Bandwagon's Drones Thread

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Lenardo

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so now all a drone operator needs to do is pass a operators test vs having a pilot's license.. very nice.

i'll be looking into taking the test in the next year. problem with my company is we are so busy, with all small sites(last job we did was a 2000 sq ft lot- the brownstone sold for 2.4 million -pre gut -ugh)- mostly in boston- that we have had no jobs that warrant the drone use-drone is pretty useless for a lot that is 20' wide --from edge of roadway- 10' front yard, 60' building that fills the width of the lot, then 30' back yard . the one job i KNOW we want to use it for, we are waiting until november to do (60+ acres of heavily wooded area-waiting for the leaves to drop off). might have one in salem, salem state university is getting a new insurance rider and...the buildings/campus is a few acres in size they want are inside an ae zone (elevation 11) so they want an elevation cert as to whether or not the buildings ARE above that elevation or Below that elevation...(ie do the buildings require flood insurance) large buildings and a nice open college campus so IF we take that job, i might try to have it flown since i can do the flyover- and include the salt marsh/tidal river in the final plan.
 
Kais

Kais

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Don't undervalue a couple nice aerial still for presentation. They can really help sell a property without being the focus. Last year i did a couple flyovers on lots that had been sitting vacant for years, yet sold relatively soon when paired with a flyover that showed closeness to the river, golf course, etc.
 
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Lenardo

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those properties sell themselves, heart of boston, near the hospitals etc about a 10 minute walk to the charles

i'm more into the photogrammetry aspect of the drone (taking pictures to get topography)
 
Bandwagon

Bandwagon

Kolohe
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I linked a pretty large flight a couple pages back. It's the one with the small town to the north. "Grease wood Creek".

I've been waiting to hear back from the survey guys and was getting impatient. It took us 3-4 hours to fly it and about a day to process, but I guess they spent 8 days collecting points.

I was a little nervous about this one because there were very, very few GCPs used, and because we had to change launch points multiple times. Since flight altitudes are conducted at an altitude above home point and not at an absolute altitude, this COULD cause issues with the accuracy of the Z axis.

Finally got an email today -

"Yep, worked fine. They?re in our drawing and fitting tight. We will check our street profiles and see how they fit against the .dxf?.."


So far, so good...
 
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Lenardo

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ya lidar is better-goes thru tree leaf cover, but the unit is pretty dang expensive.

the velodyne lidar "puck" is 8k.

routescene is another company doing drone setups..they use velodyne lidar products in their "pod"


told you it would be fine bandwagon.

fitting tight to me = they are probably extremely happy with how good it came out. calling it TIGHT = good- plus 4hrs to fly then a day on the processing vs 8 DAYS field work (at probably about 700-1000 dollars a day charge rate) and the results are most likely BETTER than what they did in 8 days (in terms of coverage)...
 
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a_skeleton_03

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Lenardo_sl said:
ya lidar is better-goes thru tree leaf cover, but the unit is pretty dang expensive.

the velodyne lidar "puck" is 8k.

routescene is another company doing drone setups..they use velodyne lidar products in their "pod"


told you it would be fine bandwagon.

fitting tight to me = they are probably extremely happy with how good it came out. calling it TIGHT = good- plus 4hrs to fly then a day on the processing vs 8 DAYS field work (at probably about 700-1000 dollars a day charge rate) and the results are most likely BETTER than what they did in 8 days (in terms of coverage)...
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I have this unrealistic idea that I am going to do stuff like this.

Searching for the Amazon's Hidden Civilizations | Science | AAAS
 
Bandwagon

Bandwagon

Kolohe
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The mostunrealisticpart of that is just ending up at the location. It's crazy what the DSM can pick up using photogrammetry alone.

When I first started doing this and met the Agronomist I'm working with now, his uncle said "I've been working this ground for 40 years and didn't know half that shit was there" after our first flight on his property.

I'm still waiting for you to send me a data set, a_skeleton_03. It's even easier now than when you first got your phantom. Put that thing up and take some pictures.
 
Bandwagon

Bandwagon

Kolohe
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Lenardo_sl said:
ya lidar is better-goes thru tree leaf cover, but the unit is pretty dang expensive.

the velodyne lidar "puck" is 8k.

routescene is another company doing drone setups..they use velodyne lidar products in their "pod"


told you it would be fine bandwagon.

fitting tight to me = they are probably extremely happy with how good it came out. calling it TIGHT = good- plus 4hrs to fly then a day on the processing vs 8 DAYS field work (at probably about 700-1000 dollars a day charge rate) and the results are most likely BETTER than what they did in 8 days (in terms of coverage)...
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Man, I've seen shit go wrong so much in the short time I've been doing this, I don't think my apprehension was out of line. Itisjust the tiniest bit annoying that it's become so easy for your average person to just pick up a drone and get results, but those potential causes of problems are still there. I'm just aware of them...and always expect the worst.
 
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a_skeleton_03

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Bandwagon_sl said:
The mostunrealisticpart of that is just ending up at the location. It's crazy what the DSM can pick up using photogrammetry alone.

When I first started doing this and met the Agronomist I'm working with now, his uncle said "I've been working this ground for 40 years and didn't know half that shit was there" after our first flight on his property.

I'm still waiting for you to send me a data set, a_skeleton_03. It's even easier now than when you first got your phantom. Put that thing up and take some pictures.
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I spend so much time just roaming around the sky without actually saving anything
biggrin.png


I will get one done!!
 
Bandwagon

Bandwagon

Kolohe
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Stopped in and met with skyward.io this morning. Nothing too exciting there, but I really like all of those guys/girls and they're really supportive of us on social media and some other publications.


Got an email from the head hancho at the survey company.
"Well, good news. The vertical file (dxf file) is hot. On the hard surfaces you are within 0.4 ft, INCLUDING the points far from control. That is excellent work Derrick. [Idaho branch manager] said the results they got from [other drone company] were over 6 feet off on 2 separate tests.
We?re getting there. This looks really promising."

Followed up with a phone call about 30 minutes ago. One thing he mentioned - "What are your plans for the future? Have you given any thought to the possibility of selling your company down the road?"

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a_skeleton_03

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Bandwagon_sl said:
Stopped in and met with skyward.io this morning. Nothing too exciting there, but I really like all of those guys/girls and they're really supportive of us on social media and some other publications.


Got an email from the head hancho at the survey company.
"Well, good news. The vertical file (dxf file) is hot. On the hard surfaces you are within 0.4 ft, INCLUDING the points far from control. That is excellent work Derrick. [Idaho branch manager] said the results they got from [other drone company] were over 6 feet off on 2 separate tests.
We're getting there. This looks really promising."

Followed up with a phone call about 30 minutes ago. One thing he mentioned - "What are your plans for the future? Have you given any thought to the possibility of selling your company down the road?"

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I told you this on the phone that day. You can get big enough to be acquired with the way you are going!
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Don't sell, get money to get bigger.
 
Bandwagon

Bandwagon

Kolohe
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Definitely early on the congratulations, but thanks anyways. Even if nothing substantial comes from it, it's a compliment to have someone (that I'm trying to impress) bring it up.
It's been a lot of work.
 
Bandwagon

Bandwagon

Kolohe
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koljec_sl said:
Anything good for property surveillance just yet? I'd like something that could fly and record a perimeter of about 1200 feet every 15 minutes or so.
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Oh yea....
The PhD guy that I always talk to (the one that works for Micasense) said that he visitedthisplace a few weeks ago.
I think most of us agree that this is a great idea (and not an uncommon idea), but most people wrote this thing off as nothing more than marketing. IE - They don't have anything, they're just looking for investors.
That may have been true at the time, but I guess that they have a very competent team of people working on this project right now. It's definitely possible and one person could do this in their garage, but I guess they're further along in having a truly functioning product than most people thought.
 
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Lenardo

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grats on the comment about selling, that thing about being 6 feet off..other drone guys obviously were not as ...meticulous in their preparation as to how to run it right.

btw so his topo he got from you.. everything is checking to under 5 INCHES (0.42 feet is 5 inches)(most likely vertical)..that is awesome
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glad is working out great.
 
Bandwagon

Bandwagon

Kolohe
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Two questions-

1. Does anyone know if autocad has a soft cap on file imports? I have a 1.1gb tiff that is saying it's corrupt (it's not). 200mb imports fine, 500mb works fine (reduced from the 1.1gb using qgis).


2. What is the easiest way to generate a tfw from/for a tif? I thought I remember an option in Qgis to export a tiff + tfw, but I can't find it now...if it was ever there in the first place.
 
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Lenardo

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1. good question, no idea personally i try to keep all the files under 30 meg total. let me look it up, give me a couple of minutes
2. no idea
 
Vepil

Vepil

Gamja
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We use 2-4 GB tiffs and Mr.SiD files at work in Civil 3D so it should work. Are you trying over a network or local? We usually have to do it local and never save and close the file with the image displayed, the program will just chug and die trying to reopen the file in my exp. Try using the command MAPIINSERT or MAPWSPACE to connect to the data (can add shapefiles and other GIS features here) vs using XREF.

I use ESRI to work with GIS and have not been keeping up with QGIS sorry I will not be much help.


BTW excellent news on the drone accuracy. I am talking with a co-worker to go half on a drone and maybe reaching out to the MicaSense and see if they are interested in doing a sponsor type deal for a camera. I have read those are really nice for mapping.
 
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