DIY cheap, quick, portable landing pad

[AlanTheBeast]

Lol I have personal anecdotal evidence. Why would I lie. I think the accuracy I'm seeing is because of my take off procedure , which is recording the home point before take off with minimum of 12 sats locked (I almost always get 18~19) and taking off vertically till about 10 meters before any horizontal flight.
This is on open grass field with little to no contrast.
Of course accuracy may vary if launching near buildings and tall trees where you may not be getting the best signals.
Anyway, this is not hard for anyone to test for themselves.

Indeed, but there must be something there for the optical system to lock onto that is different. If it is very even grass it can't tell the difference of this patch to that patch. Forget GPS - it gets you close but it is nowhere near repeatable to sub meter even on its very best day.

 

[AlanTheBeast]

Very nice....I came up with two cheap alternatives myself. One is made from sheet rock and was 5 dollar. The other is an oil pan I think....that was 10 dollars. I got them both at Home Depot and they both work well. The pan is nice because it has a lip on it so protects it from anything on the ground like snow. Also works well if you flip it upside down to give you a higher landing area.

Both are about 2 feet by 2 feet so plenty of landing room for the Mavic. The reason I went with these is because of weight...in high winds neither of them is moving.

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The black one looks like a safety pan that goes under a hot water heater so that if the tank busts (and they all do...) then the water can be guided with a hose to a drain. I don't need one - the tank sits on concrete in the furnace room about 1 metre from the floor drain.

I'm all for something rigid and heavy enough.

 

[AlanTheBeast]

I was thinking about getting something like this. A sturdy rubber mat. It wouldn't need to be massively portable for the locations I go to.

Large Rubber Ring Heavy Duty Entrance Door Mat Doormat Floor Mat Indoor Outdoor

I'd be worried about one fore leg going through and another not ... could that cause a rear rotor to hit? (How thick is it)?

 

[Drone Police]

Indeed, but there must be something there for the optical system to lock onto that is different. If it is very even grass it can't tell the difference of this patch to that patch. Forget GPS - it gets you close but it is nowhere near repeatable to sub meter even on its very best day.

If it can distinguish light green from slightly lighter green, then good for the mavic and even better for me.
nah not gonna forget GPS, it's great. I can put the mavic on a street corner and zoom in on the map and it is precisely where it says it is.

 

[AlanTheBeast]

If it can distinguish light green from slightly lighter green, then good for the mavic and even better for me.
nah not gonna forget GPS, it's great. I can put the mavic on a street corner and zoom in on the map and it is precisely where it says it is.

I meant forget GPS for accuracies that you're claiming. It'll get you home so the cameras can identify the takeoff spot. I'm just very doubtful about the cameras on a repeating pattern, alias prone surface like grass.

 

[Drone Police]

I meant forget GPS for accuracies that you're claiming. It'll get you home so the cameras can identify the takeoff spot. I'm just very doubtful about the cameras on a repeating pattern, alias prone surface like grass.

Doubt all you want. My mavic rth in an open grass area with little to no contrast precisely with the gps & vps, and without $30 peice of fabric and wire.
Landing pads I can live without. I actually prefer to live without that goofy thing lol.

 

[AlanTheBeast]

Doubt all you want. My mavic rth in an open grass area with little to no contrast precisely with the gps & vps, and without $30 peice of fabric and wire.
Landing pads I can live without. I actually prefer to live without that goofy thing lol.

GPS is not accurate to better than 2 m an then, only when receiving SBAS and then only 95% of the time. That's GPS. Count on it for better than 5m.

That leaves the cameras for landing. And I've had both dead accurate landings and not.

I agree that the fabric landing pads are not appealing. I use a sheet of plywood. Rigid and flat, always.

My main concern is keeping dust and such out of the intake vent at the front.

 

[geigy]

This is a great matt. I have some in my garage but had never thought of using them in this way because I didn't like the size. So simple to cut it into 1/4ths like that.

Back to the original design - I can see how you got the yellow circle pattern and X by painting yellow, masking the X and circle, and painting the black. How did you get the black H in the center? Was this an initial coat of black under the yellow?

 

[Robert Mitchell]

This is a great matt. I have some in my garage but had never thought of using them in this way because I didn't like the size. So simple to cut it into 1/4ths like that.

Back to the original design - I can see how you got the yellow circle pattern and X by painting yellow, masking the X and circle, and painting the black. How did you get the black H in the center? Was this an initial coat of black under the yellow?

Best I can recall, I did all yellow first, then masked the circle with a can lid, and masking tape. Then I came back and did the h after masking the circle. Make sure each coat is well dry so the tape doesn't lift the paint.

 

[pixl]

I endorse hand launching and landing, when needed. I've added a couple little squares of friction tape to the side to give me improved grip when hand-landing. Having a drone so small that it fits in my regular camera bag is the best thing about the Mavic. Finding other stuff to carry - ie leg extensions, landing pads, etc ruins it for me. I used to lug around an Inspire 1 Pro and all of what I needed to run that for two hour stretches... so now I feel like a secret agent with the Mavic and the stealth of it all.

Also, I'm 1 month into a 3 month SE Asia trip, and nobody has looked twice at it at customs, If I had a bunch of stuff to add bulk and draw attention to it perhaps I might not have been as lucky.

But I commend the ingenuity you guys show here nonetheless

 

[LisaP]

View attachment 3669 Take one of these, available in packs from Lowes or Walmart

View attachment 3672 Cut it into quarters, down the middle.

View attachment 3673 Flip the edges in and lock.View attachment 3674

View attachment 3675 Flip it over and spray paint as desired. I just used masking tape and a can lid.

View attachment 3676 When dry, unlock, stack and wrap with a couple of velcro straps. Makes a 1 foot square.

Easy to transport, light, and easy to snap together to fly.

Brilliant!