My latest creation... Here now by popular demand!
wjsteele
Posts: 697
Hey Fellow Propellerheads,
I posted a message in the Sandbox about a project that I've been working on for the last year or so. Several people saw it and requsted that I also post it here for you guys. You can see it here: http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=916487
Bascially, to sum it up, we're going to production with a Propeller based project!!!!
It's a handheld Electronic Flight Information System (EFIS) for pilots that we call the "Wingman." Attached is a picture for your viewing pleasure.
The prototype was built around Rayman's 4.3" touchscreen LCD and a single prop, with 64k eeprom, internal SD card (hence my modified bootloader in the OBEX) and contains all the sensors for it to figure out it's relative attitude (GPS, Compass, Gyros and Accelerometers.) It's designed to work in conjunction with a handheld aviation GPS to provide a "complete picture" of what the airplane is doing and where it is at, as well as "highway in the sky" symbology to guide the pilot to their destination.
The case I have is one that I designed and had Chuck over at Mountain King cut out of acrylic with his laser. We then wrapped it in a nice padded foam edging to trim it out. The whole unit is 4.75"x3.25"x.875" and weights about 7 oz. It's got an internal li-ion 1000mah battery which will run it for well over an hour on battery power alone. In fact, our testing has shown over two hours depending on the configuration and screen brightness.
We're announcing it to the world later today with a press release and we'll begin shipping the Wingman in August. If anyone is going to be at Oshkosh this year, look us up and come take a look at just what the propeller is capable of. (We'll be in Hangar D, Booth 4101.)
Bill
I posted a message in the Sandbox about a project that I've been working on for the last year or so. Several people saw it and requsted that I also post it here for you guys. You can see it here: http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=916487
Bascially, to sum it up, we're going to production with a Propeller based project!!!!
It's a handheld Electronic Flight Information System (EFIS) for pilots that we call the "Wingman." Attached is a picture for your viewing pleasure.The prototype was built around Rayman's 4.3" touchscreen LCD and a single prop, with 64k eeprom, internal SD card (hence my modified bootloader in the OBEX) and contains all the sensors for it to figure out it's relative attitude (GPS, Compass, Gyros and Accelerometers.) It's designed to work in conjunction with a handheld aviation GPS to provide a "complete picture" of what the airplane is doing and where it is at, as well as "highway in the sky" symbology to guide the pilot to their destination.
The case I have is one that I designed and had Chuck over at Mountain King cut out of acrylic with his laser. We then wrapped it in a nice padded foam edging to trim it out. The whole unit is 4.75"x3.25"x.875" and weights about 7 oz. It's got an internal li-ion 1000mah battery which will run it for well over an hour on battery power alone. In fact, our testing has shown over two hours depending on the configuration and screen brightness.
We're announcing it to the world later today with a press release and we'll begin shipping the Wingman in August. If anyone is going to be at Oshkosh this year, look us up and come take a look at just what the propeller is capable of. (We'll be in Hangar D, Booth 4101.)
Bill
533 x 414 - 22K
Comments
BTW:· I now have 3.5" displays working that use less battery (just a thought for you).
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My Prop Apps:· http://www.rayslogic.com/propeller/Programming/Programming.htm
My Prop Info: ·http://www.rayslogic.com/propeller/propeller.htm
My Prop Products:· http://www.rayslogic.com/Propeller/Products/Products.htm
Nice use of PROPELLER.
And Very nice product.
Regards
Christoffer J
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Nothing is impossible, there are only different degrees of difficulty.
For every stupid question there is at least one intelligent answer.
Don't guess - ask instead.
If you don't ask you won't know.
If your gonna construct something, make it·as simple as·possible yet as versatile as posible.
Sapieha
Actually, I think the 4.3" is about the smallest we'll go with this... it matches perfectly what the GPS screen looks like and if we made it too much smaller the information would get clustered to close together. For the battery issue, we're actually looking at (and currently testing in the prototype) a 2000mAh battery. That should make it last quite a bit longer. (However, the GPS we use as a benchmark only has a 1.25 hour battery life.)
Bill
AWESOME! A great example of how the basic graphics on the prop can be used to convey important information. Very sharp and professional, something I'm sure you're proud of.
Just curious - I don't know much about aviation products, what's the price range on something like this?
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Nick: This will retail for $1,595. Of course, it'll show up in some places for less. It's actually the lowest priced backup Attitude Indicator that I am aware of... and it's the only portable one. BTW, I actually used your Propeller Platform SD as an inspiration for the main board. Obviously, I had to modify it, but I used your boards as my original working prototypes, with Rayman's 4.3" display on top of them. Can't say thank you to you guys enough!!!
Bill
Now that you are commercializing something, do you have to get FCC certification? If so, how did you go about doing that?
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Tom Talbot
New Market, MD, USA
Also, because the Wingman is portable, it doesn't need FAA Certification either.
Bill
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http://www.propgfx.co.uk/forum/·home of the PropGFX Lite
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That is really cool; it's nice to see a practical application of the Propeller's graphics output. Nicely done.
Jon
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Jon McPhalen
Hollywood, CA
As I said over in the Sandbox, Congratulations and best of luck for sales. It seems to be an excellent, and relatively cheap piece of kit for the pilot of a small plane.
Perhaps you might elaborate when you have the time as to what benefit the Prop has over a conventional micro
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Links to other interesting threads:
· Home of the MultiBladeProps: TriBlade,·RamBlade,·SixBlade, website
· Single Board Computer:·3 Propeller ICs·and a·TriBladeProp board (ZiCog Z80 Emulator)
· Prop Tools under Development or Completed (Index)
· Emulators: CPUs Z80 etc; Micros Altair etc;· Terminals·VT100 etc; (Index) ZiCog (Z80) , MoCog (6809)·
· Prop OS: SphinxOS·, PropDos , PropCmd··· Search the Propeller forums·(uses advanced Google search)
My cruising website is: ·www.bluemagic.biz·· MultiBlade Props: www.cluso.bluemagic.biz
Could you please provide some details about how you made the enclosure? Is it going to be used in final product, or you will have another ready-made or custom enclosure?
Cluso: We evaluated several CPUs for the Wingman, but in each case, we went back to the propeller for various reasons. Our biggest reason was the fact that the propeller is a multi-processing environment. We didn't have to resort to using interrupts for handling the various timing issues with the different sensors. We could simply have a cog dedicated to the different tasks and forget the complicated stuff. Also, having tremendous resources like the OBEX and this forum really sped our development process by a significant margin. The collective brain power just on this forum alone was well worth the slightly higher production costs with the prop. For example, we're doing some LMM magic to fit all the functionallity we need into the prop that we learned from here. That idea never occured to us until we saw it here and I would say that that single idea allowed us to proceed because the Prop simply didn't have enough memory otherwise. (In fact, we were working on a dual and tri propeller configuration before that!)
Andrey: My case is a custom design that I drew up in TurboCad. I've attached the DXF files (but Chuck has better ones on file that he "corrected" to work better with the laser cutter.) I've also attached a few pictures of the "raw" pieces so you can see how they stack up. The Acrylic pieces are glued together with 100% Acetone. Lastly, I've attached a picture of the foam padding that I use on the outside along with all the individual parts. It's glued on with CA.
Now... feel free to call Chuck up and have him make you some pieces, however I ask one thing. Please do not use my design in Black for a commercial product. I don't care about personal use or any other colors... but I'm reserving black for my product and I don't want any confusion in the marketplace. We've done a White case with a "Silver" or "Gray" padding and that looks fantastic, too... kind of "Apple"ish in style. We're sticking to black and have no plans on changing it. For any other colors, please feel free to use my design as you wish.
By the way, the order of assembly I use is this: Front Bezel, Side Panel, LCD (fits in Side Panel, with a bit of foam to space it correctly and shock protect it,) LCD Support panel, 4 or 5 side panels, optional back support panel and finally the back. If you use the optional back support or LCD support panel for the last piece, you can affix the back panel to it with screws or CA Glue to make it removable. Everything else is glued with 100% Acetone. Be careful with it, as it will mar the finish, so only apply it from the inside. Simply clean the pieces, stack them and use either a q-tip or syringe to apply the Acetone to the joints inside the unit. It will automatically wick to fill up the void. I use small plastic clamps to hold everything in place while the glue sets. Acetone actually melts the plastic together so it won't come apart unless you break it. CA Glue is more like a rubber cement, it will hold it as long as you want, but you can pull it apart and clean it up. I use CA to hold the back of the case on as well as to hold the foam rubber padding around the edge on. It'll last quite a while, I might add!
Bill
Post Edited (wjsteele) : 6/27/2010 2:44:19 PM GMT
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Links to other interesting threads:
· Home of the MultiBladeProps: TriBlade,·RamBlade,·SixBlade, website
· Single Board Computer:·3 Propeller ICs·and a·TriBladeProp board (ZiCog Z80 Emulator)
· Prop Tools under Development or Completed (Index)
· Emulators: CPUs Z80 etc; Micros Altair etc;· Terminals·VT100 etc; (Index) ZiCog (Z80) , MoCog (6809)·
· Prop OS: SphinxOS·, PropDos , PropCmd··· Search the Propeller forums·(uses advanced Google search)
My cruising website is: ·www.bluemagic.biz·· MultiBlade Props: www.cluso.bluemagic.biz
Also, the LCD is two side layers thick, not one like I mentioned above.
Here's a picture of 5 units that I made earlier Today without the foam boarder yet. If you look closely, you can see the layering I used.
Bill
Good luck on sales.
Were you interested in code protection? Your comments on that would be appreciated.
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Propeller Wiki: Share the coolness!
8x8 color 80 Column NTSC Text Object
Wondering how to set tile colors in the graphics_demo.spin?
Safety Tip: Life is as good as YOU think it is!
What a great product! And a cool-looking one, too! It's really nice to see the Prop applied in such a manner. One question, though:
How in the world do you control the stuff so it doesn't run all over the place and touch surfaces it's not supposed to? My experiences with gluing almost always turn out badly. As a consequence, I've resorted to 3M double-stick tape for laminating laser-cut parts. I adhere the tape to the uncut acrylic, then cut it out, through plastic, adhesive, and backing. After it's cut, I can peel off the backing and stick the part to the next one in the stack.
-Phil
That's actually pretty easy... simply clamp the pieces together and apply the acetone with a syringe or q-tip from the inside. All you have to do is touch the joint with it and it will "wick" into the joint. Let the clamps stay in place for about 2 minutes and it's all done.
I need to use glue because the tape will come undone in high temperature scenerios... like when it is on top of the instrument panel in an airplane.
Actually, the Acetone and C/A Glue both work great with high temperatures. The nice thing about C/A is that you can peel it away if you accidently get too much on it. After about 45 minutes, it's very gummy and quite easy to remove without marring the acrylic.
Don't even attempt to remove a marred surface from acetone, however... it's ruined if you touch it.
Bill
Our business plans call for updates on a regular basis that will keep our competitors on their toes. We have a few aces up our sleeves when it comes to future innovations, and that's what is going to keep us ahead. (Basically, let them copy us... as soon as we do, we'll throw down one of our cards.
Bill
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Quicker answers in the #propeller chat channel on freenode.net. Don't know squat about IRC? Download Pigin! So easy a caveman could do it...
http://folding.stanford.edu/ - Donating some CPU/GPU downtime just might lead to a cure for cancer! My team stats.
http://www.planeandpilotmag.com/products/pilot-supplies/11-best-new-products.html?start=3
The Propeller is moving up in the world!!! :-)
Bill
Outstanding & congratulation to you and your team!
So is one of your "Aces" going to be Solitaire?
Have any competitors tried to copy it yet? How did you keep ahead?