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Thingify
Australia
เข้าร่วมเมื่อ 6 ต.ค. 2023
Trying to explore the world using R/C vehicles
Starlink Mini is a gamechanger for the R/C hobby!
I test out the Starlink Mini in-motion on my R/C boat, to determine whether it is sufficient to remotely control it with live video almost anywhere on Earth!
The boat previously used the Starlink Flat High Performance, so I compare the Mini with this previous state-of-the-art and discuss plans for the future.
The boat previously used the Starlink Flat High Performance, so I compare the Mini with this previous state-of-the-art and discuss plans for the future.
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Autonomous Starlink powered R/C boat - control from anywhere!
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I built an R/C drone boat with a Starlink Flat High Performance dish, to allow control with unlimited range from anywhere on Earth! With a camera and Pixhawk 6C onboard (running Ardupilot), I can plot waypoint missions and watch the live view from my phone, as I explore shipwrecks around Adelaide's Garden Island.
Another thing you can add is perhaps a low frequency low bitrate radio transmitter for beacon and telemetry for when the starlink loses service over open waters or in big storms. Low frequency radio propagates off the ionosphere. In international waters there are no restrictions but because you live on land you will need to comply with amateur radio rules for such a beacon.
I think for ocean mode you might need to make your boat submersible. Perhaps be able to send a command over to allow the boat to submerge for a specific period of time. This would be for instances where it encountered boat traffic or strong storms. By going under water the stresses on the boat will be lower during strong waves. You just need an empty water tank and a diaphragm pump to fill it up under pressure. Use a normally open solenoid valve so if the battery dies the boat will automatically release the pressurized water and pop back up to the surface. Keep a compressed air tank and a small compressor in there so it can refill its air supply in the sun. Use positive air pressure to keep water from leaking in, etc.
SLmini is a great option; it is still on the pricier side, but compared a PI with a 5G Hat, it does provide way more options. Looking forward to your next adventure!
Could a grayscale video stream be better?
This would be worth trying with adaptive bitrate if bandwidth becomes really constrained, dropping colour to get a bit better compression quality. I need to do more measurement of what the bandwidth constraints really are over time, and how many drop outs are due to complete loss of connectivity for ~seconds (vs reduced bandwidth).
Would you give some information about the power distribution board? I´m tinkering on a farm rover (wheelchair motors, rtk, pixhawk..), mainly for spreading slug pellets and i´m always looking to improve it..
Sure, that board is a Holybro PM06 V2, which is pretty much just a voltage divider with current sense resistor and a buck regulator. It has 4 pairs of pads that anything can be soldered to, and which pass through the current sense resistor. There's a standard connector for the Pixhawk (I use the 6C) which carries the regulated 5.2V power supply, and the analog voltage and current readings. Ardupilot automatically sends these voltage/current readings over MAVLink, so I can see it on my ground station.
@@thingify-app Bought one as soon as i saw your answer! Thanks mate!
Казалось бы, причет здесь Украина
Awesome
what kind of autopilot do you use?
I'm using a Pixhawk 6C running Ardupilot rover software.
1. Pan tilt zoom camera 2. a small clear housing for the camera system with wipers to clear water droplets 3. Solar panels for longer missions. 4. Backup auto failover computer system 5. A slightly bigger battery I think we're going to need a bigger boat. Ha. ha. ha. Awesome job mate. I love you build. I just noticed this video first. I didn't even watch the previous one. I'll have to check that out next. TH-cam makes it so that I can live vicariously though your projects. LOL!
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! I think it will need more redundancy for ocean missions, including a backup computer, and possibly redundant power supplies and comms.
@@thingify-app For ocean use you will need a stronger reinforced box to survive wave damage. You'll probably have to put the dishy under polycarbonate to prevent it from getting busted up. You can use a large tire to create a rubber bumper around the boat itself and maybe fit the boat inside. fill the tire with closed cell foam for flotation and keep the weight low in the boat to keep the tire upright. Maybe hang a weight off the bottom with a cargo strap so it stays upright in strong waves.
It`s awesome, but I`ll wait for some more reputable internet providers in space, I don`t like the idea of fueling manchild musk`s propaganda machine.
Solar sounds great!
Super Video, thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Great work Can you share how you connected Starlink Mini with Raspberry Pi? I await your response, sir. Please in some detail.
The Starlink Mini has a built-in WiFi router, so the Raspberry Pi is just configured to connect to that. The Mini also has an ethernet port, so it could be hardwired into the Pi. I chose not to do this, as it would be another cable penetration into the tub.
I would love to know how you control the pan tilt cam over the Internet. But as for streaming I have been using belabox to stream from the roof of race cars at 8000kbps with adaptive bitrate
I got one which supports ONVIF, which is an open standard for security cameras. Amongst other things, it has commands for PTZ controls. My webapp has a direct IP connection to the Raspberry Pi over WebRTC, so it can talk ONVIF straight to the camera. Although I do want to make a local MAVLink Gimbal Manager which runs on the Raspberry Pi, which would let any Ground Control System control the camera through standard MAVLink commands.
An Australia to California mission would make an amazing video series. Just the build videos would be worth it to me.
This would be amazing - lots of islands to visit on the way there too!
you need a solar panel to the you can go everywhere
I'm a fan of Reolink for PTZ, very versatile communication and recording options. I power mine off a 48v to 12v buck.
this will make for some pretty cool diy ofshore trash collection robots in the future
What 360 pan tilt are you using? I have one I built from cpomeroy on thingiverse that works good I wish it was a bit bigger though
I was thinking of building one, but just ended up buying a TP-Link TC41. So far so good, yet to try it on the water though
Put a mini drone on top of it (tethered to your starlink maybe?) so you have your own r/c aircraft carrier for those moments you need a higher POV of a given location.
Wow, arse toys have sure come a long way
This is the first thing I've seen better than what China has...😮
Insanely cool video
Imagine, a starlink powered portable "base startion" that the rc car or whatever can leave outside of buildings or POIs to stay connected to the starlink network, and the rc car itself connects to the base station via some more common way of communication that can handle indoors environments and walls. This way an rc car could tow a starlink solar wagon and just go without it for scouting, exploration and better mobility
Great idea, the best of both worlds! The base station itself could be a bigger, heavier vehicle, which could dispatch little RC cars to explore further.
an RC mothership with starlink mini on it.. and a handful of rovers (you can start with one) yepp a nice idea
If RC exploration with ocean-crossing capability starts to grow, it won't be too long before goobermints get involved and suck all the fun out of it with draconian regulations. Their pretext for the clampdown will probably be the idea that small drone watercraft can easily be used to smuggle stuff around the world. As is always the case with these situations, hardly anyone will actually be doing that, but the powers that be will ruin it for everyone anyway.
Yeah, for RC hobby) A.k.a. killer drones
COOOOOL nice boat
Can you share the list of components from your setup
Can you make a quadcopter with this?
cool tech, someone's going to use it to draw giant dicks autonomously in the desert. buts seriously love the vids!.
EXPENSIVE??? jajajajaja
Thanks for sharing these experiments - very promising for data uplink from unstable platforms!
This will be even cooler once the ASTS constellation is up, 5G everywhere with existing mobile chipsets!
finally, we get some RCTestFlight vibes again 🙂🙂
Yeah the early days of RC Test flight😢 amazing times
I see more RC boat regulation coming in the near future...
Make a thin plastic drop cloth based solar hot air balloon (even 15' ones can lift kgs) and put the starlink mini on it and have it stream video as it flies around the world. You'd probably never get it back but it'd be worth it. You could try to do a project loon and try to ride specific wind currents with adjustable buoyancy by drawing in balloon volume with dc motors and strings.
This would be an incredible long-term goal! I think the hardest non-technical part would be the regulatory approvals this thing would need from different jurisdictions 🤯
@@thingify-app Yeah. Such a shame. Any balloon with a payload over 2lb needs FAA registration even in the USA. Maybe instead a kitetoon (kite balloon) tethered to a boat.
Congratz, you reproduced what the Ukrainians are doing with their sea drones (called the "Sea Babies")
Very cool! Could you add a 360 cam on a boom? That would make navigation easier.
Nice. I presume you are using a separate GPS, is position (and heading/orientation) available from StarLink alone?
Yeah I'm using a separate GPS/magnetometer connected to the Pixhawk. You can get this info from Starlink though, I'd just need to figure out how to pipe it into the Pixhawk.
I picturing be able to go offshore and get real time water temp readings etc for fishing. Very cool!
Some kind of mobile sensor buoy would be an interesting scientific/commercial application!
Great video! The mini is really a game changer for RC! I think your comparison tests between the mini and the flat HP were a bit flawed because of a RF phenomenon called the Frenel Zone. Basically, the mini had a helpful plastic box that kept it farther from the ground. The flat HP was at a significant disadvantage because it was touching the ground.
Thanks! Interesting, I'll try to repeat the test at some point with the Flat HP propped up on a box.
Interesting video. Wonderng if you have seen the Ukranian drone boats they have been using with Starlink in the black sea? They recently used a drone boat with a child FPV drone presumably connected to the human controlled pilot via the Starlink connection on the parent drone boat.
Yes my robotic sheep will soon roam the Highlands intermingled with the real sheep and I will get all the best spots to go touch grass before anyone else does