Tower app: how to point camera to outside as fly circle?

[PSprague]

Any suggestions of how to set up flight plan in Tower so camera will stay pointed to the outside of a 400ft radius circle?

Tried to do it manually, but hit and miss. Looked at yaw command with relative checked, but not clear what it is relative to?

Thanks,
Peter

 

[Greg Parker]

Relative to direction of flight. You might try 90 or 270 degrees depending on direction of orbit.

 

[PSprague]

Relative to direction of flight. You might try 90 or 270 degrees depending on direction of orbit.

perfect, so if flying clockwise 270' should give me the outside perspective?

Is there a way to define Tower circle direction? Don't see an input under the circle command. Test flight flew clockwise.

 

[Greg Parker]

I have not played with orbit in Solo much so I can't answer that question. My answer is based on using commands in Mission Planner. Tower follows much the same conventions but is more limited in the options available.

Test and let us know how it works out.

 

[PSprague]

Not directly using the Solo app. Its only used to provide a better photo/video view.

Using Tower to pre-plan and fly a flight. Tower instructs circular flight to move in a clockwise direction.

When inserting a yaw command before the circle command, yaw happens, but then circle command over-rides and faces the camera back towards the centre of the circle. Tried both 90 & 270, no effect once copter is flying circle.

Seems like the Tower app needs to include a yaw sub-command in the circle function.

Any further ideas how to fly a circular flight path with camera out?

Will experiment with MP from laptop, but that is not practical for field use.

 

[Nisouck]

Any suggestions of how to set up flight plan in Tower so camera will stay pointed to the outside of a 400ft radius circle?

Tried to do it manually, but hit and miss. Looked at yaw command with relative checked, but not clear what it is relative to?

Thanks,
Peter

Do not understand your question.
For me, the camera is always pointing ouside the circle with the wp "Loitier turns".
I use this feature - with a diameter of o - to make some pano while filming.
Turns are always clockwise with this function.
To do a pano, you need to change the parameter "Circle rate" std value is 20°/sec; I put 6°/sec so a complete turn takes 1 minute.

 

[Greg Parker]

Do not understand your question.
For me, the camera is always pointing ouside the circle with the wp "Loitier turns".
I use this feature - with a diameter of o - to make some pano while filming.
Turns are always clockwise with this function.
To do a pano, you need to change the parameter "Circle rate" std value is 20°/sec; I put 6°/sec so a complete turn takes 1 minute.

 

[Greg Parker]

Thanks for the reply, and simple is good. Are you taking photos or video. If photo what is you interval?

 

[PSprague]

Which software are you using that provides "loiter turns"? Not in the latest version of Tower. My question was about use of Tower app to take photos to the outside of a circle.

 

[franknitty69]

in tower you cannot have solo face outside when you use a circle wp. it will always face the center. you can try carefully placed spline waypoints + yaw waypoints. that might do the trick.

 

[PSprague]

Tried your solution.

Yaw is still being over-ridden by spline waypoints if I place a yaw cmd before each spline waypoint. So Solo yaws across the sky in a semi-circular pattern, taking pictures at 105ft intervals facing somewhere between flight path and 270 degree yaw..

Only solutions I see are to work on Tower source to add a yaw cmd to the circle, or to use Mission Planner in my laptop. Plan on doing both options, with Mission Planner getting the nod for now.

 

[Greg Parker]

Tried your solution.

Yaw is still being over-ridden by spline waypoints if I place a yaw cmd before each spline waypoint. So Solo yaws across the sky in a semi-circular pattern, taking pictures at 105ft intervals facing somewhere between flight path and 270 degree yaw..

Only solutions I see are to work on Tower source to add a yaw cmd to the circle, or to use Mission Planner in my laptop. Plan on doing both options, with Mission Planner getting the nod for now.

If I am planning ahead of time before heading out I like to use MP because there are more control options.

With my previous quad I would sometimes load the mission(s) to the quad with MP then download it to the tablet in Tower. That way I could have multiple MP planned mission available to load in the field using Tower,.

 

[Bullflyer]

I think It's easier to create a circle with multipoint cablecam ( 8 points at least), and now you’re free to pan and tilt the camera without worrying about piloting the copter.