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Airelectronics U-Camera Manual

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Summary of Contents for Airelectronics U-Camera

  • Page 2: Table Of Contents

    U-Camera User Manual - Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 General System Introduction.....................4 1.1 U-Camera Elements....................4 1.2 Concept of system operation..................5 2 U-Camera Board........................6 3 U-Camera Gimbal......................7 3.1 Mechanical Mounting....................7 3.1.1 Vehicle considerations..................7 3.1.2 Mounting positions....................7 3.1.3 Vibration isolation....................8 3.1.3.1 Combustion engine vehicles / helicopters...........8...
  • Page 3 5.5.6.1 Set IR Palette Packet (Cat: 0x0C, ID: 0x01)..........20 5.5.6.2 Report IR Palette Packet (Cat: 0x0C, ID: 0x02)........21 5.6 Periodic Reports Packets..................21 5.7 Protocol Summary....................21 6 U-Camera electrical connections..................23 6.1 U-Camera main connectors pin-out.................23 6.2 U-Camera Main Harness schematic................24 Appendix A Mechanical Drawings..................31 Appendix B Change-log.......................36...

  • Page 4: General System Introduction

    General System Introduction General System Introduction U-Camera is the Gimbal solution provided by Airelectronics, a state of the art, small form- factor Gimbal designed for small and medium sized UAVs. U-Camera can be mounted on fixed wing vehicles or rotary wing platforms such as multicopters or helicopters.

  • Page 5: Concept Of System Operation

    Concept of system operation Concept of system operation The basic system operation concept is shown in Figure 1. When correctly placed, U-Camera Gimbal, Harness and Board act as a single element, U-Camera. The interface with other elements (FCS, Video transmitter) is done via U-Camera Harness.

  • Page 6: Camera Board

    U-Camera Board U-Camera Board U-Camera Board is the electronic board that handles the gimbal pointing and control. It is designed as a separate item from the gimbal itself. This architecture allows the board to be placed anywhere inside the vehicle, allowing a more efficient distribution of masses when working with small vehicles.

  • Page 7: Camera Gimbal

    U-Camera Gimbal The Gimbal of the U-Camera system contains the IMU sensors, motors and encoders along with the video module. U-Camera Gimbal is designed to have a small factor and low weight (<500grams), so its suitable for small vehicles. The gimbal provides a DB-26 high density connector to interface with U-Camera Board and the rest of the system.

  • Page 8: Vibration Isolation

    Combustion engine vehicles / helicopters Combustion engine vehicles / helicopters If U-Camera is to be mounted on this type of vehicles, the use of silent blocks is mandatory. If the Gimbal is not isolated from the vibrations from the vehicle, the images provided by U-Camera may not be satisfactory and the gimbal may suffer permanent damage.

  • Page 9: Camera Operation

    U-Camera accepts input voltages from 9 to 28V. IMPORTANT: if the power supply is above 17V, active cooling of U-Camera Board is highly recommended to avoid permanent damage.

  • Page 10: Vehicle Angles And Velocities

    (Section 5.5.5.5 and 5.5.5.6). If this packet is received, U-Camera will use the provided angles as vehicle angles. If the packet is not being received U-Camera will calculate the vehicle angles from the GPS source.

  • Page 11: Ffc Calibration (Ir Only)

    In order to the obtain the maximum image quality, thermal calibration is recommended. To calibrate the infrared sensor, command the FFC Calibration mode using the command mode packet (Section 5.5.3.1). U-Camera will point itself to the Pan=0º, Tilt=90º and perform the calibration.

  • Page 12: Communication Protocol

    Communication Protocol Protocol general description Protocol general description U-Camera communicates using the U-Camera Serial Protocol, UCSP. UCSP is a serial protocol that allows the controller (indicated as CTRL in this document) to command U- Camera Gimbal (GMB in this document).

  • Page 13: Checksum Calculation

    U-Camera User Manual - Communication Protocol Checksum Calculation Checksum Calculation As described in the previous section, the UCSP packets have two checksum bytes to determine the integrity of the packet. This checksum is the 8-bit Fletcher algorithm, which is used in the TCP standard (RFC 1145).

  • Page 14: Data Formats And Structure

    The data used in UCSP protocol is always sent using little endian scheme. The following table shows the order for the different data types used in the U-Camera protocol. The position indicates the order used for sending the bytes, meaning that Position 0 byte is sent before Position 1 byte and so on.

  • Page 15: Save Ffc To Nv Memory (Cat: 0X04, Id: 0X02, Ir Only)

    U-Camera User Manual - Communication Protocol 5.5.1.2 Save FFC to NV memory (Cat: 0x04, ID: 0x02, IR Only) 5.5.1.2 Save FFC to NV memory (Cat: 0x04, ID: 0x02, IR Only) To save the FFC calibration to the non-volatile memory of the video module, just send this packet with no payload.

  • Page 16: Set Telemetry Data Frequency (Cat: 0X08, Id: 0X05)

    U-Camera User Manual - Communication Protocol 5.5.2.5 5.5.2.5 Set Telemetry Data Frequency (Cat: 0x08, ID: 0x05) Set Telemetry Data Frequency (Cat: 0x08, ID: 0x05) The user can configure the data rate by sending this packet providing the desired data frequency.

  • Page 17: Set Gimbal Rates (Cat: 0X09, Id: 0X03)

    U-Camera User Manual - Communication Protocol 5.5.3.3 Set gimbal Rates (Cat: 0x09, ID: 0x03) 5.5.3.3 Set gimbal Rates (Cat: 0x09, ID: 0x03) The gimbal rates are the angular velocities commanded to the gimbal when the mode “Rates” is set. Note that unless this mode is active, the commands in this packet will take no effect.

  • Page 18: Set Camera Zoom Packet (Cat: 0X0A, Id: 0X01)

    Zoom Report (0 - 16383) 5.5.4.3 5.5.4.3 Report Gimbal Type(Cat: 0x0A, ID: 0x03) Report Gimbal Type(Cat: 0x0A, ID: 0x03) This packet reports the type of gimbal of the U-Camera device. The packet structure is: Data Position Data Type Data Data Description...

  • Page 19: Send Gps Velocities (Cat: 0X0B, Id: 0X01)

    U-Camera User Manual - Communication Protocol 5.5.5.1 5.5.5.1 Send GPS Velocities (Cat: 0x0B, ID: 0x01) Send GPS Velocities (Cat: 0x0B, ID: 0x01) Provides the GPS velocities for the gimbal calculations. This packet is ignored if on-board GPS is used. The packet structure is:...

  • Page 20: Send Vehicle Angular Velocities (Cat: 0X0B, Id: 0X06)

    Request GPS Antenna Position (Cat: 0x0B, ID: 0x08) 5.5.5.8 Request GPS Antenna Position (Cat: 0x0B, ID: 0x08) Sending this packet with no payload causes U-Camera to report the GPS Antenna position on memory using packet described in 5.5.5.9. 5.5.5.9 5.5.5.9...

  • Page 21: Report Ir Palette Packet (Cat: 0X0C, Id: 0X02)

    Data Data Description uint16 Color scheme Periodic Reports Packets Periodic Reports Packets U-Camera (GMB) periodically send report packets to inform the controller (CTRL) of the gimbal status. This periodic packet are listed in the following table. Category Packet 0x08 0x01...
  • Page 22 U-Camera User Manual - Communication Protocol Packet Sync Byte Category Byte Command ID Byte Length Byte Report Gimbal Type 0xCC 0x0A 0x03 0x02 External Feed Category Report GPS Velocities 0xCC 0x0B 0x01 0x0C Report GPS Position and Velocities 0xCC 0x0B...

  • Page 23: Camera Electrical Connections

    U-Camera main connectors pin-out U-Camera main connectors pin-out As described in the previous sections U-Camera systems is composed by two main elements: U-Camera Gimbal and U-Camera Board. The main harness connects the two of them and provide the required external interfaces such as: Video Output and Video Transmitter supply(12V) •...

  • Page 24: U-Camera Main Harness Schematic

    U-Camera User Manual - U-Camera electrical connections Main Function DB26 Gimbal DB26 Board Function Harness Internal 01 <-> Internal 01 Internal 02 <-> Internal 02 Internal 03 <-> Internal 03 Internal 04 <-> Internal 04 Internal 05 <-> Internal 05 Internal 06 <->...
  • Page 25 U-Camera User Manual - U-Camera electrical connections Figure 8: Main Harness Schematic...

  • Page 26: Appendix A Mechanical Drawings

    U-Camera User Manual - U-Camera electrical connections Appendix A Mechanical Drawings Appendix A Mechanical Drawings...
  • Page 27 U-Camera User Manual - U-Camera electrical connections...
  • Page 28 U-Camera User Manual - U-Camera electrical connections Note: other mounting options are available upon request.
  • Page 29 U-Camera User Manual - U-Camera electrical connections...

  • Page 30: Appendix B Change-Log

    U-Camera User Manual - U-Camera electrical connections Appendix B Change-log Appendix B Change-log This annex describes changes introduced to this document. Date Changes Version up to 1.06 • Added IR palette periodic report packet • 2016/06/07 Added gimbal type report packet •...

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