Hi !
I built this altimeter for microlights some months ago. Flight instructor in Paris (France) I was not happy with the bad quality of the classical (Chineese !) altimeters. They are expensive (300 to 900 EUR) and must be changed at least one time a year in a flying school.
This one is inexpensive (less than 100 EUR) is very easy to use and is more powerfull than standard altimeters. Our pilots love it and ask me to put one in all our aiplanes.
This project has been presented on the French forum. I hope you have many critics and proposals to ameliorate this project.
I have put the complete code with many comments for everyone interested to understand or to build their own altimeter.
Only one button to adjust and validate the Altitude or QNH, to switch between QNH and QNE and to switch back to QNH. Memory is also included to store the Altitude of your preferred airfield. You can change the units very simply, if you prefer meters rather than feet or inches of Hg rather than HPa.
On the Word sheet you can see 4 pictures: left/up : voltage and temperature (very usefull for microlights and very low cost) - right/up : the page for adjust the altimeter to local conditions (call an ATIS to have the actual QNH) - left/down : Altitude or QNH has been validated before takeoff. - right/down : flying at FL75 (7500 feet at 1013.25 HPa) You can notice that the color of pressure indication is different (now green rather than yellow)
On the bottom of the sheet I have included the schematics for wiring the different parts of this altimeter.
Hi !
This is the missing picture. The altimeter in the board panel.
The altimeter was installed in the body of the original altimeter (a lot of work !).
The encoder is now in the same place than the original button.
The microlight is a CTSW by Flight Design.
Hi !
Of course the sensor is in the body of the altimeter. So it is in the static pressure of the plane (with a nylon tube going to the static pressure hole).
The body of the altimeter is air-proof as before. I have just added two external connectors (air-proof also) for +12 V and Ground
at the bottom of the body to measure on-board battery voltage. A 7805 regulator is used to give + 5V to the Arduino board.
Don't forget that onboard voltage can go up to 14.4 V which is to much for the Arduino but absolutely normal for the regulator.
The other advantage is to keep the sensor as close as possible of external air temperature which may be very different than the Inside temperature (heating in winter as you can see on the picture... the heating command is just above the altimeter !).
Cheers.
Hi !
Information about those crazy stickers :
"Caution: read manual before flight" is a requirement of US Law !!!
"spins forbidden" : Spin recovery is not required for ultralights but there is no problem with !!!
Most ultralights are pretty well built and this one for example is the best seller in the US.
It is stronger than most aerobatics planes (with +9.6G at 450 kg take-off weight and +7.2 G at 600 kg !) and faster than most certified aircrafts (more than 230 km/h, 130 knots)
Your diy altimeter needs a certification I would say (ie. FAA - Aircraft Certification Service is concerned with the approval of software and airborne electronic hardware for airborne systems (e.g., autopilots, flight controls, engine controls), as well as that used to produce, test, or manufacture equipment to be installed on airborne products).. Will you pass it with arduino based system?
Hi. I'm a pilot in Ireland and am really interested in building this project. I haven't done anything with an arduino before, so I'm a bit tentative. I've downloaded your code and the diagram. I'm not sure which encoder you used. Is there a part number for it? I have sourced all the other bits. Thanks for sharing this idea - I think it's brilliant.
I think all encoder can work. You only need an encoder with a push-button contact.
I have forgotten to tell that the board was powered in 5 Volts with a 7805 (TO220) regulator feed by the onboard 12 Volts battery.
A 1N4004 diode is inserted before the 7805 to prevent any error when connecting on the board power.
Do not try to use 12 Volts directly, this voltage may vary up to 14.4 Volts max which is too much for the arduino board regulator.
If you need any information, feel free to contact me directly.
The sketch compiles well. I use Arduino version 1.5.6 Beta. Modfont.c is not needed for pure English (forget it)
You must have the 2 Adafruit libraries ( Adafruit_GFX.h and Adafruit_HX8340B.h) installed in the Arduino libraries folder.
I have added my last (better) version of this sketch (with comments in French, please refer to the initial English version) It compiles with no problem. I now use a BMP180 (whith the use of a library to reduce significatively the code) Simply compile this code and it will work well....
hi pilippeulm,
i'm a ultralight pilot from south of Italy, i am very interested in your project but i don't have knowledge about programming, i can contact you by email for further information?
Many thanks
Luca.
pito:
Your diy altimeter needs a certification I would say (ie. FAA - Aircraft Certification Service is concerned with the approval of software and airborne electronic hardware for airborne systems (e.g., autopilots, flight controls, engine controls), as well as that used to produce, test, or manufacture equipment to be installed on airborne products).. Will you pass it with arduino based system?
This is an old thread but it's worth noting for future readers that it's a common misperception is that all things for aviation must be high-dollar "certified".In the U.S.A. FAA only cares about such things when used in so-called "Certified" class aircraft - not "experimental" or ultralight class except in the case where the equipment will be used for "IFR" flight (instrument flight rules - i.e. flying by reference to instruments only in low/no visibility).
Some Days old but i'm very interested in, but ...
my experience with Arduino e.g. is to limited.
Has someone tried to get the Adarfruit 2"2 TFT Display working
with this Projekt?
I tried a lot, but with no success
Would be someone so kindly and give me an advice, what i have to change in the code
to get this Display (or an recomended other) to work?
