Hi guys. I have this massive drone that I built. And I'm going to put a 4K camera on it, that doesn't have an internal recording. I'm thinking of building a mini pc with a PCIe 4k capture card by the same manufacturers (this one: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/decklink/techspecs/W-DLK-11).
I'm planning on using something like those Intel NUC motherboards that come with a i3 4010u processor, pretty cheap on ebay, and I was wondering if that capture card would plug to the mSATA on that board, using something like a PCIe extender that I've seen around.
Any thoughts are appreciated.
Thank you very much in advance.
Cheers
Well it says it needs a 4 lane PCI-e slot, so if the NUC supports than then it should work. You can run PCI-e devices on less lanes than they need, but it may not have enough bandwidth to work properly. You might be better off going with a mini-itx board instead, or try to find something in the NUC form factory which has at least a 4x pci slot.
I just saw that they have single lane cards as well, if you were getting one of those then it should work as long as long as you can connect a pci-e device to an msata slot (not really sure about that)
Hi Dexter, thank you very much for your help.
I'm looking at a lot of options, it doesn't necessarily have to be a NUC, but a very important factor is size and weight.
The newer NUCs seem to have mini PCIe 4x. But i'm not sure if there are adaptors. It's all very confusing, since there are a million options.
Do you have any other ideas that might work? PCIe 4x to thunderbolt? :)
Thanks again
Cheers
Is an ITX board too big? Because you could use one of these instead of a regular PSU to save size and weight: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article601-page1.html
I've seen thunderbolt to PCI enclosures but they tend to be pretty bulky, if thunderbolt is an option would you be able to get a thunderbolt capture card instead?
The NUC boards are half of the size of mini ITX.
There are some solutions to record 4K, obviously, but they are all very expensive and a bit bulky for what I need them. They have screens, and I really don't need a screen up in the drone.
That blackmagic design capture card is only $300.
I found this adaptor:
Which might be what I was looking for, if I get a NUC with M.2.
This 6G-SDI is really a pain in the ass.
Thanks again man, for all your help. That tiny power supply is awesome, I might use it.
If you think of something else please let me know
Cheers
I know you specified a 4k camera without internal recording but the GoPro Hero 4 Black Edition or the upcoming Hero 5 would be much less hassle, and way lighter. They're tough as brick shithouse as well. A drone falling from a height + nuc even with sold state storage may not fair too well.
Hi Deejeta. The camera is this one:
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicmicrostudiocamera4k
There really is no comparison wtih a gopro. The global shutter, the sensor size, the possibility of changing lenses, shooting raw, and with this particular camera, the expansion port, are all just too tempting.
The drone I built is pretty big and heavy already, weighting about 5 kg, and it's designed to be around 8 kg all up with payload. This camera is way lighter than the one I was going to fly originally, so I can use that weight for this crazy idea.
Thanks for your reply
Cheers
Wow thats a beast of a camera.
How the you are going to go about powering the nuc (+ pico adapter) ~ lightweight lithium ion arrary, enoloop AA array, AGM or wet cell?
Thats a very good question and something I can't fully answer yet.
The NUC can be powered with 12-24 VDC through an internal connector. Thats about the same voltage at which the hexacopter operates. I might be able to get power from the LIPO batteries. Or I might add a dedicated battery to power the NUC + the gimbal and camera. Flight time will be around 15 minutes, so the NUC doesn't have to be on for a long time.
I'd love to see images of this, sounds really cool. Must be a hell of a build.
Yeah, it's been a lot of work, but it is a pleasure see it in the air and stuff...
Here is a little video I made of the copter: https://youtu.be/16RGKmJFLnc
The gimbal is nearly finished now, and then I'll have to sort this recording system out.
I have a friend who works building video recorders out of NUC, just found out today. Not in 4K though...
I'm not extremely familiar with thunderbolt but isn't it tied to pci lanes anyway?
As far as I know it's pretty much an external PCI-e connection. But it would probably be easier to use a thunderbolt capture device rather than trying to adapt a PCI card to thunderbolt and then mount it in a way where it won't be damaged
I'm not too familiar with thunderbolt either. The capture cards I could find were as expensive as a 4K recorder. The cheapest 4K recorder I think is the Atomos Shogun, and it's about $2000
Not sure how this build is all going but I just read about this 4k camera with interchangeable lenses and wanted to revisit this thread. Very tiny and seems pretty darn neat imho.