Hello,
 
I want to share my experience with 3d modelling an archaeological structure called "Midas Monument" located at Yazılıkaya, Turkey. It was relatively an easy task, if you have right hardware and software. And I want to thank to dronmarket.com for the encouragement and give-away a RTF drone.

I started with taking photographs, of course your Images need to be processed with GPS data on Images' EXIF. About 9 min. flight allowed me to take 180 photos at interval of every 3 seconds. It was a free flight, not an autonomous, I knew the basic rules, so I tried to keep focusing on structure and flying in circle. You can find basic information on Ardupilot's Wiki

As I mentioned taking 180 photos took 9 mins. Then I went to home to process the Images, Pix4D was my first try. 


It analyzes all the Images and creates point cloud.

Using Pix4D feels like using other CAD programs, its relatively easy.
Proccessing took 8 hours on my computer, its a Dual Core PC with an old ATI graphics card. Pix4D also offers cloud rendering which is nice if you have an old computer like mine.
Finaly, texture is added and now we can render a HD video. We need to add camera positions.

This is the rendered video.

And this is Sketchfab model which I exported from reCap360.

Images from AutoDesk reCap360, completely cloud rendered but limited to 50 photos if you don't have a subscription. 

Hello all,

It's not a new achievement using wifi as Telemetry but this UART to WiFi module has really long range (up to 400 meters), and unbeatable price. Very small form factor (about 2cm x 1.5cm) and light (3 gr). Great for the small sized UAVs. And your Smart Phone or Tablet will become a GCS with no additional hardware. And with module's available GPIOs it's functionality can be increased (PWM, I2C sensors) you can drive LEDs or get sensor data over wifi.

Get firmware from https://github.com/jeelabs/esp-link > this is the stable solution for UART only

Another eriksl's great firmware for ESP8266 https://github.com/eriksl/esp8266-universal-io-bridge > A lot of functions supports pwm display temp sensors but UART bridge not stable, random drop outs

I've been experimenting with new ESP8266 UART to WiFi module and happy to announce you that it can be used as Telemetry module. It should work on all MAVlink devices that uses Serial communication. I tested with ESP-03 and APM 2.6 (3.2) and range is acceptable for Follow Me, or Guided missions. it works reliable enough and its really cheap, start as low as 2,5 $ at several stores (its a 3.3v device you will need a good (about 300ma) power source).  I think APM 2.6 users should receive at least a one last bug fix release (several reports indicates 3.2.1 has some issues with altitude calculations), of course you can compile your own verison.

releated fix 

https://github.com/diydrones/ardupilot/issues/706

https://github.com/R-Lefebvre/ardupilot/commit/8360b3d

For those who are interested, I can provide APM:Copter 3.2 (not 3.2.1) firmware with the fix. I am happy with it, doing some great auto flights, checking parameters, follow me flights, you can fly your UAV even without RC controller, directly from your wifi enabled GCS.