Bandwagon's Drones Thread

Bandwagon

Kolohe
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What settings are you using for your flights?
Altitude:
Speed:
Sidelap:
Overlap:

The resolution doesn't look great, but I'm guessing that's because you took a screenshot or because CAD his shitty resampling for rasters at different zoom levels....but you have a lot of artifacts in there that look like they're caused by either pixel blur or not enough overlap.

1578417702635.png





What are you using for 3D data from these things? Are you just taking the contours from Pix4d? I'm still using Global Mapper for surface building, but I kind of want to try Virtual Surveyor again. It's been a few years since I tried their demo at the UAS expo.

Edit
 
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Lenardo

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that is just the mosaic inserted into in acad 2006 and a printscreen, then into paint for a fast edit and save to jpg.
this one i flew at umm 250 feet with a 70% overlap, i just need it for contours so i was not that worried about maxing the overlap for an ideal model. i should insert the point data into a preview version of global mapper and see what it does for the contours etc.
 
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Bandwagon

Kolohe
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that is just the mosaic inserted into in acad 2006 and a printscreen, then into paint for a fast edit and save to jpg.
this one i flew at umm 250 feet with a 70% overlap, i just need it for contours so i was not that worried about maxing the overlap for an ideal model. i should insert the point data into a preview version of global mapper and see what it does for the contours etc.
You can send it to me, if you want. Shit, upload the whole pix4d project to P4d cloud and send me a download link. The DSM in global mapper is a really good way to look for problems. There's something about the shaders in there that really make some of the common issues pop out at you.

Are you slowing down the flight when flying at 250 ft? Are you using drone deploy to fly? If you haven't ever tried it, you should try flying at ~9mph at that altitude, and use DroneDeploy so that it sets your focus and exposure for you. I'll bet you notice a difference. ;)
 

Lenardo

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no worries, i got the data i want. we'll be tightening up the survey shortly, and doing a sort of topo around the wetland and the channel and every shot of the survey will have an elevation so it'll be good with what i have.

no i have not used drone deploy, just pix4d- i think i got the office manager convinced to buy a lifetime license, - it completely is not worth the year license, and the monthly-which is what we have used over the past umm what 3 years or so, we've spent almost half the cost of the lifetime in monthly fees. (a few times we forgot to do the cancel so got charged an extra month twice..
 
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Bandwagon

Kolohe
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no worries, i got the data i want. we'll be tightening up the survey shortly, and doing a sort of topo around the wetland and the channel and every shot of the survey will have an elevation so it'll be good with what i have.

no i have not used drone deploy, just pix4d- i think i got the office manager convinced to buy a lifetime license, - it completely is not worth the year license, and the monthly-which is what we have used over the past umm what 3 years or so, we've spent almost half the cost of the lifetime in monthly fees. (a few times we forgot to do the cancel so got charged an extra month twice..
The pix4d and drone deploy flight apps are both free and you don't need to purchase the desktop software/subscription to use it. I like the Drone deploy flight app because I can plan flights on desktop and access them instantly on the tablet because it's the same login. It also controls the camera settings better than pix4d, which is huge.

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1578430502196.png
 

Lenardo

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will give it a go next time i have to do a flight.

fun fact, the p4pro controller did not like my usb cord to my tablet, it wouldn't connect to the drone, my phone usb cord - by the same company same style- worked fine though only dif was tablet is microusb, phone is C
 

Bandwagon

Kolohe
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Some cords are charge only....no data. I throw them out when I get them so they dont get mixed in.

If it's not the cord and you're on android, it's probably the app defaults
 

Oblio

Utah
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I do not fly drones, but I ended up watching this video randomly today while I was searching for GoPro Reviews.

I am sure this is old news to you guys especially our resident Hockey Lovers, anyway I thought it was interesting.

 

Lenardo

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What do you think of the new velodyne velocity lidar module they just announced, it is the size of a deck of cards and costs 100 bucks? Do you think this small item might be possible to be incorporated into a drone solution for an affordable lidar based drone for photogrammetry?
 

Attog

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Have you heard about the fleet of unidentified drones that have been spotted working their way east from Colorado through Nebraska over the past few days/weeks? They are over my town this week and people are freaking out. They are 6 foot drones, flying in formation, numbers vary nightly from a few up to a dozen, and they are flying high in FAA restricted airspace. All kinds of conspiracy theories out there about who is controlling them and what they are doing, and lots of local people talking about shooting one down - which seems impossible without a SAM. Plus they are likely airforce controlled and even if you were able to shoot it down over your own farm, you are going to wind up in federal prison.
 

Bandwagon

Kolohe
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I do not fly drones, but I ended up watching this video randomly today while I was searching for GoPro Reviews.

I am sure this is old news to you guys especially our resident Hockey Lovers, anyway I thought it was interesting.

I'm in a lobby and can't watch, but I'm happy youtubes are posting videos about getting fined for doing silly shit with drones.


What do you think of the new velodyne velocity lidar module they just announced, it is the size of a deck of cards and costs 100 bucks? Do you think this small item might be possible to be incorporated into a drone solution for an affordable lidar based drone for photogrammetry?
I'd be pretty skeptical at that cost, but SSLidar is advancing quick. All of the physical tech can benefit from it. I'd be surprised if a $100 puck can be used for work at this point, though. It's probably short range?


Have you heard about the fleet of unidentified drones that have been spotted working their way east from Colorado through Nebraska over the past few days/weeks? They are over my town this week and people are freaking out. They are 6 foot drones, flying in formation, numbers vary nightly from a few up to a dozen, and they are flying high in FAA restricted airspace. All kinds of conspiracy theories out there about who is controlling them and what they are doing, and lots of local people talking about shooting one down - which seems impossible without a SAM. Plus they are likely airforce controlled and even if you were able to shoot it down over your own farm, you are going to wind up in federal prison.
I posted about it in the paranormal thread. There's nothing supernatural about it, and (from what I know) it could be accomplished by a few college kids.
 

Bandwagon

Kolohe
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I wonder if theres some sort of wireless charging/refueling being tested?

I haven't see anything about that topic + drones, just trying to guess why someone would be doing repeat swarming flights at night without riding the publicity.
 

Attog

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Those would be some rich college kids, these things didn't come from Costco, this is millions of dollars worth of drones, military or something similar.
 

Bandwagon

Kolohe
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Those would be some rich college kids, these things didn't come from Costco, this is millions of dollars worth of drones, military or something similar.
I built 2x fixed wing drones with a 7 ft wingspan for under $800 each. The 2nd one could fly for 90 minutes/45 miles. I got an LED police strobe light off hobby king for $2 and flew it at night one time. Could see it from 2 miles away, bright as shit.

I don't know how long the flight times are on these events, but that would be the biggest indicator of small time vs big boys.
 

Bandwagon

Kolohe
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I can't find the long range video, but this is the 2nd drone I made with a 90 minute flight time. I'm no mensa candidate and I'm sure as hell not rich, and this thing took me a few months to learn how to build.

 

Bandwagon

Kolohe
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Probably airforce testing. Either they told the FAA to buzz off, or more likely it's top secret
I really have no idea who could be doing it or why, just making the case that all of the capabilities I've seen so far are not unobtainable for the average person.