Finally ... my new Logo 710 AP heli

[Héli Suisse]

congratulation David! I much enjoyed watching your vimeo movie and looking at your nice pics. Don't worry the countryside was not that bad...

Keep in feeding us with nice images

Best regards

[Wenlock]

Originally Posted by Hogster

For this shot I had a 1-stop graduated filter in front of the lens, which means the light at the top of the image is 1-stop darker than at the bottom ... the result of which is that detail is retained in the sky - without the filter the sky would have just been white.

Of course, you now need to fit a servo mechanism to the filter holder so you can slide the grad up and down to get the transition between light and dark in exactly the right place!

[Hogster]

Thanks guys!

Wenlock .... how did you read my mind!! I was actually considering that but thought .... nah too difficult! I should have a pretty good idea where I want the horizon to be when I'm on the ground, so it shouldn't be too difficult ... haha, he says!


David

[Hogster]

Sorry I should have kept this thread more up-to-date

Since the maiden flight I've taken an on-board video which you can see here:

Onboard the Logo 710 (7 min 14 sec)

More information can be found here:

http://runryder.com/helicopter/t511935p1/

I also took this panorama from the helicopter!


(click to enlarge)

Cheers!


David

[Héli Suisse]

Nice video David! Your gimbal and stabilization system works well, and not the sliest wobble is to see, cool

Keep feeding us with up to date videos.

Best regards

[Héli Suisse]

submitted twice...

[wparmer]

David,
Sorry if this is obvious, but I couldn't tell if you were flying with FPV goggles or with observation from the ground... can you tell me what the equipment is?

Wes

[merlin703]

He is filming himself while flying and you can see he has no goggles on. "FPV" goggles are pretty large and easy to see.
If you want to see this in action (FPV), come by Varcha on a Sunday and John will most likely have his Maxi Joker 3 with the FPV gear on.

[akouzmit]

Hi David,

Regarding your video clips I am wondering if your camera has autofocus in video mode?

I was thinking to use D5000 in video mode, but realized that Nikon cameras (even D90) do not have autofocus, which is discouraging me to use DSLR in video mode.

At the same time you video look quite good.
Have you put the focus for infinity or your camera has autofocus?

Thank you,
Andrei.

[goolfietis]

Hi David,

I see you are using Eagle tree altimeter V3. Is your`s working fine? Because mine even left on the table (in live mode) varies from -15 to +12 meters.

Can you post altitude graph from you logger?

[akouzmit]

Hello,

Altimeter is updating measurements only after altitude changed for at list ~18 m.

Sitting on the table is should show you the last max altidude your model has reached.

Try to go to the nearest hirize building with your altimeter and battery and ride the elevator
It worked very well for me and I see the measurements are quite accurate floor after floor once 18m treshold is passed.

Once again, altimeter should not change displayed data if it is sitting on the table.

Thank you.

[Jill74]

You have great videos here!!

[goolfietis]

Originally Posted by akouzmit

Hello,

Altimeter is updating measurements only after altitude changed for at list ~18 m.

Sitting on the table is should show you the last max altidude your model has reached.

Try to go to the nearest hirize building with your altimeter and battery and ride the elevator
It worked very well for me and I see the measurements are quite accurate floor after floor once 18m treshold is passed.

Once again, altimeter should not change displayed data if it is sitting on the table.

Thank you.

Thats the problem.

I conected my logger V3 with altimeter to the computer, and started it in the "live mode". Readout from altimeter was varying from ~-15 to +15 meters. While average altitude, (while altimeter was not moving) was very near 0 (-1, +0,5meter).

How can I interpret altitude graph after flight, if on the ground altimeter was showing from -15 to +10 meters altitude. Max flight altitude was lets say 60 meters acording graph.

Question: What was my real altitude? where`s altimeters zero?

tomas

[akouzmit]

Question: What was my real altitude? where`s altimeters zero?

Once you apply power supply altimeter internal circuit reset to zero, BUT altimeter display will continue to show up last highest point measurement even if it is taken in the area much below or much higher your current point.
As soon as 18 meters threshold passed last measurements will be discarded and new real live measurements will be displayed (if you can see it in flight ).
This new measurements will be taken from the point where you applied power supply. All previous measurements (before power supply was connected and altitude reached 18m) will be gone forever.
I hope I explained altimeter functionality algorithm .
Try out elevator ride and everything will become clear how it is working

[Hogster]

Andrei - that onboard footage was taken with a camcorder, not my DSLR camera (which doesn't have a video mode)

goolfietis - The altimeter I'm using isn't terrifically accurate, but I don't really need it to be ... although it's not as bad as ±12m! I think mine varies about ±5m when the helicopter is sitting on the ground. Such a tiny barometric unit will never be particularly accurate, but it at least gives me an indication of whether I was 50m up or 150m up!

Hope this helps

Cheers,


David

[aramsdell]

Goolfietis, You are not the only one with that problem. My V3 and altimiter will vary up and down like a that. too when stationary. I especially like it when I land at -60 feet....I believe these things have more than just a problem at rest though. I have contacted Eagle Tree about this. They were kind enough to send out a new unit. I tested fairly long(1 week). I sent back the replacement because it was worse...... The way I see it is not only the bench problem with drifting around the zero point but also a temperature compensation problem. I was flying on winter days. You can imagine that 5 or 6 minutes in the air is enough to change the temp of the device. I even covered it with foam rubber, which helped(unless you want to read the display, duh!),. Well, all that time in the air that's 30 degrees F at ground level and maybe 15 or so at 3-400 feet was enough to drastically alter the units temp . Eagle Tree says that they are temp compensated but gave a caveat that all temp sensors drift...... I gave up with them(on the temp sensor) when I got that answer.
Al

[dswitkin]

Fantastic job with the entire project David. I really enjoyed the "making of" video with the time lapse sequence. Great craftsmanship and photography. Please keep posting and inspiring others like me.

Daniel

[halley]

Originally Posted by aramsdell

Goolfietis, You are not the only one with that problem.

Using barometric pressure to determine altitude is notoriously problematic. It's not reliable, regardless of manufacturer, especially under about 1000 feet above ground. Air pressure is a wide guess, on the scale of hundreds of feet of altitude, and gets more accurate as you get away from the ground. At 36000 feet, the usual cruising altitude for jet airliners, it's a very reliable measure, but it's still not good enough to be your sole means of determining altitude to the nearest ten feet.

[aramsdell]

Halley, The baro sensor resets every time you power on. You can land with a reading of, say, -40 feet altitude. Power off then on and it resets to zero. The unit itself is unreliable as it constantly hunts in a slow sine-wave type manner aruond zero after power on-- usually-- and can't hold drifts a lot. Temp compensation is aweful. I had to cover mine with foam rubber to prevent fast temp swings and that wasn't enough.