Mk1's FPV babble

[xxpitt]

Know anyone with a metal detector?

[MK1G4V]

Know anyone with a metal detector?

No mate. but it really wouldn't be worth heading back out there anyway the grass is short and it landed belly down perfect with the cam lens looking through a barbed wire fence looking over a field so it isn't buried anywhere. A cow must have ate it. or a wormhole opened up and swallowed it. I have to consider these things after such an extensive search all in all between me and tom your talking 7 hours two men not always in same location. All hope is lost

[bigMouse]

Flying fpv without a dvr then when it goes in, you have no perception how far away it really is! Even flying LOS and seeing it go in, it still can me mighty hard to find! I bet its still there! Keep looking!

[MK1G4V]

Guys I'm going to buy a ublox gps for the naze from here.

http://www.hobbyrc.co.uk/ublox-7-tiny-56-channel-gps-receiver-module-naze-32

My only question is how does it send data to laptop? like is there some sort of usb adapter or what? I'm probably overlooking something simple but I'm struggling to see how its going to communicate with a laptop for Live gps tracking via goggle and the u-centre software?

Secondly can you guys recommend some 2 wired piezo buzzers? I bought some but there 3 wires and don't work with the naze buzzer output.

[bigMouse]

With (just) the gps connected on the quad, the only way you could read the gps position would be to connect to a laptop over bluetooth and read the coordinates off the GPS screen, within the config software, say baseFlight on windows, and MultiWii ez Gui on andrioid, problem with this is that BT is short range communication, never tested it, probably 100~300ft. And if the battery disconnects in the crash then no read out!

The regular way would be to use an OSD with on screen gps position, so the gps position is sent back with the fpv video, so with a dvr on the ground it will record the last gps position on impact

[MK1G4V]

Well i will be using this software http://www.u-blox.com/en/evaluation-tools-a-software/u-center/u-center.html

and can be seen working here at around 1:10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PARMGEZq2vI

I know he has it connected somehow sitting next to him but this software allows for Live tracking no? I'm super confused. what would be the point in live gps tracking and all the telemetry if its only capable of transmitting as far as Bluetooth range?

EDIT: Or it something that you connect to pc after flight somehow and watch telemetry and tracking data of the flight?

[bigMouse]

Ucenter is a configuration tool for uBlox, testing the gps is just a part of its features but not really designed or intended for what you have in mind! Your connected via usb which is no use! Just like baseflight etc will show you the gps position in lat and long, but must be connected somehow, either by usb (no good), Bluetooth (will work but not very well) Telemetry (this is more complicated, good but will need a downlink of some sort) or overlay the gps on the OSD screen and record that on the ground via the fpv video link.Good thing about this is that it's simple, and you can immediately play back the video and see the terrain where the quad was heading for and its gps position recorded on the screen

[MK1G4V]

Yeah gotcha! ill grab it just to display gps co-ordinates on screen and like you say record them on dvr. Some live tracking would be sweet though guess its more like those gps box things with a sim card in that send data every 30 secs or so.. not really of any use for minis but could work on a fixed wing.

what piezo buzzers or lost alarms are you using mate?

[bigMouse]

The gps position overlaid on the video screen will give you live tracking, albeit in lat and long numbers that is almost impossible for the brain to process real time, but on replay of the recorded video you would be able to compare that read out with a map. I guess that 95% people who use gps, use this system.

Telemetry needs another airborne pcb, antenna and frequency to transmit data back down, you will need software that can process the data and obviously a laptop or something to display the results on. The APM system is set up to work like this, it can show position, direction, altitude, and speed over a saved google map of the area (or through 3g can load maps real time). This is really outside the capability of a mini quad though (atm). A lot of things to interfere with each other in a very confined space, larger quads are better for this because the most effective interference suppression is air spacing between the equipment on board.

[bigMouse]

what piezo buzzers or lost alarms are you using mate?

Piezo buzzers behave like capacitors, they fall into two types, ones with internal oscillators and ones that are externally driven! Any that has an internal oscillator only needs a voltage applied for them to work! Externally driven ones need a waveform to drive them, just applying a voltage will only make them click!

KK2 buzzers have the internal osc, so applying 5v will make them sound
The kk2 board will supply 5v or 0v to the buzzer = on/off.

Naze sends a series of 5v/0v to the buzzer output (to reproduce a kind of repetitive warbling sound) so the buzzer needs to have an internal osc, for instance the kk2 buzzer will work fine!

Then there are a whole range of lost alarm buzzers, most of these are externally driven, so wont work directly with naze or kk2, their loudness is also limited by the applied voltage from the driver circuit, the problem here if that most are powered by the 5v supply so even the twin horn buzzers aren't particularly loud. The only way to get a louder buzzer is to drive it from the main battery supply, there are a few like this out there but the only ones I have found are also battery monitors, this is their big drawback, you have to connect the balance lead, and there is no manual means of turning them on or off via a channel. I hacked one to work and it is 4 times louder than the kk2 buzzer, Was intending to make a few sounder boards up but never got around to it.  Here is a crap video I made, it's useless because the gain control on the sound is evening out the sound output so they all sound the same...

Bottom line is, they are all cheap now if you search around, try a few out...

Testing buzzers

[MK1G4V]

Got me some LED'S