Here's my 1st mapping test flight with a Skyhunter twin-boom pusher. Im running Arduplane 2.73. Mapping camera is a Canon s95 running an intervalometer script via chdk. Its suspended from a single axis gimbal that keeps the camera pointing down regardless of aircraft bank angle. Video shot from a GoPro 3 Black Edition.
It took 120 photos during the 10 minute flight, and stitched with PT GUI. I need to refine my grid spacing and polygon locations relative to the target area, and intervalometer timing. The generated map is a little rough, but its a great start.
I gave up on using the APM trigger at 3m from waypoint function as I couldn't get it to work and there's just no documentation on it.
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Amazing information Matt and thanks for sharing this. Would you mind showing a picture of the camera in (taking) location and it retracted as well please? I have a Finwing Penguin and am now considering this. Thanks again
ok, the reality is that the map is still a bit of a wreck... lots of stitching errors, but the smartblend plugin helped a lot.
Im going to keep flying and experimenting with the grid and flight direction in hopes to make some maps with less errors.
wow. Criro. Thanks for that piece of advise! I downloaded smartblend and it really cleaned up the map. And allowed me to use more pictures that originally didn't fit.
Heres the map after using smartblend.
Very nice.
When you did create panorama in PTGui, which "Blend Using" did you use? PTGui? Did you try to use "Smartblend plugin"? You should obtain a better stitching.
Does the Canon s95 camera offer Geotagging? The links I found on that model don't suggest that it does.
Also, what was your cruising speed? If you could have slowed the plane down without stalling, would you have done so in order to take more photos throughout the flight instead of just shortening the intervelometer rate. I'm curious to your thoughts on using a Ritewing Zephyr 2 XL with the 81" wingspan which could apparently allows for a slow cruise speed of just 10-12 mph.
Last, I've read that the Go Pro 3 actually allows for slicing out photos from the video and that these photos are actually better than single shot stills. Perhaps there is a way to shoot all video and then cut the stills out? At the same time the GoPro does not have GPS for tagging.
Nice work mate.
Pretty close, but I have the launch method down well. As long as you follow through your hand clears the prop every time.
The gimbal is brilliant! Well done.
How close is your hand to the prop when launching?
Yes, gimbal is mapped to CH8 output. I set the gimbal function in the standard parameters tab to either GPS_Point or Mavlink_control and it will automatically start working. Note that those two options allow you to define an area of interest or a specific GPS point by right clicking the map and choosing a point. The gimbal will then look in that direction and stay fixed at a GPS point regardless of aircraft movement. But if you don't define an area, it just passively stabilizes which is what I want it to do.
You can also choose RC Targeting and then hook up an input to your receiver to control the gimbal from your transmitter, although my results were less than stellar; it was just too jerky.
When Im landing, I select "retract" from the that menu and it will stow the gimbal and camera for a safe landing.
Do you have the gimbal mapped to a channel on your RX? I'm interested in using a gyro-stabilized setup for a passive function, kind of like a wind sock. Similarly, you only ever need this gimbal pointing straight down, but I'm not sure how you would send a PWM signal to the gyro without being connected to an RX channel, or if you could do away with it.
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