I have a Phantom 4 Pro Reach M2 integration kit from Mettatec which uses the motor arm light to send camera events to the M2, but I’m finding it also sends a lot of spurious events as well and the image events don’t seem to be terribly reliable. So I want to trigger it a different way, like a hotshoe integration.
I have a P4P which was previously modified by BAAMTech to use their PPK module, including power and camera trigger directly from the P4 camera board, but it seems the camera sends +1-3V triggers whereas I believe the Mettatec integration uses earth (-v?) to simulate a camera event. Do I need to change any settings in the M2 to take +v triggers instead of -v triggers?
I am pulling power for the M2 from the P4P USB port, which is how Mettatec set it up, but the BAAMTech integration pulled power from the camera board. Not sure there would be enough power from the camera board to power the M2 so I’ll keep using the USB port, but is it likely I would need to bridge the -v from the camera board with the -v from the USB so the M2 recognises the +v signals from the camera?
Hi, If the voltage is lower then 3.3v, I should probably go for the trial and error approach.
I am not sure at what minimum voltage level the M2 needs to record an event but from what I tested earlier it was quite low.
The logic ports is 3.3v max and produce event if you pull the voltage to ground or from ground to 3.3v. Other then that, there is no immediate solution to alter logic of the pin on the M2 ( or any other models for that matter).
Kind of curious of your results with the BAAMTech installation and why you tried the Mettatec unit. I was look into purchasing the BAAMTech unit for use with my Phantom 4 Pro 2.0, but there is limited information on it and the info on their website has been moved from the home page. I was intrigued by their statement of using fewer GCP’s in obtaining accurate PPK results with their system, though I had my reservations about getting the results they stated with so few of number of GCP’s. It does seem as though their integrated camera trigger would have been an more dependable and accurate result than using the Mettatec system.
I had placed an order with Mettatec a while back, but it is currently on backorder, so I’m disappointed to hear of your results with the Mettatec unit and the Phantom 4 Pro.
I would like to help you somehow, but I have no idea how these custom integration solutions work. From the Reach side, the time mark recording feature works pretty straightforward as @TB_RTK described. There are no additional settings you need to change because initially, it was designed to work with standard hot shoe connectors, which are almost the same even for different cameras.
However, it should be possible to make it work with cameras without a usual hot shoe connector. Hope you’ll find the solution!
