Bandwagon's Drones Thread

Yea, that sucks. Just one of those things you have to learn while learning how to use these things. I have a handful of stories like this as well, but they were all on my first fixed wing drone I built. I hit the same fucking powerline 3 times before I figured out what the problem was - the flight mode I was using only uses throttle for altitude control, not elevator.

edit - meant to post my tip as well.
ALWAYS keep one finger on the "stop doing what you're doing" button. Always. Always. Always.

For us & the Solo, we usually hold the controller with one hand while we're just waiting around during a mission, but our finger is still ALWAYS on the "FLY" button.
The last time I crashed, I broke my own rule and hit a tree while doing a real estate video. I wouldn't have crashed if I had left my finger on that button.

I haven't used photoscan in almost two years and have way less experience with it than Pix4d....but looks good to me? 47/47 aligned is a good sign. Something you need to get in the habit of doing is looking at the side view of the point cloud after you generate it. There's a lot of jobs that look decent from the top (the orthomosaic looks good), but the DSM is massively fucked up. Spending about 5 minutes searching through the point cloud is a good way to find and address this.

The point cloud SHOULD look like a fuzzy, wooly blanket draped over something. When you start seeing points generated way outside of those bounds or misaligned blocks, you have a problem to solve. The first is usually dirty/low quality lens or poor camera calibration and the latter is usually a geotag or an overlap problem.

Also look at the plan that the images are on. You'll see a lot of variance in the angle of the camera during each picture, but all of them should be level on the same plane unless you're using terrain following. If there is a problem (usually camera calibration), you'll see them look like they're bowing in or out, like a bowl.

Mind explaining your "...down the avg delta" part? Pretend like you're talking to someone without a background in this work, because you are.


Yes, it all comes from the drone gps.
I haven't done a large amount of these tests, but try doing a bigger flight next time and seeing the accuracy. In the few tests I've done, the larger sets are more accurate, I assume because the low accuracy GPS data on images is averaged out on larger sets and produces better results after processing.

Ahhhh, gotcha, that makes sense. So the relative accuracy within the dataset is typically pretty good (relying on photogrammetry), but the whole set is being shifted on the Z axis to correct the GPS inaccuracy.


Is there any way I could get you to show me how to do something in qGIS? I basically just want to click around on an ortho anywhere I see bare earth, and have each mouse click generate a point in a vector layer.
I'm still working on automating something like this, but I'm getting some help from a guy when he gets free time.
Until then, I'm just trying to play around with it.

I wish I had access to that stuff right now. Oh well, shouldn't be too long. Finishing up negotiations with the engineering company right now, and I'm guessing i'll be putting in my notice at the fire department within 30 days.

Then I get to play with all their software too.

I do, but I don't remember what page. My exemption was approved in December of last year.


You don't need to worry about that though. The rules change in 7 days. Look up part 107.

You can give me a call if you have some questions.

It's a really good time right now to get involved. You already have the hard part of the required skill set (gis).

The part that used to be really hard is changing in 7 days. I'll pm my number.

Yea. DroneDeploy is probably your best alternative right now I guess, though I don't know too much about how it's changed in the last year.

2 hours away? Did you check the FAA's list of testing centers? It doesn't have to be at an FAA school.

Yea, but there is another list of testing locations for part 107. I can't find it right now though, but I printed off the pages for Oregon and Washington. It's not just FAA testing centers that are doing it.


And I forgot you have photoscan, so fuck drone deploy.