Hi does anyone have some experience doing aerial surveys and 3D Mapping? A customer of mine wants to use either a Sony DSC-QX100 or a Nex 5T on his drone for this but I am not sure how to explain how the camera triggers, whether it is via the USB out of the drone and into the USB input of the cam, or if it is Bluetooth via a Bluetooth module on the drone, and also how to set APM correctly. Any assistance will be greatly appreciated, thanks Mike
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Mike,
http://littlesmartthings.com/stratosnapper2/stratosnapper-supported... is also worth a look.
There is a Pixhawk walk through here http://plane.ardupilot.com/wiki/common-pixhawk-auto-camera-trigger-...
Andy
We have had good success with the GentLed cables from Gentles in the UK.
They have cables for most cameras and we are waiting for one for the Sony A5000 at the moment.
Previously the cables worked great on the Ricoh GX's we used.
They have a USB or similar connector for the camera and a standard servo connector for PWM input on the other.
Most also have a single wire for relay triggering.
Gentles Limited: Camera Remote Control
Ok brilliant.. So its just plugging the camera in to the USB out of the drone, programming the Grid Pattern Aerial Survey on APM and the camera's shutter will trigger at set waypoints? And will APM recognise the newer Nex5T? Thanks Mike
If you check the details on the Gentles site:
The USB on the Camera is the connection for remote control.
The other end of the cable connects to one of the APM outputs (configured by you) and the cable converts the PWM transition to a trigger pulse for the camera
You CAN use a waypoint/trigger combination but we found this rather laborious for longer missions.
The set trigger distance is a much simpler way which also means far fewer waypoints as you only need them at the corners.
Thanks Mike! Cant wait to try this out
Have a poke around here Mike http://plane.ardupilot.com/wiki/common-cameras-and-gimbals/
Thanks Gary