I would like to use rc blimp and a web cam for a sporting event. The sporting event takes place over a 5 mile stretch. Any help on which camera and blimp would be nice ? How high would the blimp have to fly and how long would it be able to stay stationary ? Thanks.
| I would like to use rc blimp and a web cam for a sporting event. The | sporting event takes place over a 5 mile stretch. Any help on which | camera and blimp would be nice ? How high would the blimp have to fly | and how long would it be able to stay stationary ? Thanks.
First of all, this is not going to be an easy or cheap thing to do.
These people --
But most of the blimps they make are usually used indoors -- if you're going to use it outdoors, you'd better make sure there's almost no wind whatsoever -- R/C blimps don't fly fast, and if the wind is faster than the top speed of your blimp (or plane), all you can do is watch it fly downwind ...
How high would it need to be? Depends on your camera and what you're taking pictures of, I guess. How long could it stay stationary? A long time if there's no wind, but if it's fighting the wind, maybe not long at all.
Even if you sit in the middle of your track, it's unlikely you'll be able to effectively fly it at 2.5 miles away, even if it's huge. You'll need to drive around and chase it if you need to cover the whole 5 miles. If it's electric, it's going to be difficult to have enough battery capacity to fly that large of a distance, though if you have a very light wind going just the right way you might be able to let it drift downwind ...
If you use standard R/C gear (which generally only has a range of 1.5 miles, I might add -- still, more than you can usually see a big airplane at) I'd be afraid of people seeing your equipment, and bringing out their own, finding your frequency and messing with you. (At least if it's indoors, a guy with an R/C controller is probably somewhat obvious. Outdoors, maybe not ...)
As for the web cam, you'll need some sort of RF transmitter. Assuming it's a commercial venture, ham bands are out. But the unlicensed bands won't give you much range at all.
What you're talking about isn't impossible, but it's not going to be easy to do yourself, or cheap to have somebody else set up for you.
| Looks like i need to be able to tie it down once airborne (what would | you suggest as to use for tying it down , strong enough ? ).
Not a bad idea. Of course, with it tied down, you don't really need R/C at all except to control your camera, maybe, which greatly reduces the cost.
No idea on the string to use ...
| Yes this will be outdoors. I'm trying to figure out how to set up | mobile web blog for kayak races. I want to to be able to cover the | whole coarse. From start to finish , for every racer coming down the | coarse.
Well, if the blimp (or balloon -- no need for a formal blimp anymore if it doens't move) is to stay in one place, at the middle of the course, it still needs to be able to see 2.5 miles in either direction.
Assuming that a 45 degree angle is OK, then it'll need to be 2.5 miles high -- 13,200 feet. Which is going to be a bit impractical, probably require FAA approval, etc. And the weight of the string would probably be so much that your blimp couldn't even carry it.
If it's tethered, you're not likely to be able to go more than 1000 feet up -- and even that's a big stretch. Which would mean that you probably couldn't take good pictures even 2000 feet away. You'll need multiple blimps/balloons ...
| Looks like the | balloon will have to be a central wireless access point for many | different wireless web cams. This is a little tougher than i thought. Oh | , well i love challenges.
Hope so ...
You can start here--some good links:
Dan Ulrich used to sell commercial RC blimps, but I think he's taken down the web site and gotten out of the business. The point is, it's not easy, but it can be done.
Marty
Doug ,
You been a lot help thanks. Maybe what they have > >
What about : >
refueling ? Limits on size of camera ?
Mart>
To get FACTS, you'll have to talk to them.
Off the top of my old balding head, I'd guess 10 minutes max on flight time and maybe 2 or 3 lbs for the camera equipment.
I doubt they're going to be able to chase kayaks for 5 miles. They could get up, follow folks a short distance down the river, then land and refuel.
I imagine these guys work on line of sight. I doubt they'd fly the heli much more than a few hundred feet away from themselves. They get small quick.
Marty
My son and I flew an RC blimp at local hockey games for a few years. This blimp was 13' feet long and approx 6' in diameter and was used to entertain spectators and drop coupons to the crowd. The custodian would always make sure the heat or A/C did not kick on while we were flying as this made it much harder to control the blimp. As someone said in another post , you would have to tether it if flown outdoors. Just a slight breeze makes one uncontrollable. Also ,they are very limited in cargo capacity. After getting the craft balanced , a pound or so was the limit on ours.
They are very marginal on power and if you use larger motors to overcome the power pronlem ,then carrying enough batteries for any duration was not possible. We would get about 4-5 minutes flight times using Nicad batteries. I don't remember now what the battery capacity was , but I do know that we couldn't carry any more battery weight.
Another thing to consider is helium. I don't what kind of budget you need to operate on , but you will need to put helium in every few days since it is lost due to osmosis.
Ken Day
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