Flight Simulators On the Couch!
There is a drone race coming up next month. When I learned about it last year, I had hoped to compete. I won’t be racing this year, as I am not very good. Also, I don’t have a drone that qualifies for the class that is allowed to compete.
Maybe next year I can get a race whoop, but for now I should probably just be practicing. Winter gives all of us pilots rusty thumbs, so we keep up our skill in two ways: we fly small whoop drones indoors, or we practice in a simulator on the computer.
I started the hobby with a simulator, so I’m no stranger, but it isn’t quite the same feeling as flying. This winter, I wanted to try to change that a little bit, so I built this out of some spare parts I had lying around.
I can hook up this little blue box to my PC; the box receives input from my transmitter wirelessly while simultaneously transmitting video from my computer to my FPV goggles—just like if I were flying. The inside of this box is almost completely spare parts, and I’ll explain each one briefly.
The main component is outlined in orange. This is a broken flight controller from my custom drone build. This controller connects all of the various components together, and acts as an interface to the computer via USB.
The control link receiver (which is outlined in purple), is a spare part that came in a set that I bought for my drone. It takes commands from my transmitter and sends them to the flight controller.
In green is a digital video converter. It takes video from the computer over HDMI, and converts it to an analogue signal. That signal is sent over the yellow wire in the top right part of the board to the next piece.
Finally, the board outlined in red is the video transmitter. This takes power from the flight controller, as well as video from the digital converter, and transmits it to the antenna on the back of the box.
All of this process takes about two milliseconds to happen, which means that I can sit anywhere in the house and fly in the simulator just as if I were piloting my real drone. Maybe next year, with some practice, I can race in the Air Force Museum and make it through at least one qualifying round.
