Pano of Minneapolis skyline on Mississippi

[makiedog]

Thought I'll share this new pano: http://www.aerial-xp.com/vr_flash/test/node_a.html

Pat L

[bullaculla]

Very nice! I like the hot spots.

[trackhead]

Nice work.

I grew up in So. St. Paul, so that all looks plenty familiar.

[AZ ChopperCam]

excellent work Pat! great pano.

[terrybeb]

That was great and kinda like wheres waldo....but I found you by the tree.

[Sastrugi]

That's an excellent pano, with nice touches with the 'hotspots'! :thumbup:

Can I also ask you a question? I'm interested in techniques you used to prepare the final pano. What did you use to stitch together your images? And can you also let me know how/what you're using to present it on your web site? I've googled aerial-xp but not really found an answer, is it a proprietary system?

Cheers

Steve

[hoverpunk]

very nice!

[makiedog]

Steve,
I stitch using a variety of tools, including: PTgui, Autopanos Pro, PT Asseembler, Smartblend plug-in, etc. Depending on the quality of the capture, some tools work better than the others. PTgui has the most controls, but learning curve is very steep, documentation is lacking, especially for our type of captures. But more than anything, mastery of Photoshop is a prerequisite.

To display in Flash, there are: Flash Panorama Player, Pano2vr, Panosalado (open source), etc.

Aerial-xp is a website I plan to build to house the panos. Unfortunately I haven't the time yet.

Trackhead,
I'm working on a pano taken from Hariet Island, in front of the St Paul skyline. Will post in the next few days, that should make you feel right at home:)

DJ,
I'm interested in how you regulate altitude during the capture. I have trouble during gusty condition, especially when the heli is more than 150' high. My last capture session shows height deviation of at least 30 - 50', resulting in heavy parallax errors. I managed to fix it to decent shape in PS. Will post this when done.

Pat L

[phil007]

My last capture session shows height deviation of at least 30 - 50', resulting in heavy parallax errors.

How many seconds does it take for you to shoot the pictures? Would faster panning help?

Phil

[Sastrugi]

Pat, thanks for the info. My preference for stitching is PTAssembler which I have used to very satisfying effect on my standard pano's. I've not taken any aerial shots as yet, but I'm heading that way.

Cheers

Steve

[AZ ChopperCam]

Pat I shoot my panos in about 2.9 seconds. That gets me about 8 shots. Usually 2.9 seconds will only yield a altitude change of less than 10'

What I do is listen to the blades. If the wind is calm the blades will "whisper" at me when the helicopter is not changing altitude. If the helicopter is slightly descending they will make more of a "whipping" sound. If the helicopter is climbing they will be nearly silent.

This method works for me up to about 200' beyond that it's hard to hear. But above 200' you have much more leeway in altitude change unless your shooting in between high rise buildings.

I've shot panos at 400' that I know had to have had a change of maybe 40' and the stitching errors were about normal. You're right about mastering Photoshop. Photoshop can fix almost any severe stitching error.

[makiedog]

DJ,
My rotation is 4 seconds, which is why I didn't think its necessary to perform complicated gear changes to gain 1 second. However, 4 seconds feels like an eternity when flying under less than ideal conditions.

I recall reading about some guy who had an altimeter that sends auditory dignal down via a headset. Wonder if that's worth investigating...

Pat L

[AZ ChopperCam]

it's actually quite simple to swap gears. Just use a Raptor main gear (which has the same hub bolt pattern) and a new servo pinion gear from sdp-si.com. You'd need to slot the servo holes a bit to allow the servo to move about 3/16". Takes less than an hour and less than $50 to swap.

What voltage are you running on the mount? I run a 2 cell lipo (7.4)

[iflybyu77]

DJ,

I'm using an AR6000 RX for my gimbal, and like I told you before, I need to speed up transit time, but I'm not sure the AR6000 could handle that voltage. Hate to just "try" it and fry it. What RX are you using that can handle that voltage? Perhaps I could run a blocking diode between the servo and the RX and leave the RX using the regulated voltage and let the servo run the full blown 7.4v...

[iflybyu77]

I'm surprised the 8717 is still alive, btw. :) It must like you.

[AZ ChopperCam]

I'm using a 9 channel Futaba PCM receiver. Been going at it with a 2 cell lipo for over a year now. Still working strong!! I think for the loads we are putting on the system the 7.4v pack is a non-issue. At least for my Futaba RX. The servo can handle 7.4v for time and eternity.

[makiedog]

DJ,
Which Raptor main gear? R30, 50, 60? I'm running 6 V using a BEC.

Pat L

[Griffo]

Hmm, this sounds interesting. I've always just used MXL gears and belts from SDP.

What's the bore size on those Raptor gears?

[AZ ChopperCam]

I think it's an 85 tooth Raptor gear but I may be wrong. I'll have to count the teeth tonight and report back. Not sure on the bore either. I can measure that as well.

[makiedog]

This one is for you TrackHead, south side of downtown St. Paul: http://www.aerial-xp.com/vr_flash/st_paul_riverfront/st_paul_riverfront.html

Like I had mentioned earlier, this was a tough one to stitch. If you can find the flag pole, you can tell how gusty it was.

[AZ ChopperCam]

Raptor 30 88 tooth gear and a 28 tooth pinion. bore in the Raptor gear is about 22mm (hard to get exact without pulling the gear out.)

[makiedog]

Thanks DJ!

[Griffo]

Thanks for the info DJ :) .

It's always nice to have options, although I think I'll stick to my belt drive for now.

[aambrose]

Nice panos Pat! How did you custom design the loading graphic and the navigation graphics?

DJ,
What kind of shutter speeds are you using with a 2.9 second rotation?

Thanks!

[makiedog]

Tony,
I modified a set of UI skins designed by others.