Mavic water recovery system

[Matt]

Think i answer my own question. looks like they attach on here?

DJI Mavic Pro landing skid / raiser by NoeI

 

[Mavic]

Yes. They attach to that frame!

The creator (who lives next door to me) did not test it flying nor floating wise, so use at your own risk!

Noel (ex user Guest here) is open for suggestions.

He does not want to come on this forum anymore, so if you have any suggestions you should post it there.

 

[Matt]

Yes. They attach to that frame!

The creator (who lives next door to me) did not test it flying nor floating wise, so use at your own risk!

Noel (ex user Guest here) is open for suggestions.

He does not want to come on this forum anymore, so if you have any suggestions you should post it there.

That is unfortunate i think i remember him posting his original frame with the landing loops and people jumping all over him. Its a shame in that we are just posting about ideas and well none perfect they can be perfected by everyone's input and suggestions. I like the Idea and maybe when i am down in Tampa i can buy lunch and have my bother print these out. He owns a large 3d printing company Engineering & Manufacturing Services | Florida 3D Printing & 3D Scanning

 

[Robbyg]

Took another flight with them on in sunny warm Michigan. Ya right. Overcast around 25 degrees with light wind. I setup the osmo and GoPro to film. Not sure if anyone has used this but I was setting up The Autopilot app with their Autoframe app for the osmo. If you use the Airframe app to connect them the osmo will follow the quad. Well after a half in hour out in the cold I couldn't get them to all connect. Only thing I was successful at was draining the battery's and getting them cold.

Anyways I used the Litchi osmo app to adjust the camera. A third hand would have been great. Osmo footage in the foreground, GoPro to the left and to the right the camera on the Mavic. Shorted up the footage so the mavic and osmo footages are a little off. Anyways I am happy with it and they will not get in the shot. Not much of a difference in battery life. They do make it easier to hand catch. You can catch at the front were the blades are higher plus not get near the sensor. Ordered the stuff in black to make a not so bright set.

I am good with it. It suits my needs. Not planning on water landings so I don't think I would need the balls. I think they would get in the camera view. That was the bigges drawback for me on the set I made for the P3. I will be in Florida in about a month so I defently will have them on out over the ocean and intercostal. Then I can see if they effect the battery time. I don't see any loss in flight characteristics and they do not show up in the footages

This is not tested and I have serous doubts about it working. My main concern is that floats will detached after a hard landing into the water. My feeling is that your going to find two floats in the water that have drifted far from where the Mavic crashed.

 

[Matt]

i would have to disagree with above reference findings on the OP floats (which is me). The floats are attached with about 7" of overlapping Velcro. this Velcro also goes through the mid point of the Polyethylene cylinder. That much overlapped Velcro will not fail. Velco has a sheer of 72N (thats newtons) per mm. The poly or pool noodle would need to be ripped in half to dislodge the attachment Mid point. Also the cylinder fits snug under the front arms and is cut into the back arms. Any upward pressure would only compress the poly. Any laterial movement is negated by the poly cut around the aft arms. This would not suffice in enough sheer force to rip the the noodle in half even in a near horizonal hard surface contact. There is also a aft strut that run the though the poly cylinder and is welded with a circular grommet. But then again you never know till you crash it. Interested in looking at your calc's to substantiate your claims. I do see a issue with the 3D printed cradle at the front attachment point but there is a way to rectify that

 

[fourman]

I have my Mavic on order and plan to use it on my trips to Fort Lauderdale....I will have DJI refresh..but I at least need a way to recover the bones lol.

This thread is of interest......I don't have time to build due to travels...so I will see what there is to purchase such as the Amazon link on the ball float system.

 

[noka]

Inspired my Matt I created these. First test flight yesterday. All seemed fine, but I had no wind at all. So more testing ahead. Material was 8 Euro (pool noodle and velcro strap).

Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots

 

[Mavicsailor]

Inspired my Matt I created these. First test flight yesterday. All seemed fine, but I had no wind at all. So more testing ahead. Material was 8 Euro (pool noodle and velcro strap).

Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots

Very interesting concept. I'm wondering how the floats might disrupt airflow under the props? A fair percentage of the area directly below the prop appears to be blocked by the float. I would think at the very least this would decrease the lift and possibly the stability.

Thanks all for helping to come up with float solutions for the Mavic. Hopefully someone will succeed in developing a true water landing system other than the big balls version.

For now, I'm just going to use a Getterback for recovery. A recent post showed a great success story after crashing into a lake. This only works well if you fly over water <100 feet, have have DJI Refresh, and that's only for the first year.

 

[Matt]

Very interesting concept. I'm wondering how the floats might disrupt airflow under the props? A fair percentage of the area directly below the prop appears to be blocked by the float. I would think at the very least this would decrease the lift and possibly the stability.

Thanks all for helping to come up with float solutions for the Mavic. Hopefully someone will succeed in developing a true water landing system other than the big balls version.

For now, I'm just going to use a Getterback for recovery. A recent post showed a great success story after crashing into a lake. This only works well if you fly over water <100 feet, have have DJI Refresh, and that's only for the first year.

That would be the laminar flow boundary layer that you are speaking of. Which is at the rotor or props proper. if you had access to NASA's super computer you could test it. My guess it would just wash over the floats just like it washes over the Phantoms arms in the video.

 

[Mavicsailor]

That would be the laminar flow boundary layer that you are speaking of. Which is at the rotor or props proper. if you had access to NASA's super computer you could test it. My guess it would just wash over the floats just like it washes over the Phantoms arms in the video.

A test flight as you've done is the true test. I believe you said all went well so looks like a great recovery system. I don't know if a landing solution would even be possible given the low profile, at least not without getting a little wet or considerably taking away from the Mavics ability to fly well.

 

[waverider969]

are those foam noodles solid? Is there any chance of the strap ripping through the foam?

 

[noka]

are those foam noodles solid? Is there any chance of the strap ripping through the foam?

Yes. Noodle is solid enough. No water soaking (that's the idea).
And No - unless you rip it apart with your hands the strap stays in place.

 

[Matt]

Added a strobon to the rear. Added a video via Photobucket. Embedded it into the poly with the charge port sticking up so I can plug it in. I will be in some warm weather in a few weeks so I final get to try this out for real. Still hoping while I am down in Florida to print out that other setup and make some mod's so a hard impact with the 3D printed cradle doesn't get ripped off.


Video by mjkkemper

 

[Matt]

Well I made it down to Florida and my brother did print a set of Noel's pool noodle attachments I have not flown with them on yet. Few things I have noticed. They bow a bit from the mavic weight when sitting. Also there is a bit of play in them at the attachment point between the cradle and noodle attachments. They do keep it floating about a inch or so above the water in the sink test. Much less then the balls. I would say the balls have a much better clearance in this respect. The cradle fits very well and is snug. I noticed though the back landing gear have fallen off for some so as is in a crash it would stand a good chance that it would get ripped off. To fix this a strap similar to the ones I made would fix that issue. The mavic is heavier in front so I had to slide the pool noodle up and this may get in the camera shot.

Once I test a bit I will post. Might even get brave and try landing it in the pool

 

[Matt]

Put a strap around Noel's design to secure It on. This will secure and not get in the way of the sensors



I see other have printed out Noel's design so it will be interesting to follow there setups

So fare I am not making some of my goals set out in the beginning of this thread.

The Noel's set weights in at 3.1 oz so there are 1/3 more heavy than the life jacket approach

Noel's you can land on calm water. The life jacket you will get the under side wet.

Big issue I see with this latest set up is that you have to slide the floats so far forward they will show up in the video when making hard turns. This will be most prevalent when orbiting a moving object.



To insure you still have your noodles intact when you take a death spiral into the drink I think there is a weakness as well we're the pool noodle attachs to the cradle. To fix this I think a rod that runs from one tube to the next penetrating it and adhered to the strap mechanism will suffice.

Did fly with my original setup yesterday. The Noel set still has some issues to overcome. I like the fact that the Noel set can land on water but the fact the noodles will get in the way during some types of flights is something it might only be of use for some flights

 

[Scubawankenobi]

Those are actually pretty common down here in Austin for our lakes, streams and rivers. The actual "thing", I believe, is called a "Fun Noodle", or that was the original name for them. The solid ones are smaller diameter and fit nicely inside the hole on the bigger ones, proving more flotation--especially for less buoyant swimmers, like the guy below (OMG)!

View attachment 4780

Re: "especially for less buoyant swimmers, like the guy below (OMG)!"

That's not how buoyancy works - that guy, along with your average American, would be VERY buoyant.

 

[Matt]

Had a chance to fly with them on vacation on the inner-coastal and out on the Gulf. Below is some video my son took. a bit choppy to say the least. They are working out so far so good. Really like the portability and high visually the orange gives you. i have seen no issues with degradation of performance

Still working on Noal's set up as well. Need to get past the issue with the Noodles appearing in the video due to the fact you need them forward of the camera to have it float evenly. Not sure but do the Balls have the same issue? it dose mention it in there description. To recap the cradle design by Noal keeps it high enough to land on calm water but its not as compact and in a crash it dose not have a strap running though the noodle to make sure your floats stay 100% intact. Also adding the strap to keep the cradle intact in a crash (as pictured above) they go over and press on the release buttons for the battery. I do not think that is a good idea.

I will update if i can get past some of these issues on the Noal design. The original setup for me has achieved its goals:

Just for recovery (not meant to land)
will not get in the camera view at any time
Be compact and fit in my bag so that i will always have them when needed
Be designed so that any crash will not dislodge them

As a added bonus they help in making hand catching almost as easy as a Phantom. Hopefully by summer someone will combine all of these different design floating around and come up with a perfect solution for all.

 

[noka]

WOW - WHAT HAPPENED TODAY????
I did already several flight with the floats (see my post above) and it was fine - no incidents, normal flight behavior etc. BUT today I flew over a lake, wind was strong, but max. 10m/s. Again everything went fine - switched to Sport Mode several times. When I came back to the shore I noticed, that my floats were GONE!! Friends spottet them not far away and due to the wind I could recover them from the water. See photos enclosed.

Now I really don't know what happened. The video gives me an indication, that it happened in about 20m height when I made a turn, but the AC was slow then (not in Sport Mode, not full throttle...). I could recognize about 3 times within 3 sec that the video and camera were shaking - then everything back to normal, despite the dented prop - so that must have been when the flowts fell down into the water.

My first idea, when I recovered them was, that the velcro opened - but it did not. The strap was cut or broke. I have no idea how this could have happened, since a) I tried to rip apart another one of these straps - not possible. b) the strap is out of reach for the rear left propeller (the one with the cuts) and all the other propellers are undamaged. Though it's a little suspicious, that the strap was ripped apart at the exact position, where it is "glued" together to hold the plastic ring...

How did this happen? I have no idea - but lost my confidence in this construction... I'll get a Getterback...
If you have any ideas of what could have happened, I would be very much interested in your opinion!!

 

[Matt]

Looks like you don't have a lot of noodle under the forward legs and the wind pushed it up into the props. This cut your strap and shredded your noodle. I have the shape of the mavic Horizontally cut into the sides of the noodle plus a lot more noodle under the front leg. Having the noodle get up into the prop area was a big concern and thus those features to prevent this.

 

[Matt]

Here is a close up of what I was speaking about above. That was a very close call Noka and I would say the same. WTF. I did fly with mine quite a bit over the ocean in wind but never had any issue with movement. Very confident in mine and I built them for me. Each persons variation of pool noodles on a drone are going to be different and have different results



With any thing be it a Marco Polo, get it back or what ever you mount on it having it secure is priority one.