How do I use the Antenna Pointing Abilities of my Eagletree EagleEyes FPV Station?

Published: Sun May 13 2012

Thats a good question, and I have yet to get it working correctly. So in an effort to do so, this will serve as a possible recipie for someone else.

First off, I bought the AntennaTracking Kit for EagleEyes from Readymade RC. Read more about it!

Built it and mounted it, and added my EagleEyes FPV Station by EagleTree Read more about that!

Reading the manuals I got pretty far, I just could not get my tracker to point the right way in the field.

Then I read this Amazing Epic Post Called : Flying FPV with Eagle Tree Systems and ReadyMadeRC Components. Part 2/2 by Tom Pepper.

A great read if you bought this gear, but to summarize the critical parts fopr the field:

After calibraing the Eagle Eyes facing North at the center pan position, I became hopelessly tangled up in the instructions for field use. So here is the startup sequence from the very patient Tim Stanfield at ReadyMadeRC. For On-Screen Programming go to the Eagle Eyes menu item.

The First Scenario This would be used if you always place the tripod facing the same way you calibrated the Eagle Eyes at home. (Mine is set for 0 degrees pan = North, so my tripod would be facing North at the field)

1. Set up tripod, power up Eagle Eyes and ground station. The servos will jump but will not hold any position after powered. 2. Power RadoTx and Rx/VidTx/OSD/GPS while plane is at the ground station. Eagle Eyes will pan to the “center” position as soon as the EE starts to receive telemetry, center it straight ahead right now (North) and then wait for GPS lock. Note: you can drag the tripod around to straight North, or with the RMRC tracker unit, pick upthe tracker head until the gears disengage, rotate it a little to face North, then settle it back down until gears reengage.) 3. If facing North, then your setting for "zero pan compass reading" should be 0. If you’ve set it before, it remembers. (Home is where the plane is when it locks on GPS, it has nothing to do with the DIRECTION the antenna is pointing.) 4 Fly, Antenna should follow plane

The Second Scenerio Use this sequence if you place the tripod facing a different direction than the EEyes was originally programmed.

1. Set tripod with center facing East (My field) 2. Power up plane, GPS lock, video tx. 3. Power up EEyes. On-Screen Program EEyes to 90 Zero Pan Angle. 4. Fly.

The thrid Scenario Use this sequence if you want the plane to tell the Eagle Eyes where it should find center.

1. Set up tripod, power up Eagle Eyes and ground station. The servos will jump but will not hold any position after powered. 2. Power TX/OSD/GPS while plane is at ground station. Eagle Eyes will pan to the “center” position as soon as the EE starts to receive telemetry, center it straight ahead (east in this case) right now and then wait for GPS lock. 3. Walk the plane across the field straight ahead of the patch antenna. The patch may turn if it thinks it’s pointing another direction, but don’t worry about it. Return to tripod, use your radio to choose the "Use Model Location as 0 Pan", select it, exit the menus, now the patch should turn and face your plane. 4 Fly. Antenna should follow plane.