Replies to This Discussion

ModeratorPermalink Reply by Alex on March 11, 2010 at 4:50am

A simple way might be to just fasten the camera shutter button down so that it will constantly take pictures, but this might not work on some cameras. Otherwise you will need to buy a controller that is abit of a waste if its only gonna take timed pictures, esp a waste cuz it will need its own power supply if you don't have a free channel. Otherwise, another common method is to simply mount a R/C servo on your camera to push the button when you want but it does require another channel. I would reccomend that you buy a new receiver and transmitter. It will be a good investment if you plan on fling more complex aircraft with flaps/ gear, or a camera trigger/ autopilot switch

Have a look at the rcgroups.com forums under the aerial photography section, there is plenty of about camera trigger info there.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Willis on March 11, 2010 at 7:21am

Jason, I use CHDK ( http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK ) and run it from the SD card. Basically, it's a set of scripts that allows you to program your camera for all sorts of autonomous things like auto triggering. It's an awesome opensource project that has lots of applications outside of aerial photography.

As far as I know this it only works on Canon cameras but there might be a similar project for other manufacturers too.

-Mark

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Permalink Reply by Wayne on March 11, 2010 at 9:22am

In remark to this, I am interested in doing this is there anyone in here who uses the CHDK with a Canon camera and uses the USB mod perhaps with some wiring diagrams and such. I want to use a small Canon camera with the CHDK firmware and have it tied into the system so that when the plane hits certain waypoints or marks it knows when to take the pictures. How does that get done? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on March 11, 2010 at 8:41am

We sell this one which you can interface with ArduPilot. Or just use a camera that has sequential shutter mode (the Pentax point and shoots do)

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Permalink Reply by Jason on March 11, 2010 at 9:48am

Chris,

Do you guys plan on modifying your current switch to allow for automatic timed triggering?

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3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on March 11, 2010 at 9:54am

It's open source, so can just add a few lines of code to time the shots any way you want.

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Permalink Reply by Wayne on March 31, 2010 at 7:51am

As much as I want to add another Canon camera to my collection I have been considering the more affordable alternative, Pentax. I hope I am not beating a dead horse on this but if I get a Pentax that has a USB port (if its needed) how would this suggested item here http://store.diydrones.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=BR-0007-01 be interfaced with the camera? I also noticed that the page for that item says its ready to go out of the box, now I know what that means so I hope this doesn't come off as a rhetorical question but other then hooking it up to the camera is this thing going to do what I want it to do out of the box or am I going to need to do some code editing?

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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Gary Mortimer on March 31, 2010 at 2:04pm

Most people trigger Pentax cameras via the IR, I use a James Gentles switch but theres loads of IR trigger circuits out there if you must roll your own.

All that said, the canon option seems the way to go for lots of reasons. I have just started out on that path myself and I am impressed.

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3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on March 31, 2010 at 2:07pm

I use the Pentax with the IR trigger, which works well enough. The only problem is that I just don't like Pentax cameras very much; I'd love to find a good way to move to Canons.

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Permalink Reply by Wayne on March 31, 2010 at 2:15pm

Well now that I have gone back to the CHDK wiki and seen that they have updated their list of supported cameras and have found a nice small form factor and very affordable Canon, I may just roll with this. Its a toss up but I think I may go with the Canon SD 980IS with the CHDK firmware. There is a "switch" you can build to plug into the camera but Im sure I read somewhere that you can plug the camera directly to the Ardupilot via USB from the camera and that when you set up designated spots in the software where to take pictures, it will send a 3v or 5v (or something) signal to the USB port on the camera and that will get it to take the picture.

If I am misunderstanding this please someone let me know.

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Permalink Reply by Richard Green on March 31, 2010 at 2:57pm

I use CHDK with my Easystar and Cannon A570is.
I have written a script in Lua that, when commanded from the Tx, will take continuous shots or shut the camera down and retract the lens prior to landing. This is all done by an R/C controlled switch supplying 5v to the camera USB port. I also power the camera via a step down regulator as it requires 3.3v. It does work well on the bench but it has a problem with shutting down in the air. I think that it was due to the regulator overheating inside the planes fuse so I have mounted it outside now.

If you are using Ardupilot Outputs to trigger the camera via USB then you may have to use a relay of some kind to reduce the current draw through the ICs.

Richard

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Permalink Reply by brakar on March 31, 2010 at 3:35pm

I wrote a post in the Flexipilot/EasyUAV thread at RCGroups describing chdk triggering, including working script and pictures a while ago. Should be possible to find. brakar

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