ViewPro Gimbals

../_images/viewpro-gimbal.png

ArduPilot 4.4 (and higher) support the ViewPro gimbals using a Lua script that understands ViewPro’s custom serial protocol.

Connection and Configuration

Connect one of the autopilot’s serial ports to the gimbal as shown below. The first image if for users with a “viewport” connection.

../_images/viewpro-gimbal-autopilot-wiring-viewport.png ../_images/viewpro-gimbal-autopilot-wiring.png

If using 4.5.x (or higher):

  • Set SERIAL2_PROTOCOL = 8 (Gimbal). This assumes the gimbal is attached to the autopilot’s Serial2 port but any serial port can be used.

  • Set SERIAL2_BAUD = 115

  • Set MNT1_TYPE = 11 (Viewpro)

  • Set CAM1_TYPE = 4 (Mount) to enable the camera control using the mount driver

  • RC6_OPTION = 213 (“Mount Pitch”) to control the gimbal’s pitch angle with RC channel 6

  • RC7_OPTION = 214 (“Mount Yaw”) to control the gimbal’s yaw angle with RC channel 7

  • Optionally these auxiliary functions are also available

    • RC9_OPTION = 166 (“Camera Record Video”) to start/stop recording of video

    • RC9_OPTION = 168 (“Camera Manual Focus”) to adjust focus in and out

    • RC9_OPTION = 169 (“Camera Auto Focus”) to trigger auto focus

    • RC9_OPTION = 174 (“Camera Image Tracking”) to track what is in the center of the image

    • RC9_OPTION = 175 (“Camera Lens”) to select which video stream is sent to the GCS

If using 4.4.x:

  • Set SERIAL2_PROTOCOL = 28 (Scripting). This assumes the gimbal is attached to the autopilot’s Serial2 port but any serial port can be used.

  • Set SCR_ENABLE = 1 to enable scripting and reboot the autopilot

  • Set MNT1_TYPE = 9 (Scripting) to enable the mount/gimbal scripting driver

  • Set CAM1_TYPE = 4 (Mount) to enable the camera1 instance control using the mount driver

  • Download mount-viewpro-driver.lua from here and copy it to the autopilot’s SD card in the APM/scripts directory and reboot the autopilot

  • Optionally for gimbals with multiple cameras, an auxiliary switch can control the active camera by doing the following

    • Set RC9_OPTION = 300 (Scripting1) to allow selecting the active camera with RC9. Note that any auxiliary switch may be used.

    • When the driver script is run, it creates three new parameters : VIEP_CAM_SWLOW, VIEP_CAM_SWMID, and VIEP_CAM_SWHIGH. These control the active camera when the aux switch is the low, medium and high position respectively. Possible values are

      • 0: No change in camera selection

      • 1: EO1

      • 2: IR thermal

      • 3: EO1 + IR Picture-in-picture

      • 4: IR + EO1 Picture-in-picture

      • 5: Fusion

      • 6: IR1 13mm

      • 7: IR2 52mm

  • Set VIEP_ZOOM_SPEED parameter created by the driver script to control the speed of zoom (value between 0 and 7)

Control and Testing

See Gimbal / Mount Controls and Camera Controls for details on how to control the gimbal using RC, GCS or Auto mode mission commands

Rangerfinder Control

Some versions of the ViewPro Gimbals have a rangefinder that displays range in the OSD. This continuous ranging updating can be disabled using an RC switch whose RCx_OPTIONS is set to “177”.

Testing Video Streaming

To test video streaming works using a Windows PC, connect the camera’s ethernet cable to your local router.

  • Download and install VLC media player

  • On the PC, open Settings, Network & Internet, Ethernet

  • Find the “IP assignment” section, click the “Edit” button and select “Manual”

    • Move the IPv4 slider to On

    • IP address: 192.168.2.118

    • Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0

    • Gateway: 192.168.2.1

    • Preferred DNS: 10.10.0.101

    • Press “Save” (note you will likely lose your internet connection)

  • Open VLC media player, Select Media, Open Network Stream, Network and enter “rtsp://192.168.2.119:554”

  • Once completed testing, restore your internet by reverting the PC’s “IP assignment” to “Automatic (DHCP)”

Video can also be streamed to QGroundControl

../_images/viewpro-config-for-qgc44.png

  • Open QGC’s Application Settings, General, and set Video Settings, Source to RTSP Video Stream

  • Set RTSP URL to “rtsp://192.168.2.119:554” as shown below

../_images/viewpro-qgc-video.png

Downloading Images and Videos

If the gimbal is connected using Ethernet, images and videos stored on the SD card may be downloaded manually using the built-in webserver. Using your favourite browser open http://192.168.2.119:8554/download (assuming the gimbal is using the default IP address).

wget can also be used to download all images and videos with a single command

  • On Windows, wget.exe -r -l 10 --convert-links http://192.168.2.119:8554/download/

  • On Linux/Ubuntu wget -r -l 10 --convert-links http://192.168.2.119:8554/download/