As i delve deeper into arduPilot and look into purchasing the parts needed for my first drone, i have a couple details confusing me.
When I attach a camera onto the drone, is this camera's purpose to record the flight or send back real time camera feed for you to see? Of course I would love it if the software could handle real time camera streaming to your HQ, but it seems impossible to do. Could someone clarify how the cameras mounted would work? Thanks a lot!
Replies
Grant the camera that you posted would need a video transmitter in addition to the camera. What CRiro1999 was discussing was a cable from a HD action cam to a video transmitter in a live view mode. The camera records in HD on the craft and sends an analog SD 320x240 signal to a video transmitter.
This is the method I am going to do on my plane however my quad I use one of the little Sony SUPER HAD camera cores as it is lighter and I power off a tap from my 3 cell main pack.
That depend of your camera and the purpose for use it (FPV or not, aerial only, etc.)
You can use the same camera to record and stream your video on the same time, like GoPro and other similar.
Or 2 cameras, one for navigation, one for recording.
Ardupilot software is not used for streaming camera. Ardupilot have options for gimbal (level) camera, trigger the shoot or some geo features.
You can not stream HD video to ground, except if you use special (heavy equipment) or use short range (under WiFi range, iPhone, etc)
Usually I have 2 camera when I am flying FPV: one is for HD recording (GoPro), this is CMOS sensor. This does not send the image (you can with GoPro using video out, but you can have some small delays and this could be crucial sometime). When you look directly on the sun with CMOS, you can be blind and see nothing. The second camera I use is for navigation (FPV) and this is CCD senser, LD (480lines). When you look direct to the sun, this is a black circle and you can navigate easy.The navigation camera send the stream to ground and usually is analog signal (900, 1200, 2400, 5800). It is good that navigation camera to be tied to model and recording camera to be leveled by a gimbal. Some people use the head tracking for navigation camera, but this is good when you fly fix wings (planes). When you choose the video TX, have in consideration your actual TX and telemetry and be sure to avoid interferences.