Using a 3 axis brushless gimbal and the 32bit AlexMos controller for cartography

Help
1

Hello i want to buy the product « EAGLE EYE DSLR BL Aerial Gimbal (32Bits Controller) ».
It is selled with a « 3-axis 32bit AlexMos controller including IMU sensor ».

I am making a technical school project.
Is it possible to become technical informations (datasheet) of the « 3-axis 32bit AlexMos controller including IMU sensor » ?
Does it contain 3 magnetometers?

Is it possible to add on the « 3-axis 32bit AlexMos controller including IMU sensor » three magnetometers and a GPS chip?
Is it possible to replace the « 3-axis 32bit AlexMos controller including IMU sensor » with an another controller which contains the same sensors but also a GPS chip and 3 magnetometers ?

Best regard and thankyou for the answers.
And sorry for my bad english

2

Hi the eagle eye gimbal kit we currently sell does include the 32bit alexmos controller.

The specs of the alexmos controller we sell is shown below:

  • Size of the board: 50×50 mm
  • Distance between the mounting holes: 45 mm
  • Diameter of the mounting holes: 3 mm
  • Power supply voltage: 8–25 V (3s-5s LiPo)
  • Maximum motor current: 1,5 A
  • 5V output current to power external devices: up to 1 A

Currently it includes 2x IMU sensors which each have a 3 axis accelerometer and 3 axis gyro.

I am not sure why you plan to include a GPS module on a gimbal, but we currently dont have any gimbals / gimbal controllers with a GPS chip.

3

Thank you for your answer.
I am working on a school project.
We want to make pictures of regions (cartography). The system will be install under an airplane.
I wanted to know if i can connect the “3-axis
32bit AlexMos controller including IMU sensor” with 3 magnetometers sensors ( X,Y,Z).
For this project we need that each picture is georeferenced. So i want to connect the AlexMos with a GPS (external device) or connect with an electronic board which contains a GPS sensor.
Do you think it is possible?
Best Regards

4

Hi

So just to check, I am assuming when you say an aircraft that you will be using a full size aircraft, as you will need a very big r/c plane to carry the eagle eye gimbal?

However in terms of georeferancing your imagey you might want to consider connecting an autopilot such as APM with a GPS module to your camera, as the ardupilot can control your camera to take photos and record the GPS position, altitude etc of each photo you take. The APM module also includes a 3 axis magnetometer sensor.

An example of how to geotag the images captured with the APM is shown below if that is of any help to you :smile:

If you have any other questions please let me know and I can try to help

5

Hello, and thank you for your answers.

Yes the “EAGLE EYE DSLR BL Aerial Gimbal (32Bits
Controller)” will be installed on
a real airplane (ULM.
The pictures will be taken at a speed of 80 km/h and the maximal speed of the
airplane is 150 km/h).

The camera has to point at the ground and has to be oriented in direction of geographic North when it will take pictures.

I have found this GPS on internet: “Adafruit Ultimate GPS Breakout - 66 channel w/10 Hz updates -
Version 3”

The “EAGLE EYE DSLR BL Aerial Gimbal” is
sold with a “3-axis 32bit AlexMos controller including
IMU sensor”.

Do you think I can
connect the “Adafruit Ultimate GPS
Breakout” with the “3-axis 32bit AlexMos controller including IMU sensor”?

Somebody told me that I can not
connect GPS to SimpleBGC controller. But that I can connect it to my own controller what
will manage all process of geotagging. Is is
true? Do you know what model of microcontroller I have to buy and is compatible
with the “"3-axis 32bit AlexMos controller “?

http://www.basecamelectronics.com/serialapi/

I have heard that it exists encoder (motor’s shaft rotation).

(you have to put WWW at the begins, problems with this forum about internet links …)

Is it possible to adapt encoder on each electrical motor of the EAGLE EYE DSLR BL
Aerial Gimbal?

(The « EAGLE EYE » contains two models of motors: BGM5208-75 and model BGM5208-180-12).

Sorry but I understand nothing about “However in terms of georeferancing
your imagey
you might want to consider connecting an autopilot such as APM with a GPS
module to your camera, as the ardupilot
can control your camera to take photos and record the GPS position, altitude
etc of each photo you take. The APM module also includes a 3 axis magnetometer sensor”. My level is not so
high.

Yes for each picture, the GPS position, altitude and the
time have to be recorded. Do you think it is possible to connect an internal
clock with the microcontroller? (the clock need to be very accurate hours,
seconds and tenth of a seconds have to be given).

For this project i have to answer CDCF (about like wishlist): pilot can take picture with the remote control of the canon
EOS 600 D when he wants.

But before tkake-off I want enter the parameters and then, during the flight, with the help of GPS the
system takes automatically pictures every X seconds depending the evolutions speed of the airplane (speed is not constant during all the flight), the
altitude, various accelerations ( according parameters entered before take-off).

Yes help is welcome because i am beginner in this technical area. (This is not a commercial project but school project, i am still student)

Best regards

Politon

8

You cant add a GPS to the alexmos controller. As I mentioned before the best way would be to add a APM flight controller to your setup which can tell your camera to take photos and record the GPS position each time a photo has been taken. Georeference/Geotag simply means recording the GPS position of each photo in the files metadata. So when you look at the properties of the .JPG image it will have the GPS position and altitude recorded on it.

In terms of the best GPS module I suggest you consider the Ublox Neo M8N that we sell as it can connect to both GPS and GLONASS sattelite networks.

However if you prefer you can also code your own GPS logger using arduino if you prefer, but that will take much more work than just using a APM flight controller with the mission planner software.

9

Hello,
if I understand in the « EAGLE EYE DSLR BL Aerial Gimbal (32BitsController) » there is a « 3-axis 32bit AlexMos controller including IMU sensor » which is a BaseCam SimpleBGC 32-bit.

It is impossible to connect a GPS chip to the BaseCam SimpleBGC 32-bit and it is impossible to modify programmation code.

Question: Is it possible to connect an internal clock with the microcontroller “BaseCamSimpleBGC 32-bit”? (the clock need to be very accurate hours, seconds and tenth of a seconds have to begiven).

I want to take picture and each picutre has to be georefereced. I have the
idea to install an another system GPS with card in paralel to the
AlexMos controller. The GPS is not connected to the AlexMos controller
system. To sum up there will be the electronical system of the gimbal
with the AlexMos controller, and an another system, independant which
contains GPS.

What complete GPS system do you adice me to buy? taking into account that

For this school project, for each picture, the GPS position, altitude and the time have to be recorded.
For thisproject i have to answer CDCF (about likewishlist): pilot cantakepicturewith the remote control of the canon EOS 600 D when he wants.
But beforetkake-off I want enter the parameters and then, during the flight, with the help of GPS the system takes automatically pictures every X seconds depending the evolutions speed of the airplane (speed is not constant during all the flight), the altitude, variousaccelerations ( accordingparametersenteredbefore take-off).

Best regards

And thank you for your time

10

there are 2 options.

1 - if you are happy to program arduino you can go down that route and connect a Ublox M8N GPS module to your arduino along with a IR camera trigger and program it to record the GPS position, each time it takes a photo.

2- Use an ardupilot mega flight controller, with the same GPS, and camera trigger and set it up to take a photo, this will not require any programming, just use the included software to setup a photo mission.

11

Hello,
thank you for your time, and help in my project.

Indeed i don’t have any experience in programmation.
The materials are for the project are: Canon EOS 600D and remote control RS-60E3 (product of Canon).

a) Do you think it is possible to connect (by modifiying remote control RS-60E3) the
remote control RS-60E3 to the arduino card in order that each time the pilot push the push-button of the remote
control, then the geographical position is recorded at the same time?

b) Secondly, do you think it is possible that in function of the geographical position and
altitude of the plane, the arduino automatically send order to take pictures ( without the intervention of the pilot, but parameters were given to the arduino before take-off)?

is it possible to make this with the arduino card and is it difficult to make programmation?

c) Finally, about the materials " ardupilot mega flight controller, with GPS and camera trigger":
(http://www.unmannedtechshop.co.uk/ardupilot-mega-autopilot-kit-apm-2-6/).

You say that this solution will not require any programming, but do you think it is possible to answer points a) and b) of my project with the " ardupilot mega flight controller with GPS and camera trigger"?

Best regards

12

A) Yes

B) Yes with a camera trigger (or IR LED)

A+B) If you have never programmed arduino before this is quite a challenging task, but not impossible.

C) Ardupilot is able to do the functions above with the mission planner software and a camera trigger that I mentioned before.

13

Hello and thank you for your answers.
here there are 3 pictures of the system i want to construct. Can you help me to answer these last questions (in picture3)?
Questions:
a) What is the langage of programmation of the SYSTEM_2 ?
b) Could this language (of system_2) be compatible with System_1 (Arduinocard for exemple)?
c) Is it possible that system_1 and system_2 communicate together with the same informatic langage?
d) Wich informations can be extracted from the system_2?
e)Is it possible to extract from system_2 the « 3 angles positions » of plateform and « magnetometers informations » and is it possible to read these informations with system_1?
f) Can system_1 command the system_2?
g) Is it possible to connect system_2 to LABVIEW and to read informations of system_2 with LABVIEW computer software?

Thank you very much.

project1.JPG986×777 70.7 KB
project2.JPG1023×749 94.1 KB
project3.JPG1022×758 105 KB

14

Hello
i have bought eagle eye aerial with alexmos 32 bits controller (SimpleBGC 32bit 3-Axis).
I have bought in extra the magnetometer sensor HMC5883L.

I have already read all the “SimpleBGC_32bit_manual_2_5x_eng” manual.

Is it possible to point all the time (in yaw axis) the camera in direction of magnetic north? I want to do this with the software “Basecam GUI”.
Let me know.

THanks

regards,