Preparations for the launch of Levenhuk-1 (part 1)
When we last published an article about our project , we received many useful suggestions from habra users. The dime remarks, which reminded us once again about security issues, including the launch site, the need to build links with professional meteorologists and other equally important issues, were especially helpful. And in these areas we have advanced significantly ahead, which we will discuss in the following posts, but first we want to talk about a radio system that will allow to transmit a video signal from the probe to the ground live. Caution, a lot of images.
A little background. Since the probe launches and further photo and video reports became frequent on the Internet, we ( Four Eyes + Shumgam ) decided to go a little further and provide a picture not only after, but during the launch (even if the signal is transmitted to 2-7 km.). For this we need an FPV system. We did not find any analogs in Russia with the necessary characteristics, we had to order from abroad. We will not talk for a long time about how long the parcel had to wait, especially from St. Petersburg to St. Petersburg and about not always high-quality customer service in the Russian Post. We can only say that the parcel quite successfully reached us a month after placing the order. We immediately decided to test it, meeting one Saturday morning in the kitchen of one of our team members.
Of course, the box was opened. The fears of customs, in principle, are clear. Well, that all remains intact.
')
By the way, bought on this site - directly from the manufacturer. We originally wanted to order with Hobby King (USA), but it turned out that in Hong Kong is much cheaper.
The filling is delicious: a SONY CCD video camera (1/3 inch), 8-channel video signal transmitter (900 MHz, 1500 mW) - in reality, there was only 4, 12-channel video receiver (900 MHz) - but in fact again less than 8.
Typically, such a system is used for radio-controlled aircraft. The result is such an image. Our system is very powerful.
Of course, all this yummy is complemented by a bunch of wires to power the receiver and tie all the other elements together.
For the transmission and reception of the signal, these two conventional half-wave antennas are used.
This is the receiver itself. It looks heavy, but in fact it is one of the lightest elements of the structure (although it is not so important - the receiver will be on the ground all the time).
Power, audio and video jacks.
An antenna is inserted on the reverse side. (By the way, the thing was dismantled, but nothing interesting was found.)
The heaviest toy is the signal transmitter: together with the antenna, it weighs 109 grams (unfortunately, it could not be disassembled to see what was inside).
The camera itself is very interesting. Tiny (38x38 mm), but with the characteristics we need.
It looks like this little thing behind.
Power for the transmitter design is not provided, so I had to improvise. The battery from AR.Drone after the operation.
In the end, the working model looked like this.
Connected to the projector, checked - it works! (Only this photo has power off :)
We leave with the camera out of the house - the first test image.
And they went for a walk around the area.
The idea was to see how the camera responds to architectural interference and bad St. Petersburg weather. There will be no houses in the sky, but still interesting.
In the end, we moved 1.5 km. The signal held well. At first the picture was oversaturated, then it became normal. Interference appeared behind the "Stalin", which is not surprising.
In general, the experiment was a success. The radio system is ready for use! The next step will be filling the probe with the rest of the filling (second chamber, trackers and a lot of “etc.”). In the next post we will tell you which ideas from the ideas sent to the contest we will use, and who, in fact, became the winner.
A little background. Since the probe launches and further photo and video reports became frequent on the Internet, we ( Four Eyes + Shumgam ) decided to go a little further and provide a picture not only after, but during the launch (even if the signal is transmitted to 2-7 km.). For this we need an FPV system. We did not find any analogs in Russia with the necessary characteristics, we had to order from abroad. We will not talk for a long time about how long the parcel had to wait, especially from St. Petersburg to St. Petersburg and about not always high-quality customer service in the Russian Post. We can only say that the parcel quite successfully reached us a month after placing the order. We immediately decided to test it, meeting one Saturday morning in the kitchen of one of our team members.
Of course, the box was opened. The fears of customs, in principle, are clear. Well, that all remains intact.
')
By the way, bought on this site - directly from the manufacturer. We originally wanted to order with Hobby King (USA), but it turned out that in Hong Kong is much cheaper.
The filling is delicious: a SONY CCD video camera (1/3 inch), 8-channel video signal transmitter (900 MHz, 1500 mW) - in reality, there was only 4, 12-channel video receiver (900 MHz) - but in fact again less than 8.
Typically, such a system is used for radio-controlled aircraft. The result is such an image. Our system is very powerful.
Of course, all this yummy is complemented by a bunch of wires to power the receiver and tie all the other elements together.
For the transmission and reception of the signal, these two conventional half-wave antennas are used.
This is the receiver itself. It looks heavy, but in fact it is one of the lightest elements of the structure (although it is not so important - the receiver will be on the ground all the time).
Power, audio and video jacks.
An antenna is inserted on the reverse side. (By the way, the thing was dismantled, but nothing interesting was found.)
The heaviest toy is the signal transmitter: together with the antenna, it weighs 109 grams (unfortunately, it could not be disassembled to see what was inside).
The camera itself is very interesting. Tiny (38x38 mm), but with the characteristics we need.
It looks like this little thing behind.
Power for the transmitter design is not provided, so I had to improvise. The battery from AR.Drone after the operation.
In the end, the working model looked like this.
Connected to the projector, checked - it works! (Only this photo has power off :)
We leave with the camera out of the house - the first test image.
And they went for a walk around the area.
The idea was to see how the camera responds to architectural interference and bad St. Petersburg weather. There will be no houses in the sky, but still interesting.
In the end, we moved 1.5 km. The signal held well. At first the picture was oversaturated, then it became normal. Interference appeared behind the "Stalin", which is not surprising.
In general, the experiment was a success. The radio system is ready for use! The next step will be filling the probe with the rest of the filling (second chamber, trackers and a lot of “etc.”). In the next post we will tell you which ideas from the ideas sent to the contest we will use, and who, in fact, became the winner.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/122905/
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