Anyone into flying Quadcopters/Drones?

[dden4012]

We use drones with pix4d at work pretty often. We have the ph4 and inspire pro along with a few fixed wings. We had a dji octo copter for a bit but it had enough with airborne life and sadly drove itself into the side of a landfill from 200'. They are lots of fun and getting paid is a plus.

 

[94Z28]

No lasers on mine, just LEDS like some XHP70 or something like that. If I was to do a laser maybe like a 5mw 532 star cap for videos in garage.

I'm too scared to do a high power laser on an aircraft.


Edit: I've been fixing a motor on one of my X5 and I can't help but to wonder why they have a motor and led on one output.. odd. But it's super simple to work on atleast.

 

[Accutronitis]

I use to be into very expensive R/C helis but gave that up, Now the only thing I have that flies is a quad that fits in the palm of you hand !

 

[hwang21]

Literally just started into drones like this month... used the good old Cheerson CX-10 to learn how to fly. Bought 2, cheap enough so I don't care what happens to it. Also picked up a Syma X5SC for once I trusted myself to not crash it everywhere. It's easier to fly than the CX-10 lol

 

[icah93]

I am into drones for many years, and have had many DIY projects.
Still, one point is open: night flying and suitable illumination.

I tested some IR laser illumination: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DjeshlDXwU
but finally decided for an IR LED solution, like here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yLg7hE5LEo

Still, I have the vision of creating an IR laser array that would cover +- 45 degrees vertically and horizontally,
allowing better (stronger) illumination than IR LEDs.
The device itself has to be small, and light (no more than 100g) so a racing drone han hold it.
Heat is not much an issue since the drone flies fast and the air cooling is enough in most cases.

For the project I bought as much as 10x 300mW 805nm diodes, but still I am unsure about the
material and form of the plate where the diodes should be pushed.
The plate should be reasonable small (50mmx50mm max).

Another question is whether to collimate the light on all diodes or not. Collimated light is stronger and go further but covers less degrees and the 90 degrees horiz./vert. area should be fully covered.

Another option could be to use less but stronger IR diodes with wider degree illumination.

If anybody has any idea that can help with the project plese let me know

 

[lasersbee]

I am into drones for many years, and have had many DIY projects.
Still, one point is open: night flying and suitable illumination.

I tested some IR laser illumination: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DjeshlDXwU
but finally decided for an IR LED solution, like here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yLg7hE5LEo

Still, I have the vision of creating an IR laser array that would cover +- 45 degrees vertically and horizontally,
allowing better (stronger) illumination than IR LEDs.
The device itself has to be small, and light (no more than 100g) so a racing drone han hold it.
Heat is not much an issue since the drone flies fast and the air cooling is enough in most cases.

For the project I bought as much as 10x 300mW 805nm diodes, but still I am unsure about the
material and form of the plate where the diodes should be pushed.
The plate should be reasonable small (50mmx50mm max).

Another question is whether to collimate the light on all diodes or not. Collimated light is stronger and go further but covers less degrees and the 90 degrees horiz./vert. area should be fully covered.

Another option could be to use less but stronger IR diodes with wider degree illumination.

If anybody has any idea that can help with the project plese let me know

Why do you need IR illumination on a racing
quad :thinking:

Jerry

 

[icah93]

So I can race by night. Today's CCD and/or CMOS cameras are still not sensitive enough
to view in pitch dark, without additional light.
But it is not just about racing, but simply flying.
Many times I get home just by the evening and I wanted a solution so I could fly in my spare time.

Plus, it is a great feeling flying e.g. in a park by night with an invisible (no visible light radiated) flying device.
Like here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya_KgUnr6wg

 

[lasersbee]

Got it....
You could get more IR wattage for illumination
using a larger quad.

Jerry

 

[icah93]

Unfortunately, it is not an option. We are heading toward small quads, mostly because FAA regulation.
Even by increasing the IR LED wattage the illuminated distance is not increasing in a linear way.
After some distance (30-40 meters) there is no reason to increase the power because
the camera does not see more.
Laser radiation is somehow different, and I think it would be possible to reach further distance
but the degree of view would be smaller. That is why I need an IR laser array.

Now there are many questions but most importantly, is the IR laser illumination better
(longer distance, energy efficiency) or the IR LED solution?
With LEDs, 40W of input power delivers just about 6W of light power, so the efficiency is
somehow around 1:6,1:7.
If it is better with the IR diodes then there is a potential for better lightning.

I feel there is a big potential in IR laser but I am not an electrotech guy so I am not able
to point it out.
What I can do is the try/fail method, which is quite expensive most of the time.
Only the DIY IR LED device development cost is more than 600USD and it is still imperfect.

 

[Alaskan]

From what I have seen with IR laser diodes, you won't have near the efficiency of an infrared LED. The advantage, however, is that laser diodes can be collimated into a very tight beam with low spreading or divergence making the efficiency less important. I believe a laser diode with a variable focus is the way to go (but limited so you cannot adjust the beam to infinity), you could then widen and narrow the beam as needed, as long as it doesn't get too tight to become unsafe due to having a high power density in a small enough spot to become a eye hazard. Another method I would consider is overlapping IR laser diode spot beams in an array configuration, perhaps that is what you meant by array? If you did that, you could adjust the spot sizes in a fixed rigging but even then, if you were to have a decent amount of "throw", to borrow a flashlight term, close in to the laser diodes they would likely be an eye hazard due to the light cones being so tight near the outputs.

So, if using an IR laser diode you can adjust, or build the output to have a uber wide beam to a very tight laser beam, that's the advantage of using a laser light source, it wouldn't be so difficult to build a variable focus beam to make the spot wide to extremely tight, but for this use collimating the output to a tight infinity focus where the beam only spreads a few mRad would be far too tight because the camera resolution likely won't match the extreme throw of the beam when set to infinity focus like a laser pointer, unless it too had zoom.. IR laser diodes, unless low power single mode, have relatively high divergence with a small lens anyway but regardless of being at infinity focus or not, could still be a eye hazard close to the output.

In this group you will likely find many differing opinions, so you came to the right place for that ;p

 

[paul1598419]

There was another thread on using a low power IR laser to see quad copters at night, but the OP was looking for less than 1 mW. He said even 0.7 mW washed out his camera at 200 yards. Don't know if your application is similar to his, but thought I'd mention it.

 

[lasersbee]

@Paul...
What he wants is to illuminate the surroundings
where the Quad flies..not the Quad. If you look
at the 2nd video link to YouTube you'll see what
he means..

Jerry

 

[paul1598419]

Ah. Yeah, didn't bother with the YouTube video before. It is a conundrum. You may need to experiment with different ways to light the surroundings before you will hit on the best result.

 

[icah93]

Thanks for the words on this topic.

Sure by the array I meant "overlapping IR laser diode spot beams in an array configuration", exactly.
Currently I am using ~40W input power for ligting a ~15-20m area in front of the quad, with an IR LED array,
that has light output around 3700mW.
With those 300mW 805nm diodes if I use 6 of them with beams overlapped, it takes the same input power
with output of ~2000mW.
So in light power it is approx. the half of that provided by the IR LED array.

This should make me think that my camera will not see with the IR laser as good as with the IR LED,
but on the other side I have a feeling that laser radiation is much different from LED radiation
so the laser radiation can have better penetration, with the same output light power.
Surely I may be mistaken, I am not familiar with the physics behind this.

There was one more option for the project, by using modulation for laser and sending out high power pulses,
instead of CW.
Somebody just told me that it would not work because the CCD camera won't be able to detect this kind of
modulated light.
Is that true?
Is the 50Hz PAL camera not sensitive enough to get enough light for proper functioning?