Radicaldude1234
Well-Known Member
So I was a bit of a flight sim junkie when I was a kid and I wondered at the time, given blurry resolutions and such, how anyone ever managed to land a plane without a Heads Up Display. After flying for real, I sort of got past that...that or just made due.
Still, I always wanted one and it only got worse after I started flying tandam seat aircraft (Citabria, Decathlon, and T-34). So, given that the last weekend was a long one and I was bord, I decided to do something about it:
The Problem:
I need a Heads Up Display that:
-Displays, Airspeed, Altitude, Attitude, G, Heading, and Sideslip.
-Is reliable -> Options notwithstanding, just flick the ON switch and it works
-Is Collimated.
-Can be clamped onto the panel glare shield
The Solution:
Following the schematic below: Sensors consisting of pitot static, accelerometers, and maybe GPS are interpreted by an Arduino, which feeds parameters to a Raspberry Pi. The Pi outputs video into a projector that is reflected, collimated, and finally reflected to the pilot via a piece of beamsplitter glass.
What I have:
Several Arduinos, a Raspberry Pi, moxie.
What I need:
*Components:
-Projector
-Arduino 9DOF shield
-Arduino Pitot Static sensor suite
-Teleprompter beamsplitter glass
-Fresnel Lens
-A mirror
*Skills:
-Knowledge of how to code
-Optical physics
Progress:
So I started first by lookinyg for programming languages that the Raspberry Pi can use. Keep in mind I only took one FORTRAN programming class in college...and I failed it the first time. After that I've done some Arduino programming and that's it.
I want the program to be as lightweight as possible because the Raspberry Pi 1-B model that I have only has 700MHz Processor and 512Mb RAM. It's about 8 times faster than my first computer, but still. Plus, given it's a flight instrument there should be no lag.
I end up settling on Python and it's graphics library Pygame. Raspberry Pi runs on Linux and both Python and Pygame are supported on the both the Raspberry and Linux.
The basic principle is that black is not reflected by the beamsplitter (because there's theoretically no light to reflect...duh) and anything brighter than what is outside the aircraft will be. So all I have to do is create graphics that are on a black background to feed to the projector.
To minimize on processing power, all graphical elements are 2D. To minimize on RAM, all elements are mathematically drawn shapes: meaning there are no pictures to load. The picture thing might change if there are enough advantages...
Still, I always wanted one and it only got worse after I started flying tandam seat aircraft (Citabria, Decathlon, and T-34). So, given that the last weekend was a long one and I was bord, I decided to do something about it:
The Problem:
I need a Heads Up Display that:
-Displays, Airspeed, Altitude, Attitude, G, Heading, and Sideslip.
-Is reliable -> Options notwithstanding, just flick the ON switch and it works
-Is Collimated.
-Can be clamped onto the panel glare shield
The Solution:
Following the schematic below: Sensors consisting of pitot static, accelerometers, and maybe GPS are interpreted by an Arduino, which feeds parameters to a Raspberry Pi. The Pi outputs video into a projector that is reflected, collimated, and finally reflected to the pilot via a piece of beamsplitter glass.
What I have:
Several Arduinos, a Raspberry Pi, moxie.
What I need:
*Components:
-Projector
-Arduino 9DOF shield
-Arduino Pitot Static sensor suite
-Teleprompter beamsplitter glass
-Fresnel Lens
-A mirror
*Skills:
-Knowledge of how to code
-Optical physics
Progress:
So I started first by lookinyg for programming languages that the Raspberry Pi can use. Keep in mind I only took one FORTRAN programming class in college...and I failed it the first time. After that I've done some Arduino programming and that's it.
I want the program to be as lightweight as possible because the Raspberry Pi 1-B model that I have only has 700MHz Processor and 512Mb RAM. It's about 8 times faster than my first computer, but still. Plus, given it's a flight instrument there should be no lag.
I end up settling on Python and it's graphics library Pygame. Raspberry Pi runs on Linux and both Python and Pygame are supported on the both the Raspberry and Linux.
The basic principle is that black is not reflected by the beamsplitter (because there's theoretically no light to reflect...duh) and anything brighter than what is outside the aircraft will be. So all I have to do is create graphics that are on a black background to feed to the projector.
To minimize on processing power, all graphical elements are 2D. To minimize on RAM, all elements are mathematically drawn shapes: meaning there are no pictures to load. The picture thing might change if there are enough advantages...
