FPV with ardupilot

Fletcher

New member
Hi,
I'm quite new to building drones and I am wanting to have an FPV camera connected to my computer (on ardupilot software). Is this possible through telementary or something like that? I was wanting to use a GoPro possibly with this https://hobbyking.com/en_us/super-slim-gopro-3-a-v-cable-and-power-lead-for-fpv.html or https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-light-l250-5-8ghz-250mw-fpv-transmitter-for-gopro-3-3-plus.html .
I would really appreciate help and if I sound crazy just let me know.
Thanks
 

FDS

Elite member
Transmitting go pro feeds through FpV makes a very laggy, unreliable set up.
What exactly are you trying to do? There’s lots of simple solutions for remote control webcams. Ardupilots features would be wasted on a fixed installation.
 

HilldaFlyer

Well-known member
Hi Fletcher - I agree that we need more details to your goal in order to provide help. I need more information on what you mean by "connected to your computer". ArduPilot is a great platform for GPS assisted flight and provides flying features that I think you are referring to and has telemetry for semi-autonomous flight. Best!
 
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Fletcher

New member
Hi Fletcher - I agree that we need more details to your goal in order to provide help. I need more information on what you mean by "connected to your computer". ArduPilot is a great platform for GPS assisted flight and provides flying features that I think you are referring to and has telemetry for semi-autonomous flight. Best!
Transmitting go pro feeds through FpV makes a very laggy, unreliable set up.
What exactly are you trying to do? There’s lots of simple solutions for remote control webcams. Ardupilots features would be wasted on a fixed installation.

Basically I was hoping to have an FPV camera connected to my computer from my drone remotely.
 

FDS

Elite member
So you want to fly the drone from your computer or stream video TO the computer?
A simple ground station with HD out or video out, going into your video card will do that. All you would need is a reasonable FPV camera and a VTX on the drone, then a receiver and base station connected to the computer.
How do you intend to control the UAV?
 

Fletcher

New member
So you want to fly the drone from your computer or stream video TO the computer?
A simple ground station with HD out or video out, going into your video card will do that. All you would need is a reasonable FPV camera and a VTX on the drone, then a receiver and base station connected to the computer.
How do you intend to control the UAV?
Yes, Stream to the computer and onto QgroundControl. So you're saying that if I have a cable from video receiver to computer then that will work?
I am planning to use autopilot and RC.
 
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Fletcher

New member
Screenshot (6).png
 

veloxsouth

Member
There's a number of things to consider here.
In short, I'm concerned about latency, parts compatibility, radio interference, and difficulty to set up.

Are you transmitting video for review later and flying the plane through line-of-sight, or are you trying to fly the plane from the video feed? I'm assuming you're looking to fly through the feed since the gopro handles recording already to its on-board storage.

If you were to get a video feed from your GoPro to your computer, how much lag would there be with this solution? RC with lag is frustrating at best and expensive at worst. Admittedly the GoPro could have some great video quality but from my understanding, the lag is very uncomfortable to fly with. I know that with the video lag from my Hero4 Session and Hero 5 Black, the video to my phone takes too long to get to my phone screen for my tastes. Sorry I don't have exact numbers here.
How are you planning to get the video feed to the application? It looks like qGroundControl only supports UDP RTP and RSTP over a network socket read here. You would need to change that 5.8Ghz analog video to one of these two protocols for qGroundControl to understand it and it doesn't sound easy.

The best documentation I could find related to this was here, and it doesn't bother using the 5.8Ghz transmitter you selected at all.
https://dev.px4.io/v1.9.0/en/qgc/video_streaming.html
Based on this documentation, it looks like they are using a single-board computer hosting a Gstreamer server and a 2.4Ghz wifi adapter to transmit the video. Most control links between your radio transmitter and the receiver in the plane are 2.4Ghz, which is the same band wifi transmits over, so your video uplink on WiFi could interfere with the signals from your transmitter controlling the plane from the ground. I hear that if you're using a 2.4Ghz frequency hopping protocol such as Spektrum's DSMX or DSM2, you'll probably be fine, but I'd rather avoid the interference in the first place. I wouldn't want a bad-control-link day. If you're not bothered by that and have the patience to set this up and get the gopro to work like the webcam in that tutorial, go for it and let us know how well it performs. I'm sure there are plenty of people with GoPros already that want to get into FPV flying cheaply.

You might even be able to use the onboard wifi on the gopro, connect your pc to the gopro, and play the live video using VLC player instead of qGroundControl, seen in this video tutorial

If you have the money to spare, you might want to choose a more typical FPV set up using an fpv camera and transmitter for your plane, and on the ground you would use a receiver, a display that won't "blue screen" when it detects a lot of static, and a way to power the two. You can buy cameras with transmitters built in, and there are goggles and display planels like the flysight black pearl that include a receiver, video recorder, video out, and battery pack all in one.
 

Fletcher

New member
Video for a bit of both. I'm starting to think I should just go with a regular FPV camera. Is there a way I can connect that to Qgroundcontrol?
 

veloxsouth

Member
Video for a bit of both. I'm starting to think I should just go with a regular FPV camera. Is there a way I can connect that to Qgroundcontrol?

qGoundcontrol documentation says that it only supports GStreamer 1.14.4 so if you want it to display in qGroundControl in a supported way, it must be sent through the GStreamer server. I am not familiar with GStreamer but at the very least, you will need a 5.8ghz receiver as well to go with the fpv camera and 5.8Ghz transmitter. I think some receivers can hook up directly to a pc and act as a video input.
 

Fletcher

New member
Ok thanks
qGoundcontrol documentation says that it only supports GStreamer 1.14.4 so if you want it to display in qGroundControl in a supported way, it must be sent through the GStreamer server. I am not familiar with GStreamer but at the very least, you will need a 5.8ghz receiver as well to go with the fpv camera and 5.8Ghz transmitter. I think some receivers can hook up directly to a pc and act as a video input.