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Pixhawk in a Cessna 172 (old fashioned manned aircraft)

Posted by Salad Dodger on May 16, 2016 at 7:23pm

All,

One out of the ordinary, Will the Pixhawk fire a camera in manual mode? If I plan a survey grid in mission planner and then fly down the runs in a manned aircraft will the pixhawk trigger the camera at the planned photo events?

In reply please set keyboards to 'stun' only

Cheers

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Replies

  • Marcus Wright May 30, 2016 at 3:49pm
    I know a guy that uses an Arduio and gps to make a Chdk hacked camera fire as he desires.
    I helped him test it firing every 5 m traveled in the x direction.
    • Salad Dodger > Marcus Wright May 30, 2016 at 8:16pm

      Marcus, this would not help me as I may have to ferry 100 nm to a project site. If I am taking a photo every 70m that adds up to a shite load of photos, before I even start the survey. For manned survey you simply need the camera to trigger at planned photo events. I will give it a go in AUTO as suggested above and see what happens

      • Marcus Wright > Salad Dodger May 31, 2016 at 5:21am

        You can push a button to start the acquisition or have it start at a predefined GPS point.  Simple for an Arduino.  But I can sort of understand you are looking at a complete flight controller to do this.  

        • Salad Dodger > Marcus Wright June 1, 2016 at 3:02am

          Thanks for the replies guys, I will try this out in the Cessna 172 in the next few weeks and let you know how it goes.

          • Hernan Borcano > Salad Dodger June 3, 2016 at 8:01pm

            Sorry I Just saw the post. Pixhawk, or apm in a plane, done that (old piper cherokee) . Used APM hooked to laptop as guidance, and APM to trigger camera using DO_SET_CAMERA_TRIGGER_DISTANCE. To ferry without taking pictures you just set to 0 and set to desired just before starting photo run.

            Main problem with this is knowing camera status if camera is outside of plane.

            Using laptop and misión planner for guidance you can make a pretty good job. Best would bee an nice cropdusting guidance bar.

            • Salad Dodger > Hernan Borcano June 5, 2016 at 5:41pm

              Thanks Herman, we used to use a crop dusting bar in geophysics flying. When you are only 60m above the ground at 130kts its handy if the pilot is looking outside! I find young pilots like a screen to help guide them onto the line. I am going to give this a test will post how I get on.

              Cheers

      • Andre K. > Salad Dodger May 31, 2016 at 3:08am

        When using auto and exact points, make sure you configure acceptance radius to be within something you are able to hit, the default of 5m may prove difficult for manual flight.

  • Salad Dodger May 18, 2016 at 3:25am

    Andre I did not want to use the trigger by distance function. I wanted to create a survey grid, and then fly the grid manually using mission planner for navigation assistance as you mention. So I think you have answered the question but if I fly a planned survey grid with set overlaps will the Pixhawk fire the camera at the planned photo stations in the grid, in manual mode?

    Cheers

    • Andre K. > Salad Dodger May 18, 2016 at 6:31am

      mode does not influence DO_SET_CAMERA_TRIGGER_DISTANCE  , only the old-fashioned, messy way of having a trigger event at each position - which would require AUTO mode.

      • Salad Dodger > Andre K. May 19, 2016 at 3:47am

        Ok then it is going to be a no for me as I wanted to do it the old fashioned way and have pre-planned trigger points. As the pixhawk would have no servos connected could I run it in auto and still fly the aircraft manually, and have it trigger the camera at the set points?

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