I have a PTZ camera on a Cube quad, and it’s a pain in the proverbial area that sits on a chair.
The zoom needs a neutral-mid channel to work properly, and it’s hard to achieve and control without a proper 3POS switch. I tried with a combination of two short-presses and a long-press, and it’s very uncomfortable. Pitch has its wheel, REC has its button and between the iffy 2-key combination for zoom and 2 keys for flight-modes, I’m left without control for camera pan.
Is there a way to introduce a module - let’s say an ESP32 - sporting some classic pots or sliders and 2-3-POS switches, to the HereLink environment !?
I think an on-screen joystick for gimbal control would be a nice solution.
Even better would be a way to be able to assign a button to toggle one hardware joystick between flight control and gimbal control. I think in most gimbal situations you anyways only do simple x/y movements with the craft.
I don’t exactly know how to proper handle it.
Best choice would be attaching a mainstream joystick or gamepad USB device with an OTG cable, until I can build the custom circuit off a STM32 dev board.
Gonna need some developer help into mapping the USB device outputs towards, say Ch 9-`16 in the SBUS stream.
Very interested in this topic too!!!
We use two herelinks in our team and the RC/HDVideo link is the best you can get today. But the lack of physical controls (even on the screen) is driving us crazy…
A usb joystick via OTG should be an excellent addition.
Can we wiggle something out of a $10 STM32F1 dev board and an additional $10 in pots and switches !? Unless you add some some target-tracking capabilities on the gimbal-control 2-nd unit to justify the extra $$$…
Something similar to what DJI did for the M600 RC with the channel expander kit would be ideal.
I can really see people being interested if it can be done over USB and give some pots and physical switches.
Another option that would have been cool/nice would have been PPM or SBUS in via the USB so you could connected a standard RC as slave and map the functionally.
technically, while using qground with the device, I found there is no need to use more than one button for modes. I have set mine for Stabilize (short press) and Loiter (long press), but set to whatever flight mode you would need to default to in event of emergency. All other modes can be easily selected from drop down. That will help free up an extra button for camera control.
I too use a PTZ with it. It has taken some getting use to, but works quite well. When Solex is implemented you will be able to make your sliders and custom buttons with custom labels.
Accessories would be great, but honestly, I really like the simplicity of the device as it is. I would think a bluetooth enabled game pad, or usb OTG controller would be ideal. I personally don’t know what would be the best implementation as I haven’t even really dug into the inner workings of the device yet.
For leisure, it’s acceptable. For utilitarian work, less so.
Imagine blade inspection on a windmill. You have to manually fly the drone along the angle at which the blade stopped, zoom in/out a couple of times to take both detail and general views, then switch to video and start/stop recording flying back to the hub.
I can brush a pot with my index and operate an usual switch with my middle while the thumb controls the stick. Going for the touch-screen or lower-rim buttons to do long-presses while still thumbing the stick is awkward, to say the least.
If I had a Solo I wanted to put a Hero7 on, this would’ve been the perfect upgrade. But in 2019 the market needs more capable birds.
This switch/pot thinghie is just the beginning. Next, I’ll want to feed up some RTCM3 corrections from a L1/L2 base station to make the bird true-RTK
Is there a link on how to program the wheel and the push button that are on the top right and left top corners of the Herelink unit?
Also, what is the purpose of the LED lights that are located directly above the gimbals? Only the left LED will illuminate while the micro USB is plugged in to charge the battery. The right LED always stays dark. What are there intended purpose?
Can we connect QGC compatible joysticks like Logitech F310 to herelink via an OTG module and use the extra channels available to control cameras and give other commands to Pixhawk?
I recently connected one F310 gamepad with herelink using OTG connector and able to get F310’s inputs on the ‘Joystick’ window of ‘herelink settings’. But can’t get the same to QGC or to flight controller.
I think this can easily solve the button limitation of herelink and can enable wide range of control inputs
Any updates on this? Seems like such an oversight to only have one slider/dial. How about a usb dial? I use one for volume on my android car stereo. Or, could the camera button be replaced with another dial?
USB OTG is working but the current version of QGC has disabled the joystick page. For now, we would have to use a companion computer (android phone/tablet or a pc) to access gimbal sliders or use a USB joystick.
Simply adding gimbal control sliders (pitch, yaw, zoom) to the camera control panel seems like a no brainier.
Unless you add some some target-tracking capabilities on the gimbal-control 2-nd unit to justify the extra $$$…