[Hackupy-discuss] Aerial camera platform

Tyler Tyler treason93 at gmail.com
Sun Nov 27 04:06:14 CET 2011 

sam,

very niceeee! i talked to colleen about HD streaming options and it looks
like the associated price tag for what we need to do that is about 1800$,
so perhaps out of our price range for the moment.
Did you have a chance to push code to Git?

-Tyler

On Sat, Nov 26, 2011 at 12:04 PM, Ben Rupert <meowdip at gmail.com> wrote:

> I have a laser cutter from 11am-noon tomorrow at techshop.  I have my
> own projects which I can use the time for, but if Sam or someone else
> has parts that need cutting for an aerial camera platform I'd be happy
> to use my time to make those.
>
> Ben
>
> On 11/26/2011 10:23 AM, sam reese wrote:
> > DSC/Occucopter report
> >
> > Given a few days of futzing around with the parts that we had, I'm
> > pretty locked into using the AeroQuad design, but really, I'm tempted
> > by the simplicity of the KK chip. I got our software interfacing with
> > the hardware, configured the reciever with the aeroquad board, and was
> > able to read correct data from all sensors that we currently have. The
> > remaining sensors (gyro, magnometer, barometer) should be arriving
> > monday or tuesday), I also got our ESC/Motor flashed with a good
> > firmware, and operating.
> >
> >  In the parts obtainment department, We've got a GoPro HD coming in on
> > a loan, we've likely got access to a less-than-brilliant FPV camera
> > (very useful for flying the cameras). I've also got 8 sets of rotors
> > coming in soon.
> >
> > Things we are still in need of
> >  -some thin aluminum, roughly 1/2" box tube, 3-4 feet of it, thin wall.
> >  - someone with a laser cutter to pew-pew us some landing gear and
> > electronics carriage out of some acrylic I have laying around
> >  - motors/esc: we have one 20/30 Amp ESC and a Tunergy 2830/11
> > (http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=12921)
> > which should be plenty for stable flight with a camera. I'd like the
> > motors to be matched, so we need either 3x of those, or 4x of
> > something.
> >  - LiPo batteries: for a single flight of 15-20 min (and that's
> > running the batteries DRY, so since we don't have battery telemetry,
> > we'd be returning with 20% or so remaining), aeroquad forums seem to
> > suggest around 5000 mAh. (which will add up to around 450-550 g of
> > weight): we're deciding between one large battery in the center, or
> > distributing smaller batteries at the ends of the chopper to make it
> > more stable by increasing polar intertia.
> >  - LiPo Charger: Here's hoping someone has one we can borrow for a while!
> >
> > So that's our status. I'll get a accurate scale probably sunday and
> > start adding up weights of the componentry that we have, and report
> > back before too long.
> >
> > Also, I got @Occucopter on twitter.
> > ~Sam
> >
> > On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 1:20 PM, Ben Rupert <meowdip at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> I heard people talking about the need for an aerial camera platform
> >> before I saw this thread and came up with some ideas for a balloon.  I'm
> >> going to persue the balloon idea but I really like the pole climber as
> >> well.  Here's a few thoughts on various things related to an aerial
> >> camera platform:
> >>  The link from Jaochim is great, but has the one big drawback that the
> >> flight time w/o camera is listed as 12 minutes.  I had seen this
> >> purchasable quadcopter in a store recently:
> >> http://ardrone.parrot.com/parrot-ar-drone/usa/
> >> It is $300 and so outside of the price that people are interested in.  I
> >> was thinking of buying one for immediate deployment anyway while I and
> >> others hack on a cheaper solution, but it also has the drawback of only
> >> getting 10-15 minutes of flight per charge (and over an hour charge
> >> time).  The big bonus with this commercial thing is that it it supposed
> >> to be very stable even in the wind (including an autopilot mode) and has
> >> two cameras with live streaming a built in option.  I think I'm going to
> >> pass though because of the short flight time.
> >>
> >>  I know that a balloon is going to have trouble being stable in even a
> >> very light breeze, and it will need to be a pretty large balloon to lift
> >> much of anything, but I'm going to give it a shot.  I bought one of
> these:
> >> http://www.amazon.com/Spy-Gear-Video-TRAKR/dp/B003AZZSQ8
> >>
> >> so for $60 I got a RC tank with built in video camera.  I'm going to
> >> take it apart and mount the electronics and camera on a balsa wood
> >> board.  I'll then take the two drive motors and put propellers on then
> >> to be able to move the thing around.  Also this thing was specifically
> >> built to be hacked.  It can even supposedly boot from SD card (it has SD
> >> card and usb host and slave connections).  There is already a small
> >> hacking community involved with the trakr:
> >> http://www.trakrhakr.com/
> >>
> >>  The biggest problem I see with this thing so far is the video.  The
> >> camera is supposed to be able to capture vga at 30 fps.  It currently
> >> only transmits 1/4 vga resolution at something like 15 fps though.  As
> >> far as I can tell no one has gotten the full video capability from the
> >> device yet and no one has gotten the video to stream from the remote to
> >> a computer (the remote has an LCD screen).  The full source code for the
> >> vehicle and remote were slated to be released, but then the company
> >> dropped the product and stopped releasing info.  So anyway there are
> >> some challenges.
> >>
> >> I have some mylar balloons on order, so I'll have something flyable
> >> soon, but I don't know yet how it will perform.
> >>
> >> Ben
> >>
> >> On 11/25/2011 01:12 AM, Joachim Pedersen wrote:
> >>> Fully documented tricopter build for less than $200 that has the
> >>> capacity to carry 2 go-pro cameras or smartphone etc...
> >>> http://www.rcexplorer.se/projects/tricopterv25/tricopterv25.html
> >>> -Joachim
> >>> ------------------------------
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 15:47, Joachim Pedersen <joachimp at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>>> FYI Did a quick brain dump copy paste to
> http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/OccuCopter
> >>>> Discuss!
> >>>> -Joachim
> >>>> ------------------------------
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> On Sat, Nov 19, 2011 at 16:24, ian <ian at sonic.net> wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>> I thought about steering...  rather than having a steerable robot,
> it could
> >>>>> just orbit continuously around the pole as it drives up and down,
> like a
> >>>>> screw.  Then, aiming it is just a matter of driving it up or down a
> foot.
> >>>>> Looking at some poles today, I was also imagining something that has
> two
> >>>>> modes, turn around and go straight, and has a pole-clamp that
> doesn't reach
> >>>>> all the way around.  Such a device would have the ability to bypass
> some
> >>>>> signs attached to the pole, which would be helpful.
> >>>>> Magnetic wheels could be nice for something that doesn't have to
> wrap around
> >>>>> at all, but not all poles are steel...  around here at least, many
> of them
> >>>>> are concrete.
> >>>>> Solar could be handy...  remember, we'll use these in the daytime
> too.  We
> >>>>> don't have the same low-weight constraint as with a UAV, so options
> like
> >>>>> that (or a big fat battery) are conceivable.
> >>>>> -Ian
> >>>>> On Sat, Nov 19, 2011 at 1:54 PM, Tomm <tomm.fire at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Hi Ian,
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> I like it!  I designed pipe crawling robots long ago, and a
> challenge with
> >>>>>> them is that if the weight isn't distributed quite right, they tend
> to
> >>>>>> wander and this makes them hard to steer.  Putting most weight
> towards the
> >>>>>> bottom of the crawler will help keep it aligned.  We used
> differential
> >>>>>> (tank-like) driving.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Magnetic wheels are great, but be careful when putting the robot on
> the
> >>>>>> pipe.  The really strong magnetic wheels are brittle, and I saw a
> number of
> >>>>>> shattered wheels over the years.  Spares highly recommended.  Also,
> magnetic
> >>>>>> wheels will leave marks on painted surfaces - just something to
> keep in
> >>>>>> mind, as coating the wheels would reduce the adhesion significantly.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Here's an magnetic pipe crawler that shows a good aspect ratio for
> a pipe
> >>>>>> crawler:
> >>>>>> http://images.yourdictionary.com/images/computer/_MAGPIE.GIF
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Since the robot will be on a light pole near a huge honkin' light,
> it
> >>>>>> might be a good idea to put a solar panel on the top of the unit.
>  Not only
> >>>>>> is it light shielding for the camera, but there's enough lux that
> you might
> >>>>>> get the rated panel output, and a 4" x 6" panel can deliver 100 mA.
>  That
> >>>>>> should be enough to drive a phone for several hours a day, and
> perhaps even
> >>>>>> most of the time.  Seems like a good idea for long-term occupations
> as you'd
> >>>>>> only have to install the robot once.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10001_10001_228072_-1
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Happy to meet in person,
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>    Tomm
> >>>>>> (also just subscribed)
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> On 11/19/11 12:06 PM, Ian Baker wrote:
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Hey! Just subscribed. I've been thinking about this aerial camera
> >>>>>>> platform thing for a while... Helicopters, balloons, airplanes,
> etc.
> >>>>>>> Each machine has it's issues, along the lines of stability, cost,
> ease
> >>>>>>> of compromise, runtime, lack of anonymity for the person
> controlling
> >>>>>>> it, etc.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> What I want is a solution that's cheap, easily replicable, requires
> >>>>>>> little operator skill, holds the camera still, works in wind, runs
> for
> >>>>>>> a long time, is easy to aim, is easy to move to another location,
> >>>>>>> shields the camera operator from identification by police, and
> makes
> >>>>>>> the camera itself hard to capture. If it meets these goals, it
> could
> >>>>>>> be broadly scalable... Everybody could have one.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Last night I think I figured it out: a simple robot that can climb
> >>>>>>> tapered metal poles, and carries a gimbaled camera platform. Clamp
> it
> >>>>>>> to a lightpost, drive it to the top, recover when
> >>>>>>> necessary/convenient.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Not quite as hard to catch as a helicopter, but also more stealth.
> >>>>>>> Doesn't get quite as much altitude, but I don't think we need much.
> >>>>>>> Doesn't have any of the issues that balloons do. Runs all day, and
> I
> >>>>>>> bet it could be built for less money than the smartphone we strap
> to
> >>>>>>> it, from flat-pack laser-cut parts and bits of r/c car, in an
> >>>>>>> afternoon.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> My housemate and I are working on designs. Ideas, cad models, etc
> >>>>>>> welcome! :)
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> -Ian
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> The touch keyboard: ensouling wit since 2007.
> >>>>>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>>>>> Hackupy-discuss mailing list
> >>>>>>> Hackupy-discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> >>>>>>> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/hackupy-discuss
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> _______________________________________________
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> >>>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
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