techFX Motion OSD / UAV / FPV / ROV controller

The techFX Motion controller will allow you to have an On screen display with GPS and other data overlayed over your UAV / ROV  / FPV vehicle's on board camera!
With its modular design, the techFX Motion allows you to addon modules as you need them ie: SCP1000 SPI altimeter for greater altitude accuracy, 3 axis magnetometer (mini mag) used as a tilt compensated compass for greater low speed, ground based headings, Xbee XSC communications modules for telemetry up to 15 miles away (900 mhz 9600 baud rate), and any other modules that communicate with I2C, UART, and SPI buses.

 

With its 6 DOF full IMU you can create full motion code with a kalman filter to control your target application.

 

(full 6 DOF IMU model shown above)

(OSD non-IMU version shown above)

 

techFX Motion OSD IMU controller overview

Hardware features:

• small 2"x2.5" size
• fast dsPIC 40 MIPS 80 Mhz MCU
• 3 axis accelerometer MMA7260Q with G selectable (IMU version only, optional on non-IMU version)
• 3 axis Gyroscope of IDG300's (IMU version only)
• MAX 7456 On screen display video overlay NTSC and PAL formats which overlays the data sent to it from the dsPIC over the Video input
• (2) RCA jacks for Video in and Video out supporting NTSC and PAL formats
• GPS port for 32 channel Sannav FV-M8 (Etek EB-85A) GPS module MAX 2 HZ update rate
• DGPS port for optional RTCM DGPS updates
• Xbee connectors (XSC gives maximum range of 15 miles!)
• 256K I2C serial eeprom for storing settings, waypoints and GPS logger data
• USB fullspeed 2.0 communications via FTDI chip
• SPI, I2C and UART ports for using optional modules
• (8) 3.3 volt IO configurable
• (8) 5 volt Output configurable as PWM (servo) or TTL
• 10 bit a2d
• ICSP port for ICD2 or Pickit2 programmers
• 5 volt 800 mA LDO voltage regulator
• 3.3 volt 800 mA LDO voltage regulator
• Full power and ground planes with quality 6 layer board design minimizes noise
• Power ports including 3.3, 5 volt, and ground connections
• Optional 0.100 inch headers
• Voltage input of 6-9 volts DC

Optional hardware addon modules

• Xbee module for telemetry, pan and tilt camera system (servo) control up to 15 miles away. Available from www.digikey.com
• Current sensor configurable in software 10-90 mV/A, can use popular 50 or 100 amp models based on allegro current sensors. Available from www.dpcav.com
• SCP1000 pressure sensor via SPI bus provides altimeter and temperature data. The SCP1000 is available from www.sparkfun.com on a breakout board.

Future supported hardware addon modules

• 3 axis mini-mag tilt compensated compass (must have 3 axis accelerometer installed). Available from www.sparkfun.com
• SCP1000 airspeed sensor via SPI bus will provide true airspeed data

Software features:

Sourcecode framework for developers:

• Source code in Microchip C30 C compiler for easy application development. Requires an ICD2 or PICKIT2 programmer

techFX Motion OSD settings utility:

• Allows configuration of various options pertaining to addon modules and display
• Waypoint manager allows up to 10 coordinates to be enetered

techFX Motion moving map virtual earth utility:

• Use an Xbee module (upto 15 mile range) to track your UAV in real time over MS Virtual Earth!
• Variable update rates and pushpin functionality.
• Can save data to file

techFX Motion GPS logger utility:

• Download GPS logger data from controller to application
• Save / Open raw GPS data files
• Import data to Microsoft Virtual Earth Maps
• Parse data using GPS visualize web to google earth and google maps

 

With a built in GPS logger, the techFX Motion is more than an OSD! It can currently record upto 450 waypoints and download them onto your laptop or computer using the included utility. The utility uses Microsoft Virtual Earth to plot your waypoints on a variety of maps.

The Map to the right is a 3d hybrid with satellite and road information combined.

 

                                 

 

The Map to the right is a 3d map hybrid, with a different angled view. You can see the detailed data in the pin locations on the map including, LAT,LONG,ALT,TIME, and others to be added soon.

 

 

 

       

 

This road map is viewed in 3D for perspective, it shows our track along the beaches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have an excellant OSD settings utility to configure the tons of features and options such as selecting which addon modules you wish to use, or simply setting up the display bars.

 

 

 

 

 

Our waypoint manager allows up to 10 waypoints to be added or deleted with ease.

 

 

 

 

Here is a sample video of the OSD in action! What you are seeing is real GPS data overlayed over a live camera feed.

copyright 2006-2008 by Walter Dreksler