Can I do this

Mossiback · Jul 31, 2018

Litchi will continue the mission after it loses connection with the RC, at least until the battery gives out and is forced to land. Then, given connection was lost, you wont even know where to start looking.

donnk · Jul 31, 2018

just thinking out the box here, if I was to attach a weather helium baloon to the drone and inflate it just enough to hold its weight, say a little negative so it softly falls. I would think an hour or more of flight time could be achieved then right ? Has this been tried ?

Simmo · Jul 31, 2018

ccoltmanm said:
You can not add a battery. Safely you have 20 minutes of flight time in the conditions you are describing. At that altitude you won’t get half way.

I recommend you launch and record the first half. Then move to the second location and record the second half. Don’t make a problem that isn’t there.

787steve · Jul 31, 2018

gnirtS said:
Why not climb the hill and launch from there? Or drive nearer.

Ultimately you're limited to 500m altitude.
Other issues, climbing to 500m and flying 2 miles out, 2 miles back and a 2nd climb to 500m is going to use more battery than you have.
And it'll lose signal and RTH

Its a terrible idea (and irresponsible from a safety point of view). In addition, illegal in most countries.

Yeah. But other than that everything's cool. Right? (joking)

787steve · Jul 31, 2018

Donnk. A weather balloon?? You sound desperate. What the heck are you so anxious to film from a point which cannot be observed from the target? You aren't planning on doing something untoward, are you?

donnk · Jul 31, 2018

zeppelin style im thinking, would greatly increase endurance. I guess you could hang a car battery under it with the right amount of baloon lift...

Will have to do some experimenting I think.

donnk · Jul 31, 2018

787steve said:
Donnk. A weather balloon?? You sound desperate. What the heck are you so anxious to film from a point which cannot be observed from the target? You aren't planning on doing something untoward, are you?

no not at all, i'm looking at agricultural use. The farming drones are £££££££, if this could be made to last an hour and have a good payload for sprays and follow a set path automatically it would just be great. I think it can be made to do this with some tinkering.

UAVNV · Jul 31, 2018

litchi would be your best bet. I would test satellites around your 2 mile flight path for spotty coverage, find your min/max vertical heights along, you can create a mission with these coordinates and run it for about 3 months before lat/long shifts a few degrees

InvisibleName · Jul 31, 2018

donnk said:
no not at all, i'm looking at agricultural use. The farming drones are £££££££, if this could be made to last an hour and have a good payload for sprays and follow a set path automatically it would just be great. I think it can be made to do this with some tinkering.

What sort of weight would this payload be? I’m thinking that you’re going to be asking an awful lot of this tiny drone!

donnk · Jul 31, 2018

im thinking of using the drone as the brains only. if I can counteract the load with a baloon then it hasnt much to shift. I'm thinking of it like a big boat, a puny human can move that when giving it a push at the dock. IT would only need to fly 4 feet above the crops. Will have a tinker i think.

JoBri · Jul 31, 2018

Just follow the 500m brotha nothing more but you can less

Thwyllo · Jul 31, 2018

Anyone know if it can make the tea while it's at it?

Congoblue · Jul 31, 2018

If you try this, we want to see a video of what happens.

InvisibleName · Jul 31, 2018

Congoblue said:
If you try this, we want to see a video of what happens.

Too right we do!!

gnirtS · Jul 31, 2018

donnk said:
zeppelin style im thinking, would greatly increase endurance. I guess you could hang a car battery under it with the right amount of baloon lift...

Will have to do some experimenting I think.

Air resistance and drag significantly increased as well as a mass increase. Wind will have far more of an affect.
More power used due to "wobble" to stabilise.
.....and above all, its STILL height limited to 500m so once it gets there it'll refuse to climb any higher. So it'll still hit the hill.

Really, just walk up the hill or drive to the other side.

787steve · Jul 31, 2018

Would love to see it if you can pull it off, but I fear you are asking way too much of your MP. I am afraid even a minor breeze would act on the balloon in a manner to overtax the drone.
Good luck.

Lil' DronePilot · Aug 4, 2018

RayOZ said:
I was told Litchi waypoint will still work even if connection is lost to RC. It only sounds like a good idea until it doesn't return and you don't know what happened. And you won't have flight logs so it'll be hard to determine where it went.

I can testify to this. I used Litchi and lost a drone flying a waypoint mission. Drone lost connection to R:C and never came back as I was told it would do. It can work right a million times, but all it takes it’s the one time and your drone flies the coop. Litchi did not offer find my drone feature at that time (not sure if it does now) luckily months later I got a call that someone had found it.

MdMavicMan · Aug 4, 2018

donnk said:
I like the look of the mavic pro, what i want to do is send the drone to a GPS loc 2 miles away. I will not have control as the loc is behind a hill.

I would like to program the drone to fly say 700m up from takeoff which is enough to clear the hill, goto the GPS loc and drop down to say 100m and take some pics. then back up to 700m fly home.

is any of that possible ?

Curious why you wouldn't just fly it over, take the pics and then fly it back?

theDRONEranger · Aug 4, 2018

Assuming you are NOT in the USA and assuming the altitude and distance are acceptable where you wish to fly, then yes, most likely you can do! This is possible with the LITCHI program and I would certainly recommend the use of VO's (due to the loss of VLOS) with communications.
Now, once again . . . Is it legal? Don't tell me, it's your drone!!!

Nimbus · Aug 5, 2018

theDRONEranger said:
Assuming you are NOT in the USA and assuming the altitude and distance are acceptable where you wish to fly, then yes, most likely you can do! This is possible with the LITCHI program and I would certainly recommend the use of VO's (due to the loss of VLOS) with communications.
Now, once again . . . Is it legal? Don't tell me, it's your drone!!!

The symbol £££££ was used which indicates the OP is in the UK.

The law allows a maximum of 120m agl (400 feet) so if you are planning 500m agl without special permission is unlawful and irresponsible.

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