Drone suggestion

[dragoneggs]

Some reflective tape can catch some sun and help.

My DJI Mavic 2 Pro is easy to lose in the light. I fly generally to the west and north especially summer time so I seem to be always struggling with keeping sight.

 

[BigBlue1]

My suggestion to you is 'get your feet wet' with a starter drone to see if you even like droning. Dumping a grand or more on something that will sit unused is insane, unless your liquid income flows like Niagara Falls.....

I had a Traxxqas Aton for a while. Nice drone but not camera friendly and no FPV for flying. I think the FPV with the ease of flying and being able to see and re-orient the camera in flight would be awesome. But I don't want to dump $500 on a drone with difficult support and China-sourced spare parts. A DJI would probably be more to my liking, in terms of company support, but I don't want to spend $800 and I don't want to risk the geofencing issue. I'm located within 3.5 miles of a small airport. It has virtually no traffic, but technically I'm close enough to need their permission to fly. I called them when I got the Aton (city-run airport) and they were like "who cares... just do what you want". But a geofence might not be that understanding.

Rob

 

[Alien]

I guess Rob that your best move would be to find somebody with a drone to test fly at your place. That's about the only way to find out for sure.

Here is my video of our local village.

 

[LouNY]

Interesting video Alien,
I'm curious in the tilled fields there appears to be an untilled strip separating the tilled ones,
what is the function of that strip, erosion control?
Those appear to be good sized almost flat fields.
In one set they seemed to have untilled eyes in a few spots are those wet spots or rock out croppings?

Lou

 

[ovrszd]

Great video!!!!

Like Lou, I'm always curious about farming habits. Can you describe what we are seeing in those fields? Also, what season is it there? I assume "Winter"? But it sure doesn't look like Winter. So I obviously don't know your climate.

Also, if appears to my old eyes that your camera is tilted slightly to the left? When I look at the horizons I see it. My Autel was that way when I got it. Called them and they told me how to fix it. I can't remember the procedure but it was pretty simple.

Very good camera definition. Didn't seem to affect it much as you turned away from and toward the Sun. I have to make subtle camera changes to control that with the Autel. Also have to make adjustments if the lense is pointed down versus horizontal.

Your pilot control is very good. Very good speed control and change of direction control.

Very nice video. I greatly appreciate being able to see where you live. Where in the video do you live?

Thanks again!!!

 

[BigBlue1]

I guess Rob that your best move would be to find somebody with a drone to test fly at your place. That's about the only way to find out for sure.

Here is my video of our local village.

I'm really looking for some solid feedback on the Fimi. That would be my first choice for a drone if their quality and support is decent.

Rob

 

[Alien]

Those fields are planted out in all sorts of vegetable crops. They grow anything and everything depending on season. One minute they have lettuce and a couple of weeks later it's another crop planted like potatoes or carrots or beetroot etc You can see some strips are more advanced than others as I guess they don't want everything to be ready at the same time or they will flood markets. The Lockyer Valley provides the Brisbane markets the bulk of produce.
Most of the paddocks are leveled by machinery with laser guidance as they use a LOT of water and they don't want run-off. Those narrow strips are where they locate the irrigation pipes. I will take a vid of that sometime. The spots you mention are probably water junctions for the bore supply to the pipes. No swamp or wet areas there really.
The farm you see at 5 minutes is a friends place. He mainly produces Lucerne and oats crops for animal feed. A lot easier than veges...
Yes it is winter here but we have nothing like you guys. I have never even had a frost but some areas get a little occasionally. Even though it is late Winter it is getting warmer every day now. We are around 24 - 28 deg C lately. We actually had about 20 mm of rain a couple of days ago which was very welcome. We do not get much.
My property is North West about 7 klm from where that vid was taken. I'm retired so I live in the 'bush'
Glad you enjoyed the video. Still learning to control the camera smoothly. Sometimes I over-correct due to a little latency in the signal. Overall, very happy with the drone. Just working on a short range issue with FIMI.

Rob... Most of those I communicate with on the forums are very happy with FIMI service and response. So far they are OK with me.

Ovrszd... Some have had small issues with gimbal horizon but I hadn't noticed it with mine. I have looked for it but I will look again....

 

[5030]

I guess Rob that your best move would be to find somebody with a drone to test fly at your place. That's about the only way to find out for sure.

Here is my video of our local village.

Nice. I like observing farming practices as well in as much as I farm... Was that with your FIMI or another drone? I couldn't see the controller as you landed.

 

[Alien]

Video was taken with my FIMI but not in full 4K. It was uploaded in 1080P so quality can be better. Trying to save upload time as I have a slow connection.
If you looked close you would see me glancing at the controller as I was landing.

 

[Alien]

Here I am in the backyard. I was practicing flying between trees down the paddock.

 

[5030]

Video was taken with my FIMI but not in full 4K. It was uploaded in 1080P so quality can be better. Trying to save upload time as I have a slow connection.
If you looked close you would see me glancing at the controller as I was landing.

View attachment 666687

I see the FIMI has very good Gimbal rotation. You using an Android or an I Phone in the controller and how well dies the App respond? I'll be getting one shortly (hopefully), it's ordered. Like I said, hopefully. I don't relish waiting as long as I did for the EVO (2 months).

Found out after the fact (purchase) that Autel don't ship drones on a per order basis. They quantity ship on a monthly basis if, they have them to ship. Keep in mind that Autel is domestic based, but the parent company as well as all the manufacturing is done in China.

Far as I know, only Parrot is not Chinese and they are not in picture anymore as they no longer produce a prosumer drone.

 

[cdaigle430]

So do we but it's an alternate flight path so they don't fly over often and usually over 400 feet. I suspect a drone in a turbo fan would be an issue. One of my friends, ingested a drone in the feed end of his combine. No biggie with the grain table but big issue with the input housing. Drone's battery exploded and set the combine infeed on fire. He extingushed it but not before damage was done and no one came looking for the quad copter. Probably a good thing, he was pretty miffed.

I'm beginning the think that drone batteries (LiPo) can become an issue and along those lines I've been considering the fire resistant storage sleeves for them.

I see the Autel flight battery(s), if left dormant for 30 days or more will self discharge to 60% power. Interestingly, my tablet does the same thing.

Mine will discharge to 30% after 14 days...when you with them on a plane they should be at 30%

 

[cdaigle430]

I see the FIMI has very good Gimbal rotation. You using an Android or an I Phone in the controller and how well dies the App respond? I'll be getting one shortly (hopefully), it's ordered. Like I said, hopefully. I don't relish waiting as long as I did for the EVO (2 months).

Found out after the fact (purchase) that Autel don't ship drones on a per order basis. They quantity ship on a monthly basis if, they have them to ship. Keep in mind that Autel is domestic based, but the parent company as well as all the manufacturing is done in China.

Far as I know, only Parrot is not Chinese and they are not in picture anymore as they no longer produce a prosumer drone.

Correct

Parrot exits the toy drone market - The Verge

 

[Alien]

I think Skydio is an American drone with a very good reputation too.
I am using a Huawei P30 Android phone with mine. My iPhones are just a bit too small for my eyes. (4" and 4 3/4") The Huawei has a 6" screen. There is a slight latency and that is why I over-correct sometimes but just a matter of getting used to it.
I was travelling at 8 meters per second but it is capable of 18 meters per second. It is easier on battery if you are not flat out all the time.

I knew Parrot was exiting the consumer market from some of the forums I have been on.

Skydio Link

Info and pricing

I'm not a fan of downward facing props but if you have a landing pad it should not be a problem.

 

[5030]

Not a prosumer drone either and I bet the price would send shivers into my wallet.

Don't know anyone who has one or a Parrot for that matter. I would imagine LE might if they were given to them but buying, I doubt it.

Said earlier that maybe I should have waited and bought an EVO II Dual. I'd have liked to have the FLIR Thermal imaging camera and the regular one too. Don't like the price however. You start getting north of 3 grand US, it quickly becomes a serious hobby.

 

[ovrszd]

I might be the one that's "tilted" so don't worry much about your camera. If it suits you, it suits me.

My Autel has hefty landing gear. I always catch it. I don't like to land on the ground. Too much chance for error and an "accident".

I've shot all my video in 4K. I think that might be a mistake for some people trying to watch them. If you don't have quality 4K capability the videos are not clear.

I think you do a very good job of controlling your Drone and camera.

Thanks again for the great video. And for the explanation of the crops. What elevation are you and how far from the coast?

 

[Alien]

ovrszd, I am about 100 klm from the coast inland from Brisbane. I am on a ridge at about 250 meters altitude. Those properties are probably around 200 meters Alt. We are about 12 minutes to our local town, Gatton. (good little town) and just under 30 minutes to Toowoomba City to the west of us. We are in a very good area with excellent country neighbours. Never a problem.
I have found with 4K that my computer struggles when editing. It makes it difficult and apart from that it takes up so much space on the hard drive. I have a external drive where I save big files through a powered USB hub but it still takes time. I use 1080p @ 60FPS in my other drones and videos are excellent. I am going to velcro my little Firefly cam onto the top of the FIMI and give it a run for comparison. I changed the lens on it and got superb results with a much better depth of field.
I do most of my stuff on a Win7 Laptop but have to go to the old Mac for large editing jobs.
It is 11 years old and has a SSD but it works OK. New one when our NZ farm sells I hope. Market is a bit slow. (maybe another drone too) hehe

Here are some random shots taken at my club last Saturday (when it was raining) with no obvious tilt. One shot has a Mavic drone flying in the background.

 

[ovrszd]

I agree, no tilt. Pay no attention to my comment.

I'll try changing my settings to a lower level. I like 4K if the proper equipment is used to edit and view it. But most people don't have that so they see grainy and blurry video periodically when watching.

Thanks for the tips.

 

[5030]

1080 is fine for me.

 

[Alien]

Did you try it? At 60 fps you get very smooth video when you pan around. 30 fps can be jerky on a lot of play-backs.