Mavic for Farm Use ? A few Questions:

[BraamMavic]

@toegema, Yes I have sorted (it seems as I don;t get the error message anymore) the calibration issue & the video feed issue. Again, I have 00:00:00 flight time with this mavic as I want to study up first.

I have flown a friend's Mavic in Canada recently. When flying it I just thought it is all very unfair. I mean a Newbe can go out & buy this thing and be able to fly it as it is so easy to fly & does a lot of the work for you. And this Newbe wouldn't have had to go through the agony & right of passage of flying manual drones for example something like the Syma X5C or even the X8HG which is a Phantom sized drone that only has (apart from crude "barometric hold") ZERO pilot assistance features.

 

[Rnl]

Love your pic. I'm really into wildlife, your going to love your bird, side note magic really doesn't seem to spook game have a lot of deer and coyote video they just look up at it.

 

[Rnl]

Mavic

 

[BraamMavic]

@Rnl - Sounds to me like Mavic = Magic

@msinger : Will a bluetooth tracker interfere with the mavic more than any other form of tracker ? Just asking as they are very cheap & lightweight and have a range of up to 60m. If the last known coordinates can get you in the general area it went down, it shouldn't take you too long to get the mavic (even in bushes) with a bluetooth tracker that helps you cover a 60m radius as you search...

 

[msinger]

Will a bluetooth tracker interfere with the mavic more than any other form of tracker ?

No. It should be fine as long as you don't place it over top of the GPS receiver.

 

[BraamMavic]

No. It should be fine as long as you don't place it over top of the GPS receiver.

That is located at the top, rear of the craft right ? On the top part of the battery should be fine then right ?

 

[msinger]

That is located at the top, rear of the craft right ?

Yes.

On the top part of the battery should be fine then right ?

Yes.

 

[BraamMavic]

So I finally trusted myself to have gained enough knowledge about this machine to expect a safe first flight. Man am I impressed with this thing! Painted a cross on my home made landing pad to help the visual positioning system for a precise return to home...MAN it is accurate! Lands within 3cm of where it took off from!!

Another question regarding the planned use on the farm: What role does your mobile phone's gps really play? I have almost zero cellular reception on the farm so I was thinking of simply downloading that area to my offline google maps before I go. Will this allow me to put the phone on flight mode during flight ?

 

[msinger]

What role does your mobile phone's gps really play?

It can only be used for the Follow Me flight mode or to manually reset the home point to your current location. All other GPS-related features use the GPS data from the GPS receiver in the Mavic.

 

[BraamMavic]

Thanks @msinger . So as long as I have the maps downloaded before hand, the phone can be in Flight Mode and I'll still have the coordinates of where the mavic went down ( in event of a crash) on my phone ?

 

[msinger]

The Mavic's coordinates are tracked using data from the Mavic's internal GPS receiver. That'll occur even when you don't download the maps and/or fly in airplane mode.

 

[Logger]

..So as long as I have the maps downloaded before hand, the phone can be in Flight Mode and I'll still have the coordinates of where the mavic went down ( in event of a crash) on my phone ?

Even without the maps it will still have these coordinates. The maps are really only there so you can orientate yourself. The Mavic does not actually need them. You could fly it about the place with no maps at all downloaded and it will trace out its route on screen without the maps displayed. Say it landed 3km away - You could then take yourself guided by the RC and your phones GPS (no cell reception required) to Mavics last known point by observing your phones GPS position onscreen in relation to the flight path, even without maps downloaded (in theory).

I also live on a farm and use my Mavic to check stock and inspect the place. Once you get the hang of things you may want to consider a mission planning tool such as Litchi or Autopilot. Litchi will allow you to create a flight plan out to your waterholes to inspect them autonomously, including after signal loss between Remote and Mavic. If your terrain is anything but flat I am dubious as to how much signal strength you will have out at 5.5km. Routinely poking around at low level out at that distance will undoubtedly lead to signal loss and return to home triggering. Not necessarily a big deal but could be a real nuisance if you have hills and a lot of trees.
Using Litchi you could program it to fly out there at 100', fly behind hills out of signal range and on arrival descend to 20' and point at a predetermined spot and take some photos etc. I have mine programmed to fly around the boundary at ~ 50' AGL following the terrain contours. It is about 10KMs and takes 12 minutes. Depending on where I am, the signal can be lost for 3 or 4 minutes during this journey. So long as your route is carefully planned, clear of terrain it will faithfully come home. Once set up it can be as simple as a single button press to trigger the mission. You then sit back and watch it do its thing eventually returning home and landing and you have not touched a thing.

 

[BraamMavic]

@Logger , thank you for your input. I was contemplating that very idea this weekend & discussing it with a friend. I mean that would be amazing - you practically become a passenger, freeing you up to take camera footage during the pre determined flight !

I took it out again yesterday to a friend's farm nearby & flew about 1.3km out with a total of 4km covered. It takes some getting used to, knowing that your $1000 is hanging way out there...

Only question is...will DJI honour your DJI Care insurance in the event of damage / loss whilst using Litchi...

 

[BraamMavic]

Ps: The african bush is pretty flat & there are thankfully now powerlines running over our farm. I'm planning on transmitting from an the second story of one of the huts to clear a bit of vegetation. Problem is there is quite a bit of metal in the camp too.

By the way: Have you found an optimal height for viewing game ( i.e. high enough to clear any obstacles but low enough to see game easily) ?

 

[Logger]

@Logger ..Only question is...will DJI honour your DJI Care insurance in the event of damage / loss whilst using Litchi...

YES. Your neighbour could inadvertently reverse his car over your Mavic in your driveway or you could eff up and ditch your Mavic in Salt water (as I did) and it will still be covered by care assist insurance. You just have to be in possession of the damaged drone to hand over.

If you try claim a warranty repair of fault that DJI determine is attributable to Litchi the warranty may not cover it. But care assist will, again so long as you have the drone to hand over.

 

[BraamMavic]

That sounds great @ Logger ! Really would want to experiment with it. The farm I flew on yesterday has vast open areas for testing the functions of the mavic which I plan on doing before we head out to our farm on the 19th of May.

Did you get this confirmation from Dji regarding the use of Litchi ? Perhaps @msinger can assist here ( although I'm not sure whether he officially represents Dji ?) .

 

[Logger]

By the way: Have you found an optimal height for viewing game ( i.e. high enough to clear any obstacles but low enough to see game easily) ?

Unfortunately no game here. Just the domesticated three: Sheep, Cattle, Horses. But I find I need to be down to about 20' or 30' to see things clearly. 50' to 100' and all to small.

 

[BraamMavic]

I presume that's metric ? 20 to 30 meters ?

 

[Logger]

Did you get this confirmation from Dji regarding the use of Litchi ?

No not personally - However I have read much about it on various forums and here is a post on it by a well regarded DJI Rep.

DJI please make clear the 3rd party app vs warranty

Just remember Warranty and Care assist are two very different things.

 

[Logger]

I presume that's metric ? 20 to 30 meters ?

No thats 20 to 30 feet. Although this is when hand flying withing a couple of kms of home over grassed paddocks. On Litchi missions I tend to stay up around 50 feet to clear trees dividing the paddocks..