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Compatible with aftermarket cameras/sensors?

Hello,

I am here because DJI was not compatible with aftermarket cameras. Can I put aftermarket cameras on here, like this LiDar camera? Scanse | Meet Sweep. An Affordable Scanning LiDAR for Everyone.

Also, could I put another camera on it, like the gear 360 virtual reality camera?

Thanks,

AK
The link you posted is not a camera but a scanning device, so pretty obvious that it would not work. You could mount a Gear 360, as that is what I am going to be doing. The Gear 360 has a 1/4 inch thread mount on the bottom of it for mounting to a tripod. What you will need to remember is that while you are using the Gear, you will need to keep the camera on the Typhoon H in one position to see where you are going while flying. Keep in mind the clip and images you take with the Gear will show the drone as it is a 360 deg view.

So no to the scanner as it is useless for a drone, but yes to the Gear 360.

As to how to mount the Gear 360 to the drone? Use the KISS principle. Keep It Simple Stupid. That is not meant as an insult, it is just what it means. Keep the mount simple and not complicated and it will do what it needs to. I am going to add a quick release to the top of my drone to hold it.
 
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The link you posted is not a camera but a scanning device, so pretty obvious that it would not work. You could mount a Gear 360, as that is what I am going to be doing. The Gear 360 has a 1/4 inch thread mount on the bottom of it for mounting to a tripod. What you will need to remember is that while you are using the Gear, you will need to keep the camera on the Typhoon H in one position to see where you are going while flying. Keep in mind the clip and images you take with the Gear will show the drone as it is a 360 deg view.

So no to the scanner as it is useless for a drone, but yes to the Gear 360.

As to how to mount the Gear 360 to the drone? Use the KISS principle. Keep It Simple Stupid. That is not meant as an insult, it is just what it means. Keep the mount simple and not complicated and it will do what it needs to. I am going to add a quick release to the top of my drone to hold it.

Are you installing a gimbal for the 360, or mount it fixed?
 
First tests will be a fixed mount with only a damper to test photos. 2nd will be photos only as well, but I will attach it to the bottom of the CG03+. I will add risers to the landing gear for the needed height for landing. I feel that no matter the mount, the end result will be crappy due to the drone always being in the image or video. Mostly curious if it will work.
 
Ah. I'll be very interested to see how you get it mated to the gimbal control system. Third-party gimbal I presume?
 
My thought is to attach it to the Typhoon underbelly on the exterior so as not to have it affect the movement of the CG03+ gimbal. Idea would be to attach a Yuneec secondary gimbal directly below with a U bracket to allow the original gimbal to move freely above, then piggyback on the existing connections so as to mirror the movements of the upper gimbal. It may on the otherhand not work without an actual CG0 attached. Minor details to work out, but it is possible with patience. Haven't started any drawings yet as I still need to pickup the Gear 360 and rip it apart.
 
The link you posted is not a camera but a scanning device, so pretty obvious that it would not work. You could mount a Gear 360, as that is what I am going to be doing. The Gear 360 has a 1/4 inch thread mount on the bottom of it for mounting to a tripod. What you will need to remember is that while you are using the Gear, you will need to keep the camera on the Typhoon H in one position to see where you are going while flying. Keep in mind the clip and images you take with the Gear will show the drone as it is a 360 deg view.

So no to the scanner as it is useless for a drone, but yes to the Gear 360.

As to how to mount the Gear 360 to the drone? Use the KISS principle. Keep It Simple Stupid. That is not meant as an insult, it is just what it means. Keep the mount simple and not complicated and it will do what it needs to. I am going to add a quick release to the top of my drone to hold it.


Can you please explain why it would obviously not work when you could rig the scanning device to the drone the same way you are doing the 360 camera?
 
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Can you please explain why it would obviously not work when you could rig the scanning device to the drone the same way you are doing the 360 camera?
I'm only mirroring one gimbal to the other. This will cause them to move in tandem. What you are talking about is using a scanner that has proprietary software. The scanning done with the RealSense uses propreitary software as well. The Gear 360 is independant and has it's own video feed. Attaching a second camera is not an issue, getting the start up companies scanner to work is a whole different ball game. It's software would need to intergrate with the drone and the radio controller. Better off to start saving for the real deal and not risk it.
 
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Can you direct me to where I would learn of this modifications so that I could look into them then? Thanks!

I don't have a clue. I'm thinking either you hack it yourself or follow Murray's advice above and get a unit that's already got that functionality.
 
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I'm only mirroring one gimbal to the other. This will cause them to move in tandem. What you are talking about is using a scanner that has proprietary software. The scanning done with the RealSense uses propreitary software as well. The Gear 360 is independant and has it's own video feed. Attaching a second camera is not an issue, getting the start up companies scanner tp work is a whole different ball game. It's software would need to intergrate with the drone and the radio controller. Better off to start saving for the real deal and not risk it.

What type of drone would I be looking at saving for in order to do some intense LiDar? A3? thanks
 
What type of drone would I be looking at saving for in order to do some intense LiDar? A3? thanks
It sounds more like a custom build than anything. I'm not sure what country you are in, but if it is Canada, www.draganfly.com would be a first step. I know there are sites that sell everything to build your own, but again with the software, that is where you need a tech guy that can write for you. Now you are looking at the price going way up.

Let me be brutally honest with you. I'm a cheap ba$t@rd that's part Scot, English, and the rest a mix of German and some other crazy crap. That makes me of the cheapest kind, it's in my DNA. To me if it cost a lot, it better be freaking heavy. That's always been my guide and it's worked.

Drones are pricey to get into, but we are getting it for so cheap in reality. And how's that?....well we didn't have to invest in any R & D costs. We get them for the "Here you go" price. I'd rather some other phucker spend their time and money on figuring it out and take the "Here you go" instead.

So don't end up being cheap like me and risk your drone over a start up or trying to figure a way around a couple hundred bucks. Don't get me wrong, a couple hundred is a lot of cake, but once you get into drones more, you will find that to be a low cost on things we need after a crash or upgrade.

I like Yuneec and the way they have all their parts mesh together for what your own build becomes. People do customize their drones in their own way, but I only do it with what they have available.
 
To be honest, if you're using something like the Scanse, you just need a flying platform that can carry the load. It's a bonus if it can also provide power, but if it doesn't you can always add your own battery.

I don't see any reason why you couldn't use the Typhoon camera rails to attach any camera load to the drone. The parts are available as spares and aren't expensive. I believe (you'd have to check) that you can also get the electrical contacts as well, so theoretically you have a mount and a power supply for your own project. It would just click on and click off the Typhoon - with the added advantage that you can raise the landing gear and get an unobstructed 360 degree view beneath the drone. I strongly recommend you contact Yuneec and tell them about your project and ask if they can give you some basic information to help you experiment.

As for the Scanse itself, the specs look like it's going to be quite an ask to get good data out of a drone. It does a 2d scan (just a single 'row') of pixels in 1/10th of a second at maximum speed/minimum resolution (just 100 pixels). That's 3.6 degrees per pixel which at 20meters is just over 6cm between each scanned point. If the things you're scanning don't have too much detail that's not bad, but to do a full 3D scan you either need to rotate the scanner or move the drone. If you're going for a square mesh, that's a fairly slow sweep (5 seconds for a 3D view, or travelling at 6cm/sec). That's at the 'fastest' setting, so you're going to have to do some clever stuff to compensate for drift - in 5 seconds most drones will move around quite a bit. If you used the highest resolution scan it offers, it would take 50 seconds - nearly a minute to capture a 3D scene.

As the Typhoon already uses Realsense, you could look into that - it provides a full 3d mesh pretty quickly, though I've not checked the distance/accuracy. Though it might not be possible to 'hack' the Yuneec Realsense module (again - talk to Yuneec), you could consider mounting a separate Realsense module the same way you'd mount the Scanse.

Of course a lot depends on your use case - what are you actually hoping to use the lidar for? There have been reports recently of researchers getting good resolution just by generating point clouds from 2D photos (software like Microsoft's Photosynth) and there are a number of other tools in that area.
 
It sounds more like a custom build than anything. I'm not sure what country you are in, but if it is Canada, www.draganfly.com would be a first step. I know there are sites that sell everything to build your own, but again with the software, that is where you need a tech guy that can write for you. Now you are looking at the price going way up.

Let me be brutally honest with you. I'm a cheap ba$t@rd that's part Scot, English, and the rest a mix of German and some other crazy crap. That makes me of the cheapest kind, it's in my DNA. To me if it cost a lot, it better be freaking heavy. That's always been my guide and it's worked.

Drones are pricey to get into, but we are getting it for so cheap in reality. And how's that?....well we didn't have to invest in any R & D costs. We get them for the "Here you go" price. I'd rather some other phucker spend their time and money on figuring it out and take the "Here you go" instead.

So don't end up being cheap like me and risk your drone over a start up or trying to figure a way around a couple hundred bucks. Don't get me wrong, a couple hundred is a lot of cake, but once you get into drones more, you will find that to be a low cost on things we need after a crash or upgrade.

I like Yuneec and the way they have all their parts mesh together for what your own build becomes. People do customize their drones in their own way, but I only do it with what they have available.

good information, and me cheap too, that is why I am asking so many questions before hand to make sure I spend every dollar efficiently
 
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To be honest, if you're using something like the Scanse, you just need a flying platform that can carry the load. It's a bonus if it can also provide power, but if it doesn't you can always add your own battery.

I don't see any reason why you couldn't use the Typhoon camera rails to attach any camera load to the drone. The parts are available as spares and aren't expensive. I believe (you'd have to check) that you can also get the electrical contacts as well, so theoretically you have a mount and a power supply for your own project. It would just click on and click off the Typhoon - with the added advantage that you can raise the landing gear and get an unobstructed 360 degree view beneath the drone. I strongly recommend you contact Yuneec and tell them about your project and ask if they can give you some basic information to help you experiment.

As for the Scanse itself, the specs look like it's going to be quite an ask to get good data out of a drone. It does a 2d scan (just a single 'row') of pixels in 1/10th of a second at maximum speed/minimum resolution (just 100 pixels). That's 3.6 degrees per pixel which at 20meters is just over 6cm between each scanned point. If the things you're scanning don't have too much detail that's not bad, but to do a full 3D scan you either need to rotate the scanner or move the drone. If you're going for a square mesh, that's a fairly slow sweep (5 seconds for a 3D view, or travelling at 6cm/sec). That's at the 'fastest' setting, so you're going to have to do some clever stuff to compensate for drift - in 5 seconds most drones will move around quite a bit. If you used the highest resolution scan it offers, it would take 50 seconds - nearly a minute to capture a 3D scene.

As the Typhoon already uses Realsense, you could look into that - it provides a full 3d mesh pretty quickly, though I've not checked the distance/accuracy. Though it might not be possible to 'hack' the Yuneec Realsense module (again - talk to Yuneec), you could consider mounting a separate Realsense module the same way you'd mount the Scanse.

Of course a lot depends on your use case - what are you actually hoping to use the lidar for? There have been reports recently of researchers getting good resolution just by generating point clouds from 2D photos (software like Microsoft's Photosynth) and there are a number of other tools in that area.

This is extremely helpful. Thank you. This is one of the most optimistic posts I have gotten
 
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