Comment by Josh Potter on November 23, 2012 at 3:44pm

Shaun, how much is the quark?  Also, what about replacement lens cost?  I know you can't use standard plastic or glass because it absorbs wavelengths specific to shortwave (or is it longwave) IR.

Comment by William Hutchins on December 10, 2012 at 11:02pm

I purchased the spi M1D gimbal camera unit in the 320x240 detector varient earlier this year and can tell you that its awesome. We do wildlife scanning and counting and its great for that especially at night time, The thermal imagery is spectacular. We particularly like the unit because its easily dismounted and then placed on our truck for ground night time scanning, This solution has saved us tens of thousands of dollars and is making us greatly anticipated profit. We looked into the Quark, which is amazingly nice and small but its just a thermal camera engine with wires, for $5900 We got the M1D, the flir, the daytime camera, the laser and the ball with all of the ancillaries. Happy Holidays to All ! 

Comment by Michael Johnston on December 10, 2012 at 11:10pm

Is this unit subject to the USA export restrictions? Seems SPI are based in USA.

Be great to see an example of your wildlife work William.

What sort of machine are you flying it from?

MJ

Comment by Jamie Glover on December 11, 2012 at 12:51am

Im interested to know how one would go about setting this thing up on a sUAS. Im not too familiar with incorperating the ptz into APM. I'd definately like more information on this.

 

Comment by Hunter Parris on December 11, 2012 at 8:12am

I would assume that since it incorporates thermal imaging technology that it IS export restricted.  @Jamie  I found that the easiest way (so far) would be to add another electrical system.  For instance, The gimbal connected to a high-powered radio modem on the aircraft, another modem connected to a PTZ joystick gimbal or ready-made J-pad by SPI.  But, after speaking with the sale manager of SPI, He ensured me that that they can be customized for virtually any P&P setup.  So, I would be very curious to see if they can use Analog video out with PWM inputs for PTZ.  Would be interesting.

Comment by Josh Potter on December 11, 2012 at 8:41am

Don't forget that you've got a robust arduino, you're not limited to PWM inputs, you could probably find(or write heh) a serial library that could talk too it.  

Comment by Hunter Parris on December 11, 2012 at 12:13pm

That is true.  I'm no programming master so if one could write a serial library for a PTZ then please share!

Comment by Randall Kolchins on December 11, 2012 at 12:15pm

Hello all! My name is Randall Kolchins I am with SPI the company that makes the M1-D pan tilt thermal camera. This unit has generated tremendous interest in the UAV field and we are really looking for ways to make it better for this application. We started a blog post on DIY Drones to address the UAV community "wish list" for a low cost thermal pan tilt camera gimbal.

UAV Pan Tilt Thermal Camera Wish List

Check it out and please let us know what you want to see!

To answer some of the questions in this blogs comments:

1. The M1-D is restricted due to the thermal imaging, however that does not mean that it is not available. We do have models in 9hz that are easier to export. If you are an international customer just contact us and we can go over your options.

2. The sensor in the $3900 model is in fact 160x120 not 120x140 as in the blog post. I am sure that was just a typo.

3. The Pathfinder system that was discussed is a sealed system designed for vehicles that really has no control of the image, no lens options and no zoom. The pathfinder is just volts in video out. As mentioned our system is a completely different animal with thermal imager, cctv camera, laser pointer, digital zoom, color thermal and pan tilt positioning.

4. The quark is an awesome little imager and we are working with it right now. They still dont have all the bugs out of it so we feel it is not ready to go just yet. It will be a great choice for UAV and we do have several projects based on the Quark right now but it is not in the M1-D. Once FLIR gets it right it will be the one to go to. The other problem now is that the Quark costs more than our entire system so it is not right for low cost imaging.

5. Arduino integration is absolutely possible. We have not done this yet but here are some resources for you regarding Pelco-D, Arduino and RS-485.

This company is the place to go for serial work. They have a lot of resources for RS232, 422 and 485. The sell an analyzer and converters so you can read and write commands on your PC. These tools are great for figuring out serial commands from existing devices. They also explain Pelco-D

http://www.commfront.com/RS232_Examples/CCTV/Pelco_D_Pelco_P_Exampl...

This is a codeproject page that has Pelco-D in C#. Good reference.

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/8034/Pelco-P-and-D-protocol-imp...

Here is an RS-485 Shield for arduino

http://www.robotshop.com/rs485-shield-arduino-3.html

Please join our discussion and let us know what you think.

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