Thanks for watching everyone. I've really enjoyed starting up the channel this year and I am looking forward to 2025 where Ill have a full year to create and crash! 😜Happy Holidays from the entire team ♥
Honestly love the comedic aspect. Tasteful and very relatable to all of us tinkerers with loved ones :) . Keep it up! Your aviation projects are very inspiring!
Thank you! I often asked myself during the process why I build this stuff and tried to find a purpose but you nailed it, it’s just the joy that it brings!
OMG this is so good. It is basically a fightsim rig in a box and the fact that you are actually flying something just provided a new level of immersion. Certainly one of the best use of a custom build computer I have ever seen.
So glad I came across your video. I'm working on a very similiar project. Last year I mounted my components into a Pelican roller case. It's initial purpose was for transport but I wound up working mostly out of the box due to the lack of a table that was promised : ) Some components like the VRX, ADSB antenna and frequency analyzers were mounted to the lid with velcro and the displays were free standing. And the laptop and windows tablet both sat on a platform in the bottom half of the case. It was very crude. But seeing your setup inspired me to make it more permanent and compact. I never thought of disassembling the radio and incorporating it into the case. Genius. Liked and subscribed. I hope more people see this.
I'm glad I've inspired you to take it to the next level! Its very rewarding flying with your own contraption. I will say the disassembled radio didn't work very well. Mostly because the rotary encoder that I tried to use to replace the knob would skip steps so the menu was pretty much unusable. There's probably an easy fix to this but I also didn't want to deal with all the wires going to the lid. The radio had to be installed on the lid for better antenna reception and i had to route like 37 wires up to the lid and was a big pain.
Just love it, you finished what I started, years ago, one of the many projects that was started, concept verified, and never quit finished, and would never have been to the level of your design, and it's look like you are still married, I'm now😊😜🤪. I would have thought that the safety switch would be the other way around, you lift the red cover to arm😊
Excellent work! For me, and probably alot of other people it never gets past some early prototype stage. Btw, great idea with the gloves, don't want to leave any fingerprints on the joystick in case you actually crash into some old ladies car. Love the Ranger 2400, lost mine in a fly-away incident a couple of months ago but will def get a new one. As soon as the authorities stop looking for me.
Haha nailed it! Thats exactly why i was wearing them 😂 sorry to hear about your Ranger. Its treated me well. I looked for it because back in college i flew a 757 ranger from Volantex but i think those have since been discontinued. Best of luck and thank you!
Nice job! For your rudder, your could get a stick that twists so your have 3 channels on your yoke. HOTAS controllers have a "nose wheel" steering button you can control with one of your finger tips too.
Excellent idea. I think next time i might try using the thumbstick on the joystick to control rudder as a temporary solution to a twisting joystick. Thanks for the comments!
This is so awesome. I'm looking to build the same sort of thing for a multi rotor system. After watching your video, I have ALOT of great ideas. Hopefully your marriage survived. Thanks for posting.
Really nice work!! If I were to build one, I’d make it like a “tray style radio” like two traditional gimbal sticks that you pinch. And maybe another gimbal stick for controlling the camera.
Noted! Since its very modular that would be very easy to implement. Its much easier to implement traditional gimbal sticks than that folding joystick! Would you have the sticks on either side of the box? Like one where the throttle panel is and another where the joystick is?
This is exactly what I would want, I have built RC planes but never flown them yet, this would be the perfect set up. Great Job, and thanks for content.
Top notch design on the Ground station as to the old Lady in the car that's a risk we are willing to take 😂😅.The rudder could be mixed in the ailerons with different weights on a three way switch amazing job looking forward to more on this take care.
Thank you! The joystick is my own design and you can find the files for it on my patreon, the gimbal beneath it was from thingiverse: www.thingiverse.com/thing:2496028
Unbelievably cool! I have to have one of those! For rudder control I'd use a 3 axis joystick, your rudder could be controlled by twisting motion of your flight stick...
Thank you, it uses hall effect sensors and magnets connected to an arduino that then maps the signal to 1000-2000 and sends it to external transmitter (TBS Crossfire) via CPPM
so much inspiration in this, retiring in a few months and I think I’ll go with a “road case” as my base but I just love the modularity of yours and will mimic that aspect. Designing the HOTAS as I envision it will be a meteoric butt ton of work but all good fun.
Thank you and congrats on retiring soon. This file saved me a lot of headache, may help you if you plan on a joystick! www.thingiverse.com/thing:2496028
Awsome project. Feet Rudder would be nice flying with the joystick i think. But then again it would be separate thing from your nice ground control station.
For your rudder control, have you considered intergrating/using actual flight sim foot pedals to your flight control box? You might want to look into some pc flight control magazines to get that kind of integration.
Fantastic design! It wouldn't be in the GCS box, but maybe a set of actual pedals for the rudder? Just a thought. Also, I think it would be grerat content to maybe do a step by step on the build. Those panels and leds are awesome.
To arm and disarm with a switch change this parameter in Mission Planner RCX_OPTION = 41, change x to whatever channel your switch is on. Changing modes with a six position switch required me to program the arduino to read the input from the switch and mapping each stop to a corresponding value between 1000-2000 and selecting that channel as the flight mode channel
@ thank you very much for your response. As i am using TX radio via sbus, then if i use the way like you do, do i have to use joystick function of Mission Planner?
I attempted to build a ground station, yours is a 100 times better than mine! Add me to the list. Maybe a kit version as I already have most of the parts, case , screens, receivers, transmitters Keep making videos!
This would be great as a kit for those without 3D printers and cad programs. I can follow schematics and I'm pretty good with a soldering iron and heat gun. I've built GCU's before, although not as pretty as this one. You should try a 3D video system or build one yourself. Works great close to the ground but the effect goes away with altitude. So works really well flying FPV with something that can hover like a multirotor or a heli. Chasing my buddies through the woods in 3D is a blast!
Didnt even know 3D video systems existed! Absolutely im working on how to put something like that together now! Have to get edgeTX on here first though to make it user friendly and a proper RC transmitter. Thanks for the comment!
Great video. Used this same technique when I designed a piece of equipment in 1966 except we did not have laser cutters, the text was engrave through the paint with a stylus on a motor chuck on a panograph. This was the way the B-52 bomber instrument panels were do. What did you use for the left side display to show your position a map, and what did you use for software. Thanks Wayne
Thats really neat! Did you make panels for the B-52? Its called Mission Planner awesome free piece of software. Theres also INAV but im not very familiar with that one. QGround Control if your on a mac or android device. Thanks for the comment!
@@letsMakeItFly ya, was really good video. No, didn’t make the panels for the B-52. The panel was lite with an incandecent bulbs. The bulb holders mount through all the panel layer, but did not show light through the front, but radiated its light sideways through the edge of the hole it mounted through in the front panel. Since the engraving penetrated through the panel paint into the frosted plexi, the light illuminated the engraving. These panel holder were distributed in various locations to give an even lighting. I used the same method as you to make my Cessna 172 instrument panel for Microsoft Flight Sim.
Another thought to reduce setup time is running external bulkhead SMA connectors for your antennas. This can also help if your ever wanted to run some high gain antennas on a mast.
When I started building this I never thought id start a youtube channel so I named the USB port “JUUL CHRG” and well I had to slip it in there somehow! Haha thank you very much!
It would be a interesting video itself showing how you made those levers, or you could probably sell them if you made them yourself. Oh I saw your selling the whole kit, nice. Also liked and subscribed 😊 👍
All the files are available on my patreon page! I also include the fusion360 file of the whole thing so you can modify it to your hearts content if you like. Thanks a bunch for the like and subscribe! Welcome!
Wow, that's an amazing station, i'd love to make one myself (because the cost to buy one ready made... ouch...) If i may venture a small suggestion, have a GX6/8/+ port that you can connect a cable to that connects to an external antenna tracker or mast that has the TX and VRX into them; it's very simple, all you need is power+gnd, video+gnd (hooked to a video balun on each side), rc rx/tx, and maybe another serial line to be able to control things on the antenna or the tracker. That way you can comfortably control your UAV from anywhere, you just need cable, and even without any special boosters you're good for like 100 feet. Great work!
Thank you! Are you referring to the $1000 i mentioned in the comments earlier? Thats about what it costs to DIY honestly. A kit may be a bit cheaper and the modularity of if means you can buy the essentials for a lot less and upgrade as you go!
Yeah I'm working on just making the throttle and rudder a standard finger pinch gimbal, I think that'll be a bit more intuitive. Thanks for the comment!
You can always step down voltage locally near the leds or add a regulator where it's needed. Other wise you gotta make a psu board with multiple rails and not overload em A RF patch bay would be neat, a little section to connect antennas to. This whole set up reminds me of a herelink
The fix im working on for the power distribution is a custom centralized power distribution board that will step down/up voltages for each system. So the FPV display is powered by the same buck converter that powers the arduino and it would draw too much current so the arduino would freeze up. The new PCB im making has two separate buck converters for each system. And it would get rid of all 3 buck boost converters I got in there. The other screen is powered by the PC via usb. Maybe one day when I develop an integrated transmitter or something but really im just focusing on getting proper and snappy control using external modules like the crossfire. I think that’ll make it the most versatile.
Not a bad idea! it would look pretty good just having two gimbals on the throttle panel. When i was flying around it was actually pretty nice panning the camera with the joystick on the throttle panel as opposed to the thumbstick on the joystick. I'm writing this one down.
Excellent question. I think the goal would be to have the set up you saw in the video at around $1000USD that's without the TBS Crossfire and video receiver. I would add a color touch screen with edgeTX so that it is easy to integrate with peoples existing JR modules (external transmitters) The modularity of this I think would allow the price to come down to I think $300 for a bare bones aircraft control only ground control station with additional upgrades available after the purchase. The components that really raise the price are the PC (~$250USD) and the Monitors (~$100 each).
Man Wow that looks like a product a big company would make? Did you build that yourself? is this available for sale? am i missiing something. About the rudder , Why dont you use a foldable joystic that works like a foldable tiller steering on a boat?
Thank you! Yes this is 100% DIY. Just sourced components and stuff mostly from amazon. Im working on making it user friendly and selling kits and fully assembled versions. Im not familiar with the foldable steering tillers but ill take a look. Thanks for the comment!
Very very swish, well done. If you develop things for sale in the USA remember to keep the bits NDAA to future proof yourself. (That's a pretty Grinch comment from me)
Absolutely, that was the goal from the start. Its obviously a pretty big investment if you buy it all at once but you can start with the essentials for control and then add on a PC and FPV Screen etc. My goal is to make it work with most external JR Modules and maybe even put a trainer port of some kind where you can connect a whole seperate radio. Thanks for the comment!
@@letsMakeItFly very cool project! I'd use a surface for touch screen. If you could spin up a custom board you can use any open hardware design like a 9xr to act as the controller. For such a set up you want to be able to configure inputs with same flexibility as outputs(say you had a different control module for multi rotors or even a submersible vehicle. I'm not sure if open tx supports it but if the control input board could simultaneously output via usb and to a JR module it would enable mission planner to also act as a backup control link. Would be nice to add a section to use power tool batteries or have a built in lithium cell with charger. There's some pretty cool waterproof pass through connectors could be used for charging instead of having power come out from a panel and risk breaking a lcd. Add LTE modem and RTK base station and this thing would be absolute fire
The latency between control and video looked bad, is it a digital video system? Mission planner can overlay its HUD onto an ipstream, if you have analog you can use rca to usb (even more latency) and view your fpv right within mission planner. With a WiFi ap you can even share the feed and control link with other computers
Awesome feedback! I forgot to mention I think but the screens are touch screen. The screen and pc combo i used (small fanless PC) worked really well. Really id only update the screens for better viewing in direct sunlight. They’re not great in that regard. The backup control via mission planner is a great idea. Well see if chatgpt can figure it out. I thought about adding an integrated battery but i decided to go with flexibility of choosing your own. It would be pretty easy to wire in a battery connector inside where you can place a lipo battery on velcro or something and that way you have no wires coming out of the panels. The LTE modem and RTK base station sounds awesome! It is a digital system and it may have been the actual controls. I noticed while testing that the control surfaces didn’t move quite as fast as they would with a regular radio (boxer). Thats probably my poor coding on the arduino for the CPPM signal. Overlaying the FPV feed on to mission planner would be an awesome idea to get rid of one of the screens and just making one large one! Thanks a bunch for the comment. These are great ideas and thanks to its modularity, it shouldn’t be too hard to implement some of your suggestions!
@@letsMakeItFly Sounds like something is using delay or something with an interrupt is hanging the loop. Are you by chance using a USB serial joystick and also using analog read for everything? The idea of using an tranisis as the controller board is neat but I'm sure there were some issues getting your controls to use the same potentiometer ranges the radio was expecting. I'm sure that can be fixed too with the right code. Since your using your own board, I'm guessing you loose rc telemetry and are using a different band/module to send mavlink/telemetry. While frsky sucks, adrupilot can send mavlink over FPORT giving you even more redundancy, with some decent coding knowledge you could use s.port/f.port to send control and to also receive telemetry for the ground station
I am envious of this rig oh my god Okay so You could have just added the twisty rudder bit on a lever that controls throttle, that way you have rudder/throttle control on one stick 🗿
Fully assembled this particular version ran about $1,000 USD in parts. I think I can get that down a bit. I'm hoping to get the final sale price to $1,000 USD
@letsMakeItFly that's not bad. Can I use elrs receiver’s and the radiomaster on it? Also, I would change the rudder a stick that can be self-centered would be great
Thanks for the feedback, having looked around it certainly beats price tags of $8-10K! The current design does have a self centering mechanism, it is poorly designed however. You can certainly use ELRS receivers as long as the transmitter is an external JR style transmitter!
Ive definitely though about that, believe it or not Ive never had goggles but I though an easier way around that would be to just get an HDMI splitter? If that exists
@@letsMakeItFly splitters certainly do exist, but i am shocked that you don't have any goggles, for me, once i flew fpv, there was no going back, the first time you fly past your own 'body' is an unforgettable experience, its genuinely an out of body experience. it would be a nice addition to your kit, particularly for anyone stood around watching, you can give them that experience. most, if not all analogue goggles have a micro hdmi input, for external ana/digital receivers, and since digital goggles came out, you can get used dominators etc for peanuts.
@@Michael2112 goggles are easier to see in bright sun, you can seamlessly switch because both are live, ground station great for takeoff/ landing + auto flight modes, goggles better for manual flight, plus goggles are great for showing off to interested spectators, the case is great, but its lacking an hdmi out imo.
Thanks for watching everyone. I've really enjoyed starting up the channel this year and I am looking forward to 2025 where Ill have a full year to create and crash! 😜Happy Holidays from the entire team ♥
Thanks brother
Honestly love the comedic aspect. Tasteful and very relatable to all of us tinkerers with loved ones :) . Keep it up! Your aviation projects are very inspiring!
Thank you! I wasn't sure how people would react to it. I enjoyed filming it
This is honestly a really good design. This channel deserves so many more views
Thank you and I agree haha! Hope they come in soon.
Well Done! Your comment at ~4:00, "You view the 3D model in awe for 2 hours...", is what resonated with me and earned a sub!
Thanks for the sub! Its amazing isnt it!? Glad im not the only one haha
I love to see people making things just for the joy of creation, this is very inspiring
Thank you! I often asked myself during the process why I build this stuff and tried to find a purpose but you nailed it, it’s just the joy that it brings!
I swear i have been wanting to do the same thing for a long time, that is the coolest thing. I Subscribed.
Great time to start! Thank you very much
Obsessed with the quality of construction here!
Thank you!
Inspiring, super technical and fun to watch, hardly ever sub on the first video I watch but you got me! Keep it up!
Thank you so much! Glad you liked it. Ill do my best!
OMG this is so good. It is basically a fightsim rig in a box and the fact that you are actually flying something just provided a new level of immersion. Certainly one of the best use of a custom build computer I have ever seen.
Thank you very much!
So glad I came across your video. I'm working on a very similiar project. Last year I mounted my components into a Pelican roller case. It's initial purpose was for transport but I wound up working mostly out of the box due to the lack of a table that was promised : ) Some components like the VRX, ADSB antenna and frequency analyzers were mounted to the lid with velcro and the displays were free standing. And the laptop and windows tablet both sat on a platform in the bottom half of the case. It was very crude. But seeing your setup inspired me to make it more permanent and compact. I never thought of disassembling the radio and incorporating it into the case. Genius. Liked and subscribed. I hope more people see this.
I'm glad I've inspired you to take it to the next level! Its very rewarding flying with your own contraption. I will say the disassembled radio didn't work very well. Mostly because the rotary encoder that I tried to use to replace the knob would skip steps so the menu was pretty much unusable. There's probably an easy fix to this but I also didn't want to deal with all the wires going to the lid. The radio had to be installed on the lid for better antenna reception and i had to route like 37 wires up to the lid and was a big pain.
Not sure how you don't have 100k subs but your well on your way with this one. Beautiful gcs build man I could see people buying these.
Thank you very much sir! Glad to hear it, getting a lot of the same feedback from the rest of the viewers. Need to go find me an electrical engineer 😂
Just love it, you finished what I started, years ago, one of the many projects that was started, concept verified, and never quit finished, and would never have been to the level of your design, and it's look like you are still married, I'm now😊😜🤪.
I would have thought that the safety switch would be the other way around, you lift the red cover to arm😊
Excellent work! For me, and probably alot of other people it never gets past some early prototype stage. Btw, great idea with the gloves, don't want to leave any fingerprints on the joystick in case you actually crash into some old ladies car. Love the Ranger 2400, lost mine in a fly-away incident a couple of months ago but will def get a new one. As soon as the authorities stop looking for me.
Haha nailed it! Thats exactly why i was wearing them 😂 sorry to hear about your Ranger. Its treated me well. I looked for it because back in college i flew a 757 ranger from Volantex but i think those have since been discontinued. Best of luck and thank you!
REAL MAKER SPIRIT!!CONGRATULATIONS FROM BRAZIL!!
obrigado!
I love how you totally don't hear her talking to you, you're so excited. Indeed!
😜 honestly didnt even know she was talking until i was editing the footage 😂
Nice job! For your rudder, your could get a stick that twists so your have 3 channels on your yoke. HOTAS controllers have a "nose wheel" steering button you can control with one of your finger tips too.
Excellent idea. I think next time i might try using the thumbstick on the joystick to control rudder as a temporary solution to a twisting joystick. Thanks for the comments!
This is so awesome. I'm looking to build the same sort of thing for a multi rotor system. After watching your video, I have ALOT of great ideas. Hopefully your marriage survived. Thanks for posting.
Glad to hear it! Let me know if i can be of any assistance. Taping up my marriage as we speak 😂 thanks for watching and the comment!
Really nice work!! If I were to build one, I’d make it like a “tray style radio” like two traditional gimbal sticks that you pinch. And maybe another gimbal stick for controlling the camera.
Noted! Since its very modular that would be very easy to implement. Its much easier to implement traditional gimbal sticks than that folding joystick! Would you have the sticks on either side of the box? Like one where the throttle panel is and another where the joystick is?
This is exactly what I would want, I have built RC planes but never flown them yet, this would be the perfect set up. Great Job, and thanks for content.
😯 How can you resist not flying them?! Thank you and thanks for the comment!
Top notch design on the Ground station as to the old Lady in the car that's a risk we are willing to take 😂😅.The rudder could be mixed in the ailerons with different weights on a three way switch amazing job looking forward to more on this take care.
Thank you very much! Its been a long time coming. I was willing to sacrifice some old ladies haha! That's a good idea, thanks for you input!
Bucket? I say it's a cornucopia of different skill sets all compiled and uploaded. Excellent work.
Thank you very much. I certainly learned a lot during its development!
Welcome to the algorithm. Awesome content. This is the RUclips we love.
Good to be here! Haha glad you liked it!
Very nice idea. A modular edge tx main board to be used for diy controllers would certainly be a great thing
Glad you think so. Already waiting on materials for the EdgeTX build!
Looks like you could run a Predator mission. Really great job on that build!
Thank you!
Awesome build - thanks for sharing. Can you add the link for the joystick (at 6:18)?
Thank you! The joystick is my own design and you can find the files for it on my patreon, the gimbal beneath it was from thingiverse: www.thingiverse.com/thing:2496028
This is super cool, looking forward to the progression of your channel.
You and me both! Thank you!
I was just putting together a plan for a setup like this, I'll give this one a shot and keep you posted. Great work man! Liked and subscribed.
Thanks for liking and subscribing! Best of luck with your build! Let me know if I can be of any assistance
Awesome job buddy! That thing looks incredible! Nice job man!
Muchas Gracias senor! Inspired by that nimble jet we used to fly!
Unbelievably cool! I have to have one of those! For rudder control I'd use a 3 axis joystick, your rudder could be controlled by twisting motion of your flight stick...
I agree I think im just gonna have to figure out how to do that! Thanks for the comment!
Awesome grounds station! How did you connect joystick ? Via mavlink ?
Thank you, it uses hall effect sensors and magnets connected to an arduino that then maps the signal to 1000-2000 and sends it to external transmitter (TBS Crossfire) via CPPM
so much inspiration in this, retiring in a few months and I think I’ll go with a “road case” as my base but I just love the modularity of yours and will mimic that aspect. Designing the HOTAS as I envision it will be a meteoric butt ton of work but all good fun.
Thank you and congrats on retiring soon. This file saved me a lot of headache, may help you if you plan on a joystick! www.thingiverse.com/thing:2496028
@letsMakeItFly thanx for the resource!
Is the stick's thumb rest button a hat or an analog stick? You could program it to be just analog left-right and use it as your rudder.
Its an analog stick, thats a great idea! Thanks for the comment. I might program that for my next flight see how it feels. Easy fix too!
Awsome project.
Feet Rudder would be nice flying with the joystick i think.
But then again it would be separate thing from your nice ground control station.
That is an awesome idea but no doubt it would be something to forget haha
Awesome work. A LOT of work, but awesome none the less. Keep at it. Lots of potential .Subscribed!
Thanks a ton!
Handsome man! thanks for the video, great idea! flawless performance!
Thank you kindly!
That is really impressive!
Thank you!
For your rudder control, have you considered intergrating/using actual flight sim foot pedals to your flight control box? You might want to look into some pc flight control magazines to get that kind of integration.
Yes I am working on integrating a usb port where you can connect both rudder pedals and a pc joystick!
This is nicer than many “professional” GCS I’ve seen at trade shows lol
Thats amazing, I should probably go to one of those!
this is so rad
This is very cool Lloyd! Well done! :D
Thank you kindly!
Fantastic design! It wouldn't be in the GCS box, but maybe a set of actual pedals for the rudder? Just a thought. Also, I think it would be grerat content to maybe do a step by step on the build. Those panels and leds are awesome.
I plan on both of those! Thanks for watching
Thanks for the support, Harry!!!! haha
Harry rocks!
Id definitely be interested in purchasing a kit
Thanks for the comment. Ill mark you down as number 1! you’ll hear it on this channel if I do end up making kits
@@letsMakeItFlymark me as number 2.
You got it!
@@letsMakeItFly 3
@@letsMakeItFly 4! this is amazing, take my money!
for the panels, that are 3 layers. are all 3 panels white, is it translucent white?
The one on the back is black and the other two are white. Translucent was too clear and wouldn’t scatter the light enough so white did the trick.
Very cool. Nice work!
Thanks a lot!
caN YOU pls share how to change mode, arm/disarm with switches? Do we have to use the joystick function of mission planner?
To arm and disarm with a switch change this parameter in Mission Planner RCX_OPTION = 41, change x to whatever channel your switch is on. Changing modes with a six position switch required me to program the arduino to read the input from the switch and mapping each stop to a corresponding value between 1000-2000 and selecting that channel as the flight mode channel
@ thank you very much for your response. As i am using TX radio via sbus, then if i use the way like you do, do i have to use joystick function of Mission Planner?
No it should be a pair of channels just like the gimbals on your transmitter. I don't use Mission planner for control at all.
@@letsMakeItFly thank so much. I am really appreciated
Nice project maiden flight was successfully congrats 👍
Surprisingly!! I better cut it out or I’m gonna have to change my channel description 😂 thank you!
Wow che bel progetto Complimenti 👍
Grazie mille!
Wow, that's very similar to what I wanted to build years ago. Are you selling kits ? Plans? DIY? I would be very interested. Nice job!!! Very cool!!
All the files are on my patreon and I do plan on selling kits at some point. Maybe in a few months. Thank you very much!
@@letsMakeItFlynice!
I attempted to build a ground station, yours is a 100 times better than mine! Add me to the list. Maybe a kit version as I already have most of the parts, case , screens, receivers, transmitters
Keep making videos!
Thank you! I certainly will stay tuned!
EXCELLENT WORK!!
Thank you! Cheers!
Have you considered using a 3 axis joystick for the gas control?
Autocorrect I meant yaw control
Yes I have but I just couldn't figure it out on CAD.
This would be great as a kit for those without 3D printers and cad programs. I can follow schematics and I'm pretty good with a soldering iron and heat gun. I've built GCU's before, although not as pretty as this one. You should try a 3D video system or build one yourself. Works great close to the ground but the effect goes away with altitude. So works really well flying FPV with something that can hover like a multirotor or a heli. Chasing my buddies through the woods in 3D is a blast!
Didnt even know 3D video systems existed! Absolutely im working on how to put something like that together now! Have to get edgeTX on here first though to make it user friendly and a proper RC transmitter. Thanks for the comment!
Great video. Used this same technique when I designed a piece of equipment in 1966 except we did not have laser cutters, the text was engrave through the paint with a stylus on a motor chuck on a panograph. This was the way the B-52 bomber instrument panels were do.
What did you use for the left side display to show your position a map, and what did you use for software.
Thanks
Wayne
Thats really neat! Did you make panels for the B-52? Its called Mission Planner awesome free piece of software. Theres also INAV but im not very familiar with that one. QGround Control if your on a mac or android device. Thanks for the comment!
@@letsMakeItFly ya, was really good video. No, didn’t make the panels for the B-52. The panel was lite with an incandecent bulbs. The bulb holders mount through all the panel layer, but did not show light through the front, but radiated its light sideways through the edge of the hole it mounted through in the front panel. Since the engraving penetrated through the panel paint into the frosted plexi, the light illuminated the engraving. These panel holder were distributed in various locations to give an even lighting.
I used the same method as you to make my Cessna 172 instrument panel for Microsoft Flight Sim.
Thats awesome, Would love to see your setup!
Where can I send a picture or video
This is very impressive, what distance did you manage to fly?
I think the furthest I got out was around 2,000ft without breaking any laws 😉
This is pretty sweet
Thank you! Its been a long time coming
It's fantastic! Good job)
Thank you very much!
excellent tech.......and the humor is great!
Thank you! It was fun to film
Another thought to reduce setup time is running external bulkhead SMA connectors for your antennas. This can also help if your ever wanted to run some high gain antennas on a mast.
absolutely!
Dude! E cigs when you loose sight of your plane…. Hahaha! You got a new sub here friend! Keep it up!
When I started building this I never thought id start a youtube channel so I named the USB port “JUUL CHRG” and well I had to slip it in there somehow! Haha thank you very much!
@ well played
That is cool, I have been wanting to build a similar unit to control ground vehicles automatically and aircraft.
Now's your chance! Thanks for the comment
It would be a interesting video itself showing how you made those levers, or you could probably sell them if you made them yourself. Oh I saw your selling the whole kit, nice.
Also liked and subscribed 😊 👍
All the files are available on my patreon page! I also include the fusion360 file of the whole thing so you can modify it to your hearts content if you like. Thanks a bunch for the like and subscribe! Welcome!
@ all thanks, just collecting resources to build my own similar thing.
let me know if there's anything I can help with!
Wow, that's an amazing station, i'd love to make one myself (because the cost to buy one ready made... ouch...)
If i may venture a small suggestion, have a GX6/8/+ port that you can connect a cable to that connects to an external antenna tracker or mast that has the TX and VRX into them; it's very simple, all you need is power+gnd, video+gnd (hooked to a video balun on each side), rc rx/tx, and maybe another serial line to be able to control things on the antenna or the tracker. That way you can comfortably control your UAV from anywhere, you just need cable, and even without any special boosters you're good for like 100 feet. Great work!
Thank you! Are you referring to the $1000 i mentioned in the comments earlier? Thats about what it costs to DIY honestly. A kit may be a bit cheaper and the modularity of if means you can buy the essentials for a lot less and upgrade as you go!
And thanks for the suggestion I’ll add that to the list of requests!
this is so badass and well executed!
Thank you!
Add a pot to the stick for the rud?
Yeah I'm working on just making the throttle and rudder a standard finger pinch gimbal, I think that'll be a bit more intuitive. Thanks for the comment!
You can always step down voltage locally near the leds or add a regulator where it's needed. Other wise you gotta make a psu board with multiple rails and not overload em
A RF patch bay would be neat, a little section to connect antennas to. This whole set up reminds me of a herelink
The fix im working on for the power distribution is a custom centralized power distribution board that will step down/up voltages for each system. So the FPV display is powered by the same buck converter that powers the arduino and it would draw too much current so the arduino would freeze up. The new PCB im making has two separate buck converters for each system. And it would get rid of all 3 buck boost converters I got in there. The other screen is powered by the PC via usb.
Maybe one day when I develop an integrated transmitter or something but really im just focusing on getting proper and snappy control using external modules like the crossfire. I think that’ll make it the most versatile.
Awesome! Great job!!!
Thank you! Cheers!
hello from Zimbabwe
Hello! Long ways away thanks for watching and the comment!
What about installing a one of Radiomaster's CNC gimbals for rudder? Set it to ratchet and you have throttle too.
Not a bad idea! it would look pretty good just having two gimbals on the throttle panel. When i was flying around it was actually pretty nice panning the camera with the joystick on the throttle panel as opposed to the thumbstick on the joystick. I'm writing this one down.
3:10 how does one daisy chain in parallel?
Haha probably didn’t say that right. Theres parallel sets of 3 leds in series on each board and one board powers the next.
awesome work!
How much would it cost to buy it? If you could upgrade it to make it even more simple and user friendly, what would you do?
Excellent question. I think the goal would be to have the set up you saw in the video at around $1000USD that's without the TBS Crossfire and video receiver. I would add a color touch screen with edgeTX so that it is easy to integrate with peoples existing JR modules (external transmitters) The modularity of this I think would allow the price to come down to I think $300 for a bare bones aircraft control only ground control station with additional upgrades available after the purchase. The components that really raise the price are the PC (~$250USD) and the Monitors (~$100 each).
OMG dude this is the shiznit!
Fo shizzle my nizzle ❤️
You can full video to make this flight controller please
Next one i make i sure will!
very wonderful work
Thank you! Cheers!
UXV Technologies has a new competitor :D
😂😂
Eres de Nicaragua? Good build tho! pretty cool.
Asi es! De Masaya. Gracias!
Amazing!
Great content
Well thank you very much!
Sweet Cyberdeck!
Thanks!
I would probably buy a kit if you make them. Or if you make a build guide.
Awesome thanks. Stay tuned and who knows!
Great vid!
Man Wow that looks like a product a big company would make? Did you build that yourself? is this available for sale? am i missiing something. About the rudder , Why dont you use a foldable joystic that works like a foldable tiller steering on a boat?
Thank you! Yes this is 100% DIY. Just sourced components and stuff mostly from amazon. Im working on making it user friendly and selling kits and fully assembled versions. Im not familiar with the foldable steering tillers but ill take a look. Thanks for the comment!
The files are all available on my patreon too if anybody wants to build themselves!
Very cool , 👍👍
Thank you! Cheers!
this is my dream setup
I've been dreaming about this for years! Let me know if you take on the project
AWESOME😃
Thank you! Cheers!
I’d buy one with long range transmitter built in, with the corresponding receiver as well.
Fantastic! Add me to the list for a kit!
You got it! Thank you!
Very very swish, well done. If you develop things for sale in the USA remember to keep the bits NDAA to future proof yourself. (That's a pretty Grinch comment from me)
Thank you! Not sure what NDAA means?
awesome)
Thanks 😁
what are the 2 monitors ?
Links to them are in the description. I believe they were made for a raspberry Pi. The one on the left is for the PC and the other is the FPV monitor
Add pedals for the rudder. Get more involved
Ill get on it!
I would buy this. If anything I would like it to be modular and be used with all or most transmitters
Absolutely, that was the goal from the start. Its obviously a pretty big investment if you buy it all at once but you can start with the essentials for control and then add on a PC and FPV Screen etc. My goal is to make it work with most external JR Modules and maybe even put a trainer port of some kind where you can connect a whole seperate radio. Thanks for the comment!
@@letsMakeItFly very cool project! I'd use a surface for touch screen. If you could spin up a custom board you can use any open hardware design like a 9xr to act as the controller. For such a set up you want to be able to configure inputs with same flexibility as outputs(say you had a different control module for multi rotors or even a submersible vehicle. I'm not sure if open tx supports it but if the control input board could simultaneously output via usb and to a JR module it would enable mission planner to also act as a backup control link. Would be nice to add a section to use power tool batteries or have a built in lithium cell with charger. There's some pretty cool waterproof pass through connectors could be used for charging instead of having power come out from a panel and risk breaking a lcd. Add LTE modem and RTK base station and this thing would be absolute fire
The latency between control and video looked bad, is it a digital video system? Mission planner can overlay its HUD onto an ipstream, if you have analog you can use rca to usb (even more latency) and view your fpv right within mission planner. With a WiFi ap you can even share the feed and control link with other computers
Awesome feedback! I forgot to mention I think but the screens are touch screen. The screen and pc combo i used (small fanless PC) worked really well. Really id only update the screens for better viewing in direct sunlight. They’re not great in that regard.
The backup control via mission planner is a great idea. Well see if chatgpt can figure it out.
I thought about adding an integrated battery but i decided to go with flexibility of choosing your own. It would be pretty easy to wire in a battery connector inside where you can place a lipo battery on velcro or something and that way you have no wires coming out of the panels.
The LTE modem and RTK base station sounds awesome!
It is a digital system and it may have been the actual controls. I noticed while testing that the control surfaces didn’t move quite as fast as they would with a regular radio (boxer). Thats probably my poor coding on the arduino for the CPPM signal.
Overlaying the FPV feed on to mission planner would be an awesome idea to get rid of one of the screens and just making one large one!
Thanks a bunch for the comment. These are great ideas and thanks to its modularity, it shouldn’t be too hard to implement some of your suggestions!
@@letsMakeItFly Sounds like something is using delay or something with an interrupt is hanging the loop. Are you by chance using a USB serial joystick and also using analog read for everything? The idea of using an tranisis as the controller board is neat but I'm sure there were some issues getting your controls to use the same potentiometer ranges the radio was expecting. I'm sure that can be fixed too with the right code.
Since your using your own board, I'm guessing you loose rc telemetry and are using a different band/module to send mavlink/telemetry. While frsky sucks, adrupilot can send mavlink over FPORT giving you even more redundancy, with some decent coding knowledge you could use s.port/f.port to send control and to also receive telemetry for the ground station
I am envious of this rig oh my god
Okay so
You could have just added the twisty rudder bit on a lever that controls throttle, that way you have rudder/throttle control on one stick 🗿
That was an idea I had as well but i couldn’t figure out how to design it
amazing
Rudder control.. get or make a set of foot pedals.. Absolutely love it and I want one.. can't afford one but I still want it!
Haha i hear ya! Thanks working on a USB input for rudder pedals!
How much for a fully assembled trunk ??
Fully assembled this particular version ran about $1,000 USD in parts. I think I can get that down a bit. I'm hoping to get the final sale price to $1,000 USD
@letsMakeItFly that's not bad. Can I use elrs receiver’s and the radiomaster on it? Also, I would change the rudder a stick that can be self-centered would be great
Thanks for the feedback, having looked around it certainly beats price tags of $8-10K! The current design does have a self centering mechanism, it is poorly designed however.
You can certainly use ELRS receivers as long as the transmitter is an external JR style transmitter!
@letsMakeItFly ok I'm currently using crossfire with my tx16s
That should work perfectly! thats what im using
very smart, but no HDMI output? would be cool to have a port for external fpv goggles.
Ive definitely though about that, believe it or not Ive never had goggles but I though an easier way around that would be to just get an HDMI splitter? If that exists
@@letsMakeItFly splitters certainly do exist, but i am shocked that you don't have any goggles, for me, once i flew fpv, there was no going back, the first time you fly past your own 'body' is an unforgettable experience, its genuinely an out of body experience.
it would be a nice addition to your kit, particularly for anyone stood around watching, you can give them that experience.
most, if not all analogue goggles have a micro hdmi input, for external ana/digital receivers, and since digital goggles came out, you can get used dominators etc for peanuts.
@@BadwolfFPV But then you wouldn't need the case and all of the goodness.
@@Michael2112 goggles are easier to see in bright sun, you can seamlessly switch because both are live, ground station great for takeoff/ landing + auto flight modes, goggles better for manual flight, plus goggles are great for showing off to interested spectators, the case is great, but its lacking an hdmi out imo.
Noted! should be easy and cheapish to integrate i think. Ill add it to the list of improvements!
Preflight checklist. Pre...leaving for the park, do I have all the gear needed checklist lol. Prejourney checklist maybe
Oh I got one!Seems like my gear used to change all the time so it was never very effective 😂
😂😂😂😂😂
Maybe you could use a off the shelf flight sim stick and hack it to give you the rudder control?
Tried that! The base was just too wide and wouldn’t fit in the allocated space!