Questions about APM 2.5 functionality

Posted by Falcon on June 9, 2013 at 4:40pm

I have built a differential-drive rover using to power chair motors and a Sabertooth 2x25 controller. It uses 24 VDC and can operate for > 4 hours on a charge. I currently control it with a Futaba 9C. I have a camera on a Pan/tilt mount and transmit the video and audio back to my groundstation on 1.2 GHz. The pan is capable of 360 continuous rotation due to a slip-ring passing all of the tilt, power, video and RS-485 signals. I control the camera zoom function using the 9C and a Parallax Propeller-based PWM to Pelco-format converter I made.

I'm interested in an autopilot system and the APM 2.5 sounds like it will do most of what I want. I have the following questions:

Situation 1: I'm interested in stabilizing the camera pan and tilt so the camera will remain pointed in a particular direction until I command it to move with the 9C. I see video of those M1A1 Abrams tank barrels maintaining their aim while transversing rough terrain, and want to replicate that.

Questions: Is there any functionality in the APM 2.5 that would facilitate this sort of stabilization? Are there auxiliary pitch and roll outputs that would compensate the camera position?

Situation 2. I have several paths running through and around my property. From my reading, I understand I can manually drive an APM 2.5 equipped rover down a paths and manually mark the waypoints with the RC TX. I could do this to map all of the paths and save the linked waypoint "missions" as A, B, C, etc. Ideally, the rover would depart from the home point at predetermined times to video anything on the paths. For example, it would drive off on road A at 8:00 AM then return to the home point. Then at another predetermined time it would drive off on road B, then return to the home point.

Questions: Can you save multiple paths o-board the APM 2.5? Can you have them execute at predetermined times?

I appreciate any comments and suggestions,

falcon

You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!

Join diydrones

Tags: sabertooth, stabilization
Email me when people reply –
Follow

Replies

  • Falcon August 26, 2013 at 5:49pm

    I finally found the time to try the camera gimbal function again.

    I loaded 2.43beta2.  I tried channels 5 & 6 but couldn't find any way to get movement from either servo.  I'm using cheap Futaba servos on a ServoCity Pan and Tilt.

    I can get movement when using channels 10 & 11.  After some fiddling I got the tilt to stay pretty much level when tipping the rover forward and backwards, and it was fairly smooth.  

    The pan function, however, never did move smoothly.  Actually, as I held the rover in the air and rotated it, it would stay stationary until a certain point where the servo would turn all the way to the other direction.  It would do the same rotating it the other direction.  In either direction it gets to a certain point then "snaps" all they was to the end of travel.  I still need to swap channels to see if that makes a difference.

    So a bit of progress.

    Falcon

    • Muhsin Rold > Falcon February 13, 2014 at 1:35am

      Hi Falcon,

      It has been months since your last updates in this post. May I ask, have you got your solution? I too have the same problem, I cannot make any movement or actions using those auxiliary servo outputs. Your assistance is very much appreciated.

      Muhsin

    • Falcon > Muhsin Rold February 13, 2014 at 5:39pm

      Hello,

      I'm still around but haven't had much time to work with it in a while.  There have been several software updates since I tried so I will have to get that sorted out first.  I will update this thread when/if I make any progress.

      Thanks for your interest,

      Falcon

    • Muhsin Rold > Falcon February 13, 2014 at 11:30pm

      Thank you Falcon, looking forward to hearing good news from you.

      Regards,

      Muhsin

    • Admin
      Thomas J Coyle III > Muhsin Rold February 13, 2014 at 6:12am

      @Muhsin,

      Have you read the Wiki instructions on using a camera gimbal with the APM: Gimbal

      Regards,

      TCIII ArduRover2 Developer

    • Muhsin Rold > Thomas J Coyle III February 13, 2014 at 11:30pm

      Hi Thomas,

      I'll read it, thanks. Will get back to you later.

      Regards,

      Muhsin

  • Admin
    Thomas J Coyle III July 14, 2013 at 5:49pm

    Hi All,

    Tridge has updated and enabled the camera gimbal stabilization code for the APM2.x in the latest 2.43 beta2 release that can be found here: https://github.com/diydrones/ardupilot .

    Any member who wishes to use a stabilized camera gimbal on a rover is encouraged to try out this beta2 release and report back your experience with this new functionality.

    Regards,

    TCIII ArduRover2 Developer

  • Falcon July 10, 2013 at 4:58am

    So maybe this relates to the thread I started on the new forum.  The "Stabalise Tilt" and Stabalise Pan" boxes cannot be checked because the APM code doesn't currently support that feature?

    I've since purchased the AMP 2.5 and am installing it.  One of the main reasons I chose this autopilot was because of this Camera Gimbal feature.  What is the expectation that this feature will be enabled soon?

     

    falcon

  • AntimatterCrusader June 12, 2013 at 9:21am

    If I'm not mistaken, gimble pan/til/stabilize control is supported in Mission Planner without the need for coding skills. 

  • Falcon June 10, 2013 at 2:32pm

    Well that's all good news.

    I thought I looked over those ArduPlane Instructions but I must have missed that.

    I have no Python experience so when I get to that point I will have to solicit help.

    I appreciate the info and links.

    falcon

This reply was deleted.