Looking for some help clearing up everything I need for FPV on a drone

[acaerospace]

I've got a uni project that's been running this year where we have to design and build a fixed wing UAV from the ground up, flying it in a few months. It's a group project and I'm the one who's specialised in avionics so it's up to me to sort out everything out with that.

One aspect of the avionics from the design requirements we've been given is that our UAV has to display a live video feed, and be able to take pictures of the ground. Verbatim the requirements say:

• The UAV must take detailed photographs of the ground. The photos need to either be stored on the UAV or downloaded directly to the ground station.

• The UAV must, as a minimum, report continually to a ground base station its current location (superimposed on a map), estimated battery level and live video feed. The ground base station must be designed to work on a standard laptop or tablet.

I want to make sure I've sorted everything I need in order to satisfy these and I'd like some help.
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Some basics of the UAV, we're using a Pixhawk 1 flight controller, with 433MHz (UK) SiK radio for telemetry, we're using Mission Planner for our ground station, and we've been provided with a Futaba 6K controller and receiver. We've also been given a battery but I'm not sure on the specs for it and we may be buying another. The UAV needs to be able to fly for half an hour according to the requirements.

Obviously we need a camera and OSD, currently intending to use these because they largely all seem similar and these are in budget and are popular according to the shop:

ArduPilot Mega Minim OSD v1.2

Wizard X220S 800 TVL CCD FPV Camera

I've read that the radio telemetry we're using can't be used to also transmit the live video feed so we need a separate video transmitter and receiver, currently these seem likely:

https://www.buildyourowndrone.co.uk/immersion-rc-5-8-ghz-25-mw-transmitter

https://www.buildyourowndrone.co.uk/immersionrc-uno5800-v4-1-race-edition-5-8-ghz-a-v-receiver

And I know we won't have access to mains power while flying so we'll need a battery to power the receiver (currently looking at a 3.7V, 600mAh LiPo battery), and we'll need an A/V to USB cable to connect it to a computer.

One thing I can't find a definitive answer for is whether we need a separate battery to power the camera or whether the battery we're using to power everything else (including the motor and servos) can be used if it's capacity is enough.

I'm also not sure if we need anything else to be able to take pictures or whether it can be done via Mission Planner, we'll probably be mounting the camera at an angle so it'll be providing a live feed and taking ground pictures without having to move.

Beyond that I want to know if I'm missing anything essential for giving us FPV on our UAV, and that everything we are using is compatible.

Thanks for any help anyone can offer, if this isn't the right place then point me to it and I'll post there.

 

[DavidKersting]

BATTERY: I would use only 1 battery and add a voltage regulator to the wiring for the components that are ~5V. Batteries are heavy, less is more.

 

[VirtueViolater]

It's very hard to address all that you posted above, I suggest you start a thread on each issue individually, it's much easier to answer that way. If you do so, you'll get some help

 

[DavidKersting]

I agree with VirtueViolater.
What a cool Uni Project. In my day it was who could design the best paper airplane.

 

[acaerospace]

BATTERY: I would use only 1 battery and add a voltage regulator to the wiring for the components that are ~5V. Batteries are heavy, less is more.

Cheers, that's what we were basically thinking, we've already sorted stuff like that for powering the actual autopilot, for some reason I just had some fear the camera/transmitter would be an especially huge drain and it'd need it's own battery or something.

It's very hard to address all that you posted above, I suggest you start a thread on each issue individually, it's much easier to answer that way. If you do so, you'll get some help

Shall do, wanted to get all the information down but I can figure some way to split it all to get everything sorted, thanks.

 

[DavidKersting]

Acaerospace,
Might be easier on you to ask the forum questions as you go. The project may make a few turns along the way.

 

[acaerospace]

Acaerospace,
Might be easier on you to ask the forum questions as you go. The project may make a few turns along the way.

I'll probably be back to ask things if needs be but we're pretty far into the design at this point, up to ordering and manufacturing everything needed, we've already had a 40 page initial design report on it so I've done plenty of research, it just seems that I can't find as much on integrating the FPV aspect so I want to double check. I'm basically just trying to make sure I'm understanding everything before I commit and order things.

Thanks either way, I'll make some more posts around to get more info on the details.

 

[DavidKersting]

Food for thought....on your transmitter/receiver those linear dipole antennas (pictured on left below) work but struggle a bit for good transmission/reception. Many replace those with circular type antennas for FPV as the coverage and signal is much better. Im a cloverleaf fan myself.

Your requirement to be airborn for 1/2 hour has also perked my curiosity.....that's a long time in the RC world, especially when hauling around camera stuff. You designing a kite