Don't Do This #102 - GPS and raspivid

If you're like me, you've often thought, "I really need GPS on a high-resolution camera, and probably  accelerometers too, so I can do photogrammetry."

OK, maybe you don't. Even my spellchecker doesn't like the word "photogrammetry", which is when you take a whole bunch of photos of something with the intention of creating a 3D model (or other measurement) from the imagery.

Like what land surveyors do when they fly over with cameras to create topological maps. And like that, it really helps to know exactly where you were, and how the camera was positioned. A lot of the new algorithms can get by without it, but there's a time cost, and a lot of pathologies can be avoided if we start with a good bundle estimate.

Here's what I did as a first go:

An Aerial Photograph of my Aerial Photography Machine

That's a Raspberry Pi model A, with the 2k camera and WiFi modules, connected to a UBlox Neo6 GPS I got from Hobbyking last year. Less than $90 of stuff, most of which has been used in other projects. (And will again)

Techno-periscopes Up!

So here's what you need to know first: It doesn't work.

Well, I mean all the independent bits work fine, but not all together. That's the point. To spoil the ending: When the camera is operating, so much multi-megahertz digital interference is generated by the flat cable connecting the camera module, that the GPS loses signal lock.

Thar's yer problem right thar, boyo! The big flat white thing
what's right near the little square doodad. And all bendy, too!

I'm sure I could also make a gripping yarn about how I bravely tracked down and cornered the bug, and how developing many features at once (streamed low-latency WiFi video, plus GPS) is a great way to find the problems, but leave yourself very confused about what causes them.

Close-up of the connections, showing how easy it is to wire a 3.3v GPS to the Pi.
Standard linux 'gpsd' is used to decode the signals.
The plastic cap of the left is just to protect that end of the connector from physical damage/shorts.

For a long time I assumed it was the WiFi streaming part, since it's an RF transmitter, and the GPS is an RF receiver, and all of it is cheap as beans, so logically... but no! Those parts are well engineered and stay out of each others bandwidth. You can WiFi and GPS just great. But the moment you start recording video to /dev/null, the GPS lights go out. That was the clincher.

If you're taking still photos, it's mostly fine. The GPS can stay locked on, and the brief static bursts during the camera shots are ignorable.

But I wanted video. And the moment you open up the throttle, it all fails.

Now, the obvious potential solution is to wrap a foil shield around the flat ribbon cable, especially where it bends, but that's something I'll need to do with great care, otherwise I've potentially got bits of foil flapping against the main electronic components and that's when the magic smoke comes out. There's also the question of how much of the digital path is exposed on the board. That would be harder to fix.

Perhaps a ground plane to shield them from each other; but shoving sheets of tin or copper in between is going to cause other issues, like making the WiFi directional, and other near-field effects. Argh.

So, you're saying the correct solution is a tiny Tinfoil Hat for the electron gnomes?
Riiigghhtt...

Also, while the GPS and cable are pretty much right next to each other for illustrative purposes, I can assure you I tried moving the modules as far as I could (cable allowing) and it didn't help. I'm sure I could manage it with a long enough GPS extension cord, but if it can't fit in the one box, It's not very convenient.

But it you have a choice, plan on spreading the pieces out. That's probably your best bet.

So, alas, I don't have any guaranteed solutions to the problem yet. But I wanted to warn 'ye anyways.