Tethered & hardwired

S

Stephen

New Member
Investigating using a tethered and hardwired powered Quad as a security (video) & internet repeater platform. The idea is to use it as a video monitor over a small farm and as a signal repeater for extending the range (control and video signal) of additional free ranging quads. Anyone have any experience/advice. Also anyone have any experience with auto recharging stations.
 
Seems like it would be easier to just put up a pole and mount the camera and repeater on that. If the quad were tethered it wouldnt be able to move very far and it would have to support the weight of the tether and the wind would probably play havoc with it.
 
I read an article about a company in Japan that has a quadcopter with a camera respond to tripped motion sensors in their large warehouse, so they don't have to put cameras everywhere. I can't find the article though. I believe it used some kind of inductive charging, but I don't know where they were at with the readiness of the technology. There isn't really anything off the shelf out there that will do inductive charging sufficient to recharge a decent sized lipo battery quick enough though, so it would require a lot of development to get working sufficiently on your part... although some people are working on this already for quads and other bigger applications, so I assume it's only a matter of time:


and it's definitely possible:

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-25621426

As far as tethering goes, I think you'd have issues with the wear and tear on all the moving parts required to keep the quad in the air. Most of the underwater ROV's (if not all) are tethered, mostly for the data/control connection, so tethering a quad for power would probably be pretty simple. I just feel like components would fail sooner than later.
 
I would be concerned that the current draw would be so high that you would have to use heavy gauge wire and that would add to the overall weight that the quad would have to keep in the air (although you could remove the battery). The wear and tear part is important as well. I saw an article that claimed they were working on drone charging stations, the drone would go to a certain area when its power was low and a laser would aim at the drone and charge it. Another article told of how they were looking into having drones land on high voltage lines and charge off of them. All interesting ideas but only ideas at this point. I'm sure the future has a lot in store for this industry.
 
The Location would be in the center (geographically) (it would be stationary) of a Farm research station (aprox 30 acres, 1000' by 1400') and I'd really like to have 24/7 coverage. It would be additional units that would be free roaming and they would be used for close up observation of subjects. A tower of 100 ft (the altitude I'd like to fly would just cost too much and require a bigger foot print than I can afford), tower failure would be disastrous. I thought I could use very fine wire (maybe even carbon fiber) to keep the load down while suppling power. I figured (hoped) a steady torque would keep the copter in place and ounce launched it would only have to be landed once or twice a year as long as the motors and bearings don't over heat. I was thinking that with the precision they (roaming platforms) can fly now that it would be possible to land on a recharging platform within a small enough foot print to connect charging tabs or use a wireless station. So anyway thanks for for your comments
 
This is all fully possible, but I think the R&D involved in getting it right would likely cost more than erecting a 100 foot tower (depending on permit fees if there are any). If you run lipo batteries - a charging station won't work because charging rates are far lower than discharging rates and if you don't follow the recommendations, the battery will eventually explode (probably sooner than later). You'd almost need a battery swapping station and you'd have to have a lot of batteries so they could cool. Plus, landing and taking off every 20 minutes or less is going to kill your ability to have good coverage.

Even if you got the power worked out to avoid using batteries (lighter wires, solar, etc.), I think you're going to have a lot of component failures if you run the copter straight for even a few days at a time. Weather will always be a big concern. You're going to have to have a waterproof copter, and the good waterproof frames on the market are up near $1,000 or more. Also, constantly keeping stable at 100 feet, especially in windy conditions, will eventually stress your props and they will snap off if they don't vibrate loose and fall off first. There are a million other things that can go wrong as well.

A 100 foot antenna tower kit with guy lines is under $5k (depending on the wind speeds you expect).

http://www.solidsignal.com/100-foot-antenna-tower-th.asp

Or, you could create some kind of FPV blimp tethered to a 100 foot long fill tube and you could pump helium into it every week or so from the ground.
 
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