Why arnt you using a nano or blue pill?
I picked the shield form factor for ease. I really didn't want a mess of wires as the whole goal is a setup you can plunk into an existing airframe. That means no breadboard so I would need to make a pcb with pinned connections anyway. I already had an arduino laying around. I looked at a couple of those small boards and they all seemed to come with some compromises on one or more area:
You can totally work around those or find a good combination. I am not an expert on the options and have never personally used the small form factor boards. I hope with my schematic and code someone will do just that. Please send me one if you do
- Ease of programming (USB versus USB + dongles + plugs, etc)
- Limits on current from the built in regulator or voltage ranges
- Speed limits on the processor
- Lack of 5v
- Lack of timers or pin-interrupts
- Fewer pins (I had originally planned on using more)
- More software setup steps
- The form factor was actually smaller then what I thought I would need so it would be oddly shaped if you stacked the boards
My ideal setup would be:
Creating that is beyond my current skill level. The above was my first PCB If you look that is pretty close to what @ioteo came up with. If he makes a product I would probably buy it.
- micro-USB
- 5v
- able to directly power from tap on 2-4S flight pack (filtering and voltage regulation)
- at least 500mA on 5v regulator
- single PCB with processor and my really tiny logic & pin headers
- as fast or faster then an Arduino Uno
- enough timers/pin-interrupts to make IR RX/TX and PWM receiver reading all work at the same time
- no additional setup for using Arduino code
- space on the board for the single top mounted IR dome (to enable the simplest setup)
- built in wireless for control & reporting scores
- onboard OSD and headers to connect FPV camera / TX
Any suggestions for Bronco landing gear for moderate length grass (2-6") ? All the damage so far has been on takeoff when hand launching and I wanted to increase my chances of success. I was thinking of building a pair of bushwacker wheels and just mounting them right under the body right behind the props. The axle would be right against the fuse in a little foam sandwich.
how did you decide on a lens? i see that you were using a visiblespectrum LED, did you just turn it on and move the lense back and fourth to find a good focal point?
the dome, its just there to refocus any IR that hits it back to the IR sensor? is that different than this sensor that seems to be built to do just that?
I may have bought some componets thinking id attempt to give it a try, and i think ive got everything to cobble something together, but i have plastic magnifying glasses, and i have that sensor. well see what i can get together.
Have you tried to video tape the shot lit up with your phone? Some phones can see IR some cant, mine cant.
thats a nice little bit of landing gear there. nice to have a big aircraft to test this all out on.
Im pretty sure ive got enough components to build three laser tag units, gonna haft at least two to get proper testing done, the coding is what had got me intimidated, and i had started to look up lens selection too and realized that was a whole nother branch of science, this is all super useful info, thanks for all this!!!
may be building a X-29 so i can fit it all in the removable nosecone
i plan on cutting the center of the nose open and center the LED tube, mounting the rest of the electronics on the inside top of the nose so they dont interfere with the battery tray sliding back in, explosions lights can be mounted on either(both?) the wings with a extension to plug in, health bar mounted on top of the fuselage, 130 degree fpv camera mounted back on the V-stab Box thingy so i can see the whole shebang.
sensor on the top of the fuselage and the bottom? seems like you are having no problem registering hits, i just don't want something i can flip upside down and shield from a dive attack ect.
im probably gonna remove the canopy, that should leave me a nice big flat top surface to let me mount a rudimentary hoop style for a targeting reticule. it just occurred to me that my FPV camera might pick up the light. those are some spectacular links on optics, googling this subject was exceptionally difficult
ive got these LEDs and these sensors, the sensors i specially bought because they could be potentially flush mounted in foam, the shielded square bit is about 4mm thick. i need to order some RGB strips, and some lenses.
i plan on cutting the center of the nose open and center the LED tube, mounting the rest of the electronics on the inside top of the nose so they dont interfere with the battery tray sliding back in, explosions lights can be mounted on either(both?) the wings with a extension to plug in, health bar mounted on top of the fuselage, 130 degree fpv camera mounted back on the V-stab Box thingy so i can see the whole shebang.
sensor on the top of the fuselage and the bottom? seems like you are having no problem registering hits, i just don't want something i can flip upside down and shield from a dive attack ect.
im probably gonna remove the canopy, that should leave me a nice big flat top surface to let me mount a rudimentary hoop style for a targeting reticule. it just occurred to me that my FPV camera might pick up the light. those are some spectacular links on optics, googling this subject was exceptionally difficult
ive got these LEDs and these sensors, the sensors i specially bought because they could be potentially flush mounted in foam, the shielded square bit is about 4mm thick. i need to order some RGB strips, and some lenses.
Nanos are incredibly versatile and inexpensive. But before you order some...
If you want something extremely powerful, inexpensive and programmable with the Arduino libraries, look at the ESP32 platform.
- dual core, simple to control and send tasks to each core
- more RAM and flash than you will ever need and a ridiculous clock rate for an embedded device
- low power consumption
- wifi and bluetooth onboard
- tons of ADC/DAC/PWM pins
- capacitive touch sensing on most GPIOs
- ten frickin' dollars mounted on a board with power supply etc! Sometimes even with an OLED display, radios or more!
You can take your Arduino program and compile it directly for ESP32 or the ESP8266 (its older and now obsolete brother, single core, less IO).
If you're getting into microcontrollers and building your own PCBs these are definitely worth looking at.