My Stealth Gear Transport and Ground Station.

by FlyingMonkey | August 13, 2013 | (8) Posted in Projects

I was wanting some sort of all in one container for my FPV ground station, and transportation system.  I thought about using a nice tool box like the ones from Harbor Freight, but they just scream "Steal Me!" to me.

(Picture stolen from someone at RCG, through a Google image search.)

Wandering around the local Walmart, I saw a medium sized cooler, that I thought would do the trick nicely.

I took it home and went to work.

I added some Chicken sashimi stickers, just as a personal touch.  As well as a mini Flite Test gremlin.

I thought it would be smart to paint the interior.  It wasn't.  As it turned out, it was very, very stupid.  Don't do this.

I then cut out some light plywood and used some 3/4" foam to raise it off the bottom.  This gave me a way to hold my transmitter in place, as well as the battery box.

 

Remember how I said it was stupid to paint the interior?  Yeah, well even if it says the paint will stick to plastic, it doesn't.  And when the paint doesn't stick to plastic, all of that self adhesive velcro I wanted to add, stuck great to the paint, but then the paint peeled off the plastic.  So my TV screen kept falling free of the lid.  To solve for this, I made a plate from light plywood to hold it in place.  This worked very well. 

 

I now have a ground station that doesn't look valuable.  Yet inside there's a 5.8 gHz reciever with an IBCrazy cloverleaf antenna.  For sharing the FPV experience with people who come up to talk, a Digital Prism 7" screen.  Even with a "full ground station", I still have room.  I'm able to carry my JR 9503, six 3s 2200 mAh batteries.  My FatShark glasses in their case WERE velcroed to the interior wall.  Remember what I said about peeling paint?  Yeah.  

In addition to all of that that, I can carry my quadcopter in there too.

Now I'm ready to go fly FPV, without drawing too much undue attention to myself!

COMMENTS

vk2dxn on August 13, 2013
I like it. Practical and can also keep some coldies as well ;-)
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BanditMr2 on August 13, 2013
Very Nice!! What quad frame is that?
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FlyingMonkey on August 14, 2013
It's one I cut myself.
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rcspaceflight on August 14, 2013
No one will steal it if you paint the cooler red and put "Warning: Bio-Hazard" all over it. :D
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Zatoichi on August 14, 2013
Thats great Monkey! I bet It floats too! Relaxing FPV from an innertube tethered to this following yourself down the river! Sweet!
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Zatoichi on August 14, 2013
I really dig your quad mang!
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My Stealth Gear Transport and Ground Station.