Could the new Pi Zero 2 handle Ardupilot plus taking full res 12MP photos?

ArduPlane
1

Hello! I’m new here.

I’ve been toying with the idea of building a small (hopefully <250g) fixed-wing mapping drone, using a Pi Zero and a Pi camera. ArduCam now make a small, lightweight version of the 12MP Pi camera (Arducam 12MP IMX477 Mini High Quality Camera Module for Raspberry Pi and Pi zero - Arducam), which would be ideal, plus the new Pi Zero 2 has just been released. Unfortunately the PXFmini is no longer on sale, but if a substitute shield could be found or made (e.g. Building an autopilot from scratch using a RaspBerryPi Zero : Mini Zee) and a light enough, fast enough GPS chip is available (any suggestions gratefully received!) would the new Pi Zero 2 even be capable of running everything whilst also capturing full resolution stills as frequently as possible (i.e. as fast as they can be written to file)?

Many thanks in advance

Andy

2

There’s this shield for the Pi Zero, which is under active development: OBAL - A Simple Linux-based Raspberry-Pi Ardupilot FCB - #11 by brunoolivieri

Otherwise, plenty of people use separate flight controllers. Something like a Kakute or small Matek board can interface with the Pi Zero quite easily. Not sure if it’ll exceed your weight budget though.

3

Hello,

Problem is the lack of memory: 512MB LPDDR2 SDRAM.
Anything more than streaming might get you into swap space
As for Linux based FC, depending on what you plan to do, you can certainly build a shield based on sensor modules.
Personally I would go with @stephendade second option ; the CC-FC configuration as it is much easier to deal with and there is a lot of wiksi and support.