9th STF
I had gotten my strobes by the time I was ready for this. I decided to do two flights that day, the first one to areas that were at the edge of my VLOS, BEFORE I put the strobes on, to set my "visual normal", and then put the strobes on shortly thereafter, so the comparison would be fresh in my mind. So, no new ground. I went up to buzz around the Guardian Rock formation for a bit, and got a little closer.
10th STF
Those Firehouse strobes ar very impressive little units, a battery mated to a little PC board. The on-board micro USB port for charging works great! The pre-cut squares of 3M adhesive were easy to use, even with my chubby stubby fingers.
Unfortunately, the experiment was a failure. Looking at the Mini-2 more closely, I realized that there were very few good options for mounting the strobes. I ended up mounting it on the back, near the center. It tuns out the stylus that came with my bought-to-drone Samsung Galaxy S20 Note was very convenient for pushing the little button to turn the strobe on.
ZAP! Probably better to cover the strobe when you turn it on, or your eyes will be in for a big surprise...
I had been skeptical about being able to see the strobe with it mounted on top, and that skepticism turned out to be well justified. By the time I got to 100 ft up, I couldn't see the strobe AT ALL, except for an occasional blip after hard braking. I'm sure it was visible from above, and the strobe might have been a big help if I was trying to find the drone on the ground, but as a way to aid the in-flight visibility of the drone, it was a complete and total failure. The results were the same with the sky as the background, and with the canyon wall as the background.
Looking more closely aftre the flight, I thought about mounting the strobes on the side, but that would interfere with folding the legs. I realized that even where I had put it on the back, it would have interered with the propeller protecting strap. I concluded that there's one, and only one, spot on the Mini-2 that might work:
Securing it to the backside of the battery compartment hatch.
As I mentioned elsewhere, I was a bit reluctant to do that, since the hatch wasn't intended to be a load bearing structure, but the strobes aren't that heavy, and they're easy to remove if you decide that you want to.
So sometime this weekend, I'll do the test!
TCS
I had gotten my strobes by the time I was ready for this. I decided to do two flights that day, the first one to areas that were at the edge of my VLOS, BEFORE I put the strobes on, to set my "visual normal", and then put the strobes on shortly thereafter, so the comparison would be fresh in my mind. So, no new ground. I went up to buzz around the Guardian Rock formation for a bit, and got a little closer.
10th STF
Those Firehouse strobes ar very impressive little units, a battery mated to a little PC board. The on-board micro USB port for charging works great! The pre-cut squares of 3M adhesive were easy to use, even with my chubby stubby fingers.
Unfortunately, the experiment was a failure. Looking at the Mini-2 more closely, I realized that there were very few good options for mounting the strobes. I ended up mounting it on the back, near the center. It tuns out the stylus that came with my bought-to-drone Samsung Galaxy S20 Note was very convenient for pushing the little button to turn the strobe on.
ZAP! Probably better to cover the strobe when you turn it on, or your eyes will be in for a big surprise...
I had been skeptical about being able to see the strobe with it mounted on top, and that skepticism turned out to be well justified. By the time I got to 100 ft up, I couldn't see the strobe AT ALL, except for an occasional blip after hard braking. I'm sure it was visible from above, and the strobe might have been a big help if I was trying to find the drone on the ground, but as a way to aid the in-flight visibility of the drone, it was a complete and total failure. The results were the same with the sky as the background, and with the canyon wall as the background.
Looking more closely aftre the flight, I thought about mounting the strobes on the side, but that would interfere with folding the legs. I realized that even where I had put it on the back, it would have interered with the propeller protecting strap. I concluded that there's one, and only one, spot on the Mini-2 that might work:
Securing it to the backside of the battery compartment hatch.
As I mentioned elsewhere, I was a bit reluctant to do that, since the hatch wasn't intended to be a load bearing structure, but the strobes aren't that heavy, and they're easy to remove if you decide that you want to.
So sometime this weekend, I'll do the test!
TCS
