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Trigger FLIR camera by waypoints?
2519 9 2017-3-3
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manleypv
lvl.1
United States
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Hello,

Is it possible to trigger a FLIR Vue Pro R thermal camera by waypoints without the use of the Zenmuse gimbal? I already have the camera and need to automatically trigger it by waypoints. This camera will be mounted on a gimbal other than the Zenmuse. Thanks!
2017-3-3
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DJI-Jamie
DJI team
Flight distance : 112405 ft
United States
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Could you happen to provide a list of your set up? Are you planning to use GS Pro or another program?
2017-3-3
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manleypv
lvl.1
United States
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DJI-Jamie Posted at 2017-3-3 08:40
Could you happen to provide a list of your set up? Are you planning to use GS Pro or another program?

*Potential* set up as I haven't purchased UAV or gimbal yet. But I already have the FLIR and the hyperspectral camera.

My idea is to use a PixHawk onboard the M600 to trigger the FLIR by waypoints, or distance from a waypoint. This means I'd have to make 2 flight plans: 1 in Mission Planner for FLIR and 1 in whatever I use to fly the M600.

Does GS Pro allow for camera triggering by waypoints? It looks like I can plug the FLIR into the A3 and trigger manually, but I need to trigger automatically and then stitch the thermal images together.


Thanks.
2017-3-3
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DJI-Jamie
DJI team
Flight distance : 112405 ft
United States
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manleypv Posted at 2017-3-3 09:54
*Potential* set up as I haven't purchased UAV or gimbal yet. But I already have the FLIR and the hyperspectral camera.

My idea is to use a PixHawk onboard the M600 to trigger the FLIR by waypoints, or distance from a waypoint. This means I'd have to make 2 flight plans: 1 in Mission Planner for FLIR and 1 in whatever I use to fly the M600.

What you're proposing may be feasible with some minor SDK involvement for the Pixhawk. On it's own, the GS Pro would not be able acquire access to your camera or 3rd party gimbal to take pictures automatically. That's mostly geared towards the DJI cameras specifically. Like you've mentioned, however, the manual capture option is still there, but that won't necessarily fit your need.
2017-3-3
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manleypv
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United States
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DJI-Jamie Posted at 2017-3-3 12:09
What you're proposing may be feasible with some minor SDK involvement for the Pixhawk. On it's own, the GS Pro would not be able acquire access to your camera or 3rd party gimbal to take pictures automatically. That's mostly geared towards the DJI cameras specifically. Like you've mentioned, however, the manual capture option is still there, but that won't necessarily fit your need.

My idea was to mount a PixHawk to the upper expansion bay for GPS triggering. This would mean two flight plans (one in Mission Planner for camera triggering and one for flying the M600). While not ideal, it's possible.

Would SDK eliminate that need of 2 flight plans? Or, what would SDK allow me to do with the PixHawk?
2017-3-3
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DJI-Jamie
DJI team
Flight distance : 112405 ft
United States
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manleypv Posted at 2017-3-3 12:33
My idea was to mount a PixHawk to the upper expansion bay for GPS triggering. This would mean two flight plans (one in Mission Planner for camera triggering and one for flying the M600). While not ideal, it's possible.

Would SDK eliminate that need of 2 flight plans? Or, what would SDK allow me to do with the PixHawk?

Unfortunately, I'm not the best with SDK, but there is a separate Developers Forum that should be able to help with that. The SDK community might be able to come up with another solution with perhaps a different component for autonomous capture:

http://forum.dev.dji.com/en

If someone can program a M100 to be essentially be a meter maid, then I'm sure what you're looking for is feasible.
2017-3-3
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manleypv
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United States
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DJI-Jamie Posted at 2017-3-3 12:52
Unfortunately, I'm not the best with SDK, but there is a separate Developers Forum that should be able to help with that. The SDK community might be able to come up with another solution with perhaps a different component for autonomous capture:

http://forum.dev.dji.com/en

Thanks.

Do you think my PixHawk idea will work on its own? Or do you know of apps developed for the M600 that allow camera triggering at waypoints?

Do you know if DJI is planning to allow this in the future? It sounds like a software issue more than anything else, I'm just not a developer so can't easily code a solution. I know DJI really focuses on filmmakers, but us remote sensing types love DJI, too! We really need to trigger cameras automatically for our research.
2017-3-3
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DJI-Jamie
DJI team
Flight distance : 112405 ft
United States
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manleypv Posted at 2017-3-3 13:39
Thanks.

Do you think my PixHawk idea will work on its own? Or do you know of apps developed for the M600 that allow camera triggering at waypoints?

If PixHawk isn't set up to take over the aircraft itself, then it may. My knowledge with PixHawk is limited, there may be others that are a little better with that component than I am.
2017-3-6
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Uaviation
lvl.3
Flight distance : 1632106 ft
Australia
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Hi Manleypv

Its a cumbersome (and heavy) way to achieve what you want but the short answer is yes. You can trigger the Vue using the Pixhawk or even an APM (pin A10 from memory).  We use TAU2 rather than Vue but I expect that the pinouts are the same. Go to the FLIR website for the Vue manual and pinout.

I am happy to send you a pic of our wiring if you want.

The other way would be to just turn your FLIR on for the entire flight (it catches still images (at 8Hz or 30Hz) as RJPG that are later strung together to form an AVI) and synchronise the time between the FLIR sensor and your flight controller. That way you will be able to work out what pics were taken at each location.
FLIR =  image 000100.RPG  at 10:35:54.23
FC   =  Lat /Lng/Alt at 10:35:54.23

You have a solution - without implementing a Pixhawk, second GPS etc...

Hope that helps
NB
2017-3-6
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KopterKraft.com
lvl.1
Flight distance : 375761 ft
Germany
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See here: http://forum.dev.dji.com/thread-33150-1-1.html
and here: http://forum.dev.dji.com/thread-33149-1-1.html
2017-3-7
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