Adding a camera (worklog)

[tobias]

The S7V8A might be a good and simple solution. It even has an easy accessible enable/disable pin.

If you would like to change the nano TX regulator it is the one marked 662K on the back side of the TX. Found this datasheet. The S7V8A is probably the best to start with though

[SuperRoach]

Found a local distributor of pololu parts (littlebirdelectronics), and low and behold they have that part number and in stock saves a bit of money and a heap of shipping time. I should have it by Monday! nifty. Eager to connect it up.

[jtang613]

Tonight I was successful in integrating the Sub-Nano camera from FPV Hobby onto the Crazyflie.

I'm using their 2.4GHz receiver module and an Adafruit 4.3" LCD. Also using the Raspberry Pi headless client.

Soldering the camera and transmitter wires was a bit of a task, but the result is a very tiny FPV system with absolutely *stellar* video quality. The demo video on the FPV Hobby site is not an exaggeration. I've also opted to use the same chip antenna as the CF on the video transmitter to cut down on size and weight. With the standard Rx antenna, I'm able to get stable feed at 20m range indoors, and choppy video to 35m. Tomorrow I'll do a flight-time test to see how many minutes I can keep it in the air.

I'll be looking for a better antenna shortly as well as a video capture dongle so I can upload a demo video.

Here's a pic is the setup (yes, I used electrical tape to hold the camera )...

[omwdunkley]

Looks impressive!
Some more details would be great
Which cam/transmitter did you use? Maybe you could also start your own thread with your setup/details!
Ive soldered a larger transmitter (small ones out of stock) and the fpvhobby 1g camera and the video quality is great until I start the motors Then I get all that noise that was previously discussed. Im guessing the transmitter I have wants more voltage then it can get.

More pics of youre setup would be awesome!

Have fun )

Im also working on a more detailed HUD to overlay that fpv awesomeness!
Very early work:

[SuperRoach]

Is that a real hud????? The quality on it is amazing if it's being done realtime.

Just received the S7V8A step up, so I'm going to make adjust and get the right strength in it. Fingers crossed!

[jtang613]

I'll post some more details later today about my setup - probably on a new thread.

That is an amazing HUD! I'd love to get some details on that.

[SuperRoach]

Yeah new thread that, I'm sure plenty of people (myself included) would love to hear more.

Well, My todays results with the step up converter were a partial success. I'm trying to wire it up to get a signal at the moment, and I think right at the end, I had power coming through but didn't have time to check why I had no signal.

Gallery of photos:
http://imgur.com/a/WRG5g

The way this This is connected:
The step up converter essentially takes your Voltage and ground from the Crazyflie, and then you have to plug your other things into the ground and voltage out of the converter. The converter will have the increased voltage level (I have it at 3.3v at the moment)

Currently I'm getting no received signal over the transmitter, I may need to think about obvious things I've missed. I took a reading from the top Female connector and have voltage (barely, the Voltage out wire on the end is probably too short). The voltage out of the stepup converter measures 3.3v as expected (you can adjust it on the converter).


Weight of this part is listed as .6grams I think it said somewhere by the way. Still well in tolerance. The connectors and cabling I have messily placed would weigh more than the whole fpv setup.

[omwdunkley]

That HUD runs with about 100ms lag ( including camera, tx, rx, digitise, rectify, overlay, display).

Its a horribly coded rushed c++ qt app with a qgl widget. Opengl is used to draw the incoming image as a texture over a quad, and a qpainter is used to paint the hud on top of that. I expose all the interesting flie internals and display them. Altitude is not working yet (tested it with the ardrone, then it works nicely).

Long term goal is to fuse all signals and do some video odometry.

I generally use ROS for everything, makes connecting things a lot easier (joy stick inputs, ardrone/flie, camera images, etc).

Its no where near finished but one day ill clean up the code and upload it somewhere, hopefully by the end of the year.
First gotta get my fpv setup working too No more little tx in stock

[tobias]

Ive soldered a larger transmitter (small ones out of stock) and the fpvhobby 1g camera and the video quality is great until I start the motors Then I get all that noise that was previously discussed. Im guessing the transmitter I have wants more voltage then it can get.

The noise is from the motor PWM-ing and can be filtered away with an inductor. I tried a 22uH inductor between the VCOM and the camera VCC supply and then almost all noise was gone. If you get video dropouts it is caused by voltage drops though.

[omwdunkley]

Thanks Tobias,

Ill be sure to try that too
Yup - Ive got noise and dropouts. Best of both worlds, yay! (samples:https://www.dropbox.com/sh/x8vwds0kiijp7il/jngdh8GsJP)
I have no idea about electronics, so I ask:

Right now I have the camera wired to the TX as such: http://www.fpvhobby.com/img/p/221-539-large.jpg
And VCOM going to the TX (loose red wire in the pic).

When you say added an inductor between cam and VCOM, do I assume that your TX is directly connected to VCOM?

Do you think it would make more sense to add the inductor before or after the voltage regulator?

I guess Ill just try all possible combinations

Cheers