Description: This platform was inspired by the realization that almost all the hardware you need for a functioning UAV is contained in the high-end cellphone in your pocket: GPS, camera, two-way long-distance wireless data communications, onboard computing and storage. Why do the tricky hardware integration when some cellphone maker has done it better themselves? By using a Window Mobile phone, a UAV becomes a software, not a hardware, project.
Features: Control the UAV (dynamic waypoints, camera commands, "come home", etc) by text message! Plane can returns GPS-tagged imagery in real time by MMS (also stores it onboard for later downloading). Phone steers the rudder along GPS waypoint path, circling on command, and controls the throttle to maintain altitude. Separate FMA co-pilot stabilizer keeps the plane flying level.
- Airframe: Hobbico SuperStar (49" wingspan, $109)
- Autopilot: HP iPaq 6515 Window Mobile smartphone (GPS, 1.2 megapixel camera, discontinued but widely available for less than $200 on eBay.)
- Stabilization: FMA Direct FS8 Co-Pilot (infrared sensors, $115)
- Interface: Rentron serial-to-servo board ($77)
- iPaq to serial cable ($20)
- Custom software: VB.net code running on Windows Mobile, using HP's GPS, Cameraphone and text message libraries) still in development. You can download an alpha version that shows basic functionality, but isn't yet ready to fly, here. (Copy the CAB file to your iPaq and run it from the file manager to install the program. It requres the Rentron board and serial cable listed above to do anything useful.)
