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Taking off from a boat

Discussion in 'Cinestar Misc' started by Dave King, Jul 24, 2014.

  1. Dave King

    Dave King Well-Known Member

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    For those that have MK electronics that have launched from a boat can you tell me how you have done this? Do you need to set the ACC (left joystick upper left) on flat land or do you do it on a rocky boat where the level could be anything? I have never done this before and have always been intrigued on how this is pulled off?
     
  2. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Dave:
    The ACC needs to be calibrate (usually only once) with the FC board level. You do not need to recalibrate it -- although I tend to do so whenever I do an FC firmware upgrade.

    The gyro calibration that you need to do before you can start the motors is, according to Mikrokopter, something that needs to be done when the copter is on the ground and not moving or shaking. See http://www.mikrokopter.de/ucwiki/en/Erstinbetriebnahme/Step12

    There have been other threads on this topic though -- so I'd have a quick look for boat, or ship (although you get quite a few hits in the context of shipping Lipos etc).

    Andy.
     
  3. Dave King

    Dave King Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for the reply. Sorry I meant Gyro calibraiton only. Not sure how you can properly set it and launch safely from a boat. I will search.
     
  4. Steve Maller

    Steve Maller UAV Grief Counselor

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    One of the things you can do when you run dual batteries like we do is replace the batteries one at a time when you land, leaving the copter constantly powered on. I have done that for other reasons, and it works fine. That may address the issue of bobbing around on a boat. The MōVI has a provision for this for circumstances where you just want to remember the last good calibration. Once you're in the air, it should be fine.

    Of note is the fact that takeoffs from a boat are not too bad, but landings can be really hard. And if you want to have your camera op or somebody else grab the copter out of the air instead of landing it, be absolutely sure that they are secured on the deck. You don't want somebody going overboard! And of course, give them a helmet and good gloves, etc.
     
  5. Ozkan Erden

    Ozkan Erden Distributor

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    I fly a lot from boats; from small to big. If the boat is big and not shaking a lot, you can also calibrate on the boat. If the calibration is not successful.

    So for no problem with MK electronics. As Steve pointed out, if the space is limited and if the boat is moving, the hard part is to land.
     
  6. Chris Fox

    Chris Fox Active Member

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    G'Day Dave, not using MK on this bird, but like Ozkan said .... landing is the one to master

    You can see the take of and landing pad that we were using on the back of the boat, a bit up close and personal, but the results are pretty good.

     
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  7. MIke Magee

    MIke Magee Active Member

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    Steve, Movi Newbie here. What's the trick for doing this in an unstable environment?
    tx,m
     
  8. Chris Fox

    Chris Fox Active Member

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    G'Day Mike,

    Under the advanced settings option select motion boot, and you will be on the right track.

    Cheers
     
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  9. Don LeRoi

    Don LeRoi New Member

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    We built a gyro (mechanical) stabilized platform for just this purpose. Expensive, but theoretically it should have worked. It seemed to work great when testing by hand on land, but it didn't work at all on a gently rocking boat. If the motion was violent, it corrected, but otherwise it just followed the motion. Scrubbing that idea, I managed to calibrate the MK gyros by timing the motion of the boat and hitting calibrate just before a lull. I used the scope in MK-Tool to verify the calibration. If the gyros didn't track the accelerometers in MK-Tool, I repeated until they did. Then, we did a hand test just to be sure. It was tedious, but it worked. Recently, I have modified the MK source code to store a set of offsets in EEPROM and monitor an RC channel during calibration to decide whether to do an actual calibration, or to pull the stored offsets. In a few weeks, we will put this to test on a 25' boat. We'll calibrate on land each day before going aboard the boat, store the offsets, and use them throughout the day. Again, using MK-Tool to verify that the offsets are still good. I'll let you know how it works out.

    The flights are over salt water. I spray conformal coating on all the boards, but I'm not comfortable that it is enough protection. I'd be interested in hearing how other people have enclosed their electronics to keep them dry.

    -Don
     
  10. Janne Hoglund

    Janne Hoglund Member

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    Hi Don.
    Care to share us more on how and what to use doing this?

    There is a lot of nice fog here in Sweden that I´d like to preserve on film....

    Best regards.

    /Janne
     
  11. Ozkan Erden

    Ozkan Erden Distributor

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    Chris, that's an awesome footage. What gimbal are you using? Even you're flying fast, I don't see any roll drift on your gimbal. My M5's roll would would drift if I flew that fast.
     
  12. Don LeRoi

    Don LeRoi New Member

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    Hi Janne,

    I found this guide useful: http://rathergoodguides.com/document-guides/rgg_spraying_mk_boards_with.pdf. He goes into a lot of detail about different sizes of masking tape, but I found that I could mask everything with just the 6.35mm wide tape. Of course, you can use any width, if you don't mind a lot of cutting.

    Also, I use MG Chemicals Silicone Conformal Coating - http://www.mgchemicals.com/products/protective-coatings/conformal/silicone-conformal-coating-422b/. I use the aerosol spray to cover the boards, and the brush on liquid to cover any soldering I do after the boards are coated.

    On another note, we have just flown 60 flights (over 12 hours) from a boat, over a two week period, using Mikrokopter's new "boat" mode. It works perfectly.

    Let me know if you have any questions.

    Best regards,
    Don
     
  13. Chris Fox

    Chris Fox Active Member

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    G'Day Ozkan,
    Using the M10 on this setup. It is working well for me.
    Cheers
     
  14. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    "He" is glad you found it helpful! :rolleyes:

    Andy.
     

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