Hi,

I started this quad some time ago with the purpose of vertical photography for mapping and elevation modelling....yip, another one of those. I have some questions that I have searched for on the site and have not found answers to. Sorry if I cover previous topics, but I'm so close and I want to get the project to fly. The idea was to start off cheap and nasty to prove the principal and then refine from there. My big hex parts are arriving(APM2.5 already here), so I'm on fire to get this going.

My quad comprises (HK parts)

1. X666 quad frame

2. Turnigy 2826 - 1360Kv motors with 8x3.8 APC SF props.

3. Turnigy 25A hexfet ESC's. Standard software.

4. APM2 with 433Mhz telemetry.

5. FrSky 8Ch telemetry receiver.

I taped the ESC's to the alluminium hoping that it will serve as an additional heatsink. Not sure it does.

The alluminium contraption in front is my gimbal(pitch and roll) using 19x2mm alluminium. The servos are Corona metal geared servos. Yeah, I know, its huge, but at around $25 cost(materials, I'm sure time wise another $200), not bad. Again - a prototype. Its on the refinement list. I used 4x8mm motor bearings to join the moving parts on the one side with the servos being in direct drive on the onther side. The yellow tape is where I managed to break the alluminium in a size adjustment-a quick fix. The black box(previous project housing - hence the holes) represents the camera housing with optional Nano board and power to operate the camera. This brings me to my first question.

Q1. I'm using a servo to trigger my camera. I've done the code for Nano board using a 2 second interval to trigger the shutter. Now, using an available APM channel, is it possible to trigger the shutter with an fixed interval(2,3,5 or x seconds). I would gues this would involve setting a triggered_servo_pos, untriggered_servo_position, trigger_time(how long to hold full pos) ect. Is it possible to do this with the current ArduCopter?

This is my cheap and dirty camera-just standing on the quad for purpose of the pic.

No, it does not have interval exposure settings.

No, I can not get it open to put the swicth on the relay. I'm almost 2m tall with fingers to match. My glasses are almost as thick as the camera...I'm not going in there.

I've tested the camera's ability - rate at wich 8mp pics are processed and stored. It is around 2 seconds, so a shutter time of 2.5 seconds with the correct flight speed for the set altitude will ensure correct overlaps. The missing function(for me) is the shutter timer. I'm sporting a ER9X system and looked for a solution in the model definition, bypassing APM with a timed command from the transmitter, but it does not seem possible from that angle either. I'm stuck - help.

Whilst working through the radio settings and setting up my (ER9X) new radio, I noticed the RTL function under Ch7(Never had 7 channels - only 4+2). I've setup Ch7 as RTL.

Q2. If I'm flying in any other mode than auto and CH7-RTL is activated, does the bird come home or do I have to be in auto mode?

Q3. If I connect an ultrasonic sensor to APM2.x. Does it consider the attitude of the copter when calculating the distance to ground(Sloped distance vs. Vertical distance).

Q4. Can I stream the ultrasonic sensor data via the telemetry link and if so, at what rate? How do I pick it up on the other side - can it stream to a com port or file?

Q5. The telemetry data from MavLink - what is the timestamp accuracy. How accurate can I get it(ms)?

Q6. Maybe outside the forum - has anybody streamed data over the fsky telemetry port(non fsky data).

My next step would be attaching the gimbal, mounting the camera in the box with the nano board and a power supply. Hook it up to APM2 and off I go. This should happen in the week(silly season is upon me now, but should get it done).

Thanks for any help and suggestions.

Antonie