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Testing of 3-axis camera gimbal and Pixhawk flight test modes with Tower Android App








Our H1 drone was finally ready to be tested with new detachable landing gear, 3-axis gimbal and the Gopro camera (powered by an extra 3S-lipo battery). The objective of the test was to test the flight modes (mainly altitude control and position control) via 3DR telemetry connection to an Android phone and the Tower app.

It was quite noticeable that the quad needs alot more power to overcome in-ground effects at take-off. This is mainly due to the mass balance with the camera at the nose of the airframe. The altitude control mode worked quite well even at low elevation of 3-4 metres. Unfortunately, at low-battery voltage an automated landing doesn't occur and this resulted in hard-landing (more like a hard crash!). This piece of software will have to be investigated.

The manual operation of the Gopro is a bit cumbersome. The alternative of using the WIFI link to operate the camera was investigated but was not deemed a good idea given the potential inteference with the radio control which also operates at the same frequency (2.4Ghz).

The Tower program seems to accept more than one USB source including a video stream from a V-Rx (Video receiver). This however requires a smartphone compatible video receiver like this one.

Unto getting epic footage!

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