Im starting to wonder why I spent the time with APM and the arduplane software. There are some serious shortcomings that Ive brought to the attention of devs and Chris, but I feel like my issues are falling on deaf ears. Ive spent the time and money to develop my own mapping aircraft with the APM as a controller, and Ive now realized that mapping with automatic camera triggering isnt even supported, nor will my constant pleas to fix it be addressed.
Allow me to elaborate.
My camera works, that much is clear. I can trigger the camera through the mission planner by right clicking the map and selecting "Trigger Camera Now" and it fires the trigger. So there is communication between the Mission Planner and the USB trigger set up on channel 7.
I set the camera shutter trigger type in the standard configuration menu to: "Servo when 3m from waypoint". but after flying to waypoints or setting up a grid, it wont trigger. why?
This brings me to my next issue: grid vs gridV2. GridV2 has an extra input when setting up that asks if you want to add shutter triggers. I click yes, then write and I get the error stating that DO_Digicam_Control is not supported. Again, why? Can this be fixed?
And another issue with GridV2. WHy does it only show a few waypoints in the polygon and not all of them like regular grid (see pictures)?
Im out to do one thing, get the APM to trigger the shutter from channel 7 at the waypoints. And so far, every option does not work, or is not supported. Can anyone see why Im frustrated? Does anyone have any advice to make this work?
Matt
Replies
ok, I think I may have figured out a strange quirk that has been causing me grief.
I set the shutter trigger method to "servo when 3m from waypoint". Good so far.
BUT, when I manually test the camera by right clicking the map and selecting trigger camera now, it will change the shutter trigger method in the standard parameters tab from "servo when 3m from waypoint" to "servo".
Why it does this I have no idea. SO I woukd setup everything before the flight, then test the camera through the the MP before launching. By testing the camera it would revert back to servo and not do the waypoint trigger.
Sheesh.
Heres my steps:
1. plugged in the usb trigger to CH7 output on the APM
2. In the Standard Parameters menu, selected CH7 option to Camera Trigger. Tested by right-clicking the map in the Flight Data tab in Mission Planner, and selecting "Trigger Camera Now". The MP does trigger the USB so communication is happening.
3. In the Standard Parameters menu, selected camera shutter trigger type to: "Servo when 3m from waypoint".
4. Flew mission and the MP will not trigger at any waypoints.
Gents,
first, thanks for your replies to help. Im sorry if the title is a bit harsh on this post. Im really frustrated because Arducopter software seems to move faster than arduplane, and all of these issues seem to be addressed with arducopter.
Im triggering the Canon S95 camera with CHDK via a usb switch. Also, let me reiterate that the Mission Planner will trigger the camera because if I right-click the map and select "Trigger Camera Now" it will fire the shutter. I have some nice aerials this way.
But, my main problem is in the Standard parameters menu: The 3rd or 4th parameter down from the top is the camera shutter trigger type, and I have selected "Servo when 3m from waypoint". However, it will not trigger when 3m from any waypoints. So the option to do it is in the parameters, and I know the Mission Planner can trigger the camera when I select "trigger camera now" but the automation part is not working...
Also, any Idea why GridV2 does not fill in the polygon (see my attached photo explaining)
Matt, can you list the steps you used? Are you using a servo to do the trigger?
BTW, here is a mission file that I used in the HIL simulation to trigger a servo at specific points, you can adapt it for your situation
Hey Matt, sorry to hear about your problems.
I'm actually flying a SkyHunter in a couple of different mapping configurations.
It looks like you're trying to trigger via waypoint using APM, and not with an intervalometer using your Tx, right?
What kind of camera are you using? How do you have the control connected?
Thanks!
JC
It looks like it maybe fixed on the master branch https://github.com/diydrones/ardupilot/commit/ddfcafe80fc5562d69bad... so would be coming in 2.71?
It looks like the command was being rejected when sent a a mission command from Mission Planner. The above change would fix that. There's also the fix for logging the events https://github.com/diydrones/ardupilot/commit/a69c9ff674bbe7b548e40...