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Flying with a 300 foot rope attached

I'm working out the details now but hoping to put an actual guy through the ice and make a video flying the rope/floatation device out to him.

It's been too cold to want to spend much time outside lately. Supposed to warm up to near freezing this weekend but need to get schedules to align.
 
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I'm working out the details now but hoping to put an actual guy through the ice and make a video flying the rope/floatation device out to him.

It's been too cold to want to spend much time outside lately. Supposed to warm up to near freezing this weekend but need to get schedules to align.
You might look into building a transmitter/receiver with Arduino. After reading this thread I looked into it. There is a set that I think could easily be set up.

Be more than your $5 Lego designed (which is awesome by the way) but would be a better long term solution.
 
Flew 328 feet away attached to a 600' roll of rope and dropped it onto the target.

Just testing to see how mavic performs.


Excellent design at a barebones cost - good on ya' :)

If you should decide to get a bit more sophisticated, you might consider going the RC flyboy route, using something like Futaba (Hitec, etc) servo/s and a 4 channel rc transmitter/receiver.
www.hobbytown.com/futaba/b-css-116

The Amsteel cord is truly an amazing product at $.39/foot !
www.westmarine.com/buy/--amsteel-blue-dyneema-as-78-single-braid--P014895700

Cheers, Michael
 
The intent is to use a Gannett bait release. I didn't have one, so I built a realease mechanism for about $5.00

It senses when mavic's red led is turned on.

You can turn the led on/off with the app.


You sir are a genius! This is an amazing idea.

One question as you were flying out to your targeted location, was part of the rope touching ground (water in real life situation)? Is rope water resistant? Even if it is, if touching the ground or water it would create drag. Just thinking out loud about flight path for minimal resistance due to other elements.
 
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This is a great discussion. I appreciate everyone's input.

Clearly I should do some more testing.

It's been near or below zero F for the past several days so my desire to spend time outside has been non existent.

The specs for Amsteel indicates that the rope not only floats but retains 100% of its strength when wet.

Can mavic drag a couple hundred feet of rope through open water? This question should definitely be explored.

Also want to test what happens when the rope snags.

As far as the simple rope tug idea, this should be explored also. Simple is generally better. Or at the very least, perhaps building this sort of release into the electronic mechanism would provide the best of both worlds as the pilot can drop when necessary and if the victim pulls at an inopertunistic time or the complex mechanism malfunctions, the rope will still release.
 
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Excellent question!

I was searching for the strongest lightest rope I could find and ran across this. It's lighter than paracord and 3x the strength. Plus it floats and looses no strength when wet...and is super chemical resistant.
Link:
Product

View attachment 27974
Could you specify exactly which Samson cord you used? There are a lot of them. Thanks.
 
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Excellent question!

I was searching for the strongest lightest rope I could find and ran across this. It's lighter than paracord and 3x the strength. Plus it floats and looses no strength when wet...and is super chemical resistant.
Link:
Product

View attachment 27974
So based on the attached chart, you were using the 7/64 correct?
 
Just wanted to say thanks to the OP.

I went ahead and built my release during this week, not quite $5 as I didn't have all the components lying around except for the lego's, glue, hex key, gaffer's tape, foam padding and batteries.

Here are a few tidbits in no conventional order.

The batteries I used are 2x CR2016 (these are cheap thru ebay) along with a battery holder with an on/off switch. Having the on/off switch is convenient as when you first start the mavic, the lights trigger on. I've done about 20 drops with these batteries and still have not worn them out.

The plastic bonder is incredibly strong and I don't feel it will cause any adverse issues down the line

I used the foam padding for where the legos touch the Mavic to avoid any slippage.

I do recommend owning a dremel as I found having to using a small grind and cut wheel to clean up areas to make them work smoother.

I used a small hex key for the release, and this is where the dremel came in handy to cut it shorter.

The gaffer's tape blocks out enough light in full day light as to not trigger a release.

Haven't found a way to trigger the lights while video is shooting, so you have to turn off any video recording, turn on the lights then turn it back on.

also, use the cut wheel on the dream for the hex key or what ever steel rod you use because if your item doesn't drop because it's slightly hanging on the lip of the rod, the downward sensor will see it and the mavic will come down very slow as it thinks its trying to land when you bring it down to resolve

Leg Extenders that I had lying around we're also helpful for take off and landing.

As for the downward sensors, no issues with them during take off, only during when decreasing the height you will want to turn them off but turn them back on to land.

All the electrical components are on one side but the weight (have not weighed it) has not affected the flight stability.

I would recommend using new rubber bands to ensure elasticity and any concern of breakage.

So far I have been having fun with my kids dropping stuff from a couple hundred feet up. The zing air rockets whistle when they come down and the kids just scatter.

I am going to build a version with a mini push/pull solenoid, but my concern is going to be the magnetic field and voltage usage. Waiting for this part to arrive.

Here are the photos of the build, need to upload in 2 parts.

fly-toys-firetek-rocket-2_grande.jpg IMG_6452.jpg IMG_6448.jpg IMG_6447.jpg IMG_6446.jpg IMG_6445.jpg IMG_6443.jpg
 
Last edited:
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The intent is to use a Gannett bait release. I didn't have one, so I built a realease mechanism for about $5.00

It senses when mavic's red led is turned on.

You can turn the led on/off with the app.


That video had me gripped with suspense, as there's no way the parts you chose should have been able to work together to accomplish your goal. o_O
The truly amazing part is you hacked it up and got it to work! :D
Kudos to you for your ingenuity. Thumbswayup
 
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Just wanted to say thanks to the OP.

I went ahead and built my release during this week, not quite $5 as I didn't have all the components lying around except for the lego's, glue, hex key, gaffer's tape, foam padding and batteries.

Here are a few tidbits in no conventional order.

The batteries I used are 2x CR2016 (these are cheap thru ebay) along with a battery holder with an on/off switch. Having the on/off switch is convenient as when you first start the mavic, the lights trigger on. I've done about 20 drops with these batteries and still have not worn them out.

The plastic bonder is incredibly strong and I don't feel it will cause any adverse issues down the line

I used the foam padding for where the legos touch the Mavic to avoid any slippage.

I do recommend owning a dremel as I found having to using a small grind and cut wheel to clean up areas to make them work smoother.

I used a small hex key for the release, and this is where the dremel came in handy to cut it shorter.

The gaffer's tape blocks out enough light in full day light as to not trigger a release.

Haven't found a way to trigger the lights while video is shooting, so you have to turn off any video recording, turn on the lights then turn it back on.

also, use the cut wheel on the dream for the hex key or what ever steel rod you use because if your item doesn't drop because it's slightly hanging on the lip of the rod, the downward sensor will see it and the mavic will come down very slow as it thinks its trying to land when you bring it down to resolve

Leg Extenders that I had lying around we're also helpful for take off and landing.

As for the downward sensors, no issues with them during take off, only during when decreasing the height you will want to turn them off but turn them back on to land.

All the electrical components are on one side but the weight (have not weighed it) has not affected the flight stability.

I would recommend using new rubber bands to ensure elasticity and any concern of breakage.

So far I have been having fun with my kids dropping stuff from a couple hundred feet up. The zing air rockets whistle when they come down and the kids just scatter.

I am going to build a version with a mini push/pull solenoid, but my concern is going to be the magnetic field and voltage usage. Waiting for this part to arrive.

Here are the photos of the build, need to upload in 2 parts.

View attachment 29071 View attachment 29072 View attachment 29073 View attachment 29074 View attachment 29075 View attachment 29076 View attachment 29077

FANTASTIC!

This makes me really happy.

The switch is a brilliant addition.

Removing the SIM card from mavic will allow you to record with lights on or off. This is how I record my drop footage. The downside is that 1080 or 720 will be the max resolution recorded on the iPad.
 
Just wanted to say thanks to the OP.

I went ahead and built my release during this week, not quite $5 as I didn't have all the components lying around except for the lego's, glue, hex key, gaffer's tape, foam padding and batteries.

Here are a few tidbits in no conventional order.

The batteries I used are 2x CR2016 (these are cheap thru ebay) along with a battery holder with an on/off switch. Having the on/off switch is convenient as when you first start the mavic, the lights trigger on. I've done about 20 drops with these batteries and still have not worn them out.

The plastic bonder is incredibly strong and I don't feel it will cause any adverse issues down the line

I used the foam padding for where the legos touch the Mavic to avoid any slippage.

I do recommend owning a dremel as I found having to using a small grind and cut wheel to clean up areas to make them work smoother.

I used a small hex key for the release, and this is where the dremel came in handy to cut it shorter.

The gaffer's tape blocks out enough light in full day light as to not trigger a release.

Haven't found a way to trigger the lights while video is shooting, so you have to turn off any video recording, turn on the lights then turn it back on.

also, use the cut wheel on the dream for the hex key or what ever steel rod you use because if your item doesn't drop because it's slightly hanging on the lip of the rod, the downward sensor will see it and the mavic will come down very slow as it thinks its trying to land when you bring it down to resolve

Leg Extenders that I had lying around we're also helpful for take off and landing.

As for the downward sensors, no issues with them during take off, only during when decreasing the height you will want to turn them off but turn them back on to land.

All the electrical components are on one side but the weight (have not weighed it) has not affected the flight stability.

I would recommend using new rubber bands to ensure elasticity and any concern of breakage.

So far I have been having fun with my kids dropping stuff from a couple hundred feet up. The zing air rockets whistle when they come down and the kids just scatter.

I am going to build a version with a mini push/pull solenoid, but my concern is going to be the magnetic field and voltage usage. Waiting for this part to arrive.

Here are the photos of the build, need to upload in 2 parts.

View attachment 29071 View attachment 29072 View attachment 29073 View attachment 29074 View attachment 29075 View attachment 29076 View attachment 29077

The Allen wrench is brilliant too!
 
Just wanted to say thanks to the OP.


Haven't found a way to trigger the lights while video is shooting, so you have to turn off any video recording, turn on the lights then turn it back on.
The front LEDs can be controlled independently from the recording options.


I also assigned the C1 button to be able to toggle the lights on and off so I have complete control.

Hope this helps.
 
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