Z3 Technology HE4K-DKC15 Video Encoder User Guide

Owned by Conor McCaffrey (Unlicensed)
Last updated: May 06, 2021
3 min read

General

Certain BFD aircraft are equipped with a digital video encoder. The Z3 Technologies HE4K-DKC15 Video encoder is used to encode an HDMI video signal from a payload and and send it over an IP network. The video encoder has a variety of settings and operating modes. This guide will discuss how to access the encoder settings and how to create a shortcut for the VLC program to open the pre-configured video encoder RTSP stream in TCP mode.

The settings have been pre-selected to give a good balance of high quality video, low latency, and long range. The settings can be adjusted to prioritize one of these aspects if required.

The aircraft-side radio unit is cooled by the airflow present in flight. The radio unit may overheat and begin to throttle the connection throughput if streaming video while stationary.

Create VLC Video Streaming Shortcut

Windows 10 Instructions

  • Download and install VLC media player from the link here.

  • After install locate the original shortcut

    • Press the windows key

    • Type “VLC”

    • Right click on the VLC icon

    • Select “Open file location”

      • A popup explorer window will appear

  • Create a new shortcut

    • Right click on “VLC media player”

      • Select “Create Shortcut” from the contextual menu

      • A dialog will appear that explain the shortcut must be saved to the desktop

        • Click “Yes”

  • Edit the Shortcut

    • Locate the newly created shortcut on the desktop

    • Right click the new shortcut

      • Select “Properties” from the contextual menu

    • Alter the “Target” field

      • Keep the existing text

      • Add a space and then append the following text to the end

      • --network-caching=200 --clock-jitter=0 --rtsp-tcp rtsp://10.x.y.20/z3-1.sdp

Change the IP address (10.x.y.20) in the above command to the IP address of the video encoder. This can be found on the Customer Info Sheet supplied with the aircraft. It may also be inferred from the BFD UAS IP Address Ranges standard

  • Click “Apply”

  • Rename the shortcut on the desktop to indicate that it is a link to automatically connect to the video stream of a particular aircraft

Connecting to the Encoder with QGroundControl

  • Launch QGroundControl

  • Click the icon in the top right of the window

  • Select Application Settings

  • Go to General

  • Under Video settings Source select RTSP Video Stream from the drop down

  • Enter the URL listed below

    • rtsp://10.x.y.20/z3-1.sdp

    • Change the IP address to the address for your camera

  • Check the box for Low Latency Mode

  • Click Back in the Top right corner of the window to view the main screen

  • The video will automatically connect and be available in the corner of the window

    • Click on the video to make it bigger

How to Access Encoder Settings

The video encoder settings are available on a webpage hosted in the encoder.

  • Connect to the aircraft network with a computer

    • Connect to either the ethernet port on the aircraft or one of the ground radio ports

  • Open an internet browser and type in the IP address of the video encoder

    • The address for the encoder is of the form 10.x.y.20

    • The address will be listed in the network address section of the documentation included with the aircraft

    • If the address can not be determined there is a software called ZFinder available from the Z3 Technology website that my be used to locate the camera

  • Go to the CH1 tab to view settings for the main encoder output

 

BFD Systems – 2020