Camera: Shutter & Zoom

[©Anderl]

Hi all, I´m new here! My name is Anderl and I write from Spain.

Congratulations for the grat job.

I have any questions: Does anyone know how I can use some of the 14 PWM ports (400 HZ) to control shutter and zoom features of an on-board camera? The idea is to control these features via external trigger port (2.5mm) or Infrared (for those cameras that supports this).

I'm thinking something like this:
http://mikrokopter.de/ucwiki/en/ShutterCable

Or like this:
http://www.mikrokopter.de/ucwiki/en/IR-Ctrl

Thanks you all

Edit:
Hi all,
Looking for the solution to the question, Ifound this here:

http://www.gentles.ltd.uk/products.htm

What do you think? This seems to be the solution I needed to triggering cameras via IR o r 2.5 plugin jack. However, I still have a doubt: what's with the 400 hz? I guess I have to make the changes myself in the source code and compile a new hex:

http://autoquad.org/wiki/wiki/developme ... equencies/

In my opinion, this will be a problem for many people (for me too). Therefore, I would also ask for a solution to the problem via GCS.

Thanks.

[Mike Barton]

The 400Hz is just the PWM output frequency that the timers run at for the output pins.

In reality this shouldn't be a problem because you don't want to use PWM output - the 14 (PWM) outputs can all be considered as GPIO (General Purpose I/O) pins and can be used for most purposes.
Because I'm having to explain this to you sort of tells me you *may* have problems!

This sort of deleopment is almost certainly outside the scope of what the developers would consider, especially at this early stage.

To make the code changes, you (<- note!) will need to disable the PWM timer output from your chosen pin(s) and also link the control of these pin(s) to your chosen Rx channel without messing anything up....

<edit>just to add, there may be other caveats such as GCS integration etc etc

[Meez]

Me too, up to now i can't find much info about camera shutter/control from this FC. Hope someone will explain about it here. I dont think everyone purchased this FC just to watch it fully autonomous flying capability without taking good photos.

[joebar.rc]

[Meez]

The best place to get the output info is here http://www.gentles.ltd.uk/gentled/shutter-zoom.htm

For MK, all control can be set from GCS i.e. shooting interval, shooting via waypoint. In most of my case, i will set in GCS 5 sec interval and it only activate after switch to Auto flying but i do also (same time) set it thru rc spring loaded switch to check camera function before each auto flying.

[joebar.rc]

Can only say, don't hold your breath. This is an example for extra's that either the community will pick up, or the main developer.
MK is in business for years and all those features didn't came at once. I'm a bit interested but as it is a community project and not a business like MK we must buy to test the stuff from the hobby budget.
So I'll try to make something for simple manual trigger and maybe go from there...

[Meez]

thanks for your kind words. I will follow the progress closely before make an order. FYI, i'm MR RTF builder and seller and i'm looking for a complete solution since most of my customer is either a University staff/student or gorverment staff which non rc background. The auto takeoff feature is what i'm looking for so far and i can't get it with MK. Plus license requirement for full range autonomous flying is really expensive and rediculous (USD2k for 1 km!).

[joebar.rc]