Oh, I have an idea if you want to build an RC plane to fly to áréá-51.
I feel that I am more than capable making an advanced RC plane for purposes of video capturing/surveillance as I am a professional computer tech and a
self proclaimed local "geek scientist" that like to thinker and perform many experiments just for the sake of learning new things. Well, here are
my ideas for you:
============
DISCLAIMER:
I have never built this type of RC craft that I am about to explain here. After getting amused at reading this thread for the past maybe 2 hours of
fun reading, I obliged my self to perform a contribution in answering the original poster's question using nothing but my personal experience as a PC
tech, my knowledge on electronics dynamics and some common sense, etc...
============
RC Plane:
size of each wing: about 48 inches long and about 24 inches width because you will be hosting a few solar panels on each top section of the wings.
Not only you will have solar panels on top of each wing, but you will have solar panels on the craft's hull and on most parts of the craft to
maximize your voltage and amperage gains. You will try to use poly-crystalline solar cells are they are the most efficient in terms of voltage/amps
per size. If you decide to build your RC craft about 1/2 or 2 times as big and wide, you can decide to use the Amorphous Silicone solar cells and
they will receive good amount of energy even in cloudy days.
Okay, you you have the RC plane completed, you measure your solar cell imputs and you get 16.4 volts DC at maybe 12 amps and you then call if a more
than great success in terms of electrics.
Next step,
Get a Micro ATX computer motherboard with USB ports, get them socket 478 (Pentium 4), because that processor requires very little electrical energy,
but dont get a processor rated at 3 GHz or anything crazy like that, too much heat = too much power lost/required for that CPU, instead, get one rated
at maybe like 1.4 GHz, it may not be the fastest thing you have ever seen, but it will certainly do the job just right plus not consuming too much
energy.
Next, install the RAM modules for the motherboard, one stick of 512 MB DDR PC400 should be more than enough. Again, multiple sticks of RAM == more
power needed.
Next, you will need a small Power Supply Unit, get one that's rated like 120Watts (dont worry, just because its rated at 120 watts doesn't mean your
"on board" computer will be consuming continuously 120 watts, it only means it can supply a maximum of 120 watts, but with lack of a physical
mechanical hard drive, optimal media, and other peripheral equipments, I can almost guarantee you that this computer configuration wont get past the
40-ish watts of power consumption at any given time.
Okay, now you have a technically "working compter" that can POST to BIOS when powered on by short circuiting the power jumpers on the Frong Panel
Connector section of the motherboard (you will need to refer to your motherboard user guide to locate if if you are not familiar with its location and
how it looks like, but its easy to spot it, most likely pins will be color coded, and will have labels such as "pwr" (for power) "rs" (for reset
button) "hdd led" (hard disk drive Light Emitting Diode), etc. you will short circuit the "pwr" pins to turn on your motherboard. If you want to
get all fancy, go to home depot, purchase push button switch along with awg 18/20 speaker wire and just make a switch and screw it on a safe place in
your plane, and then label this switch "On Board Computer Mission Control" (lol, or you can use any other labels that makes you feel all "gloryed
up")
Attach a VGA monitor to the motherboard's integrated VGA port, and you should see the BIOS logo, along with "boot device not found" error message,
this will tell you that your onboard computer works.
Next step, will be installing the hard drive,
You would need to purchase a 16GB Solid Disk Drive IDE (the ones that are used for industrial grade), they are very tiny, about the size of the IDE
controller times maybe 1 to 2 inches tall. They require the 3.5 volts floppy disk power connector as power, your power supply unit includes one, so
no problem here,
Next, connect a USB/ or IDE/SATA CD Rom Drive provisionally just to install the operating system, I recommend Windows XP, you can purchase your legal
copy of Windows XP on Ebay. I wouldn't use Windows Vista or Windows 7 over this, because first, your single core CPU of 1.4 GHz would be wayyy too
slow for vista/7 and 2nd' it would be a resource hug which translates to excessive CPU cycles being used up which equals to more power being lost
just for the operating system, so stick with windows xp, its very light and you might even want to take it a step forward and download nline to even
further "remove the fat out of windows xp" and convert a tipical 1.1 GB xp installation (size of c:\windows folder) into a 500MB one. This will
also greatly benefit your SSD little space as this would mean more free space for your other little ideas you might have or additional software.
So, at this point you have windows xp installed in your SSD drive.
Next, install your motherboard's drivers using your motherboard's provided cd rom drive. This will get the onboard VGA controller, onboard audio
controller and onboard LAN controller working correctly)
Next, go to Sprint (according to
www.dreamlandresort.com... sprint is listed as one of the carriers that have signal around áréá-51, so going
with sprint would be a good viable choice. I was thinking about Verizon Wireless but I didn't saw that carrier listed there, maybe that list if not
too updated, because Verizon wireless is the most reliable cellular network, sprint is second in terms of best.
Once you are in the Sprint store, purchase the USB data modem, along with a USB data plan. Try getting the account without having to provide your
address and SSN, because these details can be used to track you down if your RC plane fails or get shot down.
Great!!, not connect that USB sprint card in one of your motherboard's USB connector.
you will need to install the drivers for that USB card using the CD that came with the sprint card, just insert that CD and follow prompts. Your are
done...
at this point you can now remove the CD rom drive from your on-board computer, you wont need it any more.
You you have your onboard computer with internet access any where, (...or most where), having a mouse, keyboard and monitor connected to the
motherboard, you will open up internet explorer and download mozilla firefox, then close IE and open up firefox, from there you will download the
following programs:
* RealVNC (it will allow you to log in to your RC Crafts on-board computer from any computer connected to the internet.
Since there is no software that is readily available (that I Have heard of so far...) that will allow to remotely control motor thrust, elevator,
flaps, ailerons, etc you will need to program one, as well its interface, this will take a moderate level of electronics savvyness (or spend 3 hours
googling for an "already made" solution)
Once you have your RS232 Serial interface or USB interface, you will need to program a driver for it, along with the software, the software that you
will program will accept connection from multiple chosen ports. Each port will be for a different function. For example, port 6700 controls left
flaps, port 7700 controls right flaps, port 8700 controls elevator as x intensity/force, etc and you will have multiple backup ports for same
functions, maybe a total of 10 backup ports for each function.
Your RC plane will have two 600TVL CCD extremely low lux camera, one facing in the front that you will mainly use as a first person (pilot) to fly the
craft, and the second will be pointing straight down. If you get both cameras with remote optimal zoom function it would be even better, especially
the down camera can have 100x zoom, that would be sweet, your plane can be up 5,000 feets and with that kind of zoom you will get rich details. The
cameras should come with its own remote viewing software (that will be a separate software that also will be installed onto the "on-board computer")
to simplify your life so that you dont have to waste further time programing new software to view the cams online.
at this point, you have your interface ready, you have all circuitry, motors, connected. next, install the client software that you program (or
got/purchase) into your computer/laptop that you will be using to manage your RC plane.
Next, purchase a USB game pad, and start assigning/mapping buttons to functions in your craft.
Next, test your plane's all functions, and smoothyness/responsiveness of all functions while connected remotely into that plane. Make sure that
RealVNC is working properly, you gave it a good port and password and that you are able to connect to your plane via RealVNC which you can use to
remotely administer your plane, and even remotely toubleshoot or remotely reboot the place if something went wrong. If you have to remotely reboot
your onboard computer, make sure that you have developed a nice anto-pilot that should temporarily take over while windows xp reboots on your onboard
computer. This auto pilot should maintain altitude, motor speed constant, and balance while it awaits your manual control again.
oh, I almost forgot the battery. Install a 12 volts polymer battery rated at 20 amps. These batteries are very light compared to the Sealed Lead
Acid counterpart, or if your plane if big enough, MAYBE it can hold a sealed lead acid battery. You will need a a charge controller capable of
handling the amperage that your solar panel delivers and you will need a 12 volts DC to 120 volts AC inverter of 150 watts to power the power supply
unit for your on-board computer, (unless you do the complete DC hack so you can bypass the inverter all together)
Ok, so on this point, you have tested your plane, and it works fine. Because you are NOT using RF (Radio Frequency) remote controller/receiver, this
plane will be, or should be invulnerable to RF jams at áréá-51 because you will be using the sprint's USB wireless card to remotely control the
plane from your own computer or even laptop connected with ANOTHER sprint or verizon data plan card.
So, here is what you will be looking at, and your goals:
Getting a plane flying up with renewable power, perpetual ever lasting electricity with battery power for night and solar power to operate and
recharge battery each day. You can use this plane to take videos of áréá-51 remotely if you want, or you can use the plane for even longer
missions that may take days or even weeks to get there, and with such a plane configuration with the onboard computer and automatic stabilizers, there
should not be room for failure, your only bottleneck would be the amperage of the onboard battery, you will need to make sure that it has enough amps
for all night use. my 20 amps battery was only a very conservative example, I think I would feel more comfortable with like 100 amps battery, but of
course, plane will need to be much bigger to compensate for the extra weight in the battery.
If you do decide to use this RC plane to fly to áréá-51 be prepared, based on what I have read on this thread, there might be a high change that
special ops units might be on the target to find out who is responsible for this. if this happens, you can attempt to escape the plane remotely, you
can reach for far higher altitudes, if you did buy a pan tilt zoom secondary camera for the button, you can start panning that camera and observing
for any incomming shots and trying to avoid them then you might be able to escape from them. Then, since your plane is under your connection remotely
from the internet, you can attempt to fly that plane away from the country, provided that your on board sprint card has internet signal offshore and
everywhere around that globe, you can even aim to northpole to remotely adventure over there, since you will have unlimited electrical power for the
motor under this configuration, there is no "fuel running low" to worry about, you can literally go any where around the world, you would have
broken the RF (reach) limits.
============
Well that's enough for me typing for now, honestly it was like watching a fun sci-fi movie while explaining all this, why being very plausible and
most like it may work. I have never done anything like this in real like, if you do decide to build a RC craft based on my explanations on this post,
you do so with the knowledge that I have never even tested my theory to see how well it would work, so good luck!!!
============