Madbull UAV?

[sirtaco27]

Hmmm. 15K for a, for all intents and purposes, toy UAV or 15K for a car. What to choose, what to choose. You'd be better off buying a RV helicopter kit then attaching a thermo to it. Then getting the screen and everything else glued to the controller. "Not a toy" my ass. It's not even like you could put something on it. It probably couldn't get off the ground with a grenade attached to it for a kamikaze mission(Which would be frickin awesome if it could). The military already has UAVs that do more and could shoot anti-tank missiles. And they are probably coming out with something like this, but cheaper, for law enforcement. Madbull must be praying for some retard to say, "Hmm I need a UAV but I can't spend less than 10 grand. I'll use it maybe every two weeks and if I tried using it in a combat application it would get shot down very easily. Why not go with the MADBULL UAV?"

[Metalsynth]

Originally Posted by Conker

For most games it'd be pretty much useless... But in medium and large scale milsims (something like 80 and more, so the used field area would have to be quite large) as well as maybe some other specific scenarios (MOUT?) it could add something.

I tend to disagree.

In an urban environnement like a paintball type city it could be a good coordination tool even if the area is relatively small.

For a CO, this could be a very welcome tool that could actually change the dynamics of a game and it's a great training tool for teams to have direct feedback of their coordination and technique provided you can record what it sees.

If it starts small at least there is a chance that it will get better than not start at all. Up til now, I have'nt seen anything that really answers all the basics of what is needed or a real pakage like said before that is debugged and a complete out of the box userfriendly solution.

In an ideal world, I'd want to take that thing out, read a 5 page manual max and have results with at least 45 minutes of flight time on battery, a useful payload for different cameras or other uses, GPS positionning, elevation control and an RTB button within a 40 acre range and a return to last know RTB location as a failsafe should the connection be lost. Now that would be a good platform that I would be able to live with. Integration of the camera system I dont really care about because technology changes very fast so being able to update that part is very important but just for the drone itself, this is what I'd like to see as a basic need for my interest.

I personally dont give a crap about piloting this thing through hoops at 60mph so who cares about complicated controls. Just a digital display with GPS coords,elevation control and maybe 2 or 3 buttons like RTB, On/Off, function 1, function 2 ( for whatever servos you've got hooked up to your drone that does something ).

Iphone though a good idea has too limited range. Not useful for us. That parrot has 150feet range. I can snipe the guy before he sees me on his phone :P

Let's just look at the possibilities here and see where it takes us

[Short Round]

Originally Posted by Conker

For most games it'd be pretty much useless... But in medium and large scale milsims (something like 80 and more, so the used field area would have to be quite large) as well as maybe some other specific scenarios (MOUT?) it could add something.

agreed, and how many of these are held weekly or even monthly in one province? on average from I have seen as of late is 1 to none

[Kos-Mos]

Alright alright...

I am going to build one in the next few weeks... not as fancy as the HexaKopter one..

Basically it will be a regular tri-copter, with basic head-locking and a camera on-board, but not real-time video feed.

Costs under 400$ (yeah, that is cheaper than most AEGs out there).

*edit*

Here is the "grocery list"

Qty. Product description Price
3 TR2204-14T - TURNIGY 2204-14T 19g Outrunner $26.97
3 MY12ABEC - Mystery 12A Brushless Speed Controller (.. $29.97
3 GWPG03J - GWS PG-03 Piezo Gyro/JR $66.84
1 HK401B - Hobby King 401B AVCS Digital Head Lock G.. $13.99
1 MG90S - Turnigy MG90S Metal Gear Servo 1.8kg / 1.. $4.99
2 CFWFS3x1x2 - Woven Carbon Fiber Sheet 300x100 (2.0MM .. $35.90
3 CF3 - Carbon Fiber Tube (hollow) 5x750mm $5.37
1 HK-T6A-M1 - Hobby King 2.4Ghz 6Ch Tx & Rx V2 (Mode 1.. $24.99
2 MA0740NEP - Master Airscrew propeller 7x4 (Pusher) $7.18
4 MA0740NE - Master Airscrew propeller 7x4 $14.36
3 R2350-20-3 - Rhino 2350mAh 3S 11.1v 20C Lipoly Pack $47.82


Total: $278.38 3046g

[ScarecrowM14]

Originally Posted by flack

I would like to see how it does against bbs....

i like how you think

[ScarecrowM14]

Originally Posted by Kos-Mos

Alright alright...

I am going to build one in the next few weeks... not as fancy as the HexaKopter one..

Basically it will be a regular tri-copter, with basic head-locking and a camera on-board, but not real-time video feed.

Costs under 400$ (yeah, that is cheaper than most AEGs out there).

*edit*

Here is the "grocery list"

Qty. Product description Price
3 TR2204-14T - TURNIGY 2204-14T 19g Outrunner $26.97
3 MY12ABEC - Mystery 12A Brushless Speed Controller (.. $29.97
3 GWPG03J - GWS PG-03 Piezo Gyro/JR $66.84
1 HK401B - Hobby King 401B AVCS Digital Head Lock G.. $13.99
1 MG90S - Turnigy MG90S Metal Gear Servo 1.8kg / 1.. $4.99
2 CFWFS3x1x2 - Woven Carbon Fiber Sheet 300x100 (2.0MM .. $35.90
3 CF3 - Carbon Fiber Tube (hollow) 5x750mm $5.37
1 HK-T6A-M1 - Hobby King 2.4Ghz 6Ch Tx & Rx V2 (Mode 1.. $24.99
2 MA0740NEP - Master Airscrew propeller 7x4 (Pusher) $7.18
4 MA0740NE - Master Airscrew propeller 7x4 $14.36
3 R2350-20-3 - Rhino 2350mAh 3S 11.1v 20C Lipoly Pack $47.82


Total: $278.38 3046g

I have some old security cameras lying around somewhere they have realtime feed would u like me to look for them and msg u if i find them they could possibly be modifid to transmit a vid video via radio waves????? add me if you do

[Kos-Mos]

More pain than needed...

The one I am building will carry a micro "stick" cam with on-board memory recording. Should be about 30" dia... quite the small one... to be carried and video read after landing on a PDA or something similar. With the 2 front "arms" folding to the back, it will be carried in a modified hydratation pack along with the remote.

Converting a video camera (probably with an analog feed) to send via radio would not be hard, but really not cost-effective.

The best thing I can see is use a 2.4GHz RC radio, remove the transmiter from the remote and plug an A/D converter between it and the camera. Then on the other side, bypass the decoder of the receiver and use a D/A converter to rebuild the video feed...

For 150$ I can get a kit, with a 2.5" LCD display that does it all, plus recording on the receiver side.

[Eldin]

I had an idea in my mind to dump a couple thousand and build a 6-foot uav out of foam, light plywood and carbon fiber...
It would fly +-2000' for 3-4 hours, flight coordination and automatic flight path via GPS and automatic level/altitude adjustment, with a 360X180 degree transmittable camera and a payload of up to 15 lbs

A very rough undetailed sketch of my possible idea...

[DoctorBadVibez]

Originally Posted by m102404

IR "Stinger" to take out AS Predator....

....a techie nerdos wet dream...

hmmm that is possible, I was thinking about the same "power down gradually when hit" feature in the Airhogs series, no need to shoot it down with bb's (save the ammo for the opfors) and laser the darn thing down...

[DoctorBadVibez]

Originally Posted by MadMax

I would think that fixed wing wouldn't be very practical for airsoft because of the difficulty of picking out players in camo with a fairly fast pass capturing limited resolution. A platform which can loiter in an area would force players to freeze as long as an area was being watched. A fixed wing platform would not provide a very long look time.

Another concern I would have with fixed wing UAVs would be their higher flight speeds. A fast moving plane crashing down would come down pretty fast which I think could be a safety hazard. I've had a few R/C plane crashes that left some major divots in the ground. That being said, large 0.60cuin R/C helicopters can be bloody scary too. I hated it when those friggin things would be tootling around at head height across the flightline whirling their massive blades. It seems to me that a lightly built electric quad rotor UAV wouldn't present nearly the same kind of collision damage potential as a fixed wing plane blazing around.

That being said there are some cool benefits to fixed wing UAVs. They're easy to make strike tolerant. I've flown foam winged planes with lots of superficial poke holes in the wings (encounters with lighter tree branches) just fine. Stout foam wings can take a lot of damage without being compromised and they're cheap to replace. Major structural elements like spars are strong and would probably be difficult to damage with an AEG. It would be very hard to get a critical strike on a plane if you put the receiver in a plastic box and string the antenna through a plastic tube so it doesn't get snipped. I guess the only thing you could hit would be a control surface hinge, but good luck doing that. All you'd have to do is put a thin sheet of plastic on the underside guarding the hinge to assure that control surfaces continue to work under fire.

For safety I would limit fixed wing UAV platforms to stable high wing or high dihedral models with long chord foam wings (lots of material to chew out before it's compromised). Limit displacement to maybe 0.25cuin to keep the engine block light and maybe even require pusher arrangements so if someone gets nailed by the plane they at least don't get hit by a spinner and hunk of engine. The nose of the plane should not be sharp (say minimum 1.5" radius semispherical nose) and made of a soft nerfy foam rubber. We would not want exciting dogfighting models out there which might facilitate or encourage reckless flying at high speeds. If we can keep the speeds down the remaining risk I see is goggle knockoff. A slow plane to the face can dislodge goggles which is a hazard if the victim is also receiving fire.

If you think r/c planes are easy to shoot down, check this shit out:

YouTube- RC Plane vs AR15 Machine Gun


Technologically speaking a fixed wing UAV would be easy to implement, but we should assess the safety issues carefully. It might even be fun to have something that we could intentionally shoot at. DonP did some very interesting work with electronic hit detection on airsoft targets. He might be able to detect pellet strikes to a RC plane which lights off a smoke charge. We can also do some milsim fun like do up an olive drab model Piper Cub as an L-4 artillery spotting plane. In a particular scenario if you can't shoot down the spotting plane in a certain amount of time some offshore or out of ranged artillery turns your base into aggregate.

For outright spotting utility, I think a rotary wing UAV would work best. I'm thinking of buying this Walkera quadcopter:

http://www.walkera.com/en1/particular.jsp?pn=UF0+4%23

Seems pretty cheap and it's apparently camera ready. Unfortunately I have a feeling that it's flight time isn't anything spectacular (I'm guessing 7min). A combustion engine can easily achieve much longer, especially on a fixed wing platform. Another benefit of an IC engine is that refuelling is pretty damn fast compared to battery charging. However, I think being able watch an area without the entire frame moving would facilitate observing camouflaged players. I'm not meaning to pick out players in the forest, but a guy in green in tall grass may be hard to pick out with a fast rc plane pass. Also it's hard to get a sense of location when you're getting multiple strafing passes from different directions.

Maybe we need to think out of the box a bit harder. Perhaps we could put a kickass lipo on a helium filled derigible which powers some pretty decent brushless motors. If we could beat a not bad crosswind with some good motors we might be able to achieve some good uptimes with a pretty stable platform. It would be bad to shoot at a derigible, but we could maybe stomp on the rifle on whomever decides to take potshots at a cool item that a game org charitably provides.

I like the way you think Sir.
Yes large Heli's are definitely out of the question, even an electric, those blades spin way too fast to be safe in any possible way. I still hesitate to fly my SJM 210 helicopter and that ones small...
You're right, the only way I can see fixed wing recon aircrafts being used for games where the area is simply huge. None of the planks in my fleet can do that job.
I do see either a quadcopter or probably dirigible being the most feasible option. The Walkera UFO you picked is pretty much the one i would have picked, please keep me posted if its truly live feed camera ready as I hope.. I really like the dirigible idea, because if one can source the envelope and if its made of rip stop nylon (theres always going to be one guy who will take a shot), the rest is easy to put together.
If a fixed wing UAV is implemented, it makes great sense to keep it a pusher foamy I would guess..
Gotta love planker talk!

[DoctorBadVibez]

Originally Posted by Kos-Mos

Alright alright...

I am going to build one in the next few weeks... not as fancy as the HexaKopter one..

Basically it will be a regular tri-copter, with basic head-locking and a camera on-board, but not real-time video feed.

Costs under 400$ (yeah, that is cheaper than most AEGs out there).

*edit*

Here is the "grocery list"

Qty. Product description Price
3 TR2204-14T - TURNIGY 2204-14T 19g Outrunner $26.97
3 MY12ABEC - Mystery 12A Brushless Speed Controller (.. $29.97
3 GWPG03J - GWS PG-03 Piezo Gyro/JR $66.84
1 HK401B - Hobby King 401B AVCS Digital Head Lock G.. $13.99
1 MG90S - Turnigy MG90S Metal Gear Servo 1.8kg / 1.. $4.99
2 CFWFS3x1x2 - Woven Carbon Fiber Sheet 300x100 (2.0MM .. $35.90
3 CF3 - Carbon Fiber Tube (hollow) 5x750mm $5.37
1 HK-T6A-M1 - Hobby King 2.4Ghz 6Ch Tx & Rx V2 (Mode 1.. $24.99
2 MA0740NEP - Master Airscrew propeller 7x4 (Pusher) $7.18
4 MA0740NE - Master Airscrew propeller 7x4 $14.36
3 R2350-20-3 - Rhino 2350mAh 3S 11.1v 20C Lipoly Pack $47.82


Total: $278.38 3046g

heheheh Good move there! Buying from HK?

[DaytonaTurbo]

How do these things do when they're hit by a gust of wind? If you've ever lived on the prairie you know what I mean....

[dutchydoc]

Here is a good video of what you can do for a low of a couple hundred dollars up to two thousand dollars.
http://fora.tv/2009/05/30/DIY_Drones...on#fullprogram

And a good resource site if you think you want to give it a shot.
http://diydrones.com/

[Slick]

The RC tech is really coming along. This thread had me checking out some of the videos on youtube. Type in FPV to get user made UAV RC planes. If you have ever wanted to fly but couldnt afford it this is a great alternative. Heres a few good videos to give you an idea. Both videos are styrofoam planes that cost less then a hundred dollars.

YouTube - FPV FunJet - Beautiful flight over the clouds

YouTube - WORLD'S BEST FPV GREENHORN VIDEO!!! Compilation FPV RC Plane Crash Accident Wind Turbine Skyscraper


Heres an Eagletree OSD FPV system. Im thinking of this with an easystar and mounting the camera underneath instead of the first person view.

YouTube - Grand Canyon FPV Easy Star Flight

[ressamp]

Well, MadBull says this thing can go over 100 meters, so you'd better use a real gun LOL.

And also, the Parrot isn't supposed to have a very large range.