AI Dual Camera — day + thermal cameras with onboard AI detection
We've added a new guide to the docs — AI Dual Camera: how to combine a day camera, a thermal camera and onboard object detection on a single lightweight FPV drone, switching cameras right in flight.
Both streams are merged into a single WFB transmitter via socat, and object detection is overlaid on the day camera — the YOLOv8n model runs on the SigmaStar hardware IPU accelerator (the venc streamer instead of Majestic).
🔹 What's inside the guide
- An animated diagram of the flow: two cameras →
socat→ WFB → VRX. - A ready-made archive with all binaries, configs and scripts — downloadable straight from the site.
- Exact install commands (PuTTY
plink/pscp), edits towifibroadcast,S95majestic,mavlink.conf. - Ground-station setup (gsmenu) and MAVLink OSD on the VRX via PixelPilot.
🔹 The setup in brief
- Day camera — OpenIPC on SigmaStar (SSC338Q), stream on port
5500. - Thermal camera — a USB module via a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, H.264 over Ethernet on port
5600. - Switching —
socatputs only one camera on air at a time; it can be bound to an RC channel. - AI detection — per frame, before encoding, right on the camera.
For advanced users
This guide is technical and modifies system files on both the camera and the ground station. It's a setup for enthusiasts — test on the ground and proceed at your own risk.