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Airspeed...

PostPosted: Tue Aug 09, 2011 4:11 pm
by madcobra
Dear Tom,
Might you add more future in next hardware..get an analog in for airspeed sensor? I would like to user it for keep motor and speed of my plane stab..
Thanks

Re: Airspeed...

PostPosted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 9:44 am
by Tom
Maybe in the long future, but not in the short future.

Auto-throttle will be new in the next version, so this is just a first step :-)

Re: Airspeed...

PostPosted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 11:32 am
by madcobra
Ah, You mean auto-throtte by using GPS speed ?

Re: Airspeed...

PostPosted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 12:55 pm
by daedalus
Analog airspeed sensor means at least the following:
- new code
- add components price (sensor, Pitot, connection tubes)
- add weight (sensor, Pitot, connection tubes, airframe modifications)
- add multiple points of failure (code, sensor, Pitot - I've had on a real airplane twice in a week bugs and dirt into the Pitot tube resulting in indications of 20% real airspeed)
- for good results one should calibrate sensor-Pitot

An incorrect measurement is worse than a good estimation.

My proposal here is to evaluate the possibility to implement something similar to what exist on the UAVDevBoard - wind estimation without an airspeed sensor - the result is an approximation of both airspeed and wind speed.

Take a look at the theory:
http://gentlenav.googlecode.com/files/W ... mation.pdf
and the implementation:
http://code.google.com/p/gentlenav/sour ... /estWind.c

Re: Airspeed...

PostPosted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 5:08 pm
by Tom
Very good comment, that was indeed my intention.