Hi Folks, I am looking forward to something and would want input from all you Flightgear users and developers.
If i have not mentioned before, I am a mechanical engineer and an aero-modeler. I have also been a electronics hobbyist since my childhood. I set out to combine my abilities in these areas. Apart from just plain simple model flying i decided to do something more and built some avionics with sensors to put onto my model aircrafts. The embedded software is nearing completion and i am currently working to the communication part of it. Now what follows is the interesting part to me... I would like to use FLightGear as the Ground Control System (GCS) for my aircraft thus throwing it into the class of mini UAV's. My current thoughts supports an ASCII mode and a binary mode of communication. The ASCII mode is much like NMEA protocol. This is the part that i have finished developing (ASCII is easy for debugging ;-)). I am yet to implement the binary mode of communication. In using FlightGear as a GCS, i would like to receive any inputs from fellow users and developers. How complicated would it be to do this. My current thoughts are as follows; I start flightgear with --fdm=external (or NULL; What is the difference?) and set it to receive a generic protocol over the serial port and at say, 4Hz. The generic protocol is suitably written to accept 6 degree of freedom information from my device. Simultaneously, i would like to transmit control surface information which my device will receive and accordingly control the servos onboard. While this just might work, i want to do better than this and hence plan accordingly. I would like to extend the protocol to be more configurable, and interactive. Further, I have video being streamed from onboard the aircraft in an analog form. To convert this i use a TV tuner and interface it with the computer. I got myself an external Pinnacle PCTV USB2 tuner so i can use with a laptop, but unfortunately cant get it to work on linux where i do my development. Anyway, assuming that i get the drivers configured right, i would like to get the video too into FlightGear be it running on any platform. Here is my estimate of what needs to be done to achieve all of this through FlightGear. 1) Add another protocol under Network which can communicate with my hardware and read/modify internal properties appropriately. I will have to add more property values for this device. 2) Add menu items that provide user interface with the hardware. This may not be very difficult as from what i recollect reading, FlightGear provides facility for adding menus etc.? 3) Add parameters to the Headsup Display. This again i remember reading as configurable? 4) Embed a small window where live video is displayed. Preferably it should be possible toggle full screen live Video and embed FlightGears native Scenery display. I should also be able to save the video synchronized with all other property values. I suppose the major challenge is with the 4th point while the rest are relatively easy. Correct me if i am wrong. Another important thing is the FDM. What should i use? I am unable to send all data set in the --native protocol from onboard. Is there a possibility that i fly with the FDM running locally and i only update values that i can? I am not a C++ programmer but a C programmer in the embedded world. I am just stepping into C++ with FlightGear. Any advise,suggestions or guidance that helps is most welcome. FlightGear is truly an amazing piece of work with huge potential. I just want to add one more possibility. Does anybody already use it for such a purpose? -- Cheers! Kitts _______________________________________________ Flightgear-users mailing list [email protected] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-users 2f585eeea02e2c79d7b1d8c4963bae2d
