pictures please!!! and i'm curious of the integration. does the edison get each image from the qx1 as they are taken, stores it and tag it automatically?
Site Scan vs Drone Deploy
- Thread starter Burkeam
- Start date
pictures please!!! and i'm curious of the integration. does the edison get each image from the qx1 as they are taken, stores it and tag it automatically?
My understanding is no as they are taken as there is too much dwell and the camera is not ready for the next shot. When the Solo lands and turns off the motors it then retrives the images and write the geotag infor to them. If the battery dies during this time the flight tags are lost. You must wait until the light goes off on the compainion board. Things might have changes but this is my understanding of it during discussions with Escadrone a few month ago. I held off as they wern't currently supporting Reach RTK
What kind of pictures do you want
. Physical - of the hardware, or shots from the QX1? Burkeam is correct, the shots are transferred after the flight, and that can take quite a while. With 3 seconds-ish per image, 120 images will take 6 minutes to transfer. I'm going to test how much battery it needs to stay powered on the ground for that.
My first impressions are mixed, and I got a couple of surprises. The kit came with Relish3D leg extenders, but these only raise the height of the Solo so there's 4-5mm clearance (tops!) between the gimbal and the ground. If you forget to tilt the camera up before landing - your lens is toast. If I keep the gimbal, I will have to custom make some serious extenders.
The biggest disappointment for me was how cumbersome it is to take a single photo. I thought the gimbal tilt button was pushed towards me - like photos can be taken with the gopro - but no. The single photo shot is implemented by fast-flicking the tilt lever up. The problem is that the gimbal will tilt up a few degrees when this is done. Some tuning is possible and I'm currently trying to see if I can find a sweetspot where it works. If it doesn't - this could be be a dealbreaker for me. Right now my Solo is used 95% for photography and 5% is (learning) mapping. Getting a decent camera with APS-C sensor in the air was important to me, but I don't want to struggle for every single photo I'm taking.
The blame for this is with 3DR - as the Solo isn't anywhere near being that open source platform they claimed it would be. Escadrone simply can't tap into any other control buttons than the gimbal tilt.
The escadrone guys have been incredibly helpful ever since I contacted them, and they've offered me a return if it doesn't work for me. Jury is still out though... I want to make it work - but I'm not a magician.
I've heard about people using ch7 on the breakout board in the solo - which I think is the pause button? The raspberry PI covers the accessory bay - so I don't think it's possible to add a breakout board. Would it be possible in any way to tap into ch7 elsewhere in the Solo?
What kind of pictures do you want
Burkeam is correct, the shots are transferred after the flight, and that can take quite a while. With 3 seconds-ish per image, 120 images will take 6 minutes to transfer. I'm going to test how much battery it needs to stay powered on the ground for that.
My first impressions are mixed, and I got a couple of surprises. The kit came with Relish3D leg extenders, but these only raise the height of the Solo so there's 4-5mm clearance (tops!) between the gimbal and the ground. If you forget to tilt the camera up before landing - your lens is toast. If I keep the gimbal, I will have to custom make some serious extenders.
The biggest disappointment for me was how cumbersome it is to take a single photo. I thought the gimbal tilt button was pushed towards me - like photos can be taken with the gopro - but no. The single photo shot is implemented by fast-flicking the tilt lever up. The problem is that the gimbal will tilt up a few degrees when this is done. Some tuning is possible and I'm currently trying to see if I can find a sweetspot where it works. If it doesn't - this could be be a dealbreaker for me. Right now my Solo is used 95% for photography and 5% is (learning) mapping. Getting a decent camera with APS-C sensor in the air was important to me, but I don't want to struggle for every single photo I'm taking.
The blame for this is with 3DR - as the Solo isn't anywhere near being that open source platform they claimed it would be. Escadrone simply can't tap into any other control buttons than the gimbal tilt.
The escadrone guys have been incredibly helpful ever since I contacted them, and they've offered me a return if it doesn't work for me. Jury is still out though... I want to make it work - but I'm not a magician.
I've heard about people using ch7 on the breakout board in the solo - which I think is the pause button? The raspberry PI covers the accessory bay - so I don't think it's possible to add a breakout board. Would it be possible in any way to tap into ch7 elsewhere in the Solo?
It is possible to use a connector for the ch7 pin - no board or hardwired from the inside. pain in the butt so obviously Frank's boards come in handy. I was considering added a external USB power-port for my Solo to keep it alive while swapping batteries. Maybe doing the same while it's writing your images if the low battery is a issue. They told me the gimbal is designed for mapping and not photo shooting nevertheless free hand shooting is great to fill in some void when mapping. Please keep the updates coming.
I've been out sick for a few days - so I haven't had the time to test much. When I take manual 360 aerials, I shoot at least 30 shots, and the trigger mechanism for the escadrone is just killing me. I have to say though - they did explain it to me in advance - but I just didn't realise how impractical it would be. I have tried multiple tuning values for the trigger, but it's a no-go for me. The gimbal almost always tilt up a few degrees, and the pre-programmed setting of 67 degrees I have on the controller doesn't always work. So my panorama shots will be all over the place - or at least they will take alot of time.
I'm going to try to perform a 3D-mapping or two - but there's a 99% chance I'm going to wrap this thing back up over the weekend and DHL it back to france. I wish I had some business from mapping - then I most probably could have kept it.
If there is anything at all you want to know about the gimbal - let me know.
I'm going to try to perform a 3D-mapping or two - but there's a 99% chance I'm going to wrap this thing back up over the weekend and DHL it back to france. I wish I had some business from mapping - then I most probably could have kept it.
If there is anything at all you want to know about the gimbal - let me know.
if you are using the camera for mapping it shouldn't matter if there isn't a dedicated shutter button. tower or mission planner is the one automatically triggering the camera. if you are trying to use it for photography, then yes its a deal breaker.
i already have a qx1, i just want to see pics of it in the gimbal and where the edison is installed.
i already have a qx1, i just want to see pics of it in the gimbal and where the edison is installed.
I don't think there's an edison in there? I believe it's a Raspberry PI3b. Here are some pictures. I didn't pay much attention to routing cables, but the HDMI and the USB cable seems fatter than necessary. Hidden above the gimbal is something I think is a BEC.
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A shield to control the servos is my guess. I made two 360s today from the same spot, one with the QX1 and the other with my Hero4 black with 5.4mm peau mod.
I kept as much quality through the process as possible, and the only thing I did to the images was to balance exposure to avoid over eposure (as per Autopano Giga).
Virtual Tours Made Simple
I also tried to zoom in on the same object in both using the source images, but I realised when I added the aperture, iso and shutter speed info from the exif that the exposures was too different to compare. Here it is anyway.
I kept as much quality through the process as possible, and the only thing I did to the images was to balance exposure to avoid over eposure (as per Autopano Giga).
Virtual Tours Made Simple
I also tried to zoom in on the same object in both using the source images, but I realised when I added the aperture, iso and shutter speed info from the exif that the exposures was too different to compare. Here it is anyway.
Thanks for the photos and info about the Escadrone gimbal Ørjan. It's so hard to get a feel for how they work from the website.
Has anyone tried the Drotag from Airborne Projects?
3DRs stance on the Sony camera only being sold with SiteScan is crazy. There's a massive market of people who already know the value of that camera, and already have the customers, software and workflow to buy it and utilise it. But by bundling it with an expensive piece of software they're limiting their market to people new to UAVs and UAV mapping. It's like a car manufacturer deciding to only sell a car when it's bundled with a learners permit and an expensive set of driving lessons.
Has anyone tried the Drotag from Airborne Projects?
3DRs stance on the Sony camera only being sold with SiteScan is crazy. There's a massive market of people who already know the value of that camera, and already have the customers, software and workflow to buy it and utilise it. But by bundling it with an expensive piece of software they're limiting their market to people new to UAVs and UAV mapping. It's like a car manufacturer deciding to only sell a car when it's bundled with a learners permit and an expensive set of driving lessons.
Apparently the Sony sold by 3dr has custom firmware to work better with sitescan/camera triggering, etc.
I agree entirely. 3DR seems extremely protective? Are they so well established in the enterprise market that they can focus on them alone? Takes quite alot of 12k business to keep the wheels of 3DR running?
Taking the 360 panorama yesterday with the escadrone wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be, and the quality of the images was very good. Wind speed at ground level was closing in on 4m/s, and it was quite rough at 100m AGL - at least 6m/s - but that's always so hard to judge. The live feed was bobbing up and down quite a bit, so I actually thought I would get into trouble with focus and sharpness - but no.
I'm going out to a rarely used quarry today to try some mapping. That'll be the final test for me.
Allrighty. I'm a little sad to say that the escadrone is being returned. I've received nothing but great support from the company though, and if you have a solo and paid mapping jobs - I think it's worth considering them. The hassle with taking still photos was the dealbreaker for me.
Using the escadrone for mapping was 100% hassle free. Compared to mapping with Survey2 and Gopro - it just works... as opposed to fiddling with mission planner and geosetter for hours to get those pesky geotags into exif properly.
Attached you'll find some images from 2D and 3D dronedeploy from my testing this weekend. I got the bright idea of testing my Garmin Virb Elite action cam for mapping, as it geotags pictures natively within the device. The escadrone run was a success after 5-6 minutes, including waiting for the geotagging and image copying process to the memory stick. Ok, make that 30 minutes including getting rigged up, editing the flight plan etc etc - but you get the idea.
Getting a good result from the Garmin took me two trips to the quarry and testing of 4 different data sets before I got one without errors in it. In Garmins defense, it's gps probably suffered from being stuck below the Solo.
If anyone want access to the dronedeploy project for either camera - drop me an IM. I don't think dronedeploy allows me to share links directly to the project.
Using the escadrone for mapping was 100% hassle free. Compared to mapping with Survey2 and Gopro - it just works... as opposed to fiddling with mission planner and geosetter for hours to get those pesky geotags into exif properly.
Attached you'll find some images from 2D and 3D dronedeploy from my testing this weekend. I got the bright idea of testing my Garmin Virb Elite action cam for mapping, as it geotags pictures natively within the device. The escadrone run was a success after 5-6 minutes, including waiting for the geotagging and image copying process to the memory stick. Ok, make that 30 minutes including getting rigged up, editing the flight plan etc etc - but you get the idea.
Getting a good result from the Garmin took me two trips to the quarry and testing of 4 different data sets before I got one without errors in it. In Garmins defense, it's gps probably suffered from being stuck below the Solo.
If anyone want access to the dronedeploy project for either camera - drop me an IM. I don't think dronedeploy allows me to share links directly to the project.
Thanks Warren, just happy to share. If I could afford it I would have kept the Escadrone gimbal. I could have hoped that the opening up of the code on the Solo would allow to get access to more physical buttons on the controller - but that is still quite uncertain.
Thought I'd just let you know that I have decided to keep the Escadrone gimbal, despite the single photo trigger mechanism. For mapping - the solution just works so well that I had to keep it. It's a little unpolished, with it's somewhat bulky companion RPI3b and the thick HDMI and USB cables - but it works. I have only done nadir terrain maps with it so far, but I'm going to step it up a bit in an attempt to increase the resolution and detail this weekend.
Here is my first map with the Escadrone - 80 meters AGL NADIR only. I set up the mission, flew it, landed, waited for geotagging - boom done. Not sure how long it took me, but it was probably done and dusted in 30 minutes from I stopped my car.
030916 Djupgrop Sandtak, Escadrone QX1 NADIR by Ørjan Sandland - 3D model
And to compare it with what I hoped could be a sensible runner-up - the new Garmin Virb Ultra30 that has HDMI-out and natively geo-tagged images
110916 Djupgrop Sandtak, GVU30 Multi by Ørjan Sandland - 3D model
Finally a run with the good ol GH4B with a 5.4mm peau lens and the same ol manual geotagging. Didn't struggle so much with geotagging in geosetter this time.
110916 Djupgrop Sandtak, GH4B Multi by Ørjan Sandland - 3D model
I don't know why the Garmin and Gopro maps are leaning so much. I'm going to try to trim the datasets used in both to see if the excess amount of pictures is actually hurting the resolution or not.
Will try to make a flight this weekend with Escadrone doing 60 degree camera angle as well as a low pass for detail. I suspect the result will be outstanding compared to the other two.
Here is my first map with the Escadrone - 80 meters AGL NADIR only. I set up the mission, flew it, landed, waited for geotagging - boom done. Not sure how long it took me, but it was probably done and dusted in 30 minutes from I stopped my car.
030916 Djupgrop Sandtak, Escadrone QX1 NADIR by Ørjan Sandland - 3D model
And to compare it with what I hoped could be a sensible runner-up - the new Garmin Virb Ultra30 that has HDMI-out and natively geo-tagged images
110916 Djupgrop Sandtak, GVU30 Multi by Ørjan Sandland - 3D model
Finally a run with the good ol GH4B with a 5.4mm peau lens and the same ol manual geotagging. Didn't struggle so much with geotagging in geosetter this time.
110916 Djupgrop Sandtak, GH4B Multi by Ørjan Sandland - 3D model
I don't know why the Garmin and Gopro maps are leaning so much. I'm going to try to trim the datasets used in both to see if the excess amount of pictures is actually hurting the resolution or not.
Will try to make a flight this weekend with Escadrone doing 60 degree camera angle as well as a low pass for detail. I suspect the result will be outstanding compared to the other two.
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So have you decided to keep it? I haven't tried it yet but can't another button be assigned to the camera trigger instead of one of the smart modes?
I have - see the post above yours 
. According to Escadrone, they used to use the pause button for camera trigger, but when smartshots was introduced, they could not use it anymore. I don't know why though. I would LOVE to see more buttons made available to third parties like Escadrone - but I'm worried 3DR is only focusing on their own adventures into the enterprise market with their SiteScan.
. According to Escadrone, they used to use the pause button for camera trigger, but when smartshots was introduced, they could not use it anymore. I don't know why though. I would LOVE to see more buttons made available to third parties like Escadrone - but I'm worried 3DR is only focusing on their own adventures into the enterprise market with their SiteScan.
Hi all,
So I went to a SiteScan promo event today, and got a chance to see the Sony camera and gimbal up close and in action.
First thing I noticed was that it is a servo gimbal. This was done to keep weight down apparently. This does make the live feed during flight quite unstable, but hey, it's not designed for film-making. Kevin from 3DR assured me that it was still usable for inspection work with the longer lens.
Some photos are below (sorry for the quality).
Oh, and I found where all the lanyards were being stashed
I'm already heavily invested in Solo hardware (4 Solos), and I have a Pix4D licence. None of my customers use ESRI or CAD products, as they all use mining specific software. So now that I've seen that the gimbal is a bit underwhelming there's no reason for me to fork out for the SiteScan package. I'm going for a DJI Inpsire, or the Escadrone and I'll work out some way of hacking in a camera trigger.
So I went to a SiteScan promo event today, and got a chance to see the Sony camera and gimbal up close and in action.
First thing I noticed was that it is a servo gimbal. This was done to keep weight down apparently. This does make the live feed during flight quite unstable, but hey, it's not designed for film-making. Kevin from 3DR assured me that it was still usable for inspection work with the longer lens.
Some photos are below (sorry for the quality).
Oh, and I found where all the lanyards were being stashed
I'm already heavily invested in Solo hardware (4 Solos), and I have a Pix4D licence. None of my customers use ESRI or CAD products, as they all use mining specific software. So now that I've seen that the gimbal is a bit underwhelming there's no reason for me to fork out for the SiteScan package. I'm going for a DJI Inpsire, or the Escadrone and I'll work out some way of hacking in a camera trigger.
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