I want to add a camera

[rjyang]

Hi guys,

I ordered a Crazyflie on seeedstudio today, but it is not include a camera so I want to add it for my flie, could you please tell me which type camera will be right and where I can buy it, many many thanks.

BTW, the video is very cool!

[tobias]

I assume you are referring to the key chain camera? Please have a look at blog post http://www.bitcraze.se/2012/10/another- ... mera-hack/

The weight of the camera is about as much as the Crazyflie can handle so the key chain camera needs to be stripped down as much as possible. We removed the battery from it and connected it directly to the Crazyflie battery. You will have to do some soldering to do this and know what you are doing so it is not the easiest hack.

For FPV flying http://www.fpvhobby.com/ has some light kits that could be used.

[rjyang]

I assume you are referring to the key chain camera? Please have a look at blog post http://www.bitcraze.se/2012/10/another- ... mera-hack/

The weight of the camera is about as much as the Crazyflie can handle so the key chain camera needs to be stripped down as much as possible. We removed the battery from it and connected it directly to the Crazyflie battery. You will have to do some soldering to do this and know what you are doing so it is not the easiest hack.

For FPV flying http://www.fpvhobby.com/ has some light kits that could be used.

Thanks very much, I would like try it.

Best regards,
Renjun YANG

[DesTinY]

Till now Perfect match for FPV with the CF ->

Camera:
Resolution: 628×582
Minimum illumination: 0.05lux.
Operating voltage DC: 2.8-5.5V
Operating current: 50mA
Dimensions( L X W X H): 17mm X17mm X 10.5mm
Weight: 3g
Cost: $24.00
Source(not OPEN ): http://www.fpvhobby.com/26-3-grams-cmos-pal-camera.html

125mW 2.4GHZ Video Transmitter:
Operating voltage DC: 2.8-5.5V
Consumption Current 150mAh
Weight: 1.3g
Cost: $34.00
Source(not OPEN ): http://www.fpvhobby.com/transmitter/15- ... itter.html

Maybe one day it is possible to use such a Camera as Bottom Cam to hold the position of the CF in Hover mode

Best regards from Germany,
Sascha Heymann

[tobias]

That would probably work great! Thanks for sharing your findings!

[cracklecrackle]

Got this answer from tobias in this topic: http://forum.bitcraze.se/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=50

We where involved in a master thesis trying to do that. Please have a look at this blog post: http://www.bitcraze.se/2012/06/camera-a ... er-thesis/

The full report which is linked in the blog post is really detailed, including informations about the used cam. I think this can help you by your plans.

[tobias]

I would like to share more details about the findings from the FPV test we posted about in our blog: http://www.bitcraze.se/2013/03/first-fpv-flight-test/

From our test we found two issues that needs to be sorted out.
1. We get some vertical lines that show up when we power the motors. Its noticeable in the video. My initial guess is that our environment is to noisy for the camera module.
This might be solvable by:

• Adding filtering to the battery voltage.
• Changing the motor PWM frequency to something that works better (currently 140 kHz).
• Run the camera on the analog voltage instead (2.8V). This might degrade the sensor performance and the camera might not handle the lower voltage.
• Having a separate battery for the FPV. This adds weight and makes the system harder to handle as there need to be a separate charging for the FPV battery and also a separate on/off switch.

2. The FPV transmission is lost with a low battery voltage. This happens already after a couple of minutes of flight time or if the system is loaded with a quick thrust increase.
This might be solvable by:

• Lowering the supply voltage from the 3.3v the camera and transmitter runs on now. That means the regulators on the camera and transmitter needs to be bypassed or changed. Also it is not certain that they can handle a lower voltage
• Trying another FPV system that can handle a lower voltage
• Having a separate battery for the FPV, with the drawbacks listed in point 1.

As soon I have time I will start trying each point one after the other. Other ideas?

[tobias]

I got some time to run some quick tests:

• I tested running the transmitter and camera on the digital 2.8V. The transmitter is working fine but the camera is degraded with a lot of artefacts and bad colouring. The good thing is that the transmission drop-outs are gone.
• I tested running the transmitter and camera on the digital 3.1V. Now the camera works normally again and there are still no transmission drop-out during power bursts. The vertical noise lines are still present when the motors run though.
• I tested running the transmitter on digital 2.8V and the camera on analog 2.95V (had to change one resistors to get the analog to 2.95V). The camera still works fine but the vertical noise lines are still present, maybe not as much as before but still there. To run the analog on 2.95V and 75mA I bypassed a 10ohm resistor used in a low pass voltage filter so the analog voltage might be much noisier now which could explain why the vertical noise lines are not gone. The resistor has to be removed otherwise we would get a 0.75V voltage drop over that resistor and the camera wouldn't work anyway.
• I changed the motor PWM frequency from 140kHz to 8.5kHz. Now the lines became horizontal and a lot worse. Apparently not the way to go.

Next up will be to add some capacitance to the camera to hopefully reduce the electrical noise and thereby the vertical noise lines.

[SuperRoach]

Has anyone still been working on adding a camera to their crazyflie?

[erget]

I'm working on it, but I don't have anything to report yet. I'm still trying to get good hardware. For the moment, my focus isn't so much on FPV, although I would love to have that - I'll try my luck tomorrow with a keychain camera and see how it goes