Altimeter/Variometer

[Hmfpa]

I am trying to get my hands on a cnc router so I can do custom PCBs among other things, so maybe I could build one for myself.

Home made PCBs are usually etched, not CNCed
http://www.riccibitti.com/pcb/pcb.htm
http://www.instructables.com/id/Stop-using-Ferric-Chloride-etchant!--A-better-etc/

[volto]

Yeah but CNC etching them is easier and doesn't involve any harmful chemicals. Also I want to build other stuff with it too.

[Hucker]

Cool project!

Most of the cheap PCB's that I've seen are rectangular, running a cnc router could make some nice corners and provide nice slots for strain relieving wires even if it was a secondary op to the normal pcb process.

I too would be very interested. I would like to do more soaring with my radian pro. Something that would be very nice for all of these devices would be to offer an analog out (or pwm like ezuhf) that can be fed into an osd's rssi or spare voltage input. This could allow a value to be displayed on all OSD's as a numeric (e.g. 50 = level, 0 = big sink 100 = big lift). That would be useful for those of use with no audio out on our ground stations. If you add an airspeed indicator (PM me) you could make a total energy vario that would be better than anything on the market and give L1D a run for their money. If you need any help or review of code I do embedded software for work so I could probably help you out especially if it is PIC or motorola.

[Dionysos]

I have access to a cnc router for pcb boards. Let me know if you need it.

Dio

[Roel-CP]

I just need a 5 led vario for in my canopy
Because the sound is used for Ez telemetry
If You can made a small pcb with 5-9 led's the bosch and controllerchip i would be very happy.

Also you can make a led voltmeter 0-3v for the thermal scout http://wingedshadow.com/thermalscout.html

This flight i made on EzOSD alt meter


View this video on Vimeo

[Joe90]

Hi,

I fly real glider and it is ok to have a delay because I can feel the G's when entering the thermal
but in fpv I would be more important to have the fastest response time possible even if there is an error.
A Kalman filter would help immensely to smooth the data but I dont know how to program it.
A nice addition is to have the total energy vario wich take into account the speed.

If you trade speed for altitude you have gained no energy then the vario show zero climb.

The refresh speed should be at the very least 4Hz

Of course all this may be difficult to implement and even a simple vario would help a lot to catch a thermal.

[volto]

I like Roel's idea, perhaps a small row of LEDs, they could be dual color, and could glow red going from top to bottom if falling, and green from bottom to the top if rising.

[Hmfpa]

Total energy compensation (TEC) is a bit overblown IMO. The purpose of TEC is to make the vario stay quiet when you go between minimum sink and best L/D. For our gliders, this data doesnt exist. Even if it did, the differences are so small that most people would ignore them.

You would need to add TWO sets of tubing, one for the static port and another for the pitot tube, AND you would need to give the pilot a way to see his airspeed (ground speed doesn't cut it) with an OSD

[Hucker]

If your model of an instrument for staying aloft in a glider ends at "circle slowly where there is lift" then an altimeter + vario will do a good job and trappy's L1D will get you there.

Good article here on speeds to fly.

It is my contention that when you add airspeed, a vario and knowledge of the polar (basically a speed ring) you now know the right speed to fly under all lift conditions to maximize time in the air. All soaring craft that I know of para-glider, hang glider, full scale glider have instrumentation available to obtain speed to fly information - except FPV gliders that is.

Put all this together with a few LED's to quantify lift and a few to quantify your speed to fly error you would have something that would kick butt. Finding the polars for each plane would not be trivial as you say, but the problems worth solving aren't always easy.

[Roel-CP]

What you ment is an solfart setting what real e-vario also have
It will give you speed / msec ratio to match your speed by sound.
Yes i have à gliderlicense also

gps is slow that why an extra sensor would be verry nice with led,s
Or you need to Buy an rvosd5