Antena Tacker Again...

[Squawk]

Im thinking about how to build the new GS around the tracker. Im still wondering the pros and cons of different layouts, and would value some opinions.
I have the Servo City pan tilt tracker setup, a 10' monitor, 2 sets HP, 1 set EVG 920s and DVD burner.
I usually set up my GS on a table with 2 chairs and the case with the patches, Oracle and recorder sitting between us.
Im debating whether to set up the GS with the RVGS remotely mounted out with the Pan Tilt setup on a tripod, using a single AV cable back to the base and a single power cable from case to tripod. Then using RV splitter at the case to drive goggles, recorder and monitor.
Other option is to have RVGS at the table, close to goggles, recorder and monitor, and have cable running to tripod with servo leads and power, AV back.
Any opinions about which layout, or other ideas are welcome.
Cheers
Frank

Hey Frank,

I'm still collecting the stuff I need and waiting for stuff I ordered to start building my ground station setup.
The idea is to have all the electronics in the ground station case. The case will be on a speaker stand tripod on a speaker DAP adapter that I will build into the case.
This system facilitates very easy and jet sturdy setup of the case on and off the tripod without unscrewing or unclicking things.
Then from the back of the case, the antenna cables and power cable for the antenna tracker servo's will run to the antenna tracker that will be placed on a separate tripod.

With Autodesk Inventor I designed a preliminary antenna tracker tripod base plate to which I plan to connect the telescopic legs from another existing tripod.
The base plate will have a hole in the middle of at least 4cm (1.6") through which the antenna cable and servo power cable will run.
So the antenna tracker will pan around the hole in the middle.
This way, when the tracker pan's left and right, the cables won't get tangled up around the tripod legs. The cable length from the antenna's to the ground station case will be about 1.5m (59", 4.9ft),
so they can make a few twists before any problems with panning more than 360 degrees would occur.
For the pan construction I plan to use Servo City's gearbox, that I will modify to accommodate my "pan around the hole" concept.
http://www.servocity.com/html/spg400...o_gearbox.html

I want to use 1 LiPo-set battery pack or combined pack to power the ground station. My plan is to have these batteries outside of the ground station case in a container or something.
This to prevent my whole ground station from burning to the ground in case one of the LiPo packs would catch fire. (Read too many reports about that..)
I hand-drawed out several items of the ground station case that I will build first.
Then after some experimenting and testing I will finish building the ground station case first, before building the concept idea of the antenna tracker.

Hope this gives you some inspiration..

Grtz,

koen

[ommadawn]

Hi Koen,
Looking forward to seeing your setup as it develops.
Maybe its time for a new RVGS designs thread?

[Squawk]

Not a bad idea... a kind of "show us your ground station and/or ideas" thread..
Please start it..

[jamesvok]

I have been looking at recorders also. I have an old tape based camcorder that will take in video, but I was hoping to use a SD based unit. So far, I have not found a decent one. There are some proprietary units for specific cameras, but not much under $500 with a high frame rate and decent picture size. I would prefer a HD recorder, but that looks unattainable in today's market.
Funny, I can buy a 1080p HD camcorder for under $100, but nothing to record an external video signal. I even began looking into hacking a camcorder to add the "video in" port
Please let me know if you have a better alternative.
Cheers,
Bill

Hi Bill,

I too was having a heck of a time finding a decent recorder. Unless you want to spend 4k on a professional video camera, no one offers AV inputs these days. I have been using an older Archos604 recorder. It has a base plate that has an AV in. The only trick needed is that to record, the unit needs to think it is plugged into the wall charger. For that I used an old car USB charger that will take my 3-cell lipo and output 5V (just like the wall charger offers). It records 480x270 and has storage of 30G (it was made to record television shows and my daughter will attest it works wonderfully... that is before I stole it for my FPV antics. Amazon has them for $160 used, though they might be cheaper elsewhere.
http://www.amazon.com/Archos-Ultra-S.../dp/B000HAU972

There may be better options out there, but we already had this item so it worked out well for me.

Here are a few photos....
photo1.JPG
photo2.JPG

Best regards,
James

[Higgy]

Hi James,
I saw the Archos, but was not sure if it would work. I am glad to see you figured out a work around. I am still hoping for HD but may have to forego that for now. The FPV-Japan unit Koen suggested looks promissing. Will likely order that one and an eye out for the HD
Cheers,
Bill

[ommadawn]

Hi Bill
Have you looked at the Sony portable DVD burner? I have had some remarkable ground recordings from mine. Runs happily on 3s.
I use DVD+RW rewritable disks. At best quality you get 61mins/disk. Playback on plasma/lcd bigscreen is very close to commercial DVD quality if the video link is good.
The recorder pauses during really bad breakup, and resumes automatically by itself. Sort of pre editing.
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?inv...6-FB-R&cpc=SCH
Alex uses the same one.
Cheers
Frank

[Higgy]

Hi Frank,
Thanks for the tip. Looks like they are out of stock. Good news is, I did a quick search and B&H offers a similar unit in BluRay. I will check that one out closer tonight. Not sure if they make read/write disks for BluRay. It will also burn DVD.
Cheers,
Bill

[mago]

Hey Frank,

I'm still collecting the stuff I need and waiting for stuff I ordered to start building my ground station setup.

Also me on the same situation as you and Frank. I'm looking to the "best" design to build a simple yet functional GS around the RV unit.
I already have a toolbox suitcase, converted to the FPV task. inside a 15" TV, video RX, some 3s lipo and a panel with switches.
It can be securely screwed onto a tripod thanks to a knob inside it.
My final task is to have tracking system for the patch antenna AND, if possibile, handle a "second" tracker with a rc TX patch, frsky 7db.
The simplest though i made was to put the two antennas on the same pan/tilt support, since the 2.4 antenna is quite small, but i'm afraid that TX would disturb RX so i need separation (anyway to be proven, yet).
I think i could build two separate pan/tilt and handle them simply splitting tracker signals with Y-cables, since they basically point the same, but probably i will need a third tripod and so on. I still don't see a way to do it in a simple, clean and trasportable way.
The only "clean" setup i saw to date is the Montiel one, he has two antennas on a tripod mounted at the ends of an horizontal rod. Maybe it's the only way

[Squawk]

Haven't seen the Montiel one, but my tracker design which is based on a tripod will have a horizontal rod/staff that rotates for tilt. On it will be the video rx antanna's. One could extend the rod/staff for another antenna.

[ommadawn]

Hi Frank,
Thanks for the tip. Looks like they are out of stock. Good news is, I did a quick search and B&H offers a similar unit in BluRay. I will check that one out closer tonight. Not sure if they make read/write disks for BluRay. It will also burn DVD.
Cheers,
Bill

Hi Bill,
When I got mine they were out of stock too, but you can go on a wait list. I got a re stock reply within 2 weeks. I ended up with a refurbed unit for $99. I got caned on P+H though.
Do you know if the Blu Ray device will tolerate any noise? Thats going to be the deal breaker.