Hi all,
I just bought and received my first Sky Viper Journey – haven’t even flown it yet! – and I have spent the better part of last week (and the beginning of this one…) researching various topics related to autonomous flight and operations on multi-rotors, Sky Vipers specifically as the week progressed.
I intend to use the Sky Viper as a research platform for autonomous swarms to deliver payloads during wildfires (supplies, fire retardant,…) and while it seems the Sky Viper will fit the bill for most of that (the research part, not the actual application), I am hitting a limitation: I would need to trigger the payload autonomously as part of the mission planning and that’s where I fall short.
Note: I do not intend to use or test this in populated areas but as mentioned as a R&D platform for a potential project at my startup I also realize that the Viper will not be able to lift more than a few grams, really interested in the framework itself
I chose to start with the Viper because at this price point, it won’t be too painful to purchase a few to experiment with swarming but the absence of a full blown pixhawk (seems to) make it complicated to hook up a companion computer, and thus operate the payload.
It seems the Sonix board can be used as a CC to some extent, but I don’t know if it could be used to send some current to the servo/device for a moment.
Any advice or thoughts? To play around, I bought this device from Amazon, comes with its own receiver and battery and is triggered by a remote. It could be taken apart and powered by the Viper’s battery directly, if I could find a way to use the CC – or anything else – as a trigger.
Another device is servo-less and plugs into the receiver, but AFAIK, I can’t do so on the Viper (?) Or are there empty channels I could use/plug into?
I am obviously welcoming any other ides on how to achieve the goal 
Cheers!