Video: CoroCAM UVS

Video transcript

A corona camera that weighs 740 g. What it sees, how it fits on a small drone, and how to set it up and inspect with it. A corona camera on a drone is only useful if the drone can carry it. Heavy payloads need large aircraft and large jimbals. This camera keeps the sensitivity of a full corona camera in a box that fits a small gimbal and runs from the drone's battery. sees corona in daylight because it looks where the sun is dark.

Below about 280 nm, ozone absorbs the sunlight. A discharge keeps emitting there, and a solar-blind filter isolates it. Inside, one lens collects the light and a prism divides it. One path goes to the Full HD visible camera. The other crosses the solar-blind filter and reaches an image intensifier, which turns each ultraviolet photon into electrons, multiplies them, and makes them visible on a phosphor screen. In figures, an ultraviolet sensitivity of 5 times 10 to the minus

18 watts per square centimeter or 3.6 picocolombs at 20 meters. A full HD visible camera that works down to 0.03 lux, 740 grams, and 12 watts. the front, one 62 mm window serves both channels. On top, the plate that attaches it to the gimbal. On the side and underneath, M3 points and a quarter-inch thread. It mounts horizontally or vertically as an option chosen with the order. At the back, HDMI for the live image, mini-USB and microSD for the recordings, and Ethernet for control from a computer.

Two connectors carry the remote control, analog video, and power, and an MCX socket takes the external GPS antenna. The buttons are on top. A thermal module can be added on top. Longwave infrared, 640 x 512, below 50 mK, for about 800 grams in total. Then the ultraviolet can be laid over the thermal image, and a discharge and a hot spot are found in the same flight. Before the flight, a phone or tablet app sets the

camera up over Bluetooth with 10 user profiles. In the air, commands arrive by SBUS, PWM, CAN, or RS-232, or Ethernet. Out come the live image, the recordings, and the GPS position. On the day, card in, power from the drone. Six seconds later the camera is ready to inspect, and recording is available after about a minute. Load the profile, wait for the GPS lock, and test every remote channel before takeoff.

number on screen is a count based on intensity, calibrated for the irradiance in the selected area. It is compensated for the camera settings, so it rises in proportion to the ultraviolet light, instead of saturating when blobs merge. For weak or noisy signals, there are two tools. Long integration adds frames together, so a faint discharge builds up until it shows. Noise reduction averages each pixel over time.

Random noise fades, a real discharge stays. The overlay transparency is adjustable too. Recordings go to the 64 GB microSD card, 720p video cut from the center of the full HD image, and JPG stills. A sort number at the start of each file name groups each fault, and an XML file keeps the settings and the GPS position. One caution, the count measures how intense the activity is at that moment, not how serious the fault is, and it changes with humidity, wind, and load.

The priority comes from what the discharge can damage, and from what the visible image shows of the hardware. Next to the CoroCAM 8 UAV, that camera carries ultraviolet, thermal, and a 28x zoom in 1.6 kg. The UVS keeps the ultraviolet sensitivity in 740 g for smaller drones and close-up work. works from minus 20 to 55 degrees, sealed to IP44 or 65 as an option, without overheating.

It ships in a hard case with cables, GPS antenna, and a bench power supply, never pointed at the sun. Corona inspection from the air, from Amperis.