New test of camera and OSD.

After having asked for advice on Rangevideo's forum, I've set camera settings back to default, and then sat the camera like Vova REZNIK's camera on his video on Vimeo.

I have also disable thermopil sensors.

I tested the aircraft at the weekend.

Everything went fine, the picture was much better, but had the slightest hint of blue when I flew toward the mountains as the sun is behind. The sun is so low now on the days that we do not see it in Håkvik longer.

I tested the autopilot too, this almost crashed the plane. The plane turned upside down, and went vertically down. Fortunately I got off this quickly.

This should not be tested again before I have Z-sensor in place.

The first test flight with RVOSD og DX-201.

The first test flight with RVOSD and DX-201. The screen was blue and with poor resolution. Must find out what makes this. It was not so during testing at home before and after.

Flight went very well, the 2 engines provide tremendous driving force to the plane.

I should change to smaller propeller as soon as I get them. The engines drew 80 amps at most, it was at take off.

I've also have to do more settings on RVOSD.

I had the wrong settings on the IR sensors, so that the artificial horizon showed all the reverse. That I did not notice until I got home, so it was very good that the autopilot had not been enabled, it had gone very wrong.

Mounted microphone.

Since the DX-201 doesn't have built-in microphone. I bought an active microphone for $ 1 on ebay. I cut away a heavy cable and connectors, and soldered directly to VTX Cable.

Picture of RVOSD screen, setup is not done yet.

GPS and artificial horizont is working.

GPS and artificial horizon is working.
I spent almost all night to get the GPS to take the signals. I had actually given up, and took the plane inside, and then it was suddenly okay. Was afraid I had to send some of the equipment back for repair a trip halfway around the globe.
The artificial horizon was just to turn on a parameter, and so it was okay. It was nice to see that the used thermophil sensors I bought on ebay worked.
I'll post pictures of the screen later.

Installation of RVOSD and DX201 camera.

The installation of RVOSD and DX201 was quite a lot of wiring, and they were longer and took more space than I had thought.

Now everything is in place with GPS, distance to home, altimeter, horizon sensor, GPS map plotter, autopilot home, co-pilot for lever flight, rc signal meter, current and voltage meter. Looking forward to test everything.

Lots of wiring:

Soldered plugs on current sensor:

DX201 camera built into the metal box. I think it is safer to have sensitive cmos circuits enclosed. In addition to that the lens does not sit directly on the circuit board, so the circuit board will be destroyed by a crash.:

The camera must be split to disassemble the lens holder.:

Lens set screw is pretty small, so do not lose it.:

DX201 camera is a lot bigger and heavier than other cameras, but with many more possibilities, and quite good resolution.

DX201 in place with Inesun 1.3 GHz, 1.5 watt transmitter. This transmitter can be purchased from www.inesun.com. It goes on frequencies that are allocated to the amateur-tv on the ham-radio 23 cm band. I am very happy with this transmitter.

It is pretty much wires inside her, the main battery has to be moved further forward to compensate with the weight on top of the wing. The plan is to have a 3000 mAh primary battery, and a 1500 mAh aux battery. RVOSD will use the battery with the highest voltage at all times to control servos, and camera with transmitter. The engines will always go on the main battery, and so I have the opportunity to sail the plane down on the auxiliary battery if the other would be empty.

GPS antenna and thermophile sensors for horizon reading in place.

It will be interesting to see if these sensors are able to read correctly with the 1600 meter high mountain on the one hand, and the sea as far as one can see at the other side. I suspect that it may go wrong because they measure the horizon by reading the temperature between the sky and the ground on 4 different sides of the plane to tell us how the horizon is, and how is it then if one or three sides is a high mountain?:

Here is almost everything in place, now I wait for the new main battery and new propellers to come with the mail.:

Rebuilding my Hitec receiver to RSSI out.

With the help from Alex Villa at Range Video, I have found out how I can connect the RSSI from the receiver. Thank you Alex!

A 100 kohm resistance, and a 0022 uF capacitor instead of a 0.01 uF. Both found a box with scrap electronics. Ready for soldering.

Had to cut the print path here to use the signal pin on the battery plug.

Soldering...

And finished .. :)

Then the next task is a little cable work for the RVOSD. But it will be later.

Testing the twin engines.

Saturday we were to our caravan, so I took the plane to get tested the twin engines.
It's a very nice place to fly.

Before takeof I found that right ailerons did not work. I was really curious to find out how the engines would work, so I had to fly a little ride nonetheless.
It went well, but I do not take the plane up again with only one aileron. I think I can thank the twin engines power for beeing able to straighten up the plane a few times.

The engine's power lasted only a few seconds at a time. It turned out that my 4000 mAh LiPo only had 10c on discharging, which doesn't mather for the old engine, because it was so small. I have now ordered a LiPo at 3000 mAh and 30C.

I also have to change to propellers to some with less pitch. I will try 7 x3 and 6 x 4 inch. The propellers I tried now was 8 x 6's, trimmed down to around 7 x 6.

Trying to figure out how to get the RSSI signal to RVOSD from Hitec HFD-07RA receiver.

Is this where I can find RSSI signal on a Hitec HFD-07RA. Chip is a 7761F. Someone who knows about the signal can be connected directly to RVOSD, or whether it must be curbed?

Rebuilding the engine system.

Existing engine pod were too high. The engine pushed the plane down. I had to trim the elevator all the time.

New engines and a 40A ESC from Hong Kong. The motors are 250 watts and 2200 kv.

Construction of engine mounts.

Mounted only one ESC for both engines first. After reading several discussion forums on the net, where some people says it is possible to use only one ESC on two engines, and others says that there must be two of theme, I decided to try it with one. It does not work! Although I used the same engines, adjusted them equally, power lines were same length, the engines went unevenly, sometime they went backwards.

New 30A ESCs and a LIPO battery low voltage alarm. Mounting alarm both on video battery and motor / rc battery.

Control cable from the RC receiver to ESCs.

Two ESCs mounted, one for each engine. In the balsa box, it will be more electronics, the FMA sensor on the top. Has also made a place for the GPS antenna further back on the tail.

Distance check on the ground level.

Today I have done a range check on the ground level with a standard antenna for Hitec rc radio and Inesun 1.5 Watt 1.28 GHz video transmitter.


I'm sure it will reach a lot longer, but I had picture and controll 421 meters away. The plane was in our house close to a window. The signals went through two buildings, and perhaps 200 meters of forest, I'm sure I was lower in the terrain than it had been clear view.



I'll do a test later with a clear view.
The faint red line is the signal.

Testing HDD DVR again, and 130 degrees servo in flight.

The HDD DVR worked very well when I used it correctly. At medium resolution it had at 20 minutes' flying time a video file of 500 MB. This was a bit too large to edit with my video software, so next time I will try the smallest resolution.
Another thing is that the resolution was so good, that I could see how crooked the video was from the bad camera. This I could never see when I used the easycap video to USB device on my laptop.
I have lowered the quality of this video to be able to edit it.

Video:
http://www.vimeo.com/6492223

The 130 degree servo worked great. It was very nice to be able to expand the field of view. Funny to look back on the wing.

Picture of servo modification.

Testing the HDD DVR.

Do not know how to start writing a blog, so I begin with what I'm doing now. What I have done before I will post pictures of later.

Finally I got hold of a cheap small screen, and had made a powerful voltage regulator so that I can use my HDD DVR.

The screen is a 3.5"LCD which cost only 12 $ from ebay Hong Kong. The voltage regulator, I've created myself, it is 5 volts and can provide 3 amps. Found out later that It's possible to buy 5 amps BEC on ebay for 7 USD, and I might just as well use this.

Back to the testing of DRV. I'm sure it was one of my best shots and FPV flights, but the recording was unfortunately deleted, when the finger was faster than my head, and then I struck off on the red power button instead of stop-button.

Another thing that I got tested, and was okey. Is the modification of the pan servo. I had hoped for 180 degrees pan, but was only 130 degrees, so whatever's much better than around 80 degrees.

I have set it so that I can look back on left wing, and perhaps 45 degrees to the right.

The modification is made by soldering two resistors of 2.2 kohm to the potentiometer inside the servo.