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On Jan 13, 12:54*pm, Mike the Strike wrote:
Kirk - it's about time you came back home to Arizona. *We don't need no stinking varios here! Mike Mike, we don't need no stinkin varios here in Illinois now either - It's too damn cold to fly gliders! Although I did tow up a Canadian member of our club Sunday - I was nice and warm in the Pawnee; he was in - wait for it - an open cockpit 1-26! Dem Canuks, they be a bit touched, eh! Kirk |
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kirk.stant wrote:
t's too damn cold to fly gliders! Although I did tow up a Canadian member of our club Sunday - I was nice and warm in the Pawnee; he was in - wait for it - an open cockpit 1-26! Dem Canuks, they be a bit touched, eh! Says the guy that moved from Arizona to Illinois, about a guy that moves south for the winter! -- Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA * Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly * Updated! "Transponders in Sailplanes" http://tinyurl.com/y739x4 * New Jan '08 - sections on Mode S, TPAS, ADS-B, Flarm, more * "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org |
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Differentiating altitude from a 1Hz GPS is going to be fairly useless
for a vario. You will need a GPS that outputs true vertical velocity, and preferably 1Hz. GPS velocity is very accurate because it is taken directly from doppler shifts in the GPS signal, not from differentiating position. It has been reported that low cost GPS horizontal velocity has an accuracy of 5mm/s (0.01 knots). Vertical velocity error will be greater because of satellite geometry, but probably only double that. You don't need a WAAS receiver to get this precision, but it probably helps somewhat since you need to know your position precisely to calculate the relative satellite velocity. You don't need fancy antennas, just a good view of the sky. Fortunately it's the overhead satellites that provide vertical velocity information, so as long as your bank angle does not exceed 45 degrees, you should be able to track these constantly as long as the antenna is properly positioned. Unfortunately, vertical velocity is not included in any of the standard NMEA sentences--probably because boats are not supposed to have a vertical velocity. So most low-cost GPS units will not have this. The Garmin GPS-18 does have a proprietary sentence with X, Y & Z velocities, and it also comes in a 5 Hz version for ~$150. TE compensation will be a bit tricky without airdata input, but it could potentially be better since it is not subject to errors like gusts and lags (not to mention leaks). I don't see why an INS based on low-cost automotive grade sensors could not provide TE comp at least as good as a pneumatic system. Any change in kinetic energy will require an acceleration that can be measured by an accelerometer. But you would need to remove acceletation due to gravity and rate of turn, so this would also require solid-state gyros, and a lot of software to integrate them. On Jan 13, 2:38*pm, Darryl Ramm wrote: On Jan 13, 10:05*am, "kirk.stant" wrote: On Jan 13, 11:03*am, wrote: On Jan 13, 8:36*am, Darryl Ramm wrote: On Jan 13, 8:23*am, "kirk.stant" wrote: Is anyone working on or studying using WAAS GPS data to make a stand- alone vario? *How would TE be implemented in such a device? Ground speed change during a pullup? *TAS based on circling winds? Do the current PDA software programs (mSeeYou, Winpilot, etc.) when used in GPS-only mode provide accurate vario data when hooked up to a WAAS GPS? Just curious - seems a 5 hz WAAS GPS could be the basis for a really nice vario that wouldn't need any pitot-static imputs. *I use mSeeYou and a Themi, non-WAAS, and the "vario" data seems close, but I use it more for trend and average than instantaneous data. Winter can't end soon enough! Kirk 66 Yes but how does it tell the difference between an increase in wind and a pull up? How will it handle STF calculations in a strong headwind/wave where it may be really confused what is going on? Darryl Darryl's right (again). I don't think there's really a satisfactory way to take wind out of the equation. You could try to do it with track and drift trends, but that's not very precise given how much the wind can vary with altitude, position and over time. 9B- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Cmon, let's think out of the box! An INS/IMU can measure winds without air data. *How accurate (read "expensive") would an inertial sensor need to be to provide useful wind data (or just TAS vs GS)? Or bite the bullet and T into the pitot/static system and provide the data to the GPS vario - no worse than a TE connection for a conventional vario. Question is whether it would be cheaper and/or better than current mechanical or electronic TE varios? *Better or worse at altitude, faster/slower response, etc? I'm thinking: *One little box with an LCD display. *TE vario, audio, horizontal lift distribution in the current thermal in real time (for centering), current average, past averages/acheived climbs (trend for MC settings), logger, GPS output for other devices. *Run off ship power and have a backup rechargeable battery. Stick in a 68mm hole, hook up pitot/static and power, off you go. Replaces your backup mechanical or electric, gives you a real backup when your TE probe falls off! *Do it for less than $500 (yeah, right, I know...) and you stick it in every glider out there (think of all the crap instruments in club/commercial gliders in the US). And please don't say "Cambridge 302" - TE probes are soooo 20th century! Kirk 66 I am not aware of any IMS/IMU that attempt to calculate wind without air data input. Do you know of one? It is likely a significant challenge for rate based systems (vs. position based with GPS). e.g. "taking a turn" cannot help determine wind with an INS. All the poor thing can try to do is integrate external accelerations on the aircraft caused by changes in wind. While trying to integrate up rate based sensors to determine wind is likely impractical. Using rate based sensors to filter other rate base inputs likely makes more sense. I believe accelerometer based assistance is already used to help improve/filter gusts and other effects on variometers (wether using TE probe or digitally adjusted TAS +pitot). I believe the Cambridge 302 uses it's accelerometers for this, but also have heard rumors that this was never really fully developed in the software. I am not sure if other vario/computer systems also do this. I certainly like how the vario in the 302 performs (and I'm using electronic TE compensation with mine). Paul gives on example of the SeeYou Mobile thermal assistant not working well with just GPS+WAAS input. In the past other people have tried to use STF data through PDA software. *Finally Naviter had to warn pilots this can't possibly work, they just don't have enough data to calculate something useful. Even if all the above were not show-stopping issues you'd have to look at the noise spectrum of the altitude signal around a fraction to 1 Hz to see how bad differentiating (for vertical velocity) and filtering this is going to be. I just don't have that data handy. And you may need a sophisticated antenna system to provide a good GPS satellite sky view when turning tightly. A TE probe, which is just a couple of holes or a slot cut in a few dollars worth of tube seems a lot easier way to get basic data. As Dick Johnson kept reminding us, you don't need a fancy tail mount TE probe a simple home made fuselage mounted one works great. An electronic pressure sensor to incorporate into a vario costs a few dollars. The software to make all this work really well. Priceless. I can't wait to see what Dave Ellis does at ClearNav... Darryl |
#14
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![]() Says the guy that moved from Arizona to Illinois, about a guy that moves south for the winter! -- Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA * Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly Mumble mumble something about character building, etc... I prefer to think about it as a remote tour - think Shemya, etc. And if the cold wasn't enough, in the summer you gots to mow grass!!! Arggg!!! Upside? Well, you can pretty much landout anywhere...good thing, too! Oh, and the toasted ravioli in Soulard. 66 |
#15
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On Jan 13, 1:45*pm, Darryl Ramm wrote:
The accelerometer (or one axis of it) is used for the slow flight warning, as can be demonstrated by playing around with the glider near the low-speed threshold. That may be true but, from my experience, they didn't make it work very well. I have to set my slow alarm threshold well below 1 g stall to stop it being a nuisance while thermalling. I like to crank it up tight in our southwest thermals. With that setting though it is useful as the 28 climb rate really falls if if flown too slow. Andy |
#16
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On Jan 14, 5:22*am, dhaluza wrote:
Differentiating altitude from a 1Hz GPS is going to be fairly useless for a vario. You will need a GPS that outputs true vertical velocity, and preferably 1Hz. GPS velocity is very accurate because it is taken directly from doppler shifts in the GPS signal, not from differentiating position. It has been reported that low cost GPS horizontal velocity has an accuracy of 5mm/s (0.01 knots). Vertical velocity error will be greater because of satellite geometry, but probably only double that. You don't need a WAAS receiver to get this precision, but it probably helps somewhat since you need to know your position precisely to calculate the relative satellite velocity. You don't need fancy antennas, just a good view of the sky. Fortunately it's the overhead satellites that provide vertical velocity information, so as long as your bank angle does not exceed 45 degrees, you should be able to track these constantly as long as the antenna is properly positioned. Unfortunately, vertical velocity is not included in any of the standard NMEA sentences--probably because boats are not supposed to have a vertical velocity. So most low-cost GPS units will not have this. The Garmin GPS-18 does have a proprietary sentence with X, Y & Z velocities, and it also comes in a 5 Hz version for ~$150. TE compensation will be a bit tricky without airdata input, but it could potentially be better since it is not subject to errors like gusts and lags (not to mention leaks). I don't see why an INS based on low-cost automotive grade sensors could not provide TE comp at least as good as a pneumatic system. Any change in kinetic energy will require an acceleration that can be measured by an accelerometer. But you would need to remove acceletation due to gravity and rate of turn, so this would also require solid-state gyros, and a lot of software to integrate them. On Jan 13, 2:38*pm, Darryl Ramm wrote: On Jan 13, 10:05*am, "kirk.stant" wrote: On Jan 13, 11:03*am, wrote: On Jan 13, 8:36*am, Darryl Ramm wrote: On Jan 13, 8:23*am, "kirk.stant" wrote: Is anyone working on or studying using WAAS GPS data to make a stand- alone vario? *How would TE be implemented in such a device? Ground speed change during a pullup? *TAS based on circling winds? Do the current PDA software programs (mSeeYou, Winpilot, etc.) when used in GPS-only mode provide accurate vario data when hooked up to a WAAS GPS? Just curious - seems a 5 hz WAAS GPS could be the basis for a really nice vario that wouldn't need any pitot-static imputs. *I use mSeeYou and a Themi, non-WAAS, and the "vario" data seems close, but I use it more for trend and average than instantaneous data. Winter can't end soon enough! Kirk 66 Yes but how does it tell the difference between an increase in wind and a pull up? How will it handle STF calculations in a strong headwind/wave where it may be really confused what is going on? Darryl Darryl's right (again). I don't think there's really a satisfactory way to take wind out of the equation. You could try to do it with track and drift trends, but that's not very precise given how much the wind can vary with altitude, position and over time. 9B- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Cmon, let's think out of the box! An INS/IMU can measure winds without air data. *How accurate (read "expensive") would an inertial sensor need to be to provide useful wind data (or just TAS vs GS)? Or bite the bullet and T into the pitot/static system and provide the data to the GPS vario - no worse than a TE connection for a conventional vario. Question is whether it would be cheaper and/or better than current mechanical or electronic TE varios? *Better or worse at altitude, faster/slower response, etc? I'm thinking: *One little box with an LCD display. *TE vario, audio, horizontal lift distribution in the current thermal in real time (for centering), current average, past averages/acheived climbs (trend for MC settings), logger, GPS output for other devices. *Run off ship power and have a backup rechargeable battery. Stick in a 68mm hole, hook up pitot/static and power, off you go. Replaces your backup mechanical or electric, gives you a real backup when your TE probe falls off! *Do it for less than $500 (yeah, right, I know...) and you stick it in every glider out there (think of all the crap instruments in club/commercial gliders in the US). And please don't say "Cambridge 302" - TE probes are soooo 20th century! Kirk 66 I am not aware of any IMS/IMU that attempt to calculate wind without air data input. Do you know of one? It is likely a significant challenge for rate based systems (vs. position based with GPS). e.g. "taking a turn" cannot help determine wind with an INS. All the poor thing can try to do is integrate external accelerations on the aircraft caused by changes in wind. While trying to integrate up rate based sensors to determine wind is likely impractical. Using rate based sensors to filter other rate base inputs likely makes more sense. I believe accelerometer based assistance is already used to help improve/filter gusts and other effects on variometers (wether using TE probe or digitally adjusted TAS +pitot). I believe the Cambridge 302 uses it's accelerometers for this, but also have heard rumors that this was never really fully developed in the software. I am not sure if other vario/computer systems also do this. I certainly like how the vario in the 302 performs (and I'm using electronic TE compensation with mine). Paul gives on example of the SeeYou Mobile thermal assistant not working well with just GPS+WAAS input. In the past other people have tried to use STF data through PDA software. *Finally Naviter had to warn pilots this can't possibly work, they just don't have enough data to calculate something useful. Even if all the above were not show-stopping issues you'd have to look at the noise spectrum of the altitude signal around a fraction to 1 Hz to see how bad differentiating (for vertical velocity) and filtering this is going to be. I just don't have that data handy. And you may need a sophisticated antenna system to provide a good GPS satellite sky view when turning tightly. A TE probe, which is just a couple of holes or a slot cut in a few dollars worth of tube seems a lot easier way to get basic data. As Dick Johnson kept reminding us, you don't need a fancy tail mount TE probe a simple home made fuselage mounted one works great. An electronic pressure sensor to incorporate into a vario costs a few dollars. The software to make all this work really well. Priceless. I can't wait to see what Dave Ellis does at ClearNav... Darryl GPS, even WAAS enabled, is best considered to be a highly accurate but interruptable data source. Inertial reference units are best considered a less accurate but non-interruptable data source. GPS signals can provide not only position data but, with multiple antennas, can provide attitude data. Combining the two with a Kalman filter where GPS keeps the INS updated results in the best of both. This combination outputs highly accurate Euler angles, 3D velocity and position data. In other words, your gadget would know where it was, its pitch, roll and heading angles, and its velocity on each of three axes - all to extremely high precision. There's a lot that can be done with these data. Could this hypothetical gadget be used as an inertial TE vario? Absolutely, as long as all TE calculations were done in the same inertial reference frame. Speed to fly would require air data, however. The benefits of a GPS/inertial system would include: A vario with no gust sensitivity, high S/N ratio and instant response, Instantly updated, highly accurate vector wind data. Accurate lift mapping for thermal centering assistance. Bill Daniels |
#17
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On Jan 14, 9:51*am, bildan wrote:
On Jan 14, 5:22*am, dhaluza wrote: Differentiating altitude from a 1Hz GPS is going to be fairly useless for a vario. You will need a GPS that outputs true vertical velocity, and preferably 1Hz. GPS velocity is very accurate because it is taken directly from doppler shifts in the GPS signal, not from differentiating position. It has been reported that low cost GPS horizontal velocity has an accuracy of 5mm/s (0.01 knots). Vertical velocity error will be greater because of satellite geometry, but probably only double that. You don't need a WAAS receiver to get this precision, but it probably helps somewhat since you need to know your position precisely to calculate the relative satellite velocity. You don't need fancy antennas, just a good view of the sky. Fortunately it's the overhead satellites that provide vertical velocity information, so as long as your bank angle does not exceed 45 degrees, you should be able to track these constantly as long as the antenna is properly positioned. Unfortunately, vertical velocity is not included in any of the standard NMEA sentences--probably because boats are not supposed to have a vertical velocity. So most low-cost GPS units will not have this. The Garmin GPS-18 does have a proprietary sentence with X, Y & Z velocities, and it also comes in a 5 Hz version for ~$150. TE compensation will be a bit tricky without airdata input, but it could potentially be better since it is not subject to errors like gusts and lags (not to mention leaks). I don't see why an INS based on low-cost automotive grade sensors could not provide TE comp at least as good as a pneumatic system. Any change in kinetic energy will require an acceleration that can be measured by an accelerometer. But you would need to remove acceletation due to gravity and rate of turn, so this would also require solid-state gyros, and a lot of software to integrate them. On Jan 13, 2:38*pm, Darryl Ramm wrote: On Jan 13, 10:05*am, "kirk.stant" wrote: On Jan 13, 11:03*am, wrote: On Jan 13, 8:36*am, Darryl Ramm wrote: On Jan 13, 8:23*am, "kirk.stant" wrote: Is anyone working on or studying using WAAS GPS data to make a stand- alone vario? *How would TE be implemented in such a device? Ground speed change during a pullup? *TAS based on circling winds? Do the current PDA software programs (mSeeYou, Winpilot, etc.) when used in GPS-only mode provide accurate vario data when hooked up to a WAAS GPS? Just curious - seems a 5 hz WAAS GPS could be the basis for a really nice vario that wouldn't need any pitot-static imputs. *I use mSeeYou and a Themi, non-WAAS, and the "vario" data seems close, but I use it more for trend and average than instantaneous data. Winter can't end soon enough! Kirk 66 Yes but how does it tell the difference between an increase in wind and a pull up? How will it handle STF calculations in a strong headwind/wave where it may be really confused what is going on? Darryl Darryl's right (again). I don't think there's really a satisfactory way to take wind out of the equation. You could try to do it with track and drift trends, but that's not very precise given how much the wind can vary with altitude, position and over time. 9B- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Cmon, let's think out of the box! An INS/IMU can measure winds without air data. *How accurate (read "expensive") would an inertial sensor need to be to provide useful wind data (or just TAS vs GS)? Or bite the bullet and T into the pitot/static system and provide the data to the GPS vario - no worse than a TE connection for a conventional vario. Question is whether it would be cheaper and/or better than current mechanical or electronic TE varios? *Better or worse at altitude, faster/slower response, etc? I'm thinking: *One little box with an LCD display. *TE vario, audio, horizontal lift distribution in the current thermal in real time (for centering), current average, past averages/acheived climbs (trend for MC settings), logger, GPS output for other devices. *Run off ship power and have a backup rechargeable battery. Stick in a 68mm hole, hook up pitot/static and power, off you go. Replaces your backup mechanical or electric, gives you a real backup when your TE probe falls off! *Do it for less than $500 (yeah, right, I know...) and you stick it in every glider out there (think of all the crap instruments in club/commercial gliders in the US). And please don't say "Cambridge 302" - TE probes are soooo 20th century! Kirk 66 I am not aware of any IMS/IMU that attempt to calculate wind without air data input. Do you know of one? It is likely a significant challenge for rate based systems (vs. position based with GPS). e.g. "taking a turn" cannot help determine wind with an INS. All the poor thing can try to do is integrate external accelerations on the aircraft caused by changes in wind. While trying to integrate up rate based sensors to determine wind is likely impractical. Using rate based sensors to filter other rate base inputs likely makes more sense. I believe accelerometer based assistance is already used to help improve/filter gusts and other effects on variometers (wether using TE probe or digitally adjusted TAS +pitot). I believe the Cambridge 302 uses it's accelerometers for this, but also have heard rumors that this was never really fully developed in the software. I am not sure if other vario/computer systems also do this. I certainly like how the vario in the 302 performs (and I'm using electronic TE compensation with mine). Paul gives on example of the SeeYou Mobile thermal assistant not working well with just GPS+WAAS input. In the past other people have tried to use STF data through PDA software. *Finally Naviter had to warn pilots this can't possibly work, they just don't have enough data to calculate something useful. Even if all the above were not show-stopping issues you'd have to look at the noise spectrum of the altitude signal around a fraction to 1 Hz to see how bad differentiating (for vertical velocity) and filtering this is going to be. I just don't have that data handy. And you may need a sophisticated antenna system to provide a good GPS satellite sky view when turning tightly. A TE probe, which is just a couple of holes or a slot cut in a few dollars worth of tube seems a lot easier way to get basic data. As Dick Johnson kept reminding us, you don't need a fancy tail mount TE probe a simple home made fuselage mounted one works great. An electronic pressure sensor to incorporate into a vario costs a few dollars. The software to make all this work really well. Priceless. I can't wait to see what Dave Ellis does at ClearNav... Darryl GPS, even WAAS enabled, is best considered to be a highly accurate but interruptable data source. *Inertial reference units are best considered a less accurate but non-interruptable data source. *GPS signals can provide not only position data but, with multiple antennas, can provide attitude data. *Combining the two with a Kalman filter where GPS keeps the INS updated results in the best of both. This combination outputs highly accurate Euler angles, 3D velocity and position data. *In other words, your gadget would know where it was, its pitch, roll and heading angles, and its velocity on each of three axes - all to extremely high precision. *There's a lot that can be done with these data. Could this hypothetical gadget be used as an inertial TE vario? Absolutely, as long as all TE calculations were done in the same inertial reference frame. *Speed to fly would require air data, however. The benefits of a GPS/inertial system would include: A vario with no gust sensitivity, high S/N ratio and instant response, Instantly updated, highly accurate vector wind data. Accurate lift mapping for thermal centering assistance. Bill Daniels Spoken like a true control systems whiz. Maybe this is what you had in mind, but wouldn't the best Kalman filter combine GPS, inertial and air data into a single optimal estimate for all the relevant rates and angles? The air data has lags for sure, but you should be able to model the dynamics and use it to take the drift out of integrated accelerometer signals. The cool part (I think) would be that you'd be able to make a vario that can distinguish between horizontal and vertical gusts - which ought to better correlate to and enhance the "seat of the pants" feel that a lot of us try to use in choosing and centering lift. Do you think differential GPS has the resolution to give good attitude information? I think there are laser ring gyros out there now that are pretty inexpensive and I think the drift is pretty good for our application, but I have no idea which is would be more accurate - GPS would almost certainly be cheaper and easier on the batteries. Andy |
#18
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On Jan 14, 1:26*pm, wrote:
On Jan 14, 9:51*am, bildan wrote: On Jan 14, 5:22*am, dhaluza wrote: Differentiating altitude from a 1Hz GPS is going to be fairly useless for a vario. You will need a GPS that outputs true vertical velocity, and preferably 1Hz. GPS velocity is very accurate because it is taken directly from doppler shifts in the GPS signal, not from differentiating position. It has been reported that low cost GPS horizontal velocity has an accuracy of 5mm/s (0.01 knots). Vertical velocity error will be greater because of satellite geometry, but probably only double that. You don't need a WAAS receiver to get this precision, but it probably helps somewhat since you need to know your position precisely to calculate the relative satellite velocity. You don't need fancy antennas, just a good view of the sky. Fortunately it's the overhead satellites that provide vertical velocity information, so as long as your bank angle does not exceed 45 degrees, you should be able to track these constantly as long as the antenna is properly positioned. Unfortunately, vertical velocity is not included in any of the standard NMEA sentences--probably because boats are not supposed to have a vertical velocity. So most low-cost GPS units will not have this. The Garmin GPS-18 does have a proprietary sentence with X, Y & Z velocities, and it also comes in a 5 Hz version for ~$150. TE compensation will be a bit tricky without airdata input, but it could potentially be better since it is not subject to errors like gusts and lags (not to mention leaks). I don't see why an INS based on low-cost automotive grade sensors could not provide TE comp at least as good as a pneumatic system. Any change in kinetic energy will require an acceleration that can be measured by an accelerometer. But you would need to remove acceletation due to gravity and rate of turn, so this would also require solid-state gyros, and a lot of software to integrate them. On Jan 13, 2:38*pm, Darryl Ramm wrote: On Jan 13, 10:05*am, "kirk.stant" wrote: On Jan 13, 11:03*am, wrote: On Jan 13, 8:36*am, Darryl Ramm wrote: On Jan 13, 8:23*am, "kirk.stant" wrote: Is anyone working on or studying using WAAS GPS data to make a stand- alone vario? *How would TE be implemented in such a device? Ground speed change during a pullup? *TAS based on circling winds? Do the current PDA software programs (mSeeYou, Winpilot, etc.) when used in GPS-only mode provide accurate vario data when hooked up to a WAAS GPS? Just curious - seems a 5 hz WAAS GPS could be the basis for a really nice vario that wouldn't need any pitot-static imputs. *I use mSeeYou and a Themi, non-WAAS, and the "vario" data seems close, but I use it more for trend and average than instantaneous data. Winter can't end soon enough! Kirk 66 Yes but how does it tell the difference between an increase in wind and a pull up? How will it handle STF calculations in a strong headwind/wave where it may be really confused what is going on? Darryl Darryl's right (again). I don't think there's really a satisfactory way to take wind out of the equation. You could try to do it with track and drift trends, but that's not very precise given how much the wind can vary with altitude, position and over time. 9B- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Cmon, let's think out of the box! An INS/IMU can measure winds without air data. *How accurate (read "expensive") would an inertial sensor need to be to provide useful wind data (or just TAS vs GS)? Or bite the bullet and T into the pitot/static system and provide the data to the GPS vario - no worse than a TE connection for a conventional vario. Question is whether it would be cheaper and/or better than current mechanical or electronic TE varios? *Better or worse at altitude, faster/slower response, etc? I'm thinking: *One little box with an LCD display. *TE vario, audio, horizontal lift distribution in the current thermal in real time (for centering), current average, past averages/acheived climbs (trend for MC settings), logger, GPS output for other devices. *Run off ship power and have a backup rechargeable battery. Stick in a 68mm hole, hook up pitot/static and power, off you go. Replaces your backup mechanical or electric, gives you a real backup when your TE probe falls off! *Do it for less than $500 (yeah, right, I know...) and you stick it in every glider out there (think of all the crap instruments in club/commercial gliders in the US). And please don't say "Cambridge 302" - TE probes are soooo 20th century! Kirk 66 I am not aware of any IMS/IMU that attempt to calculate wind without air data input. Do you know of one? It is likely a significant challenge for rate based systems (vs. position based with GPS). e.g.. "taking a turn" cannot help determine wind with an INS. All the poor thing can try to do is integrate external accelerations on the aircraft caused by changes in wind. While trying to integrate up rate based sensors to determine wind is likely impractical. Using rate based sensors to filter other rate base inputs likely makes more sense. I believe accelerometer based assistance is already used to help improve/filter gusts and other effects on variometers (wether using TE probe or digitally adjusted TAS +pitot). I believe the Cambridge 302 uses it's accelerometers for this, but also have heard rumors that this was never really fully developed in the software. I am not sure if other vario/computer systems also do this. I certainly like how the vario in the 302 performs (and I'm using electronic TE compensation with mine). Paul gives on example of the SeeYou Mobile thermal assistant not working well with just GPS+WAAS input. In the past other people have tried to use STF data through PDA software. *Finally Naviter had to warn pilots this can't possibly work, they just don't have enough data to calculate something useful. Even if all the above were not show-stopping issues you'd have to look at the noise spectrum of the altitude signal around a fraction to 1 Hz to see how bad differentiating (for vertical velocity) and filtering this is going to be. I just don't have that data handy. And you may need a sophisticated antenna system to provide a good GPS satellite sky view when turning tightly. A TE probe, which is just a couple of holes or a slot cut in a few dollars worth of tube seems a lot easier way to get basic data. As Dick Johnson kept reminding us, you don't need a fancy tail mount TE probe a simple home made fuselage mounted one works great. An electronic pressure sensor to incorporate into a vario costs a few dollars. The software to make all this work really well. Priceless. I can't wait to see what Dave Ellis does at ClearNav... Darryl GPS, even WAAS enabled, is best considered to be a highly accurate but interruptable data source. *Inertial reference units are best considered a less accurate but non-interruptable data source. *GPS signals can provide not only position data but, with multiple antennas, can provide attitude data. *Combining the two with a Kalman filter where GPS keeps the INS updated results in the best of both. This combination outputs highly accurate Euler angles, 3D velocity and position data. *In other words, your gadget would know where it was, its pitch, roll and heading angles, and its velocity on each of three axes - all to extremely high precision. *There's a lot that can be done with these data. Could this hypothetical gadget be used as an inertial TE vario? Absolutely, as long as all TE calculations were done in the same inertial reference frame. *Speed to fly would require air data, however. The benefits of a GPS/inertial system would include: A vario with no gust sensitivity, high S/N ratio and instant response, Instantly updated, highly accurate vector wind data. Accurate lift mapping for thermal centering assistance. Bill Daniels Spoken like a true control systems whiz. Maybe this is what you had in mind, but wouldn't the best Kalman filter combine GPS, inertial and air data into a single optimal estimate for all the relevant rates and angles? The air data has lags for sure, but you should be able to model the dynamics and use it to take *the drift out of integrated accelerometer signals. The cool part (I think) would be that you'd be able to make a vario that can distinguish between horizontal and vertical gusts - which ought to better correlate to and enhance the "seat of the pants" feel that a lot of us try to use in choosing and centering lift. Do you think differential GPS has the resolution to give good attitude information? I think there are laser ring gyros out there now that are pretty inexpensive and I think the drift is pretty good for our application, but I have no idea which is would be more accurate - GPS would almost certainly be cheaper and easier on the batteries. Andy GPS altitude data good enough? - sorta. (engineering term). There's a lot of noise in the GPS altitude data which would be smoothed out by the inertial reference unit (IRU) resulting in very accurate geopotential altitude data. Note: For the hangar lawyers out there, ATC is referenced to barometric altitude and airspace rules are written around the inherent errors in barometric altimetry so that's what we use. GPS altitude is more 'accurate' but it's not to be used for airspace navigation. GPS is the preferred source of altitude data for glide calculations. Hopefully, ATC will continue to use barometric altimetry since on a hot summer day we can get an extra 1500 feet or so higher without busting Class A airspace. You wouldn't need ring laser gyros. Interferometric fiber optic gyros (I-FOG) are cheaper and much smaller. MEMS solid state gyros are becoming more accurate as well. You can buy complete inertial reference units for a few hundred dollars which is actually cheaper than multi-antenna attitude sensing GPS units. If the GPS attitude updates are fast enough, the IRU can tolerate automotive quality MEMS gyros and accelerometers. |
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Embedded GPS INS (using RLG) are now standard in almost all military
aircraft - often two are used. Neat devices; just turn it on, and in 4 minutes at most you have attitude, velocities, and position. And GPS chips are showing up everywhere. And MEMS gyros and accelerometers are ubiquitous in modern cars. Could be that the hardware to make our theoretical GPS vario will soon be less expensive than classical pneumatic varios - whether mechanical or electronic - if the complete installation cost is compared. What does a really good TE system cost these days? Probe, tubing, installation, etc. So my glider cockpit of the future has an AOA system, a sunlight visible moving map/glide computer with real time weather (disabled for contests, of course), GPS Vario, instant-on attitude info for when you get sucked into a cloud or trapped above a deck in a wave, ADS-B in/out to show traffic around me, SPOT to let the family know where I am. And I want to be able to use voice commands to change a task inflight! 66 |
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On Jan 14, 1:01*pm, bildan wrote:
On Jan 14, 1:26*pm, wrote: On Jan 14, 9:51*am, bildan wrote: On Jan 14, 5:22*am, dhaluza wrote: Differentiating altitude from a 1Hz GPS is going to be fairly useless for a vario. You will need a GPS that outputs true vertical velocity, and preferably 1Hz. GPS velocity is very accurate because it is taken directly from doppler shifts in the GPS signal, not from differentiating position. It has been reported that low cost GPS horizontal velocity has an accuracy of 5mm/s (0.01 knots). Vertical velocity error will be greater because of satellite geometry, but probably only double that. You don't need a WAAS receiver to get this precision, but it probably helps somewhat since you need to know your position precisely to calculate the relative satellite velocity. You don't need fancy antennas, just a good view of the sky. Fortunately it's the overhead satellites that provide vertical velocity information, so as long as your bank angle does not exceed 45 degrees, you should be able to track these constantly as long as the antenna is properly positioned. Unfortunately, vertical velocity is not included in any of the standard NMEA sentences--probably because boats are not supposed to have a vertical velocity. So most low-cost GPS units will not have this. The Garmin GPS-18 does have a proprietary sentence with X, Y & Z velocities, and it also comes in a 5 Hz version for ~$150. TE compensation will be a bit tricky without airdata input, but it could potentially be better since it is not subject to errors like gusts and lags (not to mention leaks). I don't see why an INS based on low-cost automotive grade sensors could not provide TE comp at least as good as a pneumatic system. Any change in kinetic energy will require an acceleration that can be measured by an accelerometer. But you would need to remove acceletation due to gravity and rate of turn, so this would also require solid-state gyros, and a lot of software to integrate them. On Jan 13, 2:38*pm, Darryl Ramm wrote: On Jan 13, 10:05*am, "kirk.stant" wrote: On Jan 13, 11:03*am, wrote: On Jan 13, 8:36*am, Darryl Ramm wrote: On Jan 13, 8:23*am, "kirk.stant" wrote: Is anyone working on or studying using WAAS GPS data to make a stand- alone vario? *How would TE be implemented in such a device? Ground speed change during a pullup? *TAS based on circling winds? Do the current PDA software programs (mSeeYou, Winpilot, etc.) when used in GPS-only mode provide accurate vario data when hooked up to a WAAS GPS? Just curious - seems a 5 hz WAAS GPS could be the basis for a really nice vario that wouldn't need any pitot-static imputs. *I use mSeeYou and a Themi, non-WAAS, and the "vario" data seems close, but I use it more for trend and average than instantaneous data. Winter can't end soon enough! Kirk 66 Yes but how does it tell the difference between an increase in wind and a pull up? How will it handle STF calculations in a strong headwind/wave where it may be really confused what is going on? Darryl Darryl's right (again). I don't think there's really a satisfactory way to take wind out of the equation. You could try to do it with track and drift trends, but that's not very precise given how much the wind can vary with altitude, position and over time. 9B- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Cmon, let's think out of the box! An INS/IMU can measure winds without air data. *How accurate (read "expensive") would an inertial sensor need to be to provide useful wind data (or just TAS vs GS)? Or bite the bullet and T into the pitot/static system and provide the data to the GPS vario - no worse than a TE connection for a conventional vario. Question is whether it would be cheaper and/or better than current mechanical or electronic TE varios? *Better or worse at altitude, faster/slower response, etc? I'm thinking: *One little box with an LCD display. *TE vario, audio, horizontal lift distribution in the current thermal in real time (for centering), current average, past averages/acheived climbs (trend for MC settings), logger, GPS output for other devices. *Run off ship power and have a backup rechargeable battery. Stick in a 68mm hole, hook up pitot/static and power, off you go. Replaces your backup mechanical or electric, gives you a real backup when your TE probe falls off! *Do it for less than $500 (yeah, right, I know...) and you stick it in every glider out there (think of all the crap instruments in club/commercial gliders in the US). And please don't say "Cambridge 302" - TE probes are soooo 20th century! Kirk 66 I am not aware of any IMS/IMU that attempt to calculate wind without air data input. Do you know of one? It is likely a significant challenge for rate based systems (vs. position based with GPS). e..g. "taking a turn" cannot help determine wind with an INS. All the poor thing can try to do is integrate external accelerations on the aircraft caused by changes in wind. While trying to integrate up rate based sensors to determine wind is likely impractical. Using rate based sensors to filter other rate base inputs likely makes more sense. I believe accelerometer based assistance is already used to help improve/filter gusts and other effects on variometers (wether using TE probe or digitally adjusted TAS +pitot). I believe the Cambridge 302 uses it's accelerometers for this, but also have heard rumors that this was never really fully developed in the software. I am not sure if other vario/computer systems also do this. I certainly like how the vario in the 302 performs (and I'm using electronic TE compensation with mine). Paul gives on example of the SeeYou Mobile thermal assistant not working well with just GPS+WAAS input. In the past other people have tried to use STF data through PDA software. *Finally Naviter had to warn pilots this can't possibly work, they just don't have enough data to calculate something useful. Even if all the above were not show-stopping issues you'd have to look at the noise spectrum of the altitude signal around a fraction to 1 Hz to see how bad differentiating (for vertical velocity) and filtering this is going to be. I just don't have that data handy. And you may need a sophisticated antenna system to provide a good GPS satellite sky view when turning tightly. A TE probe, which is just a couple of holes or a slot cut in a few dollars worth of tube seems a lot easier way to get basic data. As Dick Johnson kept reminding us, you don't need a fancy tail mount TE probe a simple home made fuselage mounted one works great. An electronic pressure sensor to incorporate into a vario costs a few dollars. The software to make all this work really well. Priceless. I can't wait to see what Dave Ellis does at ClearNav... Darryl GPS, even WAAS enabled, is best considered to be a highly accurate but interruptable data source. *Inertial reference units are best considered a less accurate but non-interruptable data source. *GPS signals can provide not only position data but, with multiple antennas, can provide attitude data. *Combining the two with a Kalman filter where GPS keeps the INS updated results in the best of both. This combination outputs highly accurate Euler angles, 3D velocity and position data. *In other words, your gadget would know where it was, its pitch, roll and heading angles, and its velocity on each of three axes - all to extremely high precision. *There's a lot that can be done with these data. Could this hypothetical gadget be used as an inertial TE vario? Absolutely, as long as all TE calculations were done in the same inertial reference frame. *Speed to fly would require air data, however. The benefits of a GPS/inertial system would include: A vario with no gust sensitivity, high S/N ratio and instant response, Instantly updated, highly accurate vector wind data. Accurate lift mapping for thermal centering assistance. Bill Daniels Spoken like a true control systems whiz. Maybe this is what you had in mind, but wouldn't the best Kalman filter combine GPS, inertial and air data into a single optimal estimate for all the relevant rates and angles? The air data has lags for sure, but you should be able to model the dynamics and use it to take *the drift out of integrated accelerometer signals. The cool part (I think) would be that you'd be able to make a vario that can distinguish between horizontal and vertical gusts - which ought to better correlate to and enhance the "seat of the pants" feel that a lot of us try to use in choosing and centering lift. Do you think differential GPS has the resolution to give good attitude information? I think there are laser ring gyros out there now that are pretty inexpensive and I think the drift is pretty good for our application, but I have no idea which is would be more accurate - GPS would almost certainly be cheaper and easier on the batteries. Andy GPS altitude data good enough? - sorta. (engineering term). *There's a lot of noise in the GPS altitude data which would be smoothed out by the inertial reference unit (IRU) resulting in very accurate geopotential altitude data. Note: For the hangar lawyers out there, ATC is referenced to barometric altitude and airspace rules are written around the inherent errors in barometric altimetry so that's what we use. *GPS altitude is more 'accurate' but it's not to be used for airspace navigation. *GPS is the preferred source of altitude data for glide calculations. Hopefully, ATC will continue to use barometric altimetry since on a hot summer day we can get an extra 1500 feet or so higher without busting Class A airspace. You wouldn't need ring laser gyros. *Interferometric fiber optic gyros (I-FOG) are cheaper and much smaller. *MEMS solid state gyros are becoming more accurate as well. *You can buy complete inertial reference units for a few hundred dollars which is actually cheaper than multi-antenna attitude sensing GPS units. *If the GPS attitude updates are fast enough, the IRU can tolerate automotive quality MEMS gyros and accelerometers. Oops - confused my terms - I meant the I-FOG gyros. Isn't the drift is slow enough that you wouldn't need GPS attitude updates over the course of a typical soaring flight would you? Maybe the ClearNav guys could integrate an inexpensive IRU to take Total Energy and wind estimation to the next level when the produce their promised variometer. |
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