Has anyone tried recording audio with a digital setup? I know I can’t offload the data via the video link but I’d like to record the audio to add to the footage after a fight.
I believe you can use a USB mic on a dji screen type controller like the RC2. Use the controller to record the screen view along with the audio. You then use this low res videro aling with the audio to syncronise to the actual high quality recording from the drone. Once syncronised you keep the audio along with the drone footage and lose the low quality controller screen video. You will need an sdcard in the controller.
Not done it myself but saw a youtube of sonmeone doing this .
I’m running a 4K moonlight FPV camera and I don’t want to loose resolution. I was thinking of something like this:
https://uk.farnell.com/dfrobot/dfr0745/fermion-voice-recorder-module/dp/3769878
And trying to link it to the spare motor pins on my FC. I could then use logic on the transmitter to toggle channels at appropriate points to trigger the recording and to save.
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I think that Audio board isnt designed to run standalone but is mean’t as an audio interface to an Arduino microcontroller board.
Perhaps if you explained in a little more detail exactly what your trying to do ? ie what you want to achieve…
Are you trying to record airborne ? If so won’t the prop noise dominate everything,
I want the prop noise to add into the video during editing. Without the prop noise, the video seems dull and a bit lifeless.
I should be able to run the audio board from spare IO on my flight controller and then sync up the audio with video in post. I’m curious if anyone else has done this.
I don’t think that will work with this audio board as it requires serial data to and from an Arduino board to work. But am sure simple record on / off boards could be found that could be enabled via an I/O from the flight controller.
Alternatly there are boards / modules out there with just a push button to record that have enough record time to simply leave on for the entire flight.
Did a little research, stuff like this interests me.
Here’s the manufacturers site for that board. I looks like it has mutiple modes of operation not just the Arduino so may in fact be doable as a simple recorder. Arduino is only needed if you want to adjust volumes, select tracks, playback modes etc.
That was where I got to.
I could write a driver for Betaflight. I may well do in the future. In the short term, I’d like to run a channel on my transmitter to start and stop. I think I can bind the logic to the arm button…
Nice to have it under remote control from the TX but with 40 mins record time… could just hit record and go fly !
Yeah, but it’s not elegant.
They don’t give you the full audio spec so it’s hard to say if the bitrate is enough to handle the dynamics of motor sounds when that close.
Have you thought about how you’d muffle the mic so it doesn’t get overwhelmed by wind noise?
If you have the payload capacity and budget, the zoom f2 bt is 32 bit and weighs 32g. The DJI mic 2 can record internally and weighs about the same. Both mono, but have the dynamic range for this kind of testing environment. The zoom has a cabled mike that would let you point it directly at the motors.
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Interesting.
I have loads of weight capacity but I don’t want to go mad. It’s going in my Mark5 so there’s space. I’ll have a look at these options.
Ideally, I want something light and cheap.
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If weight isn’t a big issue, look around for second hand 24/96 recorders on eBay. There have been lots of good ones over the past 10 years that aren’t in production anymore and should be cheap enough.
They’re also usually a clamshell box design, or whatever you call that, and should be easy to lightweight, replacing the plastic with a carrier bag and some rubber bands.
If you really want to save money, you could just dub your motor sounds with the drone on your desk, like foley artists of old 
Decided to progress this. I’m curious now to get it linked to the FC GPIO.
I wanted something like this a while ago, I found an open-source audio recorder project ( RevK/ESP32-OpenMic: Open, as in open source, audio processing code and PCBs - Codeberg.org ) and redid the schematic and PCB to remove stuff I didn’t need (battery power, charging from USB, etc) and expose UART0 Tx/Rx with 5V and GND on a JST for connection to a UART on my FC.
Plan was to rip out most of the firmware (it can do a lot I’m not interested in) and set it up to get arm status / aux channels over MSP and start/stop recording based on either of those.
I’ve got a holiday from the day-job this week and looks like a couple of rainy days so I might finish sorting out the BOM and order a few boards from China. I just had a look and the TDK mic I wanted to use is in-stock at one or two places, but is due for EOL later this year.
Sounds interesting. Happy to help develop the firmware if you need support. Firmware development is my job!
In the meantime, I want to use pinbox and a link to the transmitter pre-arm or something similar.