Bonsoir Franck,
J’envisage faire l’achat de cette caméra. Elle serait installé dans une structure de contrôleur de vol Pixhawk 6x. Je me questionne au sujet du flux video, ou plus précisément de la possibilité que j’ai d’utiliser un jeu d’émetteur - transmetteur qui n’est pas de la marque SIYI. Pour la partie commande : SBUs (2.4G) et et la partie vidéo j’utiliserais le fil vidéo (5.8G) qui correspond mais ne transiterai pas par la Pixhawk ? Deux transmission différentes donc. Y-at-il une gène à cela ? Je ne peux m’offrir une configuration SIYI complète, malheureusement et je ne souhaite pas utiliser autre chose que FrSky Taranis pour la RC.
Merci d’avance pour une réponse.
Best regards,
Christian
Video saves in folder A only
The gimbal automatically detects hanging mode or upside mode. If you need either mode, you must power the gimbal exactly in the mode.
Mavlink control is still under development.
Yes, you can use A8 mini with third-party links.
A8 mini is also S.Bus control and AV output for analog FPV system with normal RC.
Bonsoir Franck,
Je vous remercie pour la rapidité de votre réponse et sa clarté. Je pourrai donc me faire plaisir avec l’achat de cette caméra A8. J’utiliserai SBUS pour son contrôle et le lien vidéo pour la vidéo.
Best regards,
Christian
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Hi @SIYI
Looks like A8mini have serious bug with camera gimbal unpredicted behavior.
We faced it many times, environment characterized by strong wind and copter did a jerk.
Pls check that.
It looks like your drone vibrates a lot. The gimbal reached its limit position and tried to center itself but failed.
Would you mind show us how you mount the gimbal, please?
Can anyone tell me with the A8, maybe @SIYI or @rmackay9 , what all modes work with Ardupilot? The SIYI videos shows FPV Mode, Follow Mode, and Lock Mode, however the Ardupilot page only shows “163 (“Mount Lock”) to switch between “lock” and “follow” mode with RC channel 8”. I’m not sure how you can get 3 modes when one channel just switches between two?
Bonus question: Does anyone besides SIYI have some real life footage and use cases of this A8 Mini?
Thanks!
Bryan
This is likely due to the limitations of FAT32, I’m betting each 10min file is approximately 4GB in size. This happens on virtually all cameras, even my GoPro will break into multiple files as the filesystem cannot support larger. You can even calculate the bitrate and essentially overall quality using the time versus filesize.
The easiest way I have found is to use a simple video editor, OpenShot is an easy and free one, just drag the files into the assets window, then down, in order, to the track, then export to one single video.
On a side note you can calculate the overall bitrate (general quality) of the video using the length and filesize.
Hi @droniedarko,
AP doesn’t support the FPV mode so while the A8 does, it’s not possible get the gimbal into this mode currently. It’s on the to-do list but I can’t promise when yet. I’m sure it will be done eventually though. Re the RC switch control, I suspect we will either make it the middle position of the Lock/Follow switch or we will create a new auxiliary function with the three options on it. I think it probably makes most sense for the order to be low:FPV, middle:Follow, High:Lock
Re video footage, I’ve got a slightly rough video of Follow-me with a boat using the Siyi A8 and then we’ve got a slicker video from @david_sastre showing it being used with a modified QGC.
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Hey @rmackay9 , thanks for the reply!
Shoot, I was really hoping it could be primary camera on my build. I will look forward to the updates before purchasing unless @SIYI wants to help me obtain one for testing 
The AUX switching you outlined sounds like a good plan to me.
I will see if I can find any posts from @david_sastre that show the footage as well. I know of the modified QGC, I’m curious if that is necessary if not using SIYI radios? I am on Linux so tend to avoid paths for modified software branches as they are usually Windows specific.
We have indeed some footage @rmackay9 @droniedarko. Video is fairly good. It is not as good and nice as lets say a gopro or something like that, but it looks amazingly.
Some small downsides I see of this camera:
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There is a weird glare on the lenses, and thus on the video footage, when the sun is at a certain angle versus the gimbal. It is in a very particular position, and doesn’t happen very often, not a big deal.
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Sometimes the roll/pitch axis gets stuck on flight. Again this doesn’t happen very often, but every now and then happens.
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Low light performance is very poor, but this is normal in most cameras unless they are tailored for low light. in plain night, unless you are in a illuminated area, you can pretty much see nothing.
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SD card structure is weird, it creates a lot of not used folders.
The good points I love about this camera:
- Ridiculously small and light
- For the price, it is unbeatable
- Move is very smooth, and so far all the functions work properly, they are well implemented.
- Connectivity is awesome. HDMI, ethernet, analog, sd card slot, sbus, mavlink… Just amazing! I have tested HDMI and ethernet, and works as expected, everything perfect.
- It comes with a loooot of wiring, and nice quality. Again this is very much appreciated. You can get this up and running in no time. And this is a detail very few manufacturers consider.
Overall, I am really, really happy with it. I don’t think there is nothing similar on the market at this price range right now. So, if you think something like this product would be interesting for you, I can recommend it 100%. You can place it in a small copter or fixed wing and improve a lot versus a fixed camera, or versus a heavier camera with a gopro or similar. It is a really nice system overall.
We are in the process of developing some improvements for gimbal control in QGC. It is still a work in progress and needs a lot of work yet. We are using Siyi A8 for testing it.
There is some footage of the gimbal in this video. Please note it is the screen of the GCS recorded, so the actual video feed is much nicer, also the recorded video, but I think it is enough to get an idea.
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Hi David,
Thanks so much for the in-depth review! This is very helpful.
I was honestly hoping for better low light performance since they advertise the “HDR Starlight Night Vision Camera”; not expecting full real night vision of course. Do you happen to have any footage of it?
The roll/pitch is a bit worrying, does it come back at all during flight or do you have to perform a reset?
Do you happen to have any other footage, especially direct recorded on the TF?
I’m planning to use CVBS output for now with my analog VTX until I decide on how I want to setup my HD link.
Cheers!
Bryan
I don’t have more footage right now, so far I didn’t have an SD on board. It is setup for recording now so the next time we fly it I will get some footage to show you. I am not sure when I will be able to do so though, so I would keep asking around just in case somebody else has actual footage already.
Speaking of footage. Actually, I wanted to install the A8 in a fixed-wing aircraft (MFE Fighter VTOL). However, I have some concerns about whether the gimbal will remain stable at higher airspeeds (from about 70 km/h). My experience with a Feiyu Tech Mini 3D Pro gimbal is that it starts to vibrate at around 70 km/h (44 mph, 20 m/s, 38 Kn). Does anyone have experience with the Siyi A8 on fixed-wing aircraft?
Second question: Has anyone been able to run the special version of QGroundcontrol on a normal android ? (The SIYI FPV app works on the same network as the camera)
Rolf
Is there anyway to get the status of recording as well as how many pictures remaining as an osd in qgc app.
Re status of recording, one method is to check the Messages tab which will show “Siyi: Recording ON” and “Siyi: Recording OFF” messages. This is not as convenient as a pretty red recording virtual LED would be but it’s what we have at the moment.
@SIYI ,
I’ve run into an issue where the output frequency of this camera seems to be changing. When I select to stream “HD” from the SIYI app, the output seems to be 1080P, 60Hz. However, sometimes, the output is 1080P 30Hz, even though I haven’t changed any settings. Do you know why this would be? I’ve bought two cameras and the same thing seems to happen on both.
Is there any way to fix the output to always be 1080P 60Hz, or always be 1080P 30Hz? I’m running the latest firmware.
Lastly, is it possible to change the menu settings in the SIYI App? It would be nice to see what the output resolution is. Currently, the drop-box for “Stream” settings states “HD” or “Ultra HD”. It would be nice to know the exact resolution, e.g. 720P 60Hz, 720P 30Hz, 1080P 60Hz, 1080P 30Hz, etc.
Thank you
Here’s a video from the recent AP developer conference where the Copter (with a Siyi A8) is following a BlueRobotics boat. Sadly I set the video quality to SD instead of 4K (sorry!). I may add a parameter to AP to allow setting the video quality on startup to avoid the need to use the Siyi App.
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Do you refer to the output through Ethernet or HDMI?