FAQ

Does Cyclops have MIPI CSI-2 support? — Camera interface

Cyclops doesn't have built in MIPI support; however, we have docs on how to create your own custom camera publisher. Check out Custom camera publisher for details.

There a corresponding repo here: https://github.com/Theseus-Dev/cyclops-camera-publisher

Are there any rolling shutter limitations?

We have primarily tested on global shutter so far. We should be able to use rolling shutter, as long as the framerate is high. If the image has too much "Jell-O" distortion that will be a problem; but if the framerate is high and image quality is good some jitter is okay. We can support low quality images.

What camera FOV / lenses work with Cyclops?

This depends on mission altitude. We are using anything from 60deg to 100+deg. Any standard FPV camera & lens should work; we like to use whatever is cheapest and most available.

Does Cyclops support thermal cameras for night operations?

We see the same performance between thermal & EO cameras. We have used a CADDX Eclipse o3 through an analog to digital converter (ADC) which is also 256 pixels with nominal performance at 120m AGL.

What is the operational envelope?

EO Cameras: Any 1280x720p EO camera will be good for 60-1000m AGL out of the box. We have seen good performance above this range, but our testing is somewhat limited by US airspace regulations.

Thermals: We need to test 256 maximum altitude. We are able to fly it at 60-120m AGL with our airspace here, but Cyclops should be able to go higher. We have flown 640 cameras up to 2500m, with performance degrading around 1500m AGL

Module operation without M.2 HAT

M.2 drives offer much faster read/write speeds, more storage, and more reliability, but at a cost comparable to the Cyclops BOM. For that reason, micro SD cards have quickly become our preferred method for setting up Cyclops.

Micro SD cards are supported for use with cyclops, however, they come with an important caveat:

• Smaller SD cards will quickly fill with log data and must be manually cleared to ensure normal operation. Clearing log data