Ever sat at home wishing that you could make a battle, but couldn't? As an Admiral, ever wonder what the heck happened to your plan once battle started? As a Captain, have you ever wanted to relive that moment that you chased down and sank _____ (insert name here)? Maybe a Real Time Model warship Tracking system ( RTMT ) is what you need! Seriously now, for all you techincal types. Here's the basic idea. A system that could track the ships, in real time, during battle. The data to be broadcast over the internet to a web page (or whatever) that would display the actual lake, the ship name, locations & movements, ship's firing, and ship's sinking. So if you couldn't make the battle, you could log on, and watch the tracking (maybe not as exciting as being there, but may be interesting). As an Admiral's (or own self improvement) tool, you could replay the battle, and have actual after action reviews. The sortie battle data files would probably not be too big, as it would would only contain four data sets per ship. Hardware. The tracking devices themselves could be zigby protocol devices, or maybe high powered RFID devices. It looks like GPS devices are too slow (about 10 sec delay) for our purposes. Most of these devices are pretty small. The tracking system would have multiple tracking antennaes set up such that the ship locations could be triangulated, and the data sent to an on site computer for upload. This is where my knowledge base gets week, as I've not dealt with a lot of this type of stuff (at least not small enough for model ships). Why not a live video feed? Simply answered, liability issues should something go wrong during an event. Well, what do you think?
For those who have not met Demetri in person, he is the vilest sort of Allied scum who ever supplied drinks, chips and CO2 at a battle, and has been battling many years. So don't look at the low post count and think he's new to the hobby He's the only guy I know who can get titanium parts for his guns. He and Mike Mangus mentioned this idea to me at the Brouhaha on the Bayou earlier this year. I think it'd be really fun at Nats for the Axis captain's meeting (or for the Allies if they ever put down their tea and parasols) to go over the action and review the good and bad parts, kind of like the real military does at places like Red Flag and Top Gun. I would be interested in how to solve the position triangulation dilemma. It bears thinking. The onboard zigbee modules are dirt-simple, as is counting shots fired, and what gun and when. It's the triangulation part, and the determining direction of travel. It would be interesting to see how far from the drives and such that a hall-effect sensor would have to be to get accurate enough readings on heading, although if workable, it'd be an easy way to get heading info to the zigbee.
let me throw some more fuel on the fire... http://www.paintballsentry.com/ you might be able to adapt that software, teamed with a ship ID transponder to triangulate ship positions optically. the other thing you might be able to do is integrate a gps receiver such as http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8825 and get around the accuracy by calibrating them before a sortee to your location (or at least to each other so they are self consistent). good to have you here.
rtmt is an interesting concept. it should be dooable in just a few years. the techniology was only able to track ocean going tankers 15 years ago we just have to wait for the military to demand accuracy to .025 m. for each wepon in the field. size power and accuracy problems will all be solved the programs for identifing and tracking each wepon fired, the direction of fire and the movement of the wepon will mesh with just what you are asking for. internaly powered the size and weight of 2x50 cent pieces. i will say: may- 2013 starting at $100.00 a pop mate
I've been out of town for a few days... Tugboat, you forgot something. My smooth bore cannons (side mounts) are brass sleeved titanium barrels (you need the brass to be able to solder the fittings on). My long range barrels (bow or stern mounts) are cut down bb gun barrels... I've been in the hobby since 1996, and I currently have seven warships (in various stages of readiness), and one convoy ship in works... The Paintball Sentry thing is cool, but not what we're looking for. The GPS chip is closer, but there's still a delay factor to deal with. Any delay measured in seconds is too much. There are current systems out there to track personel in buildings, mainly in the medical field. There are other systems out there to track containers in an area, which is more in line with what we would need. Triangulating is a rather simple affair, but it very dependant on the senstivity of the receiving antennae. And the more antennae you use, the more accurate the tracking. Very similar to a GPS sytem. Perhaps a ground based GPS transmitter/receiver system is workable, and being ground based may not suffer from the delay...
I always wanted a map that traced the path of the ships, like the ones you see written up after a battle. LIke the path of the Scharnhorst when it was being chased by the Brittish. I have pondered putting a camera up on a pole so that the entire pond can be seen. Then use the recording to generate the top down map. I think there is enough contrast to track the ships against the water. But alas I have not had time ... Too many projects too little time. Peter
Sidetracking slightly ... I've always wondered what kind of video we could make from a video camera mounted on a 30' pole. Add in a remote control to move the camera and operate the zoom, and I think it would make for some great 'epic' style videos of boat battling.
How about go all ESPN / NFL style with a suspended wire above the pond ... follow the action across the pond and stuff!!! That woudl be awesome!
