GoPro_RC_Remote_v01_02_20170301.zipHi everyone!
I'd like to share a little project I have been working on, perhaps it may be of use to some. Let me know what you think!
It's not totally finished, but for now it seems to be working.
I made a little device in order to control my GoPro 4, which is mounted on a brushless gimbal under my Pixhawk controlled Tarot 680 hexacopter.
Two switches on my Taranis are used for starting/stopping the recording, switching between video and stills and to control zoom level.
It is based on ESP 8266, which functions as a tiny Arduino with WiFi functions.
The ESP is connected to one channel of my RC reciever. It reads this signal and then decides what control commands to send to the GoPro over wifi.
The hardware needed for this is:
- ESP-03 module
- 3.3 V power regulator ( The ESP doesn't like 5V on Vcc! The GPIO's are OK with it though)
- resistor of 200 Ohm or so (not critical)
- small switch
- pcb
- wire
- shrinksleeve
For flashing the firmware, a USB-UART converter is needed.
Programming is done in Arduino, make sure to add the ESP arduino library.
On the Taranis, I programmed these mixes:
It all seems to work quite well.
I must admit that I am not a programmer, so things may be inefficient or even weird. One of the thing I don't like is using the pulse-in function for reading the RC input. I wanted to use an interrupt, but somehow this causes the ESP to crash and reset every few seconds.
Also i want to make some more improvements; right now it only supports GoPro 4, but it is not difficult to add Gopro3 commands. Also the SSID and password are hard-coded; it works, but it's not very user friendly.
So any tips and advice is welcome, or if someone wants to improve it themselves: pease do :-)
Any questions? Please ask.
Some final notes:
-If you want to try it, don't forget to modify the SSID and password of your GoPro in the code.
- Currently the code only works for GoPro Hero4. The commands for other types are sometimes slightly different; you can find them on https://github.com/KonradIT/goprowifihack
It would be cool to let the code detect the type of camera itself!
- Both ESP and my Taranis work on 2.4 GHz. So far I have not noticed any problems with the RC link, but make sure to do a rangetest before first use!
- it turns out the Hero 4 doesnt seem to have a "narrow" zoom setting for all resolutions. So maybe I'll find another use for this switch position.
Ps I also made a post on RCgroups, but so far no reactions:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2836301-GoPro-control-over-RC#post36910884
Comments
Genius! Thank you for sharing! I've just finished decoding a PPM signal using a ESP8266 and controlling a thermal camera's menus. Such a revolution, these little devices!
Camera Trigger would be awesome!
Thanks.
Mavlink would probably be fairly easy to implement and its a good idea... maybe I'll have a go at it, but not in the very near future.
Nice effort, will definitely try it.
I saw your RCGroups posting and have now left a comment. Nice effort. I will give this a whirl. I also think a Mavlink decoder would actually be great as well.
Nice! I am planning to do something alike, but instead of using the PWM, I intend to use the mavlink command CAMERA_TRIGGER, using the ESP as a mavlink wireless radio!