Content is copyright of company represented. Page format, custom text and
images are RF Cafe copyright - do not distribute.
April 13, 2020 - Vista, California - Axiom Test Equipment,
an electronic test equipment rentals and sales company headquartered in North
County San Diego, has published a blog post entitled "Steering UAVs Clear with
Digital Circuit Testing ." This blog is the second in a series of three planned
articles that will
take a closer look at the global fascination with UAVs and how they are used, whether
for farming or for warfare, and some of the best test tools that can be applied
to ensuring the best UAV performance possible. The
OQ-2A, one of the first remote-controlled target drones produced in the U.S.,
was made by the Radioplane Company owned Hollywood actor Reginald Denny.
Norma Jeane Mortenson, aka Marilyn Monroe, was discovered there.
"Drones and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
are being used in a growing number of commercial, civil, industrial, and military
applications. They are currently used for many security and surveillance tasks as
well as for monitoring inventory in warehouses. They are expected to play major
roles in almost by-the-hour delivery schemes being developed by major retailers.
As noted in the previous blog, they depend on onboard sensors for gathering data,
tracking, navigation, and positioning and wireless radio links (and regular testing
of those links) for reliable command and control from a nearby ground station, even
when the ground station turns out to be simply a smartphone. The radio signals between
a drone and a controller, whether a vehicle is autonomous or guided by a remote
pilot, can be checked with RF/microwave test equipment. Once those signals have
reached the UAV, they are digitized and 'live' within the digital realm, with the
guidance of multiple-core microprocessors and/or microcontrollers. It is in that
realm in which they must be monitored and maintained. Achieving top performance
from the digital components within a UAV is a matter of making the right measurements
with the right test equipment.
Digitized video occupies a great deal of a drone's built-in memory. Digital video
is part of the functionality of many UAVs since they are equipped with various types
of cameras as their 'eyes.' The embedded computing within the drone includes one
or more microprocessors or microcontrollers (which combine a multiple-core microprocessor,
memory, power components, and video signal processing within one module). The embedded
computing is essential for drone operation and is designed to handle large amounts
of digital video data at a fast clock speed, depending upon the application.
A drone's video or infrared (IR) cameras generate video signals as analog voltages
that are then transformed to digital bits by means of an analog-to-digital converter
(ADC). Higher-speed (in terms of clock rate) data converters can handle more bits
at one time and higher-resolution (in terms of numbers of bits and b/s) ADCs can
process more video information from a UAVs cameras at one time and provide higher
levels of accuracy when the data is projected on a display screen at a UAV controller's
ground station, whether controller and graphical processing unit (GPU) is on a smartphone
or a personal computer (PC). Several measurement tools are useful for R&D and
production-line testing of the digital circuitry within autonomous and unmanned
drone, such as a high-speed oscilloscope for signal analysis and an arbitrary waveform
generator (AWG) for digital signal generation. Digital logic signals managed by
a UAV's embedded computing hardware and software are typically in the form of transistor-transistor-logic
(TTL) and complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) logic signals."
Click here for... the REST of the story...
If you would like help selecting any type of test equipment for your project,
contact Axiom Test Equipment's sales department at
sales@transcat.com,
call 760-806-6600, or browse Axiom Test Equipment's inventory online at
www.axiomtest.com.
About Axiom Test Equipment
Get Exactly What You Need. Rent - Buy
- Repair - Trade-In
Established in 2005, Axiom Test Equipment strives to continually improve itself
and offer the best value for its customers. We offer our customers several practical,
efficient and cost effective solutions for their business or projects' test equipment
needs. Whether you need to
rent &
buy test equipment, repair test equipment, sell or trade equipment, we are committed
to providing superior customer service and high quality electronic test equipment.
At Axiom Test Equipment we provide several services. We
rent electronic
test and measurement equipment. We also sell test equipment. If you have a piece
of malfunctioning or broken test equipment we also have an in-house repair lab.
For anyone seeking a way to offload their surplus or obsolete equipment, we offer
a trade-in program or we can buy the equipment from you.
We stock a comprehensive inventory of equipment and can use our extensive network
to find you those hard to get items. We believe in getting equipment to you quickly
and at a competitive price.
RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling
2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed
formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit
design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet) was largely an unknown entity at
the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity. Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps
while tying up your telephone line, and a lady's voice announced "You've Got Mail"
when a new message arrived...
Copyright 1996 - 2026
All trademarks, copyrights, patents, and other rights of ownership to images
and text used on the RF Cafe website are hereby acknowledged.
April 13, 2020 - Vista, California - 
Get Exactly What You Need. Rent - Buy
- Repair - Trade-In