Drone Light painting using Air2S

RonanCork · Jan 2, 2022

Hey Guys.

Tried a drone light painting a few months back (with only regular inbuilt drone lights), wasn't bad for my first attempt.

Now I want to try improve as my subject was too dark and the bird couldn't get focus to do a POI.

- Can anyone recommend good lume cube or similar that would work for Air2S
- Also ready today that Litchi beta program now supports Litchi and Air2S. Never used Litchi. In this case could I record my POI (ie my exact flight) during the day and then replay that at nighttime?

Any guidance would be great thanks!
Ro

Ralph thompson · Jan 3, 2022

Not sure what u mean by light painting. Do u mean a stationary camera on the ground photographing stills with a slow shutter speed of yr drone? Or do you mean capturing video of swarming drones.

RonanCork · Jan 3, 2022

Yup that's exactly it. Ground based tripod camera with slow shutter, taking video of drone flying to capture the light and line of its movement
Ro

RonanCork · Jan 3, 2022

Hey All.

Found a link from an Ed Ricker Air2S flying at night video where he uses these lume cube strobe in the below link (not for light painting though)

Would these work like a 'regular' lume cube, ie the strobe flashes it seems like? Maybe it's the same thing. I'm not sure

Lume Cube Strobe - Anti-Collision Lighting for Drones (Pack of 1): Amazon.co.uk: Toys & Games

www.amazon.co.uk

Thanks Ro

BigAl07 · Jan 3, 2022

RonanCork said:
Yup that's exactly it. Ground based tripod camera with slow shutter, taking video of drone flying to capture the light and line of its movement
Ro

I look forward to seeing some of your work

MAvic_South_Oz · Jan 3, 2022

Any strobe would be more than sufficient for good capture with the ground camera.
As long as the strobe has fixed (solid light) mode, like Firehouse Dual, ARCII, most likely ARCV, others ?

You can get the nav colours too, as well as white . . . so red, green, think they have combo red / blue, I have a red / white combo ARCII.

For lighting up the ground POI, you'd be better to use lighting on the ground, perhaps the led work floodlights on a stand that are run by mains or by Li rechargeable batts (circa 5amp/hr).

I have just got this one (for home projects), but I just run it on mains as I use a different cordless tool system.

Ozito PXC 18V Hybrid Twin LED Worklights And Tripod - Skin Only

Find Ozito PXC 18V Hybrid Twin LED Worklights And Tripod - Skin Only at Bunnings. Visit your local store for the widest range of products.

www.bunnings.com.au

RonanCork · Jan 4, 2022

Hey.

MAvic_South_Oz said:
Any strobe would be more than sufficient for good capture with the ground camera.
As long as the strobe has fixed (solid light) mode, like Firehouse Dual, ARCII, most likely ARCV, others ?

You can get the nav colours too, as well as white . . . so red, green, think they have combo red / blue, I have a red / white combo ARCII.

For lighting up the ground POI, you'd be better to use lighting on the ground, perhaps the led work floodlights on a stand that are run by mains or by Li rechargeable batts (circa 5amp/hr).

I have just got this one (for home projects), but I just run it on mains as I use a different cordless tool system.

Ozito PXC 18V Hybrid Twin LED Worklights And Tripod - Skin Only

Find Ozito PXC 18V Hybrid Twin LED Worklights And Tripod - Skin Only at Bunnings. Visit your local store for the widest range of products.

www.bunnings.com.au

Thanks for the detailed information there - much appreciated

Yup I checked the link to the lume cube strobes link and you yes can set the light to be continuous instead of flashing/pulsing -presume that's what you mean by fixed/solid light ?

Thanks Ro

MAvic_South_Oz · Jan 4, 2022

RonanCork said:
Yup I checked the link to the lume cube strobes link and you yes can set the light to be continuous instead of flashing/pulsing -presume that's what you mean by fixed/solid light ?

No probs Ronan . . . yeah the lumecube strobes be fine in the solid / fixed light.
Initially I thought you were talking the lumecubes (spotlights) to light up the POI more so, but that'd be too difficult to keep on target I would think.

I do understand the FHT strobes, while smaller and great to use, they'd probably be almost impossible to find in the UK, or get them shipped, I had to get mine sent to a US relative, then sent on to me here in Oz.

Best of luck with the project, hope to see some footage or photos once you get some done.

RonanCork · Jan 4, 2022

MAvic_South_Oz said:
No probs Ronan . . . yeah the lumecube strobes be fine in the solid / fixed light.
Initially I thought you were talking the lumecubes (spotlights) to light up the POI more so, but that'd be too difficult to keep on target I would think.

I do understand the FHT strobes, while smaller and great to use, they'd probably be almost impossible to find in the UK, or get them shipped, I had to get mine sent to a US relative, then sent on to me here in Oz.

Best of luck with the project, hope to see some footage or photos once you get some done.

Actually it is to help light up the target as well as to enable to do the "drone light painting" but yeah I can see how it could be a challenges to accurately light it up. I may end up doing it as dusk when there is "some" light around. It'll be a little bit of trial and error. I'll post some results here when I do some
Thanks Ronan.

RonanCork · Jan 4, 2022

Hey Guys,

Can anyone recommend lume cubes (or similar) for the Air2S ?

Want to try use them in drone light painting.

Thanks Ronan.

BigAl07 · Jan 4, 2022

If I'm not mistaken, our friend @Vic Moss has used Lume Cubes to "Paint Light" in his Architecture work previously. I'm not sure if he still uses this method or not but IIRC he has done it previously.

BigAl07 · Feb 2, 2022

Any updates on this project @RonanCork ?

RonanCork · Feb 20, 2022

BigAl07 said:
I look forward to seeing some of your work

Hey.

I've not got time to do this yet but hoping to in the next few weeks. I'll post any good images to here for sure.

I did a video of a cool castle tower here in Ireland I shot a few years back so my plan is to, once I can do decent light painting, to do this castle.

Here's the original video -

Thanks Ronan

Yaros · Feb 20, 2022

I used the AUX Bottom light for the light painting with my Air 2 and Air 2S, works well.
To orbit I use Litchi App with Orbit mode.

RonanCork · Feb 20, 2022

Hey,
Thanks for that. With the AUX LIGHT on - did you've a enough light for the POI to be able to lock onto at night time? I wasn't able to do that with DJI Fly, didn't try it specifically with Litchi yet
Thanks Ro

Jagerbomb52 · Feb 20, 2022

Years ago I had bought a bunch of these cheap LED lights. Used them on my old Yuneec Q500. Velcro them to the back and they worked great. Might work for what you want to do.