Greetings, all. For the past several years, I have led a project that involves the filming of a the length of a river from headwaters to a specific point for environmental purposes. For the past projects, we have hired a helicopter company and have had a camera operator in the passenger seat actually do the filming. This year, I'm looking at putting together a UAV system to do the same thing. Here are my plans and a couple of questions if anyone would be so kind as to answer them.
I'm planning on purchasing a fully-assembled kit. Specifically this one: http://www.udrones.com/product_p/acrtf2.htm ... I plan to add the GPS, full 2-way telemetry, sonar, and camera mount options from that page.
I plan on attaching my company's T2i to record the video, which I think will have to be done in approximately 15-20 minute segments (because of the large camera payload and battery life). I plan on using the MC software to add waypoints over the waterway that I need to film and then following along the route in an automobile (there is a highway parallel to the river the whole way).
I have a couple of questions...
- What else do I need to purchase besides the assembled kit, the added options, r/c controller, batteries, and chargers?
- Will this be ready to fly after I configure the controller and other things according to http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/wiki/AC2_First ?
- This might be a dumb question, but let's say the camera is facing "north" on the helicopter. How do you make the autopilot fly in a way that ensures the camera is facing the right direction for your video/stills?
- What else have I not thought of?
Thanks so much for any help you can offer! I will be reading everything I can, but I just can't seem to find answers to these questions. I appreciate this forum.
Aaron
Replies
Most people doing "heavy" lift camera go with an Hexa or Octo... the Quad will lift a GoPro but I would not put an expensive (and heavy) DSLR on one... at least not with basic motors and 10 inches props... heck scratch that I would not even put a T2i on the Quad with upgraded motors and 12 inches props.. go with Hexa and you will thank me later! :)
For fly time, assuming you still put that on a quad, you will get like 8 minutes max as you will have to be a 90% throttle to stay in the air. Stability will also suffer.
As for just putting the batteries and RX and fly... not quite... you will need to install the mission planner and do basic configuration for the TX... and your telemetry stuff...
But it's almost ready to fly. Quite simple actually.
For your orientation question, you can tell the autopilot to maintain the direction so you will be ok. But even if you fly the mission in autonomous mode nothing replace manual mode for precision...
Jump aboard, buy a kit and fly away! (just don't put the camera in for your first flights until you get comfortable!)
Dany
www.CanadaDrones.com