Brantel
Well Known Member
Disclaimer: This project is for fun only. No we don't really need this on our airplanes. No I don't plan to use it to shoot approaches. Use at your own risk. Yes it is a total waste of time and money. Yes I am a GEEK!
Saw a quick mention in this thread about LIDAR and went investigating.....
Found that Garmin sells a small and very lightweight eye safe infrared laser distant measurement sensor for $149.99.
So I just had to try one and see how it works. This is an OTS solution that could be done slightly cheaper if you wanted to assemble your own boards.
Simple hookup to an Arduino Uno ($24.95) with 4 wires and I was up and running. I used the I2C interface so I could have access to the many setup parameters inside the unit.
Added a SparkFun MP3 player board for $24.95
So far I have only tested this on the bench and have been developing the code get the distance into a variable and to provide the audio feedback. Plan to have it call out 125, 100, 75, 50, 25, 10, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 or something like that.
Have it working great on the bench to an earbud. It actually looks promising! This thing self calibrates for various lighting, background noise etc. based on a user defined rate of so many measurements and the measurements are super fast so it can quickly adjust for differing terrain (target types) under the airplane. Pretty neat how they pull the correct signal out of the background noise.
Will follow up after a test in the real world.
Disclaimer: This project is for fun only. No we don't really need this on our airplanes. No I don't plan to use it to shoot approaches. Use at your own risk. Yes it is a total waste of time and money. Yes I am a GEEK!
Saw a quick mention in this thread about LIDAR and went investigating.....
Found that Garmin sells a small and very lightweight eye safe infrared laser distant measurement sensor for $149.99.
So I just had to try one and see how it works. This is an OTS solution that could be done slightly cheaper if you wanted to assemble your own boards.
Simple hookup to an Arduino Uno ($24.95) with 4 wires and I was up and running. I used the I2C interface so I could have access to the many setup parameters inside the unit.
Added a SparkFun MP3 player board for $24.95
So far I have only tested this on the bench and have been developing the code get the distance into a variable and to provide the audio feedback. Plan to have it call out 125, 100, 75, 50, 25, 10, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 or something like that.
Have it working great on the bench to an earbud. It actually looks promising! This thing self calibrates for various lighting, background noise etc. based on a user defined rate of so many measurements and the measurements are super fast so it can quickly adjust for differing terrain (target types) under the airplane. Pretty neat how they pull the correct signal out of the background noise.
Will follow up after a test in the real world.
Disclaimer: This project is for fun only. No we don't really need this on our airplanes. No I don't plan to use it to shoot approaches. Use at your own risk. Yes it is a total waste of time and money. Yes I am a GEEK!
Last edited: