Pilot a Drone in Style with This Pelican 1150 Case Ground Control Station

Purpose

Over on Reddit, user u/cjdavies wanted a way to control his drone in style and while under intense sunlight outside. At first he was going to use a basic Microsoft Surface Go, but that wasn't very well suited to use in the field. So he instead opted to construct a rugged Pelican 1150 'cyberdeck' case that's packed with all the hardware necessary.

Hardware and Software

The screen is probably the most important component of the build, since it shows maps with the routes laid out and real-time telemetry data from the drone. Rather than use the 7" Raspberry Pi touchscreen (only 800x480 pixels!) cjdavies opted for a 5.7" HDMI field monitor that gives better resolution and brightness when outside. This display is driven by a Raspberry Pi 4 that runs Mission Planner.

The software was created by Michael Oborne as a skin on top of ArduPilot, and it allows users to draw waypoints, fences, and send commands from an easy-to-use interface. It also lets pilots see where their drone/map is located by overlaying the graphics on top of satellite data from Google Maps/Bing/Open Street Maps. The drone itself is an Everycopter Y6 hexacopter with a Pixhawk Cube Orange Autopilot module. This lets the ground control software communicate with the drone over 433MHz SiK radio modules.

Power is provided by either 4-cell or 6-cell LiPo batteries connected via an XT60 battery connector. This is more useful that a mobile USB C power bank because LiPo cells are ubiquitous when flying drones, so there are bound to be some extras lying around if the primary battery is drained.

Design

The faceplate for the ground control station is meant to mimic a miltary-style briefcase that's full of interesting gadgetry. The HDMI screen is prominently placed in the center for easy viewing, along with a rocker switch on the left for toggling the device on/off and the battery adapter. Two USB 3 type-A ports and one USB 2 type-A port sit on the right side of the screen for connecting USB drives and other peripherals, such as a mouse and keyboard. There is an ethernet jack at the bottom for hardwired network connectivity and a fan to keep the internals cool.

For audio output, an Adafruit I2C Audio Amplifier Bonnet communicates with the Pi over I2S and sends the sound to a speaker at the top right corner.

Fabrication

The faceplate was printed by a Prusa i3 Mk3 using PET-G filament from Eryone on draft settings. After a bit of cleanup, cjdavies attached the speaker and cooling fan, along with a pair of LM2596 buck regulators into their respective locations (one provides 12v for the screen and the other provides 5v for the Pi). The HDMI display was set into the central mount and anchored with a few screws. Finally, the Raspberry Pi 4 was placed on its mount, along with the speaker bonnet.

Testing It Out

Once inside of the Pelican case, the project looks like something straight from a spy thriller. It seems to work well due to its portability and bright screen, not to mention its ability to be powered so easily. Taking it out to a field and plotting a course for your drone has never looked cooler.