GPS controlled plane

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colin9876

Active Member
Licensed User
Ive been asked to code a pda which can remotely fly a model plane from UK to a location in France. Im sure B4PPC is upto it with its GPS functions.
Whats the best way to get output from the PDA to the motor servos?
Bluetooth or some direct connection is an option? My pda has a mini usb output but I dont know what signals can be outputed through this
 
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pinoy_ako

Member
Licensed User
Longtime User
sir collin,

that's 1 nice project. im into hardware designing, and just recently started with ppc. we could work together on that project if you want.
 
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Picard

Member
Licensed User
Longtime User
Really it is a beautiful project. I will very happy if could contribute.
Aeromodelling is one of my favorite hobbies. I designed two planes succesfully some years ago.
Have you think about the dimensions and weights of the plane, wingspan, profile, power plant, etc.?, wich is the distance the plane must fly?
Will you put on board your PDA to control the servos, depending on the data received from GPS and data received from a gyroscopic device?
I don't know anything about electronics. I'm sorry.
This is not a remotely flight...it's self controlled!!
 
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ceaser

Active Member
Licensed User
Hi Colin

I am a freelance Surveyor mostly involved in construction surveying. I have built a scale model "car" which has onboard a Recon and a Trimble SPS885 GPS (Accuracy=0.005m). On the Recon I have my program (CEASER_field) which receives coordinates from the GPS (the base station does the corrections) and compares these coordinates to the alignment of the project. As the "car" moves along the alignment, the program can compute the distance along the alignment and also the offset from the alignment. Signals are then send through to the controller, which in turn controls the servo motors to bring the "car" back to the alignment. The alignment consists of straights with coordinates at the intersecting points and a radius (and\or spiral curves) at each interesecting point.

It is also possible to have the "car" running at an offset from the alignment. Left will be negative and right will be positive.

Imagine in 10 years time the cars on our roads all running on their own without a driver inside!!

This will work OK until the yanks decide to change the paths of their satellites!

Regards
Michael (ceaser)
 
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mjcoon

Well-Known Member
Licensed User
I have at last got my program to run successfully transfering binary data across 3-wire RS232 (no hardware handshaking), using Basic4PPC, of course, and my F-S Loox PDA. This PDA also has host and slave USB. The host works OK to a USB keyboard but I think would need a special driver (goodness knows how that would be integrated!) to do arbitrary host working to, say, a printer.

So I think USB to control the plane might be problematic. A PDA which has RS232 would be much easier. RS232 to D-to-A converter could (almost?) be off-the-shelf. Don't know about WiFi, Bluetooth or IR, but I think that RS232 would take least power and have least chance of interference too.

What are the insurance, health and safety and regulatory aspects of flying an autonomous plane? I wouldn't want to help with anything illegal!

Cheers, Mike.
 
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