Only 19 left in stock of our second batch of PZ0420 600TVL Color Board Cams, the most popular FPV camera from SecurityCamera2000.com with a DIY filter kit included so you can run your camera and video transmitter off your 3S LiPo without needing a separate battery.
Includes diode to reduce voltage from 3S LiPo to the range required by the camera, and 105°C 303 µF capacitor and ferrite ring to make a filter to remove the interference lines from your motors and ESCs. Connect your V+ to the camera thru the diode to drop the voltage, and put the capacitor accross V+ and GND (the stripe on the cap and diode is the negative side). Wrap the V+ and GND power lines to your camera and transmitter through the ferrite coil at least 5 times. Check them out in our shop or click the pics to go to amazon.com's product page:
PZ0420 600TVL SONY SUPER HAD CCD D-WDR Color Board Camera with OSD Menu DNR
Figure 1: Mission Planner waypoints and telemetry track after 3 spline circuits
I wanted my ArduCopter to fly smooth continuous curves between waypoints for some nicer aerial video, so I coded up this SplineNav class. Each spline segment is a cubic polynomial curve defined in 3D space, with 1st and 2nd derivatives continuous wherever two segments meet at a waypoint. This gives a nice smooth transition between curve segments during flight (Figure 1). It also saves time and battery, since abrupt speed and direction changes are avoided.
Figure 2: Autopilot logged track after 3 spline circuits
The SplineNav class, like CIRCLE mode, calls the loiter controller, which is what allows it to precisely control position along the curve using GPS and inertial navigation (thanks to the brand new ArduCopter 3.0 firmware). Unlike CIRCLE mode, in SplineNav the autopilot takes full control of setting altitude as well, so it can fly complex 3D curves. However, it also references your WPNAV_SPEED, WPNAV_SPEED_DN, and WPNAV_SPEED_UP parameter settings to avoid flying too fast, or climbing or descending too quickly.
For this video I wanted a slightly more wild ride, so I increased my WPNAV_SPEED_DN to 250 cm/s, and WPNAV_SPEED_UP to 350 cm/s. I left WPNAV_SPEED at 500 cm/s for now, but will try increasing it later. Figure 2 shows the 3D track in Google Earth. If you reduce these UP/DN speed parameters you will get the same 3D track for these waypoints, but at the steep up and down locations SplineNav will reduce its travel speed along the 3D curve.
Video
I shot this SplineNav demonstration video with my ArduPhantom. The GoPro is mounted on a Hummer 2-axis brushless gimbal designed for DJI Phantom.
Source Code
Here's the source code for developers and brave testers to test and suggest fixes and improvements. There's a .PDE file and an .H file, both of which go in your ArduCopter 3.0 sketch folder:
Follow the directions in the SplineNav Readme to make the ArduCopter 3.0 code call SplineNav. Then compile with the special ArduPilot version of the Arduino IDE, and upload to your copter. Set your waypoints with Mission Planner, or with the channel 7 switch, and go test out SplineNav.
Warnings
Make sure your loiter is rock solid before you test, because SplineNav relies on the loiter controller. Also, the first time you test a new set of waypoints, you should probably keep WPNAV_SPEED low, perhaps just 200 cm/s or so. That way you'll have enough time to take over control in case the spline curve intersects any solid objects!
