I've been a bit busy the last two weeks and failed to keep you all updated on what has been going on – sorry for that! Nonetheless, here is a summary of what I missed to blog about. Jaluro got new wheels! The new wheels are made of carbon fiber and weigh less than 100 grams. The previous wheels were made of aluminum and they were approximately 300 grams each. That's quite an improvement.
In the meantime, on of the E353 cameras donated to us by Elphel Imaging has been fitted onto a buggy and taken out for a long range test. For radio, a pair of Nanostation + Picostation was used that are specified to provide ranges up to 50-100km! The test was carried out in a densely populated area whit lots of reflection and diffraction, just as it would be the case on the moon with antennas close to the surface. The street was 400m long and so that's the maximum distance that has been tested in this round. The test took 25 minutes and a continuous video stream at 1280x720 @ 25p was maintained from the Picostation to the Tanostation. The throughput was measured as a function of time, which roughly corresponds to the distance:
Next up will be the long range video tests using Jaluro with the new wheels. This is a work in progress:
Finally, rumors say that in September 2009, one of the Elphel cameras will go where no Elphel camera has gone before! I wonder where that might be? Time will tell ;-)