Def Droning on again

[Vidar]

Yes. A 3D model that can be rotated, zoomed and so on.

[Grant Lamontagne]

Awesome.

I was hoping it would work like that but I wasn't sure.   

If that's the case, here is the bridge project I'm on for my day job:

https://poly.cam/capture/1a9e78a1-ac10-4e6f-ada0-5881f774931a

And here is (one of) the (many) reason(s)!why women wouldn't date me in high school.   

https://poly.cam/capture/9a682e7f-40b5-4207-933f-6b8f305b2c12

That one isn't done with a drone though, just the same software.   

Def

[Vidar]

That is nice!

I'm sure there are women who would have loved that. I can think of one - to be fair the ratio is rather low I guess. Their loss!

Many years ago I took lots of pictures of a relatives baby kid from all kinds of angles. The idea is that once she gets to her 14 year party she will get a life sized 3D model of herself as a baby. Somewhat weird and bizarre yet special. I'm still not sure which weights heavier, so the actual implementation is still up for discussion - but due to the pictures there is the option at least.

[Grant Lamontagne]

A few weeks ago I broke my Neo.  Apparently the wall/camera gimbal interaction exceeded the limitations of the unit and I had to use the insurance service, called DJI Care Refresh.

Basically when you buy a DJI drone they give you 48 hours to buy the insurance package, which will cover you if you lose or damage the drone.  For the Neo it was only an extra $70, so I bought it and, after many crashes, I finally got one good enough to file a claim over.  I paid the deductible of $20 and they send me a shipping label.  I packaged it up and shipped it out on a Tuesday, and by Friday I had a brand spanking new Neo!

I tried it out briefly and it functions exactly as it should, which, being a brand new drone comes as no surprise.

Then a few days ago I got a call from DJI customer service asking me if it worked okay, if I was happy with the claim end so on.  I said yes, I was happy and they asked if I'd fill out an online survey.  I agreed and they said they appreciated that, my business etc and they asked if I'd mind if they sent me a gift.  I said that wasn't necessary, but sure.  I'll take a free gift!   

Today the gift arrived safe and sound, and it's a DJI hat- a really nice one actually.  I forgot to take a pic of it and I've already packaged it up to send to my father.  He's going to love it and he wears hats a lot more often than I do, plus he has almost as many drones as I do!  There aren't a lot of 84 year old men as skilled with a drone as he is! 

I know we see a lot in the media about DJI, and honestly, I can't argue with any of it, but I will say, they do look after their customers.

Def

[Dutch_Tooler]

I'll be following this thread more closely as my interest in drones has moved from the professional to the merely private  . Haven't bought one yet as I'm still unsure if it will be of much practical use in a densely populated suburb of a very privacy conscious southern German state capital...

Anyway, awesome pics, video and 3D rendering of the overpass project a few posts up, thanks Grant. Just out of curiosity, and as suggested by comparing the layout shown in Google Maps, would that be the 118/107 junction near Lake Charles? That is some serious dirt moving and concrete pouring being prepared/executed  . Am I right in idly assuming the existing two-lane overpass is likewise due for an upgrade?

[Grant Lamontagne]

You are correct in all of your observations.... However there is no upgrade planned for the old overpass currently.  In fact, a recent report has shown that the majority of our overpasses and bridges are in desperate need of work, but we don't have the budget to do most of them.  I live in one of the poorest provinces in the country due to high costs here (lots of moisture causing massive heaving of structures in the winter and spring) and relatively low population spread out over a large area.

For example, the city of Ottawa has just over a million people and the province of Nova Scotia has just over a million people.

So.... Yeah, we do our best to fix and upgrade what we can, but there's only so much that can be done.

Eventually this whole section of highway will be twinned (ie, doubled into a four lane instead of a two lane) but it will be several years until it is completed.

I don't know what the drone laws in Germany are, but I imagine if the few things I know about Germany are true, it should be very well defined and accessible in a logical fashion.   

The uses for drones are actually quite varied and span a lot of different industries.  In my (current) field of construction alone they can be used in conjunction with thermal cameras to measure concrete cute rates, stress points and other cool metrics.  Without a thermal camera you can do inspections, scans (as seen above) and you can also use it for measuring aggregates like gravel.

You simply 3D map the thirty foot high pile of gravel, provide a measurement of the base and the density of the material and it spits out a very accurate tonnage.  Currently you have to use survey equipment and probably a dozen or so points and calculate the volume based on that.  Unlike a surveyor, the software will pull literally hundreds, if not thousands of points from the photos and calculate the volume based on much more accurate data, giving a much more precise result.  And there is no risk of a surveyor falling when trying to climb up or down from the top of the pile.

Or you can just make silly little videos like this for LinkedIn so you can seem like a very smart person, when in fact you just like to fly drones!

https://youtu.be/7LMs0ScMFRw?si=wRownsaSbU6K2rQ-&utm_source=MTQxZ

Def

[Dutch_Tooler]

Thanks for the link Grant, very informative That sure is a lot of rebar. At first sight from the 3D rendering I thought the girders might be solid steel, but that might be overdoing it 

You're right about German drone laws being precise and precisely documented, but they're also voluminous and detailed, plus there's tons of jurisprudence on every single article. Just want to make sure the breadth of my lawful and likely use cases justifies the possible expense before incurring it 

[Vidar]

You're right about German drone laws being precise and precisely documented, but they're also voluminous and detailed, plus there's tons of jurisprudence on every single article. Just want to make sure the breadth of my lawful and likely use cases justifies the possible expense before incurring it 

Given that Norway copies pretty much any EU regulation blindly I imagine the rules might be similar to here. If so it isn't too complicated. After about 2-3 hours including free online training and online exams I had A1 and A3 certifications.

As for the legal and enforcement side it seems drones are trending in the policing community. Any drone activity within limited zones seems to trigger police action more or less automatically. (Which sadly is more than can be said for many crimes, accidents and situations). It seems to be a highly prioritized area. Which according to the papers typically seems to usually end with a captured drone and a fine. Hm.. I wonder if they still have these auctions every year where they sell off stuff from their storage? Used to be a winner if you needed a bike at least, and by now they must have stacks of drones in storage.

[Grant Lamontagne]

I hate having a job.

My new drone (finally) arrived at the house and I am stuck at work and can't play with it.   

This is the V-Copter Mini, and is a sub 250g drone so no license/registration is required for it.

It's real claim to fame is that it only has two motors rather than the more traditional four blades design.   The manufacturer claims that this gives a more stable platform that is faster, more maneuverable and has a longer battery life since it's running half as many motors.

It also has the ability to fly upside down, provided you flip the orientation of the blades.  No one has managed to find a reason to do this, other than making YT videos showing that it can do that.

But, I'm all for more airtime, so it's worth a shot. 

Do I believe it?  Well.....

Even though there are only two blade spinning motors, there are actually two small pivot motors that the drone uses to constantly adjust the angle of the propellers to maintain stability.  So the two motor drone is actually a four motor drone, just two of them are doing a different job.

Still, as they are probably not working constantly or as hard, they likely are not going to use as much power as four drive motors would, and so yeah, it probably does have more flight time.

I'm not sure how I see two sets of blades being more stable or faster- after all, it isn't actually any lighter than the DJI Mini series.

It also doesn't have things like obstacle sensors like the modern DJI Mini series- from the 3 and up, with the Mini 5 to be released any time now.

It also doesn't have intelligent flight modes like Follow Me, so it's probably going to be a little less useful overall.

But will the alleged battery life and increased speed/stability make up for it? 

 

Time will tell!

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

I installed the app to see what the interface looks like and it looks pretty similar to the DJI interface.

The map is bottom left, nav buttons (RTH, autoland etc) on the left, camera controls on the right.... It looks like it will be pretty similar to the DJI interface which should be easy to fly for anyone used to DJI drones.

The second screenshot below is Litchi, which is aftermarket software for DJI drones and allows you to do some things DJI drones don't do natively- for example, there is a follow mode for the Mini 2 in Litchi, but not in the DJI software.

You will notice that things are moved around a bit in Litchi, with the map in the bottom right corner.  I feel like the software meant for DJI drones is more different from the factory software than the software written for another drone.

Doing this makes me think I need to screenshot all of the pilot interfaces and compare them directly...

But for now I'm just glad to see there doesn't appear to be any obstacles to operating this drone.

You know....other than my desire to continue to be employed.   

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

Here is the new drone, almost ready to fly.  The first pic is with it folded up in transport configuration and then transformed into battle mode.... Uh I mean ready to fly.

I noticed that it seemed somewhat quieter than my DJI drones when I flew it for a moment in my kitchen last night, but I'll see about actually measuring the sound on it later on and compare it to the others.

I had intended to take some comparison shots with my Mini 3 Pro, but apparently I forgot to bring it along, so those will have to wait.

This brings my personal air fleet to

1- DJI Inspire 1
1- DJI Phantom 4 Pro
2- DJI Mini 2
1- DJI Mini 3 Pro
1- DJI Neo
1- Parrot Anafi
1- Falcon V-Copter Mini

And now I am off to put in some air time on it- my next post may be very depressing!   

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

Here are some comparison photos between the V-Copter Mini and the DJI Mini 3 Pro.

I was able to fly the V Copter a few days ago when I said I was going to and I didn't report back because there were some issues.  My thoughts was that I had some setting wrong and I didn't want to talk about how wild this drone is in case the fault was with how I set it up.

As it turns out, I was right all along- this drone wanders a lot.  By that I mean when there is no operator input, DJI drones use a combination of GPS and downward facing sensors/cameras to hold it's position.

The V Copter Falcon Mini figures that when there is no operator input, it's a good time to go under off and look for a cigarette.  Or something.

The inputs are technically the same as DJI, but the responses are on different levels- for example the DJI gimbal rotates very slowly while this gimbal goes so fast that you'll think you are going to get whiplash from it.

They are also not very sensitive- every touch of the controls sends this drone on a mad dash in whatever direction you've indicated, and that's in Normal mode.

Right next to the camera button is the button that puts the Falcon into Sport Mode, where it goes off in whatever direction you indicate at twice the mad dash of Normal Mode.

Then I discovered Turbo Mode, which as far as I can see, has no limitations whatsoever.

Just testing it in a parking lot, accelerating for about 30 feet meant I needed almost 40 feet to stop it before it went out on the open highway.

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

I wouldn't expect that a novice could pick up this drone and fly it safely.  I have hundreds of hours of experience and this drone is a handful, even for me.

Once you start getting used to it though, you kind of get a feel for its craziness, and while I didn't push it too far, I did go up to the max legal flight ceiling of 120m or 400 feet, and it did seem quite reasonably stable bearing in mind that there was almost no wind at all this morning.

Still, it did well.

Another interesting observation was terrain following.  While I didn't have that mode turned on, it decided it was going to do it anyway.

For those not familiar, there are sensors on the bottom that it uses to maintain its altitude.  Normally, this just keeps it from hitting the ground when you fly towards a hill.

If you are 1m (3 and a half feet) off the ground, as the ground goes up, the drone maintains that height above the ground level (AGL) so that it doesn't crash.

That happens in all modes.  Normally, when you turn the drone around and fly back to where you started, the drone maintains it's current altitude, and could be 10m above where it started by the time it makes its way to the start point, because it doesn't descend automatically.

It only ascended to keep from crashing, and didn't descend because it had no reason to.

But, in Terrain Follow Mode, it maintains it's altitude above the ground it's over, so it does descend as the ground drops away.

As I hadn't activated that mode, I didn't expect the drone to behave that way, and I almost crashed while figuring it out.

I was flying the drone about three feet above the deck of a flat deck trailer, and once it got to the front of the deck, it started reading the ground below it, and it decided to maintain altitude AFL and drop to three feet off the ground.

But the ground it was reading was a hollow section between the hitch rails on either side, forward of the deck but aft of the hitch.

Because of this, it almost flew into the jack stand, which sticks up beyond the level of the deck.

Essentially what happened was, this drone almost outsmarted itself by trying to follow the ground but not looking ahead and almost crashed itself. 

And I can't take credit for that crash because that would have 100% been a software issue.

Now that I know it's going to do that, I can expect it and not put it in those situations, but initially?  Nope- that's a complete software issue.

It's like driving down the highway and suddenly for no reason the seatbelt retracts and the seat tilts pushes you out the door.  If you don't know it's going to do that, you have a problem and hopefully you have a good hold on the steering wheel!

At any rate, I have a higher opinion of the V-Copter Falcon Mini than I did a few days ago, but it's still not likely to replace the Mini 3 Pro (or any other DJI drones) any time soon.

I'll go through the video and see if I can find any fun bits, or anything that illustrates the stuff I was talking about above.

Oh, and in case anyone has yet to figure it out, the pale grey one is the Mini 3 Pro and the yellow one is the V-Copter Falcon Mini.   

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

Here is a photo of my bridge project taken with the Falcon.

And another photo of its own shadow, because I think it's funny to use a drone to take pictures of itself.  Or another drone.   

Lastly this is the interface with the drone in flight, right around the time I took the bridge photo. 

Starting in the top left, you see the drone is flying in GPS mode, which is good because that means it has some idea of where it is.  That's important for a lot of reasons, the least of which being it can be found easier when/if (when really.....) it crashes.

In the top right corner you have the connection strength (the bars and controller icon), the number of satellites it's connected to, the battery power left in the drone, then the camera and drone settings.

The battery meter doesn't seem to have a number and I find it is very small and difficult to see the battery power remaining.  It's not color coded like on a DJI drone, and with no number I can't tell if it's at 70% power or at 40.  It might be a bit easier if I use my iPad or tablet rather than my phone, but that's a whole other problem I'll get to later.

Going down from the Menu buttons I have the Micro SD card info and camera shutter button.  At the time I snapped this screen shot I was recording video and was 2 minutes and give seconds in. 

Below that is the Gallery Icon so I can review photos and videos.

There's nothing else along the bottom until you get to the left side and that's your navigation controls, including speed (horizontal and vertical), distance from the Home Point (which you hope is near where you are standing!), altitude and a map.  Clicking on the map causes it to come up and replace the camera feed, which shrinks down to take up the space in the corner.

Above that you have the Auto Landing button, where the drone will either land where it is or Return To Home (RTH) depending on what you tell it you want it to do, or what it's battery power is.

Above that, the icon that looks like a game controller is how you select different flight modes, and this is actually kind of funny.

On DJI drones there is a mode called Rocket, where the drone will fly towards the subject, then increase altitude, keeping the subject in frame.  This is a cool effect. 

In the Flight Mode menu on the V-Copter is a rocket icon, which I thought meant it had the same mode on it.

Nope.

Not even close.

Even though it is right next to the Circle and Selfie modes.

Not at all.

When you select the rocket icon, the drone goes into Turbo Mode, which as far as I have seen, doesn't have a top speed.  I had to shut it down when it hit roughly 4x the speed of the DJI Mini 3 Pro, and it's a good thing I did because it took a long time to stop.

The last icon, the one just above the game controller one is for setting a new home point.  This is a handy feature for a lot of reasons, whenever you want to drone to return to some point other than when you started.  For example, if you launch off a boat,it's unlikely to be in the same place it was when the drone comes back.

I have a lengthy, but funny story about that, but I'll tell that later.   

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

Apparently the V-Copter has a flaw and is being recalled, so I guess I have to stop testing this one until I get a replacement.

I kinda want to see the thing burst into flames while flying though- I feel like that would be pretty freaking cool, but as we are in the middle of a drought I feel like I should do as I'm told.   

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

I've been wanting to do this for a while.  It's not the best, but is pretty cool nonetheless.

https://youtu.be/6FZxpk_5528?si=iB40qhXKuEXwSfG0

Def

[Vidar]

Wow. That is the reverse of me in the summer. I tried to get away from upset birds giving chase to the drone.

[Grant Lamontagne]

I kind of want to sit in an empty parking lot and throw a bunch of French fries out the window until I have a good sized flock of seagulls and then do this.

I imagine then I will go straight to a car wash.   

Def

[Vidar]

Go for fish innards instead of chips for even worse effect. The owners of the car wash might sue you. 

More seriously though the bird interest was worrisome enough that I hesitate to use it in areas with bigger birds like eagles. And I guess if a falcon decides to tackle the drone it would be equally dead.  Have you had any bird issues? Some say putting reflective stuff on might help?

[Grant Lamontagne]

I haven't had much issue with birds, but the guy who got me into drones did.  He had lost a couple of drones to bird attacks, at least one of which is at the bottom of the ocean.   

I only tried this with the Neo because it has very small props and they are well covered, unlike the Mini series props that are exposed.

Well, pretty well every other drone I have has exposed blades and I have seen what those blades do to fingers, I definitely wouldn't want that to happen to a bird.

And being an animal lover, I definitely don't want that to happen.  I would avoid doing this with any drone with exposed blades.

And, if my experiment with seagulls ever happens, well, this little drone is insured so if they pound it into the ground, well that footage will be worth the $25 deductible for a new one!   

Def

[Vidar]

I guess a need a flock of drones to fly where eagles dare. Or thereabouts. The eagles don't like flocks of seagulls as they will harass a single eagle as best they can, so maybe flocks in general is avoided.

Seagulls tend to come up behind single eagles and pick off their feathers. However if there is more than one eagle it becomes more risky I guess as they can't be sure about their own backs, so then they seem to stay away. We had lots of eagles around a few years ago so I got the watch that particular argument many times.

Better continue to stay away from such territories with the drone then I guess.

[Grant Lamontagne]

Apparently the V-Copter has a flaw and is being recalled, so I guess I have to stop testing this one until I get a replacement.

I kinda want to see the thing burst into flames while flying though- I feel like that would be pretty freaking cool, but as we are in the middle of a drought I feel like I should do as I'm told.   

Def

The replacement V-Copter Falcon has been delivered to my house today.  Megan and I are out getting groceries but we are headed home shortly afterwards, so I'll try and get some pictures up soon.

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

As you can see, the replacement drone looks am awful lot like the original one, but flip it over and you can see that the downward sensor looks different.

I'm not sure what (if any) difference this might make, but I'm wondering if it "sees" down as well as before.

The downward sensors shoot beams of some kind of science at the ground on a slight angle to create a V, which tells the drone how close to the ground it is.  On the original model the beams are larger and further apart, but on the new drones science beam emitters are smaller and closer together.

 

Hopefully it'll be charged shortly and I can take it out for a test flight.

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

Pictures are pretty good out of this drone!

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

I brought the Nei and the V Copter Falcon Mini with me on this trip and it's really the first time I've had the opportunity to really use the V Copter.

One thing for sure, if you fly DJI drones regularly, you are spoiled!

The Falcon Mini doesn't really have intelligent flight modes like Follow, obstacle detection/avoidance, and it's ability to stay where it was leaves a lot to be desired. 

But, it has managed to do a lot more than I expected, including flying greater distances than I thought without losing connection. I successfully got 260m away before getting the weak signal warning.

Now, 250m in a DJI drone is nothing, but they have a much better system than anyone else, so this was a pretty big deal for a non-DJI model.  Especially since there were an awful lot of trees between us.  I'm sure in an open field that would have been a lot easier.

It's also quite stable, which was a bit of a surprise as it's design means the center of mass of the drone is well below the propellers, which helps stabilize things but can also have a pendulum effect when starting or stopping. The drone gimbal does a lot to offset this, but if you are going to use it for video you should be aware that starts and stops need to be reasonably gradual.

That having been said, the gimbal performs as well as any.

It's worth noting that this drone is fast.  I have had it up to 55 km/hr (35 mph) and, while it does take a long time to stop, it's still not as bad as you'd think.

And yes, I have also crashed it.

Twice

Once when I misjudged the stopping distance at high speed and flew into some trees.

And once when I tried to get it to do some precision flying, which it's  not really good at.  It bumped into the house, lost control and flew into some trees, completely ignoring inputs from the controller.

Other than some scratches and dings in the blades there was no appreciable damage.  The blades are still functional, but if I had a spare set handy I'd probably opt to replace them.

Unfortunately, I don't have any spare blades with me and I can't seem to find them for sale anywhere. 

Score another point for DJI- their props are everywhere, and there are great aftermarket options as well.

Compared to my Neo, which is an older model than the V Copter Falcon Mini, the V Copter is pretty archaic.  Even though the Falcon Mini is newer and the same price as the Neo, it has a lot less functions, and it doesn't do them as well as a comparable DJI model (like the Mini series).  Admittedly, the DJI Mini series is about twice the price of the Falcon Mini, so that's to be expected.

I don't know that there's a clear winner between this and the Neo as they both do very different jobs.  The Falcon Mini will handle larger jobs at greater distances better than the Neo, but the Neo takes a hit and handles complex, precision flights better. 

The V Copter doesn't have intelligent flight modes, while the Neo is largely built around intelligent flight modes.

But, the V Copter is stable at 120m high, while the Neo struggles at 40m because it's so light that even the slightest breeze will push it around.

So, pretty much price is the only way you can compare these, so if you are thinking one or the other, get the Neo because it's a lot more versatile.

I less of course you want to operate at higher altitudes, in which case, spend the extra money on a DJI Mini.

The Falcon Mini is comparable to the DJI Mini or Mini 2, and DJI is already on the Mini 5, so the Falcon Mini is pretty far behind in the game.

And honestly, the limited availability of parts makes me lean towards buying a used Mini 2 over this one.

It's cool, but there are better choices if you want anything other than a novelty.

But I will admit, as a novelty, this thing is remarkably cool. No other drone has the ability to fly upside down, and this one does. 

Not that there is any practical applications for that, but it can.   

And it looks pretty neat in flight!

Def