I know there are a few active minds floating around reading this forum and I thought this little piece of electronics might be of some interest to a few of you who seek world domination through the use of UAV 😀
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8785
The company that makes these boards is Sparkfun and I’ve bought quite a few of their products lately and I am really impressed with their products and service.
I’ve been using some of their tiny GPS modules for building APRS trackers.
APRS is a world wide tracking system that is used by ham radio operators, but it has quite a lot of other useful information on it. http://aprs.fi
I have been working on an ARPS tracker which uses LIPD modules to keep it ultra tiny. They run on a 3V LiPo and the PIC is a tiny 12F510 with a GPS and LIPD transmitter. It all fits into half the space of a matchbox.
Sparkfun also sell accelerometers and other useful components which would be very good for determining the speed of an aircraft independent of any external equipment. A simple logger can measure acceleration, log it and then with some simple calculus on the ground, a relative ground speed can then be calculated.
I don’t log into ausmicro as much these days, so if anybody wants more info, give me a bump via my email trash0@hotmail.com
.
