Worlds's cheapest aerial video platform

Just a few more geek hobby posts before I fork that part of my life to another blog to be announced soon and return to more regular Long Tail postings (and postings on my next book, also to be announced soon). But first, this weekend's geekout:

We've got a hand-me-down EasyStar foam plane, which, along with being pretty close to indestructible, has a nice open equipment area in the front (open because we broke the canopy latch). Meanwhile, we've also got a Canon Digital Elph pocketcam with a cracked screen that we don't use much. Put them together with a bit of light plywood, a camera mount screw from an old tripod and some rubber bands, and you've got an aerial video platform:

 

The key bit in this sort of hack is keeping the center of gravity where it's supposed to be, which meant moving the plane's battery under that plywood in the back (this also raises the rear corner, allowing the camera to look down). Once you get that right, the plane flies fine--a bit more sluggish that usual, but nothing too serious.

Here's an aerial video we took with this setup this weekend at the former Alameda naval air station near Oakland. This is the south end of the runway and is the base of the Hornet Squadron R/C group (you can see other fliers lined up on the flight line). It's also a possible location for our proposed Aerial Robotics Contest.  

We're the group of three (me and my two oldest kids) on the flightline that you can see at the end and that's my eldest recovering the plane. Afterwards, we went and toured the nearby USS Hornet aircraft carrier, which was awesome (it fought in WWII and recovered Apollo 11 and 12). You can have sleepovers on it! 

Comments

[Chris Anderson]

Yep, first try...it's all about getting the CG right. That said, it really helps that the EasyStar, which is a mid-sized foam powered glider, is a pretty stable platform. On Sunday we did it again at the Berkeley Marina, where the winds were about 15mph and it was a lot more squirrely. Got some good videos of crashes, tho! No harm done and eventually we got the nice altitude pans we were looking for.

[Ptech]

Wow, it's all coming together. Is that going to be the platform you run the completed UAV on? How much is that going to end up weighing with the Lego Block attached? Also, I would think a forward mounted camera would get you an easier time of capturing your intended vistas. What made you go with the side saddle angle? Keep up the good work.

[Chris Anderson]

Ptech,

No the UAV platform is bigger. We're using a Hobbico ElectriStar 63" trainer, which has a much larger interior area.

As for why we went for the side saddle approach, it was the easiest way to get a semi downward-looking camera, which I assumed would be necessary to get more ground than sky. But perhaps I'm wrong. The camera can rotate to any angle with that setup, so we'll try looking forward too and see how that works.

Chris

[Ernesto]

Chris what this model, with tele presence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INS2AhdNfYY

[Marina]

Cool! That's impressive. We tried the same thing with wireless cams on R/C cars. Didn't go quite that well...

[Free icons]

Cool!

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[xmas presents]

Great video. Nice angle for the camera. I mounted a camera on my Alpha 40 on the left side of the fuselage. Tried to get as much altitude without loosing sight. Not as good as yours though. it was my first attempt at a video.

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