Has anybody used escadrone mapper w Sony Qx1

Burkeam · Apr 11, 2016

Today I came across
http://escadrone.com/solo-mapper/?lang=en
Looks like a possible alternative then buying SiteScan just for the camera. I'm not too happy that SS doesn't have camera profiles so you can't use a modified lens with it. Only GP4 and a yet to be sold Sony camera. I really don't want to jump off the 3DR ship but thinking I need another platform to move forward with the mapping industry.

Burke

pyrate · Apr 11, 2016

it cracks the door open to available to videographers. at a price

cameraguy · Apr 11, 2016

It looks interesting. I'djust like the gimbal and software and use the Olympus AIR01, which is the same basic design and I happen to own.

Thanks for pointing this out

franknitty69 · Apr 13, 2016

the escadrone will get you the Sony Qx1+gimbal without having to pay for the sitescan license. but you will still overpay just to have the camera ($1600usd for the arudino, camera and gimbal). it uses an arduino to geotag in realtime so that's a plus. and it uses mission planner so you get the advanced mission planning. looks good.

i still think upgrading the lens on a the gopro or mounting a canon s100 on the accessory bay is a more cost effective solution. and if you use the imp concepts bracket, you can mount more than one camera on the accessory bay so that you can take pictures in multiple spectrums on the same flight.

Burkeam · Apr 13, 2016

I'm using a modded Gopro which Sitescan won't support. I like the escadrone as I would be able to prove it out this season. I am looking for other innovative solutions without having to upgrade the bird. If I can meet my goals with a solid off the shelf Solo then I'm saving a lot more right there. I will gladly pay to make money. I'm getting tired of paying just to work twice as hard.

Next I like to get this mounted and working on the Solo.

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Burkeam · Apr 14, 2016

I'm on the list to get one of these

Burkeam · Apr 16, 2016

franknitty69 said:
the escadrone will get you the Sony Qx1+gimbal without having to pay for the sitescan license. but you will still overpay just to have the camera ($1600usd for the arudino, camera and gimbal). it uses an arduino to geotag in realtime so that's a plus. and it uses mission planner so you get the advanced mission planning. looks good.

i still think upgrading the lens on a the gopro or mounting a canon s100 on the accessory bay is a more cost effective solution. and if you use the imp concepts bracket, you can mount more than one camera on the accessory bay so that you can take pictures in multiple spectrums on the same flight.

I've have peau brackets for the Mapir camera and understand the IMP s100 bracket. How is MP triggering the S100?

I'm thinking I will be adding a new aircraft above the Solo and have made an informal vow to never buy another DJI product. I'm also leaning toward 6 or 8 blades. A dedicated mapping unit. I see Event38 is selling the Iris package and looking at other. In the meantime if I can map with the solo that would be great.

Finally I'm frustrated as I can't get MP to trigger the Gopro on the gimbal.

I'm losing too much time on things not work quite right

LarryF · Apr 16, 2016

Burkeam said:
Finally I'm frustrated as I can't get MP to trigger the Gopro on the gimbal.

Triggering the GoPro with MP and Tower is a known current problem. There is a fix available until 3DR fixes it with new firmware. Have you installed the modified shotmanager.py on Solo? It fixes one line of code and MP and Tower will again trigger the GoPro.

Burkeam · Apr 16, 2016

Thanks Larry, I Heard of the Tower issue but not confirmed it was both. Now I know, I will reread the shotmanager post. Many thank as I'm getting tired of doing unneeded test. Like trying my Fing concept out with MP since last Wed eve. Another beautiful day is forecasted for N OH. I shall have tested by 1pm.

Burkeam · Apr 17, 2016

Thanks Larry. Gopro is triggering with the shotManager mod. Will try trigger by dist shortly. No stuck trying to geo tag with MP or Event38 geo tagger with no luck

LarryF · Apr 17, 2016

Burkeam said:
Thanks Larry. Gopro is triggering with the shotManager mod. Will try trigger by dist shortly. No stuck trying to geo tag with MP or Event38 geo tagger with no luck

Use "Geosetter", a free program, to geotag your photos. Don't use MP to geotag. But do load your TLOG file into MP, then export it as a GPX file. Geosetter can't read TLOG files, but it can read GPX. Load your photos and the GPX file into Geosetter. You then manually match a photo to a coordinate from your GPX log file, which the telemetry points and path are overlaid on a Google Earth map. Once you have one photo matched to the proper coordinates, you geotag ALL of the photos. DOuble check your work to insure they match up. Save the photos and they are all now properly geotagged.

If using GoPro, be sure to adjust the clock in your GoPro first. Use the GoPro app to set the time on the GoPro. The closer your GoPro's time is to GPS time, the less "time adjustment" is needed for geotagging.

This video shows how it's done:

Burkeam · Apr 17, 2016

OK. Will play with that next.
Two questions:
Does MP support trigger by Dist on the GP gimbal? I see in the waypoint file the set rigger dist to a value but the flight came back with no photos.
Isn't the sync by clock method introducing rounding error?

LarryF · Apr 17, 2016

Yes, MP can trigger the camera by distance with the DO_SET_CAM_TRIGG_DIST command. Normally, this is automatically set when designing your mission based on flying altitude and speed. It worked fine for me 2 days ago, with the modified shotmanager.py installed. I'm heading out again today for a survey mission with MP. When I fly a mission, even when using MP on a Windows tablet, I still load the Solo App on my Android tablet. I can see the photos being taken, as there's always a short blank spot each time the photo is taken. Yes, you can have MP and the Solo App connected at the same time.

After you've identified the "master" photo to match to your log file, Geosetter is going to try and match the remaining photos timestamp with the timestamp in your log file to geotag the remaining files. This saves having to go through each file individually and geotag them manually. If your photos timestamp is close to the the GPS timestamp, then all photos will get geotagged correctly. They can be offset down to the nearest second, but usually you take photos every 2 - 5 seconds apart. The video shows how to do this.

Burkeam · Apr 17, 2016

Again thanks Larry. Sending my test plot to the cloud now. When I tried the dist trigger the solo app had visual until the 1st photo was taken then the screen went blue. Closing and starting the app the visual was blacked out. I still left it active to see battery life and ect. When I did the digital trigger was could see it taking the photos.

What is the fast frame time (photo every ?sec) you're comfortable programing for the Gopro4 on a MP mission. What a great day in N OH to be playing

Thanks Burke

LarryF · Apr 18, 2016

Photo timing is based on the speed of Solo. Normally, flying at 20 - 25mph, I take a photo every 2 - 3 seconds. Flying at 15mph, I'll take a photo every 5 seconds. I need to weigh the difference between the number of photos and how big the survey area is. I try to keep my surveys under 12 minutes before returning and changing the battery.

Burkeam · Apr 18, 2016

LarryF said:
Photo timing is based on the speed of Solo. Normally, flying at 20 - 25mph, I take a photo every 2 - 3 seconds. Flying at 15mph, I'll take a photo every 5 seconds. I need to weigh the difference between the number of photos and how big the survey area is. I try to keep my surveys under 12 minutes before returning and changing the battery.

Understood. Wonder what is the fasted for the Gopro4 on the gimbal. I've been trying to keep it above 3sec per photo but thinking the GP4 can handle .5sec speeds.