Add Pizzoelectric alarm? Agricultural Drone

[shaskill]

I have an agricultural use for my new FC40. I have a15 acre long and narrow vineyard. Visibility at ground level is minimal because the terrain undulates and the vines are 7 ft high and every 7 ft is another row. Bears and turkeys are a real financial problem. I want to be able to scan the vineyard every 2-3 hrs morning and evening to see where the pests are. Simply buzzing them may be adequate but would like to add a Pizzoelectric miniature 11 volt siren. Ideally it would be image recognition or motion detector activated. I will settle for pushing a button on the ground when the camera records a sighting. What do I need to add to the quad in order to do this? Please don't tell me a shotgun!i I plan to set a trip around the vineyard on the iPad ground control station.
Thanks and hope for a constructive suggestion.

 

[Ozzyguy]

Please explain just what this piezoelectric alarm is as Iam very confused. A piezo crystal works by emitting an electric charge when compressed. Like in a cigarette lighter. Will you have a flame thrower attached to this quad :lol:

 

[sar104]

Please explain just what this piezoelectric alarm is as Iam very confused. A piezo crystal works by em irony an electric charge when compressed. Like in a cigarette lighter. Will you have a flame thrower attached to this quad :lol:

Actually it works both ways - charge migrates on compression but, conversely, application of an electric field across the crystal leads to induced strain. As a result, a suitably modulated electric field will cause the crystal to change size in phase with the field, leading to oscillation of the surface and creation of sound waves in the surrounding medium (air). It's a fairly common transducer technology.

 

[Tripnman]

Fun project. The weight of the siren itself should not be much of a factor. The ones I have on my home security system are crazy loud and the size of a quarter - should easily get a bear's attention.

You'd need to figure out if you're going to tap into the aircraft's power or supply a second battery to run it. The later would be easier but the former doesn't add additional weight beyond whatever do-dads would need to be added to match internal power to the siren's draw requirements.

The trickiest part would be triggering the alarm. Kind of stuck there I think. Using the stock TX on any Phantom product is probably out. I'm not as familiar with the FC40 (I have PV2 and PV2+) but I image the TX/RX setup is the same - no spare channels that can be used to trigger the siren. Assuming the FC40 is like the Vision line with video on 2.4 GHz and control on 5.8GHz then your choices for replacement RX and TX bundles dwindle to zero. This leaves you with adding a secondary RX on the aircraft to connect to the siren with a dedicated TX.

I think you'd be better served doing this with a larger airframe like the F450 or F550 or going over to the P1 or P2 so you can run a 2.4GHz controller and toggle the siren through a spare channel.

 

[Ozzyguy]

I just knew there would be a logical explanation. If your flying via waypoints it would make remote triggering of the alarm harder. Perhaps wiring it through a switch so that it's constantly on is a better idea a for your pest clearance missions. Then you can turn it off for straight surveillance runs.

 

[Bencio]

i'm using a 9xr remote with orange transmitter and receiver, with 80$ you can get those on hobbyking, by simply using a 9 channel rx you get 2 additional channels and you can use one for the alarm, you have to open the phantom, change the rx and set the phantom with the computer, and then there's a little bit of programming on the remote, it seems difficult but you can find some tutorials online, and if you need to see my programming on the remote i can send it to you.

 

[shaskill]

Great help folks! Interesting same day there was a post about dropping medicine in a search rescue mission. Good to see open minds here.. I decided to start with the FC40 as a test of concept before embarking on a bigger project. My flight times are short, 3 minutes so not worried about battery load.

 

[shaskill]

i'm using a 9xr remote with orange transmitter and receiver, with 80$ you can get those on hobbyking, by simply using a 9 channel rx you get 2 additional channels and you can use one for the alarm, you have to open the phantom, change the rx and set the phantom with the computer, and then there's a little bit of programming on the remote, it seems difficult but you can find some tutorials online, and if you need to see my programming on the remote i can send it to you.

I would like to hear more about your solution. How can I contact you?
Thanks

 

[Bencio]

here is the setup i bought:
9xr
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... ouse_.html

transmitter module
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... duct=24656

receiver
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... rt_Rx.html

here is where i got most of the programming on the 9xr,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIFX1RmBca8

here is how to change receiver
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRUDKZGhwuU

(OPTIONAL)
here is how to change the firmware on the 9xr, the main advantage is that you can program it on the computer and then load the profiles on the radio, instead of programming with 6 buttons on a tiny screen (you need a 4$ pece of hardware to do that, you can find it on ebay or hobbyking)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EO6EntOcE4
I recommend you to change the firmware using a windows computer, i tried with a mac and the remote died, with a windows it worked, for everything else the mac version worked

after the hardware installation you need to change to s-bus in the naza assistant in the remote page, and after that i changed back to the stock radio to check that every cursor moves the same, if not there is an error in the programming.

the only downside is that the throttle stick in the 9xr is not spring centered you have ti bring it back to have the phantom hovering, but you can program the radio to emit a beep when the stick is in the center, a few flys and you will get used to it.

 

[Big Ben]

Add a lever (something like this) to the back of your transmitter to utilise the 7th channel already available to you and use something like this or this to switch the piezo buzzer on and off.

 

[shaskill]

Add a lever (something like this) to the back of your transmitter to utilise the 7th channel already available to you and use something like this or this to switch the piezo buzzer on and off.

Thanks