Category Archives: Projects

VOLT-CRANE-O – Hacky Racer Build Log

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Volt-Crane-O
Voltcraneo racing.JPG
Built By Chris Stubbs
Theme Liebherr Mobile Crane
First Race EMF 2024
Current Status Active
Motor 6x Hoverboard 6.5″ Hub Motors
ESC 3x Hoverboard PCB
Battery 48V 12S3P Li-Ion/LiPo (2x 6S)
Gearbox Direct hub motor
Contact @emfroamer
View all Racer Profiles



Background

Ltm1060.png

Volt-Crane-O is a scratch built, 6 wheel drive, 4 wheel steer, fully functional miniature crane.

The theme is based around a Liebherr 6 wheel mobile crane.

Construction

The chassis is constructed from wood, mostly 2x4. Fixings are mostly wood screws, except the use of M6/M8 bolts where additional strength or rules compliance is needed (bumpers).

The body is also constructed from a lightweight wooden frame, panelled with thin plywood.

Steering uses two M8 threaded tie rods to connect the pitman arm to the trailing spindle arms. The steering column is 25mm bed frame offcut with socket set articulating joint. There is a second pitman arm on the steering column at 90 degrees to produce a back and forth steering linkage to the rear axle, which is then translated 90 degrees again using a pivot to drive the rear tie rods. The steering angle of the rear axle is approximately 1/3rd of the front steering angle, because the rear/mid wheelbase is approximately 1/3 the front/mid wheelbase. No real thoughts were given to steering geometry and the handling is somehow "fine".

The steering components are mostly constructed from offcuts of bedframe, steel angle welded to make U section, or 4x30mm flat steel bar.

Wooden chassis with steering rear view
Wooden chassis with steering front view
Steering components

Powertrain

Volt-Crane-O utilises 6x 6.5″ 350W hoverboard motors, fitted with 4.10/3.50-5 tyres. Regenerative braking is extremely effective if configured correctly, however one motor has been fitted with a mechanical brake from a Xiaomi M365 scooter to comply with the rules.

Power is delivered to the motors using 3x original hoverboard PCBs running a fork of EFeru’s FOC firmware (links at the bottom). A higher current limit is applied to the rear motors to aid traction given the awful weight distribution. Throttle is applied in torque mode, controlled from aliexpress hall effect pedals via an Arduino.

Traction power is supplied by either 2x custom 6S3P Samsung 30T 21700 Li-Ion battery packs, producing 48V total. Each pack contains a 60A DALY BMS, or 2X 6S 9500mAH CHNL Lipos. Another 6S4P Li-Ion set using reclaimed hoverboard 18650’s also exists for testing and running around, but does not perform well enough for racing.


Other Features

The crane boom can be raised and lowered, extended and retracted (2 sections), and the winch/hook raised and lowered by a control panel below the steering wheel.

The boom itself is constructed from 3 telescopic sections of 18mm plywood, running on internal/external 608 skateboard bearings or homemade tubular bearings at each end.

The winch is a 12V caravan/boat trailer winch rated for 900kg.

All other actuation is driven by drill motors with their attached two speed (low gear) gearbox and chuck, which drives an M12 nut along a threaded rod. Opposing bearings are used to take the axial forces rather than relying on the drill. The boom raise/lower rod drives a nut attached to the elbow of an old monitor mount, which in turn raises the boom.

Power is provided by a dedicated 3S lipo.

The boom is lowered in to a cradle and secured directly to the chassis using the steel cable during racing. It fits within the envolope of the body/bumpers.

10 strobing orange hazard lights, 6 orange chasing LED beacons, 2 white headlights and 2 red brake lights illuminate the track for night racing.

An Arduino logs all hoverboard and control telemetry locally via SD card.

Boom extended
Boom extension motor
Boom lift motor

Awards

  • EMF 2024
    • 3rd place overall.
    • 1st place Moxie.

BOM

coming soon

Limitations

Steering wheel snapped off.

Sluggish on mud/grass.

Heavy (100kg).

Happily pops 30A fuse if accelerating too hard/long.

Resources

Twitter Account @EmfFRoamer

The Hoverboard firmware, Arduino code, and CAD on GitHub

Remote control Pi code on GitHub

Chris’ website

For the latest news, posts and discussions about everything Hacky Racers, head over to the Facebook group.

source: https://www.hackyracers.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Volt-Crane-O

CYBR TRK – Hacky Racer Build Log

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CYBR TRK
Cybr trk profile.jpg
Built By Chris Stubbs and Dom Tag
Theme Tesla Cybertruck
First Race EMF 2022
Current Status Active
Motor 4x Hoverboard 6.5″ Hub Motors
ESC 2x Hoverboard PCB
Battery 48V 12S3P Li-Ion (2x 6S)
Gearbox Direct hub motor
Contact @emfroamer
View all Racer Profiles



Background

Cybr trk rgb.jpeg

CYBR TRK started life in 2022 as the EMF Roamer; a publicly controlled, raspberry pi powered robot, that could roam the EMF site. This was a follow on project from the much smaller EMF Roamer in 2018. One of the main objectives was to also be as Hacky Racers legal as practical.

The theme is a loose caricature of the Tesla Cybertruck, rather than an original donor vehicle.

Interview

Construction

The chassis is constructed from wood, mostly decking frame offcuts, utilising recycled hoverboard components wherever possible. The front wheels are able to articulate using a hoverboard casting as a joint, in a crude suspension to keep 4 wheels on the ground.

The body is also constructed from a lightweight wooden frame, panelled with thin plywood. This is removable from the chassis to enable maintenance and transport.

Steering uses two M8 threaded tie rods to connect the pitman arm to the leading spindle arm. The steering column is 25mm electrical conduit with socket set couplings. No real thoughts were given to steering geometry (bad) as this was a retrofit from the fly-by-wire servo system.

Wooden chassis
Wooden body
Steering components

Powertrain

CYBR TRK utilises 4x 6.5″ 350W hoverboard motors, fitted with 4.10/3.50-5 tyres. Regenerative braking is extremely effective if configured correctly, however one motor has been fitted with a mechanical brake from a Xiaomi M365 scooter to comply with the rules.

Power is delivered to the motors using 2x original hoverboard PCBs running a fork of EFeru’s FOC firmware (links at the bottom). A higher current limit is applied to the rear motors to aid traction given the awful weight distribution. Throttle is applied in torque mode, controlled from a playstation racing pedals set via an Arduino.

Traction power is supplied by 2x custom 6S3P Samsung 30T 21700 Li-Ion battery packs, producing 48V total. Each pack contains a 40A continuous rated BMS. A second 6S4P set using reclaimed hoverboard 18650’s also exists for testing and running around, but does not perform well enough for racing. Block diagram of electrical configuration as configured for EMF Camp (local & remote mode)

Electrical block diagram

Other Features

Cybr trk trailer.jpg

A fold up trolley makes an effective trailer for running gear from the car park to the track!

Originally the car contained over 300 individually addressable RGB LEDs. It could produce an impressive RGB underglow, front headlight bar, and rear brake bar with animated indicators. This number has however declined as they were damaged in races and modifications.

When deployed as the EMF Roamer, the vehicle could be controlled by anyone using a web browser. This used a websockets connection for control, and jsmpeg for live video. A presentation was given at EMF with more information, but recordings could not be published. Presentation without audio available here.

Cybertruckservo.jpg

A windscreen wiper motor was originally used as a steering actuator with a pot for feedback, all hooked up to an arduino PID controller. The setpoint could then either be fed from the steering wheel (an old playstation controller), or the Pi for remote control. Using the arduino also allowed current limiting and fault detection, to prevent fire if it gets jammed. Turns out as a neat trick, you can run a PID loop to control the servo angle, and a PID loop to control the max current, and just take the minimum output from either controller as the PWM drive! This was eventually removed in place of basic mechanical steering, at the request of Hacky Racers on safety and legality basis.

The Pi logs all hoverboard and arduino telemetry locally via MQTT/NodeRed/Grafana.

Awards

  • Fully Charged Live 2023
    • 1st place overall.
    • 2nd place race position.
    • 2nd place on Moxie points.
  • EMF Camp 2022
    • Beat slowest ever hacky racers lap (previously held by EMF Roamer in 2018)

BOM

Item Cost Total
Tyres £103.25 £371.15
Wood for frame/body £40.00
Control PCB £32.00
Swegway 1 £30.00
Swegway 2 £30.00
Chassis alu £20.00
Motor drive enclosures £18.96
Light bar £12.45
Paint £10.00
Bumper steel £10.00
Wire £10.00
Rod ends £9.31
Chair £8.00
Pedals £7.86
LED strip £5.60
Steering Wheel £5.00
12V reg £4.89
Steering brackets £4.46
Steering bolts £3.32
Steering column £3.25
Steering rod £2.80
Battery box Excluded
Brake kit Excluded
Brake standoffs Excluded
Kill switch Excluded
Bumpers Excluded
Batteries Excluded
Fuse Excluded

Limitations

Tips over a lot.

BMS’s run extremely hot.

Happily pops 30A fuse if accelerating too hard/long.

Resources

Twitter Account @EmfFRoamer

The Hoverboard firmware, Arduino code, and CAD on GitHub

Remote control Pi code on GitHub

Chris’ website

For the latest news, posts and discussions about everything Hacky Racers, head over to the Facebook group.

source: https://www.hackyracers.co.uk/wiki/index.php/CYBR_TRK

Building a Queue for the EMF Roamer with the Vonage SMS API and PHP

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If you haven’t heard of Electromagnetic Field (EMF) Camp, imagine a field in the quaint English countryside, temporarily populated by 2,500 curious tech/maker enthusiasts; fiber internet, radio masts, robotic bartenders, lasers illuminating the sky, and wild/wacky inventions as far as the eye can see.

One of these wacky inventions was the EMF Roamer, a quarter-scale wooden Tesla Cybertruck, deployed to roam around the side, controlled by anyone over the internet!

Just allowing people to drive it line of sight wasn’t good enough! Especially not in the world of the Internet of Things. Live video from a camera, along with the location on a map is streamed to the user while they have control of the roamer.

A free for all in terms of control would have been a mess, so we devised a queue system. People could join the queue in their web browser and wait their turn, or provide a mobile phone number to receive an SMS when their turn is up (thanks Vonage!). The queue system is “serverless”, in that it does not require a dedicated server. Instead, it runs on simple shared hosting, with PHP coordinating the queue on-demand, which is stored in a MySQL database.

To build a queue system for yourself, take a look at the WebUserQueue project on my GitHub, or follow the guide on the Vonage Developer Blog.

TP-Link HS100 WiFi socket controller for Windows

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I own a couple of TP-Link HS100 WiFi sockets.

When I’m using my PC, it’s a minor pain to have to unlock my phone, open the Kasa app, wait for it to finish displaying the infernal splashscreen, then turn on my socket.

What I wanted was a program sitting in the windows tray to control them. So that’s what I made. It’s in VB.NET. All you need to do is toggle a switch icon on your taskbar.

This is heavily based on the API research over at itnerd.space

Instructions:

  1. Log in to a cloud account in the Kasa app, and make sure at least one device is associated with your account. Give them names if it’s helpful.
  2. Download and install my program.
  3. Put in your Kasa account details and click the “update devices list button”
    The list should be populated with the details of each device you have connected. You can click each one and control it from this screen. Notifyicons will also be created in the system tray for each device.
  4. If you click the x (close) in the top right of the program, it will minimise to the tray.
    You can mouse over the tray icons to see their name, and click them to toggle the state. Right clicking any icon will open the menu again.
  5. I recommend you tick the “start in system tray” box and add a shortcut to the program in your startup folder.

Changelog:

1.0.0.4 – 15/05/2018 – Fix errors when a device in your account is offline.

2.0.0.0 – 23/06/2019 – New features: CLI mode. Copy ID to clipboard. Bug fixes: Better management of tray icons. Removed from alt-tab list when minimised to tray.

2.1.0.0 – 25/06/2019 – New features: Start with Windows. Create on/off timers for devices. Automatically turn devices on/off on program launch/exit.

Download installer TPLink-HS100-controller-2.1.0.0

Download source code from GitHub.

[GUIDE] Make windows taskbar always show an icon

[GUIDE] Command line interface

This program has no affiliation with itnerd.space or tp-link. I accept no liability for its use. This program is provided without warranty/guarantee.

UKHASnet WiFi node using ESP8266

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Since the UKHAS conference in August I have been playing with some UKHASnet nodes, which are “A simple wireless network aimed for use with low power licence exempt wireless modules”.
The system was developed by members of the UKHAS community, but is not specifically aimed at ballooning (however can be used for it).
I have 2 LPC810 based nodes designed by James Coxon, and an AVR node from Phil Crump. After I had these set up, I loaded Phil’s code onto an old Cheapo v3 PCB and bug soldered a RFM69 onto the back. This made a pretty effective GPS node and after some tinkering I had positions being uploaded to ukhas.net.

15129165171_617a8f28db_b

The system relies on packets being repeated between nodes, before hitting a “gateway” node which is connected to the internet. This may be a node connected to a PC, or a raspberry pi with an RFM69 radio. After seeing the ESP8266 popping up in various places, I decided to order a couple of modules and design a PCB for a simple AVR based wifi node.

qlbQJpC

The PCB was very quick to put together and Phil’s repeater code had it working almost straight away.

node

I put together a library for sending HTTP POST requests to the ukhasnet server from an ESP8266 via AT commands. I updated my ESP chip with this firmware (File:V0.9.2.2_AT_Firmware.bin.zip from http://www.electrodragon.com/w/Wi07c /   Mirror) to reduce the speed down to 9600 baud. The chip does indeed work with WPA2 (which I was not expecting, possibly down to the firmware update)

The node has been running now for about 72 hours with no apparent problems 🙂

The ESP8266 Library, repeater/gateway code (credit to Phil) and PCB files are up at https://github.com/chrisstubbs93/ESP8266

The basic upload sketch looks something like this:

#include "ESP8266.h"
#include "wifiConfig.h" //this is where you need to set your SSID and Password
#define DST_IP "212.71.255.157" //ukhas.net 212.71.255.157
#define WIFI_EN 7 //CH_PD

ESP8266 esp8266 = ESP8266();

void setup()
{
  Serial.begin(9600); //Open serial communications 
  esp8266.initialise(Serial, WIFI_EN); //Pass it over to the ESP8266 class, along with the pin number to enable the module (CH_PD)
  while (!esp8266.resetModule()); //reset module until it is ready
  esp8266.tryConnectWifi(SSID, PASS);//connect to the wifi
  esp8266.singleConnectionMode(); //set the single connection mode
}

void loop()
{
  esp8266.uploadPacket(DST_IP, "your_data");
  delay(10000);
}


EMF Camp 2014 – Habville

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On the 29th August – 1st September, I joined over 1000 other campers at Electromagnetic Field camp in Milton Keynes. Said field was equipped with mains power and high speed internet, which allowed them to host some great workshops, talks and demos including on site laser cutting! I camped with a few other UKHAS members in our “villiage” aptly named “HABVille”

14934548189_3969ae772d_o

We ran a couple of launches, which had a pretty good turn out of interested people who arrived on time to watch. However with tradition the launches were vastly delayed as trackers were still being assembled and programmed.

14934576130_fecbdb1460_b

The first of these was one of my Cheapo boards on a foil balloon, which sadly didn’t quite manage to enter a float, but did cross the channel. The second was a JOEY board running both Matt’s TurboHAB and RTTY, a UKHASnet node, and Richard’s Bristol University SEDS tracker. All 3 of these payloads were carefully strung under a 100g balloon and filled with all the helium we could get our hands on.

P1010849 (Large) P1010850 (Large) P1010851 (Large)

One of the other perks of the camp were the badges, which unfortunately weren’t quite ready to hand out as soon as the gates opened. The radio network for delivering weather and schedule updates (an awesome idea) was pretty ropey too. But provided some excitement when someones badge started working on it.

15271518645_d1c9a8c74e_b

We also spent a bit of time down at The Grid, an interactive light installation put together by Adam Greig and David Turner. Which attracted a lot of attention when it sprung to life at night, with people drunkenly charging around in amazement as the poles lit up around them. Adam and David clearly put an awful lot of work into this project, which they discussed in their talk. I shot some footage on my unfortunately gimbal-less hex.

NottingHack brought along their BarBot, which happily served me an interesting concoction of alcohol.

CHDK/SPARK/CHEAPO Launch – Thu 04/09/14

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A couple of weeks ago I launched a few projects I had been working on over the last year or so on a 1200g Pawan latex balloon. These projects included:

The CHDK rig from the conference last year, sending live 600 baud SSDV images encoded straight on the camera. A Navspark based tracker. And A Cheapo Mini flying backup.

I did plan to launch a nasty looking GPS UKHASnet node, but the AVR got stubborn just as we were about to launch and refused to accept any new code.

The launch went off pretty much without a hitch and roughly on schedule, with some much appreciated help from Lewis.

20140904_165702

Launch video to be added at some point..

Things seemed to be going according to plan, until SPARK hit about 19KM and decided it had enough. The altitude stopped ascending and the GPS wandered off course, shortly followed by the GLONASS satellites dropping down to 0 and GPS to 3. I posted my results to the navspark forum, but their only theory was that it couldn’t handle the temperature. I’m not exactly sold on this, as it seemed to die at exactly 19km (hey, that could be a coincidence) and the board should feature a TCXO. Perhaps some modes need changing. I will repeat this experiment sooner or later.

Just as the flight started to get interesting, cheapo also decided today was not a good day for HAB. The battery voltage plummeted as the temperature dropped and silence fell. Luckily on the descent things started to warm up, increasing the battery voltage and bringing the tracker back in time to track the landing. I have not seen a lithium battery drop quite this much in voltage before, so I suspect I had a bad cell.

Surprisingly the part I thought most likely to fail actually performed perfectly! The camera sent down SSDV images throughout its flight, with no packets being missed! A great success and a final thank you to Reyalp from CHDK and Phil Heron for their help with the project. The next step will be to implement the whole thing again on a more modern camera with GPS, but I think a well earned break is due first!

SSDV Live Images

The flight photos will appear here at some point, along with the 15gb of gopro footage…

 

NavSpark based RTTY tracker

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The NavSpark was an indiegogo campaign launched some time last year. It is essentially a GPS receiver with a 100MHz  processor and 1024kb of flash memory. It also allows you to compile and upload code for it straight from the Arduino IDE. It comes in at a price of around 15 USD and a similar form factor to that of the Arduino Nano.

pinout1

NavSpark board pinout.

After many months of waiting and a few badly translated Chinese update emails, my two preorder NavSpark boards arrived! They sat around on my desk for a fair few weeks before I decided to sit down and crack on with turning them into trackers.

The first step was to set one up on some breadboard with an NTX2B and a resistor network to set the shift, then toggle a GPIO pin on and off to produce the mark/space tones required for RTTY.

14586862591_044677e949_h

NavSpark board and NTX2B on breadboard

It took a bit of faffing around to actually get code onto it. Sometimes it will not allow you to upload, and you have to short BOOT_SEL to GND to restore the working bootloader from ROM, then try again. But I eventually had a program that was toggling pin 12 on and off.

Putting “GnssConf.init();” in “setup()” initializes the GNSS receiver and causes “task_called_after_GNSS_update()” to run. Inside this function its remarkably easy to get all the GPS data your tracker might want, without the need to mess around with any NMEA parsing.

void task_called_after_GNSS_update(void)
{
GnssInfo.update();
gps_hour = GnssInfo.time.hour();
gps_min = GnssInfo.time.minute();
gps_sec = GnssInfo.time.second();

lat = GnssInfo.location.latitude();
lng = GnssInfo.location.longitude();

alt = GnssInfo.altitude.meters();

gps_sats = GnssInfo.satellites.numGPSInUse(NULL);
gln_sats = GnssInfo.satellites.numGLNInUse(NULL);

}

Then came the challenge to tackle the timing of sending RTTY. Luckily it turns out the Navspark has a few timers to use with millisecond precision [page 80 TIMER]

uint8_t tmr0 = Timer0.every(20, tmr_task);

Its then as simple as sticking Anthony Stirk’s great little Interrupt based RTTY script inside the tmr_task() function. With some minimal modification to write the GPIO pin high/low.

Check out the code here.

I soldered a couple of 4k2 0603 resistors between VCC and DATA, then DATA and GND on the NTX2, also shorting VCC and EN. I then soldered a 47K and 10K resistor in series to the DATA pin, then connected the other end to our NavSpark’s GPIO pin. You can solder the NavSpark board pretty much straight on top of the NTX2B, but its probably a good idea to add some insulation (kapton tape) between the two. The NTX2 GND is connected to the GND on the board, and VCC to the 3.3v regulated output.

20140715_211323

NTX2B with resistors.

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NTX2B / NavSpark sandwich.

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NavSpark side up, showing antenna.

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NTX2B side up, showing antenna.

Sitting on my desk, still managed a time fix.

Sitting on my desk, still managed a time fix.

Overall I found the NavSpark hardware very easy to work with, and the coding perhaps even easier than a normal Arduino/uBlox.NTX2 tracker, mainly due to the lack of requirement for a NMEA parser. The NavSpark documentation is a little sparse and badly translated, however everything you need programming wise can be found here. The performance of the GPS in terms of time to first fix is very good, getting a time fix after the first sentence, and a position fix after 4/5 sentences. Once it had aquired a fix and with the NTX2B running, with the supply voltage set at 5.6V and fed to the battery input, the tracker was using about 65mA current.

Would I recommend the NavSpark over an AVR/uBlox based tracker?

I’d certainly consider it! There is probably far more information out there in the AVR world, but if you are just making a simple RTTY tracker then it is certainly a viable option. Just wait for the flight test in the next month or so before rushing out to launch one!

Speaking of flight, what about the COCOM GPS limit?

According to SkyTraq the GPS will only shutdown if 18km altitude AND 1000km/h velocity are exceed simultaneously, meaning it should well be suitable for HAB use.

CARS High Altitude Balloon Launch 01 July 2014

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Chris Stubbs M6EDF launched a High Altitude Balloon from the CARS club night at the Oaklands Museum on the 1st of July 2014. This page contains information on the flight of CARS1 for those interested in tracking the flight.

The flight started at 19:50BST on Tuesday.

  • 19:50BST – Flight launched from Oaklands Museum, Chelmsford
  • 23:05BST – The balloon has passed Maidstone, heading South, floating at 4,600 metres
  • 00:00BST – The balloon left the East Sussex coast, floating over the English Channel towards France
  • 02:50BST – This was the last packet received here in Southend, showing CARS1 halfway across the English Channel heading to France
  • 06:45BST on Wednesday morning, the balloon was still in flight, over France at 5,400metres, but no packets have been received as of 0720BST. Voltage of the single 1.5 volt battery has dropped to 0.7V, so CARS1 may be flying but no longer be transmitting.

The Flightpath

To see where “CARS1″ is, go to http://spacenear.us/tracker/?filter=CARS1

CARS1 / Cheapo 13 as of 23:05 01 July 2014

Last reported position of CARS1 as of 0645BST 02 July 2014

Altitude achieved by CARS1 as of 0645BST 02 July 2014

 

The Frequency

As of 23:05 local, I’m tracking a very strong signal on 434.293MHz USB – Stations tracking at this time include G6GZH, G0TDJ, M0JCU, PB0AHX, G6SUQ, M6EDF, F5APQ, M0PSX, F1OIL, G4MYS, G7OGX, G8KNN-1, G8KNN, G8JZT, G0WXI, ASTRA_J, G0CXW_2, G8APZ

Receiving CARS1 data from Southend-on-Sea

The last packet received here in Southend-on-Sea was at 0354BST, but it continued to be tracked by others beyond that point.

Chat with Chris

As of 23:00, Chris M6EDF is in the High Altitude chatroom: webchat.freenode.net/?channels=highaltitude – Just made contact to thank Chris for his talk and to confirm he’s very audible in Southend-on-Sea

High Altitude chatroom - chatting to Chris M6EDF

CARS-1 Launch Video

A short video showing the launch and the tracking of this HAB flight:

 

CARS-1 Photos

Pictures of the launch and presentation 01 July 2014 at Oaklands Museum, for the Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society July Club Night…

CARS1, released by Chris M6EDF at the CARS club night

Watching the balloon head off at Oaklands Museum 01 July 2014

CARS1 on its way, one minute after take-off

Chris M6EDF starting his presentation at CARS

The CARS1 balloon and payload

Chris, showing the audience where the balloon had reached after 15 minutes of flight

The audience at the Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society's July meeting

Chris M6EDF and John G1UZD, with CARS1 in the background on-screen

The CARS1 balloon and payload

 

For more on this, see CARS-1 High Altitude Balloon Video

 

Article by Pete M0PSX – http://www.essexham.co.uk/news/cars1-hab.html

Cheapo “Micro” (v5) is here

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I received the boards for my latest cheapo design revision the other week. The design is very simalar to the previous version, but I am now using the uBlox MAX-7 because of its lower power consumption. I have also shrunk the boards down a little.
The funny arrangement at the top for the GPS antenna is an experiment to see how well chip antennas perform horizontally. So far I have only tested the board in its standard configuration and it all checks out okay! Test flight to follow soon.

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Untitled-1

On a side note I also put together a very crude ICSP jig using pogo pins and a clothes peg to avoid having to solder a header onto each board. The alignment isn’t great but does the job.

20140308_224135