Thanks @igor.vereninov, version 0.7 is even better with improved cable management.
So, yes I do have the TW4721 from the kit, but I don’t like the idea of having to install it on a 70x70mm ground plane up above the Solo, for both aerodynamic and aesthetic reasons. Is there a known better antenna option that I could swap it out for that can perform as well without a large ground plane?
m1227hct-a2 from Maxtena would be a good option.
Great thanks Igor, I’ll see if I can hunt one of them down to add to my setup.
I’m glad I finally found this thread - I’ve been mapping with various Phantoms and other UASs for a couple years now, and was always unhappy with the camera options on smaller UAVs. I just picked up a SOLO on sale and was hoping to mount my a6000 to it with a 3d printed bracket.
Yorke… have you flown with the a6000 and that bracket yet? how do the built-in dampeners hold up with the added weight? I too was planning to use the sony playmemories time-lapse app.
@M_Brennan the Solo handles the camera well and stock dampeners do an ok job. It’s great for photos but not for cinematic smooth video like we’ve got used to from the 3DR gimbal. I’m using the fixed mount ones which are stiffer than the ones that come with the gimbal. Would be interesting to test them out to compare the difference. I’ve also ran tests designing and 3D printing the mounts with varying stiffness of flexible materials, one reason being it makes it easier to load and unload the camera.
I’m still to do the final calcs on weights, but I believe the 3DR gimbal + GoPro comes in around the 400gm mark.
The a6000 is 344gm I think from memory, and I think that’s with the standard 50mm lens (but I could be wrong on that) so could be lighter with the wide angle pancake lens. And my mounting design is around the 35gm mark (v0.7).
The only noticeable difference is the payload places the weight lower, and you’ll notice the change in flight dynamics when making sharp direction changes or stops, other than that she flies great.
Check out my twitter feed for examples and updates:
www.twitter.com/SimonYorkeNZ
@Yorke Thanks Simon! You’re right on the weight calcs for the a6000 - the 20mm 2.8 lens is actually slightly lighter than the 16mm pancake.
I’m interested in mounting such a camera for photogrammetry - the GoPro works decently, but something like the a6000 would be incredible. I would probably swap out the original GoPro mount and discard it completely in favor of HDMI from the orthographically mounted a6000, or mount a GoPro Session (74g) instead of the Hero and get video from that, while the a6000 operates in timelapse mode.
I was planning to use extruded ABS for my mount, but also have access to an SLA printer. I’ve only just barely begun planning it out, however.
Have you put your STL up for sale of prints on shapeways or similar? If I could save myself the headache of iteration and design in favor of what you’ve found has worked, I’d definitely throw some $$$ your way!
@Yorke Have you looked at using the Sony RX100 cameras vs the Sony Alpha 6000 ? We have a large UAV that uses a Sony Alpha 6000 and the camera produces amazing photogrammetry results but I wonder if the same results could be had using a lighter Rx100 model camera on the Solo. I too would be interested in paying for your mount design as we are looking at using a smaller pixhawk frame like the solo with an APS-C frame camera to do some vertical wall mapping for geotechnical analysis.
What sort of flight time are you getting with the Alpha on ?
Regards
Steve
@Steve_McMurray I’m designing my own mount now. When it’s done I’ll put it up on Thingiverse for free.
I’ve tried using a GoPro modified with the PeauProductions 3.97mm lens and the results weren’t very good - barely better than the original GoPro lens.
@M_Brennan Sounds good mate. We have managed to get the solo to replicate our vertical flight plans that our larger more expensive drone does - just need to attach a lightweight large sensor camera with intervelometer now. I was wondering about those modified lenses for the Go Pro but sounds like they are not great for this.
@Steve_McMurray I’ve tried the PeauProductions 3.97mm lens for the GoPro: oddly enough it actually works WORSE than the stock gopro lens. The edges are extremely blurry. I got much better photogrammetry results from the stock fisheye GoPro lens.
@M_Brennan Could be an overlap issue with the narrowed FOV of the modified lense ? Out of interest what software package are you using for the photogrammetry processing ? We are using Agisoft Photoscan for all our work both vertical mapping and top down mapping. We did some tests with the MAPIR cameras in RGB for top down mapping and found that we had to increase the overlap in order to get the required survey accuraccy.
http://www.aerialvistaama.com/solo-mapper/
This guy Toby has figured it out but wants $1450 for the additional software and gimbal.
Nice guy spoke with him several times, just do not have the money to pony up. Would save time in R&D but just thought I would add what I have found. 
@Yorke Did you ever get Reach going on your SOLO? If so how did you mount the antenna? I’m looking at similar options.
Cheers
Would also be very interested to see if this is something that can be done.
Thanks!
Wanted to post this here, DROTEK announced this today.
Since this product has been brought up here I think that it is important to note that just having and RTK module onboard does not help with mapping precision. As noted before, it is very important to have camera synchronisation and appropriate software to process the event marks. It has been already proven by 3 independent companies that Reach system is able to deliver precise coordinates for mapping. Moreover, Reach offers logging, UI for settings, wireless connectivity and much more for less money. Reach also comes with a high performance antenna, while it is still unclear which antenna they are going to ship. Not even mentioning how active the community around the product is.
Here is where I’m with my 3dr Solo project. My hardware consist of the following;
reach module with antenna mounted on a 4 in copper plate with rubber dampeners to help with vibrations;
sony a5000 mounted on a 3d printed mount by Ian Soler from IMPConcepts
I don’t want reach interacting with solo pixhawk. I want reach to geotag the pictures that the camera will be taking probably using Timelapse App
I bought this cable thinking I could make it work with the reach, but I’m clueless as of if this will send the signal to the reach to be able to do send the signal when the picture is taken;
I ordered this today; Seagull UAV Map 2
that will trigger the camera thru pixhawk and mission planner, but probably have to buy an accessory bay board to be able to use it…still no connection to reach, unless somehow i could connect this trigger to reach and geotag the pictures that way.
Any ideas or comments would be greatly appreciated.
Few pix if the “frankenrig”
You could not get accurate geotag image due to a5000 doesn’t have flash hotshoe. So you could trigger your camera but you’ll never get camera feedback from this camera…
There is a topic on QX1 which explain it in detail on this forum. It’s the same way on qx1 !
Going the a6000 way would be more precise due to possible integration with hotshoe.
