's all got a bit too commercial for my liking.

Anyway, I am using a Vector in my Bixler 1.1. Works like a dream. The Eagle eyes on my ground station seems to work fine, albeit for one thing that I'm not sure if it's my fault or not yet. Essentially if I turn my camera off (or it loses power), I don't get a transmission from my vid tx and my eagleeyes beeps to say it's lost a signal. What I am hoping is that even if I lose a camera, the vid tx should still transmit gps position data (and other telemetry) from the vector. I may have to look at my wiring again.....

Miles · December 16, 2015, 07:40:48 PM

Ahhkay - Regarding your issue, I don't think its an issue *PROVIDING* the vector overlays the image the same way the OSD Pro does.

All the Eagletree telemetry is sent in the video feed in tv lines that cannot be seen on the screen (Outside the FoV), however most OSDs work by overlaying onto an existing image. It cannot generate it's own image from scratch, which is why you don't see anything without a camera attached.

Not sure if there's anything you can do about it :/ Saying all that, i might be wrong :)

Miles.

Antkol · December 18, 2015, 08:20:05 PM

Quote from: Miles on December 16, 2015, 07:40:48 PM
Ahhkay - Regarding your issue, I don't think its an issue *PROVIDING* the vector overlays the image the same way the OSD Pro does.

All the Eagletree telemetry is sent in the video feed in tv lines that cannot be seen on the screen (Outside the FoV), however most OSDs work by overlaying onto an existing image. It cannot generate it's own image from scratch, which is why you don't see anything without a camera attached.

Miles.

Hi miles
That is very interesting.
The reason why I thought it may be my set up, is that normally (I'.e just using googles without tracker), if I lose camera, I still get the osd data in the googles. The only thing that disappears is the video. So I basically see a black screen with all the osd data overlay showing

In theory, I could fly using just the instruments and I would therefore not be flying totally blind. This led me to think that as the video tx is still transmitting osd data via the video signal, it would still transmit Vector data for the eagleeyes on the ground, but it doesn't seem to do this with the camera inactive.

I dont intend to fly without a camera of course, but if it were to fail in mid air, I don't want to lose tracking, osd and video, rendering the plane totally reliant on the RTH function.

Anyway I will have a fiddle and report back any findings.
Anthony

Antkol · December 19, 2015, 10:27:33 PM

Quote from: Antkol on December 18, 2015, 08:20:05 PM

Anyway I will have a fiddle and report back any findings.
Anthony

Ok, I have had a fiddle and can confirm the following...
If the camera fails mid flight, the tracker function on the EagleEyes fails and therefore if using directional antennas, the plane may veer out of the antenna path. However the monitor or googles connected to the EagleEyes still shows the Vectors osd data, albeit on a black screen.

So my advice is if flying long range is to make doubly sure the camera battery is charged, or have a video switcher on the plane so that one could flick to another camera if one fails. Of course, a camera powered by the vector itself would also be a good choice too.

skyscraper · December 19, 2015, 10:46:13 PM

Quote from: Miles on December 16, 2015, 07:40:48 PM
Ahhkay - Regarding your issue, I don't think its an issue *PROVIDING* the vector overlays the image the same way the OSD Pro does.

All the Eagletree telemetry is sent in the video feed in tv lines that cannot be seen on the screen (Outside the FoV), however most OSDs work by overlaying onto an existing image. It cannot generate it's own image from scratch, which is why you don't see anything without a camera attached.

Not sure if there's anything you can do about it :/ Saying all that, i might be wrong :)

Miles.

FWIW MAX7456 ic ( used in MinimOSD, MWOSD etc) can generate its own Internal VSYNC and HSYNC signals if no camera signal is present,
as will my OSD, which should also continue to output video telemetry without a camera present

https://github.com/kwikius/quantracker/blob/master/air/osd/video/draw_task.cpp#L58

I would be surprised if Vector cant do that too...

regards
Andy

mutley2 · December 20, 2015, 12:09:42 AM

Looks like it's tracking well, I really enjoy the freedom a tracker can give to FPV, well that's 2 FPV trackers in Herefordshire then.

Miles · December 20, 2015, 12:55:53 PM

Quote from: skyscraper on December 19, 2015, 10:46:13 PM
FWIW MAX7456 ic ( used in MinimOSD, MWOSD etc) can generate its own Internal VSYNC and HSYNC signals if no camera signal is present,
as will my OSD, which should also continue to output video telemetry without a camera present

http://github.com/kwikius/quantracker/blob/master/air/osd/video/draw_task.cpp#L58

I would be surprised if Vector cant do that too...

I would hope it can - One of the main issues I have with mu OSD Pro.

As mentioned by Antkol, I've got mine hooked up to a V Switch, FPV cam on one, Gopro on other. GoPro will charge from the 5V line, but will run on its own battery too :)

Antkol · December 21, 2015, 08:49:55 PM

Quote from: mutley2 on December 20, 2015, 12:09:42 AM
well that's 2 FPV trackers in Herefordshire then.

Excellent. We must be Herefordshires cutting edge!!
I'm about 6 miles due south of Hereford.

mutley2 · December 21, 2015, 09:26:35 PM

Quote from: Antkol on December 21, 2015, 08:49:55 PM
Excellent. We must be Herefordshires cutting edge!!

Be careful Antkol, building trackers is addictive, I'm now on my Mk3!
Building them is fun but using them to fly both near and far is far more addictive, you can fly really low for greater distances and you have the back-up of if anything goes amiss with your aircraft you have the last GPS position to put into your smart phone to lead you to it, win win.
I'm just north of Hereford, but fly all over the county :-)