BlueFlyer's 15.4" LCD Flight Case Ground Station

[BlueFlyer]

Following on from a few other guys on the forum who've bought a LCD panel and a driver board from China... I thought I'd open a thread to show my current efforts.

Here's the plan... which might change as I progress:

1. 15.4" LCD monitor and 1.2/3 VRX in the lid of a rugged flight case.
2. The ability to switch between an external video input and the internal 1.2/3 VRX.
3. Record the selected video input to my Eachine ProDVR.
4. Power the whole lot from a 10Ah 4S LiPo (because it's what I have and a similar size/weight 12v Pb battery would be less mah)
5. Select between internal LiPo power or external power (such as 12v from car or a mains AC/DC 12v input)

The components have been arriving in dribs and drabs over the last week or so, the main thing being the flight case itself which arrived this morning... so finally I've been able to make a start on the project.

First thing to tackle was the messiness of the wiring coming from the LCD driver board, and to figure out where/how to mount the components for the monitor.



I hot glued the main board and the inverter to sheets of white depron in order to insulate them both thermally and electrically from whatever I was going to mount them to.



Due to cable lengths, the best place to mount the 2 main boards were on the back of the panel itself. I did this with hot glue.



This is the connector that connects the IR sensor/LED light and the buttons PCB to the main board. Because I have the version with the remote control, to make the install a bit neater I chose to remove the wires for the buttons board as I only intend on using the IR sensor for controlling the screen. I can always use these pictures as reference if I want to put them back in the future.





I taped down the 2 main cables to keep things tidy, added a barrel plug (which will be wired up to a switch later) and the LCD panel is ready to be mounted into a frame.

[BlueFlyer]

So here's the case





Drilling a hole in the top edge of the lid to mount an extended SMA connector for the VRX.







Cut down the hardboard that I'm using for the panels, to fit the lid.





I'm using 12mm pine strips as edging for the panels to sit on. Simply cut to length and screwed into the sides at the right height.











Panel fits and sits at the right height as to not protrude from the lid when it's open.



Now it's time to figure out the layout of the top panel. Laying the monitor and the VRX down to get a feel for how it will look.



I'm decasing the VRX, otherwise the channel number LED and the buttons won't poke out enough from the panel.



Holes cut for the VRX, Monitor and the on/off switch.



Now time to apply the carbon fibre effect vinyl.





The monitor has 4 brackets so it's easy to just bolt it into place using M3 nuts and bolts



The VRX and IR sensor mounted to the back of the frame using hot glue.



The frame is screwed down to the pine strips using silver countersunk wood screws.

[BlueFlyer]

bottom panel cut to size, holes cut for panel mounted switches and components.




Testing fitment and layout of components.






Prepping the bottom part of the case for the panel.




Panel sliced in half, components on the upper portion (with wiring underneath) and the lower portion will be a hatch on hinges to access the storage area underneath.

[SnoozeDoggyDog]

Whichcraft happening right before my eyes!

Bravo Blue.

P

[BlueFlyer]

cheers. maybe at some point in the future I'll be able to replace the carbon effect with real CNC'd carbon sheets... but 2 of those alone will cost more than the entire rest of the build so far... and that's before the CNC costs, so perhaps that's just a pipe dream lol

[Coyote]

Looking good so far Chris :)

[English Turbines]

 Looks great m8, It's put my quick job to shame for sure. Didn't expect anything less...LOL.

Im going to remove the cables for the button push strip like you have, dont need it with the remote unit. I assume it will still work..? Have you tried it yet?

   I soldered the 12vdc power input directly onto the bottom of the PCB, those DC plugs can be rather unreliable methinks..?.Don't think the 5volt Reg on the Mainboard will tolerate a 4S though..unless you are going to use a 12V reg maybe? It gets hot as it is, gonna glue on a heat sink to mine, as when it's in a PC it has the benefit of a cooling fan I would imagine..?

Going to see how I get on with mine on 5.8G as a relay first...If it's ok, then it's a Partom combo with another 800mw VTX like what you have...Be interested to see if it handles the OSD text overlay reliably as well. It is going to need a decent Sunshade.

  You do realise this makes us the big FPV screen cheapskates dont you....?.....LOL

                                      :vulture: 

[beesleyboy]

Nice, relay coming together.
;) G

[BlueFlyer]

Looks great m8, It's put my quick job to shame for sure. Didn't expect anything less...LOL.

Im going to remove the cables for the button push strip like you have, dont need it with the remote unit. I assume it will still work..? Have you tried it yet?

I havent tried it yet, I'll have a look today.

I soldered the 12vdc power input directly onto the bottom of the PCB, those DC plugs can be rather unreliable methinks..?.Don't think the 5volt Reg on the Mainboard will tolerate a 4S though..unless you are going to use a 12V reg maybe? It gets hot as it is, gonna glue on a heat sink to mine, as when it's in a PC it has the benefit of a cooling fan I would imagine..?

Yes, I forgot to mention that I'll be using a voltage regulator to drop it down to 12V for the screen.

Going to see how I get on with mine on 5.8G as a relay first...If it's ok, then it's a Partom combo with another 800mw VTX like what you have...Be interested to see if it handles the OSD text overlay reliably as well. It is going to need a decent Sunshade.

I pretty much use my ground station case in a tent or fishing shelter, so won't have much need for a sunshade. One thing I might do is swap the panel for the matte screen instead of this glossy one.

You do realise this makes us the big FPV screen cheapskates dont you....?.....LOL

haha, nothing wrong with that :)

Nice, relay coming together.
;) G

Thanks G, but the relay is on my tracker tripod, this is just a backup ground station in a box.

[iwan_canobi]

Looks good Blue, will be awesome viewing on a screen that size! Looking nice and neat as I would expect from you as well!

[BlueFlyer]

Im going to remove the cables for the button push strip like you have, dont need it with the remote unit. I assume it will still work..?

ET, I can confirm everything works just fine with the buttons PCB pins removed from that large white connector.... if you have the remote control that is.

[English Turbines]

ET, I can confirm everything works just fine with the buttons PCB pins removed from that large white connector.... if you have the remote control that is.

  Cool, mines going to be removed then, its a pain and its cable gets in the way of a cover I need to fabricate.....I had some 10mm diam x 1mm thick disc magnets arrive yesterday, to clip on the Sunscreen with...:)

                                                        :vulture:

[BlueFlyer]

cool, I'm not making a sun screen... I'm not sure it would make any difference if it's being used fully outdoors, as in not in a shelter/tent.

I have however, managed to cut the base panel and started to drill some holes for the components and switches that will be mounted on it. No pictures... it was a bit of a "quickie" whilst my painkillers were in full force lol.

I've just ordered some piano hinge in order to make a hatch for the storage compartments, so will be waiting for that before I do any more work

[BlueFlyer]

See 3rd post above for today's progress http://www.fpvhub.com/index.php/topic,51588.msg266431.html#msg266431

[iwan_canobi]

Looks great, what's the small screen going to be for? Or did I miss something?