In January an article on Hacked Gadgets showed a Mikrokopter from Nicoleto.
After visiting his homepage I saw a really nice concept for the HD camera mount.

There are a lot of photos and one video of the construction and the Mikrokopter in action available.

Video (construction, flying, on-board camera)

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(Picture source Jim Wilson – New York Times)

Here are some pictures and facts

• OS is based on iPhone OS
• All iPhone apps will also run on the iPad – “virtually unmodified”
  The iPhone apps can run in a black box in the middle of the screen or by doubling the pixels and fill the screen, but loose resolution
• The new SDK for the iPad is released today
• Of course, apps from the iPhone can be modified so they are perfect for the iPad
• Almost “life-size” virtual keyboard
• Synchronize data from PC or MAC
• The iPad works in both landscape and portrait mode, like the iPhone. It has a virtual keyboard, access to photo collections, direct access to iTunes’ surfeit of content.
• The new iBooks app will allow you to read an purchase eBooks. So Apple is on a collision course with Amazon.

Technical Data

• size: 9.7 inch (25 cm) multitouch display (so it’s not 16:9) TFT-IPS-Panel
• thikness 0.5 inch (13 mm)
• weight: 1.5 pounds (680 grams)
• processor: 1Ghz (own Apple A4 chip)
• 16, 32 or 64 GByte of storage
• Wi-Fi 802.11n
• latest Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Battery life: 10 hours – we will see
• Battery stand-by up to one month – we will also see
• Accelerometer
• Compass
• Speaker
• Microphone
• no camera(s)
• There will be 3G versions available – all with unlocked SIM and they use the new GMS microSIMs
• Sync over USB and iTunes
• nice accessories, a dock to use it like a photo frame and the keyboard dock to use it like a PC or a Laptop

• USB connectors to connect SD Cards or Digital Cameras over USB to transfer photos to the iPad

• iPad Case

Costs

WiFi

• 16GB – $499
• 32GB – $599
• 64GB – $699

Shipping in 60 days (worldwide availability)

WiFi + 3G

• 16GB – $629
• 32GB – $729
• 64GB – $829

Shipping in 90 days

Overall the iPad is a nice Gadget. But in the moment I can not see the practical use of that device (except reading an ebook).

In some weeks we will see in what direction the iPad develops and if I am crazy enough to buy one.

Details: http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/

Today I had a security problem with my Wordpress Blog. A funny guy thought that he has to reset my Wordpress installation.
But no problem – the last backup was loaded within minutes and the Blog was online again.

Good news for all iPhone, Android and smartphone users! – Today SpeedyWeb got an update and is now available over iPhone and other smartphones in a “compact” mobile theme. I hope you enjoy that.

Here is a screenshot of the Page on iPhone / mobile Safari

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ParagleitenAmHochjoch

Big thanks to my pilot Michael Rüdisser.

BTW: Today SpeedyWeb got an update of the blogging software Wordpress (actual Version 2.8.4). – I finally had the time do do it
The site is now faster and the Lightbox feature is working again (the nice picture popups with buttons to navigate forward and backward in article-pictures). I also installed a nice Google Maps plugin.

Speedy

So I ordered some evaluation boards (about 100€/pcs) for me and two collegues who are studying with me at the NTB. Our goal is to have fun with wireless applications.

The RN-131 GSX Module is a 802.11 b/g wireless LAN Module with a lot of features – Details see datasheet.

If you already have a GSX Module you can use my LabView source below to show the UDP packets which the module sends in default configuration every 7 seconds.

The packets include

• MAC address of AP
• WiFi-Channel
• RSSI (quality)
• local TCP port
• RTC (real time clock value)
• NTC temperature option (if temperature sensor connected to module – otherwise sensor 7)
• Spare sensor reading
• ASCII time
• Version string with date code and Device ID string

This information can be used to open a TCP connection to the module or to configure it over WiFi. The module has to be in the same subnet as your PC or MAC if you want to receive the packages.

Here are some pictures of the Module in action:

Here is the LabView (8.6) Source as LLB: wifly-monitoring-distribution

In the last weeks I thought about new projects (beside the Mikrokopter project). So I started to study Objective-C programming by myself to be able to code iPhone applications in future. A good start for doing that is the book “Cocoa Programming For Mac OS X” by Aaron Hillegass.
A good podcast to start with Objective-C from the real basics is also this one from Peter and Ingo: http://0×02100.silutions.de/blog.html
Another good resource that I am using is the Stanford iPhone programming course, which is available over iTunes U and resources to the course are here: http://www.stanford.edu/class/cs193p/cgi-bin/index.php

Because the SPP Bluetooth profile is currently not supported by the iPhone (OS 3.1), data transfer has to be done over TCP/IP or some other “frickel-ware” tricks (Audio, Display and Camera, other BT-profiles, …).

So I have to put some energy in the field of embedded wireless webservers, TCP/IP protocol, debugging connections, snif packets, make connections from iPhone to an embedded (web)server and so on.

Today I did a first test with servers. I started a Java Server on the PC and connected to that server over telnet from the Mac mini in my local LAN over WiFi. All Bytes that are received by the server are displayed in the console. With the ESC Symbol transmitted from the Mac, the connection can be closed.

Here is a screenshot from the final console outputs and the sourcecode for the Java server:

Java on PC, telnet on Mac

Sourcefile server.java; Required Class out.java

Thanks to Adam B. for showing me how easy it is to code a server in Java.

ToDo’s for the next months:
* The Java console should display a connection which is established by an iPhone app.
* The Server should be an embedded WiFi server -> order an embedded WiFi module.
* Get practice in Objective-C programming, continue Stanford iPhone course
* Realize the path: iPhone (Simulator) -> embedded WiFi server
* Let some LEDs blink, dependent on the orientation of the iPhone (Simulator)
* Let some LEDs blink, dependent on some buttons in the iPhone App
* Pay the developer license fee to start developing on real iPhone hardware ($100)
* Having fun and thinking about nice tools of iPhone Apps together with embedded controllers

Greets,
Speedy

I attended the 3rd outdoorflying in Zürich and it was a lot of fun. Of course I had my digital video camera with me and now you can watch the whole day in a short 9 minute clip. Of course there are some scenes with the EPI-OSD hardware with the new C-OSD software from Cascade. A short clip with EPI-S (current measurement) is also included. It was really fun to meet some guys from the forum and to have “real” talks. And of course we had some sausages over the fire (The fire was heated by Mikrokopter(s))

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To improve my Kopter for this event I finally found the time to mount the PET “Haube” onto the Kopter. Pictures will follow in the next days.

Yeah, it’s summer and now I have time to continue my investigations in FPV-flying. Some weeks ago I had a little disaster and crashed my FlightCtrl and my NaviCtrl (shortcut in the connection cable).
So I had to order a new NaviCtrl immediatly. I had luck, the MK-GPS and EPI-OSD survived.

And now – my Kopter is back (better than ever *ggg*)

Ok, let’s get to the topic.

A lot of people asked me, how I mount the camera and the EPI-OSD on my Mikrokopter. Thats a little bit complicated to explain and so I took some pictures to show you how I did it.
Update – 30.05.09: Attention, if you want your C-OSD Version to work fully together with the NaviCtrl you have to connect the EPI-OSD to the debug port of you NaviCtrl!

I hope that I will have some time in the next weeks to do my first FPV Tests with video recording to post it here (maybe the weather is nice

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Greetings,
Speedy

Here is a short clip of the actual status. Details will follow at the end of the project.

Some facts:

• Robot controlled by WiiMote
• A PC/Laptop has a relay application that realizes the Bluetooth communication (Software: LabView)
• WiiMote -> Bluetooth -> Labtop -> Bluetooth -> uC -> Motors/Sensors (Bidirectional of course)
• IR-Sensors (Sharp Type GPD120)
• Stepper Motors
• LiPo power supply (11.1V / 3p1s)

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Open tasks (“todo”)

• give it intelligence (autonom)
• communication with partner team
• final documentation
• preperation for public presentation

Speedy

The project is part of my education at the NTB in Buchs. We are a team of 8 people and I am a member of the programming team (and some support in electronics). During the last weeks, the mechanic team did a great job and the prorgamming team had enough time to do funny experiments with our mikrocontroller.

One of the funny things was that we connected the Wii Mote to the PC and then the PC to the mikrocontroller. All this was done by bluetooth – so no cables – and that’s really nice.

Here is a nice video clip of the LabView Software in action:

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In some weeks I’ll post a “full action movie”. But first the mechnical and electronic parts have to be assembled fully.

Thanks to my team at the NTB! It’s great to work together with such a highly motivated team.