AH-6Z Littlebird Night-Ops build project

[Zeeflyboy]

Do it pasty!

There's a lot of fun to be had and it makes the experience that much more immersive... also more challenging to fly due to limited visibility etc.

Especially if one is going to comply with the rules, flying around within LoS and below 400 feet with just camera view doesn't keep me entertained. Feeling like you are in one of these aircraft and seeing the whole thing somehow makes the experience more enjoyable - even staying within the limits.

The only catch is that you need space and weight, which means it invariably ends up being a larger build - hence heavier overall.

So anyway, I've hashed out my cyclic... slight hitch - the small servos I thought I had, I don't lol. I've ordered some more from hobbyking but they won't be here for a while.

Hopefully this pic shows the idea though (obviously it needs tidying up and painting)



Basically the plate at the front mounts to the front of the seat, the collets I made hold the shaft in position so it can't slide back or forth. There will then be a small 3g servo mounted to the cut out in the shaft, with the control horn over the middle of the shaft. it will be connected to the base of the control stick (hence the cut out in the face plate) - this will operate elevator. Moving backwards, there's the second support bracket that mounts to the underside of the seat to hold everything in place and finally a plywood tab at the back to which another 3g servo mounted to the seat structure will connect and rotate the shaft for aileron.

Jobsa.

Oh, and this rather serious looking lens just arrived for my Low light camera - an Auto Iris lens that opens up to f1.4 so should do pretty well in low light, but hopefully will also help in brighter daylight conditions by narrowing the iris. We'll see how that works out when the cam arrives, fingers crossed.

[g.collins]

Great project, I was thinking of something similar with a H quad, this is the monitor I was looking at.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DIY-Monitor-parts-3-5-Digital-Color-LCD-driver-board-/310337427056?pt=UK_In_Car_Technology&hash=item48418d5670
:) G

[Zeeflyboy]

thats MASSIVE g lol...  :o

That screen is as big as the entire dash! I'm using a 1.8" monitor for the vid feed, a 1.8" photo viewer for it;s accompanying screen and a smaller 1.5" or 1" for the lower display.

I'm hoping I'll be able to view the screens properly without flicker, I'm just keeping my toes crossed for that.

edit, just found all these

http://www.adafruit.com/category/63

specifically, I'm currently sizing up this

http://www.adafruit.com/products/910

[Zeeflyboy]

Need some opinions! I just found these two monitors

1.5" http://www.adafruit.com/products/910

2.0" http://www.adafruit.com/products/911


Now obviously the 2.0" is more visible, higher resolution and you'd probably be able to make out the OSD on it. It'll be more work to make it fit however! the 1.5" is perhaps a touch small though... what do you guys think? Which should I go for? Here's a pic of the dimensions cut out in card and placed side by side (btw If I go with the 2", I'd bring the effective screen size down slightly to match the 1.8" photo viewer that's on the way by means of a blanking cover)

[Zeeflyboy]

I've screwed down the seats (about 60mm apart - enough to allow the front of the t-rex 600 frame between them if necessary) and fitted the cyclic controls, minus servos and linkages for now.

Looks pretty good I think (imaging it all painted), and puts the cyclic stick into a good position. At least collective will be easy - I'll just attach the lever directly to a servo arm and install the servo in the side of the seat.

[drnikolitsis]

Such a nice build! Good going !!! :popcorn:

[wgt40w]

Yeah there'll be some space for some kit under the floor.

So when are you making your AS350 FPV? ;)

I tried FPV for the first time ever on another heli - I found it so difficult that I have switched to fixed wing planes for FPV.
Helis I fly for fun, but am not sure my two are correctly balanced / setup - still working on them - soon to fit simple stabilization gyros or something.

[Zeeflyboy]

Yeah they can be tricky lol... with a fixed cam they aren't too bad though.

The idea is that by night the cockpit will be illuminated by green LEDs in the roof, and some very limited forward visibility on the ground afforded by the 1W landing light/surrounding lighting... when actually flying at night the plan would be to switch to the "FLIR" view as though you were putting on your NV goggles. I have in my mind the image of spooling up with the cockpit view looking around, then switching to FLIR mode and away you go....

The "FLIR" will be permanently in black and white to simulate a different kind of view, and will be the only camera with OSD... the cockpit camera will be "pure" with no OSD display, but audio alerts will still come through the audio channel (eg low fuel etc). I may set up some simple LED warning/mode lights too.

The basic wiring for the video system goes something like this:

"FLIR" camera goes direct to OSD, then from OSD (maybe through a video splitter... might not be needed) to the cockpit display and to a two way video switch. The cockpit camera goes directly to this switch. The switch then feeds a video splitter which splits whichever video stream is selected (ch9 will select) between two imrc 5.8ghz vTXs operating on separate video channels.

simple huh? lol...

Anyhoo...

I've decided I'll just build my own upper cockpit section. I've ordered some 1.6mm fibreglass sheet to that effect... makes fitting the screens much easier and gives me more control over the appearance.

I knocked up this mock up of the dash, all to scale and correct. If you look carefully you can probably see faint red lines around the right screen - these denote the entire module and viewable area dimensions respectively of the 2" display. As you can see I'm cutting down the size slightly by making the hole smaller so I will be able to make it match the 1.8" photo viewer screen, which will be displaying radar images or navigation displays etc etc.

It's just a rough idea of what I'll need to build (all in 3D of course, not a flat print out), but what do you think? The first photo compares it to the dash that comes with the kit.

[wgt40w]

As ever - just amazing.

I also cannot believe the speed at which your projects advance - I normally spend days just thinking and sketching out ideas before taking the plunge.

You manage to get it right almost every time - good for you.

A thought - I believe you can buy military style Flir night vision systems now. Could you buy one, take apart and create a 'proper' flir cam system ?? (a standard fpv cam looking in and through flir googles ?)

(Edited - Google "Miniature night vision system" - all come up with IR systems though)

[Zeeflyboy]

It'll slow down now lol, I'm back to work tomorrow. I'm fairly good at visualising things in my head, making them is harder lol. The fact it generally seems to come together alright is more luck than anything else... I'd rather be lucky than good however!

You can get a real FLIR and you can use it for FPV... See this video

RFTC: Flying FPV at Night with a FLIR Thermal Imaging Camera

The catch is it looks like its at least €4000.... I'm open to donations lol.

Check these out... So perfect. Maybe when I win the lottery!

http://www.grupoacre.com/admin/resources/productos/files/45840/FLIR-Quark-Brochure_prod_45840.pdf

[3DJIM]

Awesome build m8!! just wow!!, and I want a FLIR bad!!  ;D



Jim.

[Zeeflyboy]

well if you have more money than me the pathfindIR is about as affordable as it gets from what I can see - goes for around £1-1.5k

The quark is where it's at though - super light weight and up to 640x520 resolution.. a cool $4500 though.

So who else is going to be playing the lottery this weekend?

[FPVSteve]

Me. And if I win I'll give you as much money as you need to complete this build as it'll be worth it :D

[Zeeflyboy]

haha, Thanks!

I hope you win.... wait, I hope I win... well... I win this wekk, you win next week.

Lol...

Right, I decided to try and be clever.... always dangerous.

I have downloaded some free 3D modelling software and am currently constructing the fascia panel. The idea is then to get it 3D printed by shapeways in the ultra fine detail stuff. I have never even played with 3D software before, let alone made a 3D model and had it printed.

Anyone want to point out a flaw in my plan? Here's a little screen shot of where I'm at (it's taken me quite a while lol, I'm getting the hang of it though!)

[g.collins]

Looking good mate, if it was Rhino cad I could help, 3d printing has usually got a bit of a tetchier to it, may interfere with the detailing, it may be beter to have it cnc milled.
if I was going to do it, I would make the control panels as pockets, then vac form them, in thin lightweight plastic, so all the details are sharply formed.
:) G