Prompted by Tillerpilot + Gyro content of another thread.

[Refueler]

Its well known here that I have another 'passion' ..... RC Models. I am sure that anyone reading this thread are well aware of the recent upsurge in numbers and events regarding so-called 'Drones'. An unfortunate term - but sadly Media has imprinted the name on peoples minds.

So what do they have to do with the title ?

Simply put - even down to the tiny 'drones' that are not much bigger than a cigarette packet - they can have multi-functional display data output.
Data output can include :

GPS coordinates
Barometric height
Compass heading
6 axis Accelerometer - Yaw, roll, pitch, fwd, reverse, acceleration

These functions are provided by the FCU and add-on boards .... which are just a few cms square and few grams. Some of these items have NMEA. All boards are available separately for quite small money.

It might be interesting as to whether such could be used on board. I had already quite a while back highlighted GPS unit smaller than a 10p coin that could be added to a non GPS DSC VHF ....

Obviously Barometric height is no use as it only works on difference of measurement as drone ascends / descends. But the others ? The Compass and Accelerometers hint at the Autopilot 'Gyro stabilisers' offered by Marine Equipment brands ??

I'm one of those intrigued by such and will be looking at what could be used and how. If anyone else interested to look - a good place to start is online with "Banggood" .....

 

[DinghyMan]

I've used 9 Degrees of Freedom boards for a Dive Computer, similar to Adafruit 9-DOF IMU Breakout and the 11 degrees board Adafruit 10-DOF IMU Breakout

GPS info at Adafruit Learning System with examples of how to use

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

Oh, no! Not another electronics thread!

 

[Refueler]

Oh, no! Not another electronics thread!

Scroll on past .....

 

[Refueler]

OK .. for those who like to tinker ...

Lets say you have a non GPS DSC VHF that requires GPS nmea data in ... we can feed from plotter meaning a cable. Or we can add such as this at about 18 quid for the GPS module and about a fiver for the voltage reducer (12V to 5V).

Beitian Smallest Mini Dual GLONASS+GPS BN-180 Micro Double GPS Antenna Module UART TTL For CC3D F3 RC Drone Airplane

Works a treat .... simple to connect ... mount anywhere reasonable - I had one double side taped to back of VHF itself inside cabin.

OK - lets move on and see what else we can do ...

Lets say we have a plotter and its showing true course (actually course derived from successive GPS reckoning) ... and we'd like to display Magnetic Compass. We could pay 'Marine price' for a unit ... not so small ... Or we can look at something like this :

Beitian BN-880 Flight Control GPS Module Dual Module Compass With Cable for RC Drone FPV Racing

or

FLYWOO GM8-5883 V1.0 GPS GLONASS Module with Compass Dual Module for Flight Controller RC Drone FPV Racing

OK - they also have GPS function - but its not necessary to enable. The Flywoo has the advantage of voltage up to 18v negating the need for voltage reducer.

Price ? ~30 quid ... for an item with serious capability ... designed to provide data to sophisticated expensive RC drones ... can even provide back up GPS if needed.

Its solid state ... easy to mount ...

Compare to prices of 'Marine Fluxgate' compass sensors ......

I will be going further into this as I recover from injuries. Too much time on hand laying most of day in bed resting !!

 

[Refueler]

I am in discussion with another RC fanatic as I ... who knows more about the Drone units ... I just fly them.

We are looking into how much of the MAVLINK data we can extract ... how we can then use it for marine application on board.