[TowerTalk] Fwd: the future of antenna and tower inspection

[n4zkf]

I have two of these that I use for checking active bird nests on towers
before we climb up to do work. They work off my iPad and iPhone and are
pretty slick with a 720p video cam in front and a still cam in the bottom
but the battery lasts about 10 minutes and it's done. Time to bring it to
the ground.

Other than that it's a great piece of equipment. When you turn it on you
even set how high off the ground you want it to start. So it pops up to 4'
(what I have it set at) right off the bat. It's not effected by the winds
for sure. I live on the ocean.


73 Dave n4zkf
e-mail: n4zkf at n4zkf.com
web: http://www.n4zkf.com
AR-Cluster node: 145.05 Mhz. or telnet://dxc.n4zkf.com:23
CC-Cluster node: 145.07 Mhz. or telnet://ccc.n4zkf.com:7373
Packet BBS: 145.05 Mhz.-14.098 Mhz. or telnet://bbs.n4zkf.com:6300
BPQ Node: 145.05 Mhz.-14.098 Mhz. (n4zkf-5)
SEDAN Node: 145.770 Mhz. (n4zkf-7)
N4ZKF/R 147.375 Mhz. Tone 103.5






On 4/16/13 2:38 AM, "David Gilbert" <xdavid at cis-broadband.com> wrote:

>
>I think the biggest problem with a balloon or kite is that you're
>totally at the mercy of the wind.  At least a copter tries to hold it's
>GPS position if the winds are not too bad.  The demo video I've seen of
>the OctoCopter makes it look like it has power to spare to overcome some
>pretty strong winds, assuming the wind speed doesn't change too fast
>(gusts) for the reaction time of the system.
>
>73,
>Dave   AB7E
>
>
>
>On 4/15/2013 10:41 PM, Jim Lux wrote:
>> On 4/15/13 10:33 PM, Grant Saviers wrote:
>>> piling on,
>>>
>>> the leads/antenna could be small gauge with power sent via high
>>> voltages/low current, since the motors could be PWM driven with the
>>> onboard processor or a simple buck convertor..  Taking out the LiPo
>>> battery saves weight too.  Any Maker's that have hacked one? btw
>>> having flown a MEMS gyro in a rocket, I don't think the MEMS gyros are
>>> stable enough for long term unattended hover positioning, so periodic
>>> radio position control would probably be needed, or maybe a GPS lock.
>>>
>>
>>
>> I think optical station keeping would be easiest.  Most of these
>> things have a video camera looking down, so what you'd do is set up a
>> colored target, and it would try to keep it centered.
>>
>>
>>
>> Of course, a Kiteoon would be easier.
>>
>> from TT, April 4th, 2003, WB6WIK writes
>> Hi Mirko,
>>
>> I've paid about $200 for a kiteoon, locally.  The 8-to-9 foot diameter
>> WX balloons are usually about $30 each, so a kiteoon is definitely more
>> expensive -- but, the kiteoon is reusable, whereas the latex WX
>> balloons are not.  Once they stretch from use and the He starts
>> leaking through the latex (which it does, within about two days), the
>> WX balloons are good for the garbage bin.
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>>
>>
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>
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