Monday, May 16, 2011
I modded the airplane so that the X-Port can power the video camera. The camera now weighs much less (without batteries) and so it can go much higher. I also upgraded the battery to an 8 cell. This is the highest I have flown with this airplane. It took about 8 minutes to go as high as it did and then took 8 minutes to glide back down to the ground. A few times the engine cut out because it was getting out of range. The camera lost power about 30 seconds before I landed. On the way up I flew with some hawks that you can see if you watch closely. I think about 5 of them were circling because of the farming work going on near by stirring up the mice :-). I got up high enough to see the Columbia and Snake (if you look closely) rivers. I used a 5v linear voltage regulator from an old hub, a floppy power connector from an old pc power supply, and a dc plug from an old portable cd player to make the power adapter for the camera. Next I am going to add a magnetic fish-eye lens to the camera.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOudxeNXhu8&hl=en
