The new Ground Control Station of the D4 series in its Version 3 for 2022, maintains its appearance and traditional size. Its the only thing. The rest is all new or updated.
Some of the news:
New Ground Control Station D4 V3:
It connects to new peripherals such as long-range full HD Digital Video and the powerful Smart Antenna Tracker.
There are very interesting and useful changes since it has been practically renewed in its entirety, hardware, electronics, firmware, battery, functionalities, etc. Endowing it with more duration, interfaces, functions and greater capacity for the new and more advanced missions.
The Radio Control and telemetry system are independent of the PC and have their own microcontrollers, this increases security against system crashes or PC break.
Digital Video is independent of the PC and the Radio Control system.
Radio control and telemetry displays are now high resolution color TFT IPS.
The ethernet connections are easily accessible on the control panel.
The new Lion battery, longer duration, can be charged with the supplied charger or any standard charger.
In previous versions the displays had specific fixed functionalities.
In the current version all the displays are in color and can change functionality, also the central is touch and with a dedicated GPU.
Now we change the concepts of instrument displays, that is, now each display can independently display avionics instruments adapted from any part of the XLRS system.
For example, the central display can display a combo with artificial horizon, altimeter, speed, RF coverage and some more parameters, it can be selected to display only the Power part, flight batteries, the suitcase, the Smart Antenna tracker, times, consumptions, etc. The small 1.5 “displays meanwhile can view only the RF part, another can view the status of the system, alarms, etc.
This generates redundancy and increases the reliability of the system since if the PC fails, any display can display Mavlink telemetry or if one of the displays fails, another display can cover the desired function.
The OSD sends the data through the video channel independently with what more redundancy is available in case of PC failure or RC communications.
GCSD4V3RI option with built-in radio modem:
The GCSD4V3RI has the built-in radio modem.
It is economical and useful when the flights are close (<25km), they aren’t demanding and and you don’t need to carry too much luggage.
You can always increase the effective range economically, with a tripod by connecting a high gain antenna through the RF cable
But if you want to get the best performance and range, SAT will be available in early 2022: A robust tracker antenna with built-in radio modem.
GCSD4 can communicate to the RF part (SMBTS or SAT) by an ethernet cable (in some cases it is necessary) or by wifi to eliminate the cable, simplifying the start-up.
Now the radio ranges are more easily achievable by the pilot since he can connect to the new Smart Antenna Tracker and carry out automatic tracking of the aircraft with high gain antennas.
The Smart Antenna tracker includes SMBTS or Smart Base Station (Radio Modem for Radio Control and Mavlink Telemetry or Transparent Data Link), The video system, antennas and a powerful and precise tracking mechanism.
Prepared for transport and quick assembly with suitcase included.
The arm that supports the antennas is removable and allows to put various combinations of antennas as necessary.
The antennas are easily assembled and disassembled. More info SATPRO in blog.
Some applications or missions only need radio control and telemetry, most need video for the pilot and others also need video for the observer.
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- GCSD4V3 without video. The 10″ video monitor acts as the 2nd monitor for the PC.
- GCSD4V3 with Digital Video.
- GCSD4V3 with Analog Video.
The new Full HD Digital Video system is included in the SAT (Smart Antenna Tracker) and can reach 30km or more than 50km according to configurations.
It works at 2.4Ghz (other optional bands) and has a delay of 0.2sec.
It is prepared with an HDMI output to connect by cable to the GCSD4 or without cable with a wireless adapter without delay with a range of up to 30m.
RXVID3 analog video is very inexpensive and long-range, has less resolution and is only licensed with low power in some countries. The cameras are usually cheap. More info: Choice band frequences in video.
The analog video is transmitted from the antennas to the GCSD4 on a 5.8Ghz channel, so it doesn’t need a cable, although it has an AV output if necessary.
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Note: This information is preliminary and there may be changes when the equipment goes into production in 2022.
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