Can I use my Spacemouse to control a drone?

[skan]

Is it possible to use my Spacemouse Pro to control a drone?
I have a Mavic Pro drone, that can be controlled from a smartphone or from it's Remote Controller that it can be connected to other devices.


It would be nice to use a single 5-axis joystick instead of two.

[Hypersonic]

Drones move just like the 5DOF camera does in Google Earth. I've been using a GoPro drone and think it's rather silly to have one stick control horizontal movements, another stick control yaw and vertical movement, and yet another control for camera pitch control. Put all of that functionality on an intuitive 3DMouse, snap one of these on it on the controller and forget all of those other control sticks!
https://www.3dconnexion.com/company/industrial.html

[vickyaheer]

Every drone has its own functionality. I used one of the drones named Tactic Air drone.

[ricard.enquist]

I am using the SpaceMouse to control my Mavic Mini, very smooth and easy to fly! It did however require some hardware modifications to the drone RC.

The SpaceMouse connects to a USB host shield on an Arduino Mini, running code which I in large borrowed from this thread (big thanks to users mlkoch and DRogers96): https://forum.3dconnexion.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=5642

The Mavic Mini RC has potentiometers on the joysticks and gimbal wheel so I used five DACs, controlled by the SpaceMouse via Arduino to mimic the viper voltages. This means I had to cut and solder some wires inside the RC. A part from the obvious up/down, right/left and rotation, tilting the mouse forwards and backwards moves the gimbal up and down. The left button on the SpaceMouse inverts left/right movement of the drone, which is very convenient when switching from flying with the camera facing towards or away from your position. Also I added a couple of potentiometers to control the sensitivity of the SpaceMouse, which I found important especially for the rotation of the drone, which in turn is important for making smooth video. I use relays to switch the joystick potentiometer vipers to the DAC's, so if the Arduino fails or power is lost, the relays will switch back to the RC joysticks (otherwise in case of lost power the drone would act as if both joysticks were pulled fully down/left = not good). The Arduino and SpaceMouse runs of power from the Mavic Mini flymore combo battery pack. I mounted everything in a hardcase which fits the Mavic Mini unfolded, for quick deployment. I also checked the RC of Mavic Pro 2 and it uses a different system for the joysticks, with SPI interface, so probably a bit trickier to crack.

As a beginner drone pilot it's incredibly easy to make smooth panning shots with the SpaceMouse! I made this video on a trip to Hokkaido, shot by me and my wife, each having maybe 30min of flight experience with drones: https://youtu.be/CNc-mQ-byyw

[jwick]

Fantastic!

[bemi]

Drones move just like the 5DOF camera does in Google Earth. I've been using a DJI Phantom 4 RTK drone and think it's rather silly to have one stick control horizontal movements, another stick control yaw and vertical movement, and yet another control for camera pitch control. Put all of that functionality on an intuitive 3DMouse, snap one of these on it on the controller and forget all of those other control sticks!

[Risto]

I have been working on integrating SpaceMouse serial modules to RadioMaster TX16S and EdgeTX.



More info: https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthr ... st48688133 and https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthr ... st48692787
Current firmware (WiP): https://github.com/rotorman/edgetx/tree/SpaceMouse

[jwick]

Far out!!!

[minnasane]

Similar to how Google Earth's 5DOF camera moves, drones also move. Having one stick control horizontal motions, another stick control yaw and vertical movements, and yet another control for camera pitch control seems very absurd to me after having a DJI Phantom 4 RTK drone heardle game

[minnasane]

Similar to how the 5DOF camera in Google Earth moves, drones also move. I've been operating a DJI Phantom 4 RTK drone, and I find it quite absurd because one stick controls horizontal movements, another stick controls yaw and vertical motions, and still another joystick is used to regulate camera pitch heardle game