BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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Drones and Fires and Crowdfunding
- Thread starter Bandwagon
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Bandwagon
Kolohe
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I just got my telemetry and flight controller all set up today. Flew over to the firestation, auto circled for 6 minutes, then flew back. I had it set up to land, but I got nervous and switched back to manual mode. Hopefully I'll be able to do a mapping testtomorrow
Bandwagon
Kolohe
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Brutal, if you're interested in a RTF option, 3dr's Aero-m will do that. If you're comfortable setting up the camera yourself, theAerowill do it for 1/3 of the price of the Aero M. You can build the same setup for much cheaper like I have been doing, but it is pretty stressful if you're a newbie like me.
Anyways, Here is the flight controller I just put in. I ended up remounting it with all the peripherals attached to the sidewall of the fuselage. The flight controller is mounted on a piece of foam with the downward facing camera now.
Since I'm not working on the crowdfunding idea, I'll start a thread in the tech forum.
Anyways, Here is the flight controller I just put in. I ended up remounting it with all the peripherals attached to the sidewall of the fuselage. The flight controller is mounted on a piece of foam with the downward facing camera now.
Since I'm not working on the crowdfunding idea, I'll start a thread in the tech forum.
BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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Excuse my ignorance, but what does RTF mean?
I was thinking about this today and if the thing could actually follow an accurate path to avoid trees, it would only need to fly at like 25 feet or even lower and that wouldn't interfere with planes at all. I don't know how accurately it can maintain its altitude in a hilly area though.
I was thinking about this today and if the thing could actually follow an accurate path to avoid trees, it would only need to fly at like 25 feet or even lower and that wouldn't interfere with planes at all. I don't know how accurately it can maintain its altitude in a hilly area though.
Bandwagon
Kolohe
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RTF - Ready to fly (everything needed)
RTM - Ready to map (RTF + camera and maybe software)
ARF - Almost ready to fly
PNP - Plug n play- just need a transmitter
I really don't think you're going to want anything that flies below the trees, though you can get pretty specific with waypoints. The quads only have around a 15 minute flight time, but the airplanes can get over an hour pretty easy. Are the pools visible from above the canopy? If not, I think there are a lot of better DIY options that don't involve a flying robot.
Sample picture of a quick flight path made with 3dr's android app "Tower", which can be used on any flight controller running APM (and I think PX4)
BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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You can definitely see them from above the trees, but I think you would want to get a bit closer than that picture. The tanks are 8-12 feet in diameter and you would need to get in close enough to see how much water is in them.
I have looked into permanent telemetry on the tanks themselves but I haven't really found anything that is reasonably priced and really that reliable. You really need a photo because in my experience floats are less reliable than the wells themselves and you have to have something that is incapable of sending a false positive or you will just wind up driving around to check on your monitoring stations instead of checking on the well. There are good options if there is reliable cell reception at the tank but at most of our tanks there is not and having LOS radios is just impractical when you're talking about something that's 8 miles away in a hilly area.
I have looked into permanent telemetry on the tanks themselves but I haven't really found anything that is reasonably priced and really that reliable. You really need a photo because in my experience floats are less reliable than the wells themselves and you have to have something that is incapable of sending a false positive or you will just wind up driving around to check on your monitoring stations instead of checking on the well. There are good options if there is reliable cell reception at the tank but at most of our tanks there is not and having LOS radios is just impractical when you're talking about something that's 8 miles away in a hilly area.
Bandwagon
Kolohe
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That picture is just from google maps for creating a flight plan. The camera I'm using is a canon s100 with chdk installed, which is also what the aero-m uses. Flightriot.com has some very good instructions and examples, if you're curious. Also, check out dronecell at diydrones. Telemetry using cell networks.
Dronedeploy recently went live with a commercial application of this.
Dronedeploy recently went live with a commercial application of this.