We are a group of FPV enthusiasts, working in a small company in Austria that is specialized in electronics and software development. Some years ago, while flying, a hunter asked us, if we have thermal vision on our drones. Every year numerous fawns die because of mowing operations which could be detected previously.
Long story short: We have developed the InEL IR-Cam for analog FPV drones. Based on FPGA technology it merges visible images with thermal images in real-time. It is suitable for any drone from 3 inch up to large 10 inch builds and matches the needs a pilot has to fly accurately.
To test and ingerate the system to the FPV hobby we used several setups. A year ago we focused on a INAV build on the Rekon 6 Mini Long Range 6" Frame for best usage of a thermal camera on a FPV drone. Unfortunately this frame is not produced anymore.
Our highlights:
- InEL IR-Cam - mixed thermal FPV solution
- Robust 1-axis gimbal based on the included servo
- Custom 4S lithium-ion battery (5000mAh) which leads to fly time up to 25 minutes.
- M10 GPS Module
- Beeper
- Headlights
Overview:
How the InEL IR-Cam and the 1-axis gimbal are integrated:
More information about the mixed thermal FPV solution (InEL IR-Cam):
https://shop.inel.at
Photos
Part List
Flight Controller |
HGLRC Zeus F722 mini
Rotorama.de
|
See Site |
ESCs |
Diatone Mamba F40 Mini 128k 32Bit 40A 2-6S 20x20 4in1 ESC
(5 builds)
Racedayquads.com
|
$45.99 |
Motors |
4 x T-Motor F2203.5 FPV Motor Gold Schwarz 2850KV kaufen | FPV24.com
Fpv24.com
|
See Site |
FPV Camera |
IR-Cam (NTSC/PAL) | InEL Webshop
Shop.inel.at
|
See Site |
Radio |
Jumper T Pro OpenTX Hall Sensor Gimbal Remote Controller with JP4IN1 Multi-Protocol Module Radio
(3 builds)
Amazon.ca
|
See Site |
Goggles |
FatShark Scout FPV Goggles
(10 builds)
Racedayquads.com
|
$199.99 |
Hardware |
MATEKSYS AP Periph GNSS, M10-L4-3100 GPS Module
Getfpv.com
|
See Site |
Accessories |
SKYZONE M5 60FPS DVR 5 Inch 5.8GHZ PV Monitor with DVR MIX mode/Diversity mode For Racing Plane RC Drone Quadcopter FPV Multicop
Skyzonefpv.com
|
$99.00 |
Guides & Reviews
AirbladeUAV has done it again and this time they've brought long range to the 5" class! Based on the popular Transformer Mini, the new Transformer 5" Ultralight adopts a lot of the same design philosophies with larger props and more payload capacity. It can fly upwards of 20 minutes on a 4 cell Li-Ion battery pack and in ideal conditions it's got a range of over 4 to 5 miles. In this guide I'll walk..
Read more
With the release of the DJI FPV Drone cinematic FPV has become a lot more accessible, but you certainly don't want to crash a $750 drone! The QAV-CINE Freybott is a compact, lightweight cinematic FPV drone that can take a hit and keep going. It's a lot safer to fly indoors and around people. With a naked GoPro or the SMO 4k you can capture some great stabilized footage. In this guide I'll show you..
Read more
Wow that is great !
I just sent this to news@fpvknowitall.com, it definitely qualifies as news worthy to me !
Little personal feedback : I am not a fan of variable angle camera because it leads to crashes, i would suggest a dual camera switcher instead https://viflydrone.com/products/vifly-fpv-camera-switcher
thanks for your positive reaction !
We put a lot of time, effort and also money in this development.
And we primary focused to search and rescue with FPV-quads.
You correctly remarked, (fixed)camera angle is key for acro-flying .
But for search and rescue, you want to look down to the ground.
If the grass is high, or you are searching in the wood, you need to look down 90°, and this is nearly impossible in acro mode, at least if you don't want to drain your battery fast ;-)
yes, you can do it with a camera switcher, but there is a big downside, that we found out, when testing:
When you fly forward and look straight down to the ground, and you find something, you have to stop, to keep it in view.
But when you stop, the pitch angle of the quad changes and your target gets out of view.
In the goggles it seems that your speeding up, instead of stopping.
When i first noticed this, i was completely confused. And it took a while, till i understood the reason.
So it was clear for us, we have to fix this problem, otherwise our local farmer and hunter will not be happy ;-)
So we decided to make a "automated" gimbal-function, that switches to a defined angle (e.g. 25°) when you flying acro, and when you switch to horizon/ angle mode, you can control the camera-angle by a "analog-channel" of the RC.
In this mode, the tilt of the quad is compensated automatically, so that when you come to a stop, the picture of the "target" will not jump forward, as described above.
I know, gimbals is weight, complexity, and another thing that break .. but with our "flexible joint" and the aluminum housing of the cam, it takes some beating without problem.
I just building up a Apex-3" with the IR-cam, gimbal, and Inav (for poshold) : sub250g ! .. so don't worry about space and weight. ;-)
Maybe the first sub250 IR- freestyle-quad, even with Way-point-mission (makes totally no sense with 5 minutes flight time, but just for fun, and for demonstrating the possibilities).
Hey,
Massive thanks for sharing this valuable information ! You guys surely deserve success and I will definitely be following your youtube channel, hopefully I can soon watch a successful real life rescue there.
All the best for what's next :)