New FPV Ground Station Build-Log

Well I think it is time to upgrade my old ground station. It has enough problems that I don’t want to deal with them any more so I decided to fix them. The two major things that needed to be change were the battery in the screen would take forever to charge and when I did go out to fly, the internal circuitry drains the battery so it is always low when I go flying, and then it cuts out and I am blind. The other major problem is that the shroud that blocks out the sun, is to close to the screen so I can’t see the full screen at once. Some of the other things are: I would like to have a switch so I can turn on and off the receiver without unplugging anything, and I want to incorporate my new 1.3ghz patch antenna that I bought. Ok, so lets fix the battery first.

 

So, it’s kind of hard to see but the existing battery is a 1200mah 2 cell lipo, which is great so can use a normal 2 cell from my planes to power the screen.

 

The conector needs to be changed and instead of soldering onto the circuit board, I think i’m just going to make an adapter with this connector and a deans plug.

 

That was easy!

I also soldered on a deans connector onto the old battery so I can still use it. Well, lets fix the shroud next, shall we?

 

I don’t know what I was thinking when I designed this thing. The shroud also forces me put the whole thing at eye level, and with a tripod, it makes looking in it very awkward.

 

So I measured out some half inch blue core foam and made a shroud that was far enough away from the screen so I could see the monitor clearly. It also gave me room to mount the patch antenna on top.

 

After some sanding and glueing, I spray painted it black so that light wouldn’t reflect off the inside walls.

 

Then I started to attach some of my gear, including: hot gluing on the screen, and mounting the patch antenna with Velcro.

 

I just did a test to make sure the everything was wires up right.

 

Now to take care of the switch, I 3D Printed a box to hold the wires and the switch for the battery that will power my receiver.

 

I really happy about how the switch came out. It looks really good.

 

I mounted everything else while I made the switch. The last thing I need to do is mount it.

 

Tah Dah!! It’s all done and it works great! I can now choose between long range FPV (with the patch antenna) and short range FPV (with the omni directional antenna).  Unfortunately, I don’t have anything to fly right now. I am waiting for a new controller board for my tricopter to come in the mail and I am waiting for a camera to come in the mail for my FPV40. More to Come!