AirPixel TAG-E for Camera Control and EXIF Geotagging of ILX-LR1

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The TAG-E is a camera controller and geotagger for the Sony ILX-LR1 camera. TAG-E uses MAVLink Camera Protocol v2 to give the ground station access to the camera’s features. QGroundControl automatically shows exposure controls, triggering, timelapse and configuration on Android devices and PC/Mac. For Mission Planner there is a plugin for camera and geotagging control.

TAG-E connects to the camera with a single USB-C cable: no WiFi and no additional modules. Geotagging is instant and needs no initialisation. Triggering runs at the camera’s full speed, with no slowdown for geotagging. TAG-E also sets the camera’s internal clock from the GPS time received over MAVLink, so images always have the correct creation date.

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Features

  • Compatible only with Sony ILX-LR1

  • Photos are automatically geotagged (via EXIF and XMP) with Lat, Lon, Altitude and camera angles (read from the gimbal)

  • Geotags can optionally be extended with GPS time, rangefinder measurement, GPS/IMU accuracy, focal plane distance and resolution, or a custom user label

  • HereLink camera control via the QGC UI

  • HereLink camera control via MavCam (optional)

  • Mission Planner implementation via plugin

  • Precise lever arm calculation based on antenna-to-camera offsets

  • Geotagging at the maximum speed of the camera

  • Automatic camera clock configuration from GPS time

  • Enhanced file/folder grouping per flight

  • Video geotagging by subtitles

Connection and Setup

ArduPilot 4.6.0 or later is required. TAG-E needs a 5V supply able to deliver at least 2A.

  1. Connect TAG-E’s IO-B connector to a telemetry port on the autopilot (e.g. TELEM1 or TELEM2), and TAG-E’s USB-C port to the camera.

  2. Set the parameters for the serial port used (SERIAL2 shown as an example):

    • SERIAL2_PROTOCOL = 2 (MAVLink2)

    • SERIAL2_BAUD = 921 (921600 bps)

    • All SR2_* stream rate parameters = 0. TAG-E requests the messages it needs itself.

    • CAM1_TYPE = 5 (MAVLink) or 6 (MAVLinkCamV2). Both work.

  3. Reboot the autopilot. When the camera is online, TAG-E’s LED turns green and the camera appears in the ground station.

TAG-E units with older firmware use 230400 bps on the MAVLink port. See the manufacturer’s ArduPilot connection manual for changing it, and the GPS delay calculation for the best geotag accuracy.

Triggering

Once CAM1_TYPE is set, the normal ArduPilot camera triggers reach the ILX-LR1: DO_SET_CAM_TRIGG_DIST (for example from a Mission Planner survey grid), DO_DIGICAM_CONTROL, IMAGE_START_CAPTURE/IMAGE_STOP_CAPTURE, VIDEO_START_CAPTURE/VIDEO_STOP_CAPTURE, RC auxiliary switches (Camera Trigger, Camera Record Video) and the ground station shutter button. See Camera Controls and Parameters for details.

Because TAG-E writes the geotags into the images on the camera’s SD card during the flight, no log-based geotagging is needed afterwards.

More information