Camera drone setup

[rrc1962]

What I'd like to do it mount a GoPro on a retractable arm under a drone and install floats on the drone. Fly the drone ou, land on the water and drop the ca,era into the water. The mechanics of making all that happen aren't a big deal, but I have no idea what to use for a frame kit (or scratch build) and what to use for a controller/autopilot.

I have a Phantom4 Pro and Mavic. This drone doesn't need to have all the autonomous features the DJI drones have, but it needs to be stable in flight. I'd probably fly it FPV, at least until the water landing. I could probably rig the underwater camera and the flight camera into a video switch, that way I'd have FPV under water also. Could even drive it around on the water by running the rotors at low RPM.

So what you you guys recommend for electronics for this thing? I'm thinking cheap in case the whole thing ends up at the bottom of the lake.

Thanks

 

[JUSS10]

I've ran the ardupilot boards and been quite pleased with their stability. They are GPS enabled if that is what you are looking for. Otherwise a lot of the flight controllers the racing quad guys are running are really stable and also work on a larger platform. Helped a guy build an AP quad last year that ran on a S500 frame spinning 10" props that was using a CC3D board and holding quite level. I can only imagine one of the newer F3 or F4 boards would be that much better and they are all pretty cheap and easy to use.

 

[PsyBorg]

Alex Edit has a company that already does this called "Splash Drone" There were two episodes done of it on FT. You could probably order one of his water resistant frames and start from there.