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This is an attempt to replicate an activity.

Build a Raspberry Pi Zero aerial photo rig

by warren | May 30, 2019 15:12 30 May 15:12 | #19578 | #19578

As people are starting to use the Raspberry Pi Zero and we're collecting ideas and resources at #pi-camera, I wanted to share this simple design for a pi-camera rig for balloon and kite mapping.

It's far from perfect but I wanted to kick off some brainstorming on how best to mount these nice little cameras. Please share your own ideas in the comments!

Also, these can do live Wifi streaming video if you can get a signal, but I found that the signal didn't reach once it was really up in the air. But I wonder if a laptop would do better than a phone at connecting (bigger antenna?) Or if some parabolic chicken wire antenna could be built as a "downlink"... interesting, just like with a real satellite!

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I found this was not really strong enough and indeed it came loose during flight. I have another version where I cut a slot in the sheet of coroplast plastic and wedged the camera in it.

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Really the camera is so light it isn't too hard to secure, and I think some permanent double sided tape, or even velcro, should be enough. You can literally see it hanging from it's USB cable in the last photo, and it went up to 700 feet like that. Oops!


5 Comments

@warren Do I really need to use Cannon or Go Pro external camera along with Rpi Camera and Rpi? Will it be possible to capture Aerial images from Rpi only ?

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Hi @silentsairam - if you've tested it out and are confident that it'll be taking timelapse photos for up to 1 hour reliably, i think you can go for just that!

Your camera is infrared, or visible? I think it's infrared/infragram, so then you might not have normal-colored photos, so that's the only drawback.

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Regarding improving wifi signal to the Pi while in the air, this should be a separate question I guess? But linking:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=chicken+wire+parabolic+instructables+antenna&iax=images&ia=images

Some funny ideas with strainers too:

https://www.instructables.com/id/usb-wifi-antenna/

FKUNZA00S8EQZJI5DC.SMALL.jpg

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Whoa, what if the strainer were the protective enclosure for the camera itself???

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