Leave drone on launch pad ready for takeoff 24/7 - Is it possible?
- Thread starter bob5action
- Start date
Interesting question but more info required, I think.
Where is the drone going to be kept on the pad? In some kind of hangar facility, in the back of a news van, or is that just a figure of speach and it's on a shelf ready to go? You definitely do not want any possibility of rain getting onto the drone while it's waiting to go. That implies some kind of door, and you'll also need enough vertical clearance for takeoff. Cold will also kill batteries, stored or not, so you're going to need to think about the storage environment for both drone and spare batteries.
How do you plan on bringing the pilot into play? Grab the RC and run to the pad for pre-flight? (You really don't want to do a remote pre-flight in case there is a problem with the drone).
What's your likely usage pattern? Can the pilot power on the drone immediately before flight (see point 2), or do you mean to have it powered up on the pad? The latter means some battery drain, so you're going to need to figure out how long you can leave it sat there before the remaining charge drops below useful levels. I'd guess a few hours since the rotors are off, but that's still going to be brutal on battery recharge cycles and wear. For protection, DJI also drains batteries to 50% charge if they've been sat on the shelf for more than 10 days; so you'll need to factor that into your battery management plan as well. You'll also need to figure out how to keep the RC charged.
Personally, if I were attempting this, I'd probably have the drone and RC stored in a warm and dry environment ready for flight but powered off, and have a launch pad painted on a suitable surface nearby or a bit of rigid board if you're mobile. Have a bunch of batteries, try and cycle through them in sequence, and minimise the recharges. How that will look, and how many batteries you'll want to ensure you already have enough fully charged ones will depend on how much flight time you need, but shouldn't be too hard to figure out.
Where is the drone going to be kept on the pad? In some kind of hangar facility, in the back of a news van, or is that just a figure of speach and it's on a shelf ready to go? You definitely do not want any possibility of rain getting onto the drone while it's waiting to go. That implies some kind of door, and you'll also need enough vertical clearance for takeoff. Cold will also kill batteries, stored or not, so you're going to need to think about the storage environment for both drone and spare batteries.
How do you plan on bringing the pilot into play? Grab the RC and run to the pad for pre-flight? (You really don't want to do a remote pre-flight in case there is a problem with the drone).
What's your likely usage pattern? Can the pilot power on the drone immediately before flight (see point 2), or do you mean to have it powered up on the pad? The latter means some battery drain, so you're going to need to figure out how long you can leave it sat there before the remaining charge drops below useful levels. I'd guess a few hours since the rotors are off, but that's still going to be brutal on battery recharge cycles and wear. For protection, DJI also drains batteries to 50% charge if they've been sat on the shelf for more than 10 days; so you'll need to factor that into your battery management plan as well. You'll also need to figure out how to keep the RC charged.
Personally, if I were attempting this, I'd probably have the drone and RC stored in a warm and dry environment ready for flight but powered off, and have a launch pad painted on a suitable surface nearby or a bit of rigid board if you're mobile. Have a bunch of batteries, try and cycle through them in sequence, and minimise the recharges. How that will look, and how many batteries you'll want to ensure you already have enough fully charged ones will depend on how much flight time you need, but shouldn't be too hard to figure out.
FoxhallGH
Well-Known Member
Not to mention that this sounds like a commercial operation and therefore technically your part 107 / PfCO (what part of the world are you in??) needs to be up-to-date as well.
Just bear in mind that there are many reports of 'fly-aways' on this Forum that may be associated with the Drone not getting the time it needed to update GPS settings before heading off. Make sure you hear those dulcet tones from your controller, telling you that GPS is updated, before you head off into the wild-blue-younder, as if not - it may be the last you see of your Mavic!
Just bear in mind that there are many reports of 'fly-aways' on this Forum that may be associated with the Drone not getting the time it needed to update GPS settings before heading off. Make sure you hear those dulcet tones from your controller, telling you that GPS is updated, before you head off into the wild-blue-younder, as if not - it may be the last you see of your Mavic!
Bobby Brown
Well-Known Member
24/7 launch availableilty would be limited by both controller and Drone battery life!
I think with practice you could launch you Drone in 30 seconds or so. How quick would you need to get air borne?
I spend a few minutes hovering checking out Drone operations before getting to altitude.
My two cents...........
I think with practice you could launch you Drone in 30 seconds or so. How quick would you need to get air borne?
I spend a few minutes hovering checking out Drone operations before getting to altitude.
My two cents...........
Are you anticipating that all the newsworthy events that are worth your attention, will be within a short distance of your launch pad?
If you are thinking of covering a large area, it might pay to think again.
You might see people suggesting this as the cause for lost drones but they are incorrect.
If you are impatient and launch prematurely, your Mavic is still going to get GPS soon after launch and it will record a home point when it does.
In almost all cases that's only going to be a very short distance from the launch spot and make no real difference.
Lapeer20m
Well-Known Member
What about weather? Rain, snow, cold, sun, heat. These are all possible concerns. What about theft?
It’s likely a better idea to keep mavic in a climate controlled area prior to takeoff and carry it to the launch point.
I do find then when landing to swap batteries, mavic regains satellite lock super fast. I don’t know what happens if you try to takeoff from the exact same spot an hour or a day later.
It’s likely a better idea to keep mavic in a climate controlled area prior to takeoff and carry it to the launch point.
I do find then when landing to swap batteries, mavic regains satellite lock super fast. I don’t know what happens if you try to takeoff from the exact same spot an hour or a day later.
A simplistic solution would be it's storing GPS data and time in memory and basically "resuming" when powered back up, provided that that happens within a fairly short timeframe. I'd guess this is what is happening from how my M2P behaves on power-on after battery swaps vs. longer power-offs.
A more advanced approach would be if DJI Go were to acquire AGPS data from the Internet and upload to the drone, basically prepping it with where to look for GPS satellites. I have a small GPS logger that you can upload AGPS files to via USB and it provides about 6 days of near-instant satellite lock compared to the ~30s or so it can take without the AGPS file. Not sure if there's much of a usage case for going to those lengths though.
And when the GPS kicks in and records location, that location, where the gps kicked in, is the new Home Point of the AC. Be careful...enjoy the ATTI mode until the GPS lock kicks in.
I've been pondering the challenges of a similar use so I'm curious to hear some of the insights/feedback. Not sure if my scenario is the same or similar to bob5action's, but my hypothetical scenario would involve having the drone on some pad on the back of my pick up truck, and be able to takeoff at anytime. Just hop out of the truck, remove some rain cover, and take off.
Some thoughts/challenges I came up with:
1. It should always be sitting in "ready for takeoff" mode. This means the GPS is always tracking its location, the home point should always be updating to the current position of the drone. I believe the only challenge here would be to have the drone and controller constantly plugged in and topping off the battery as it sits in this mode ready to go.
2. Vehicle is steel, creating lots of interference. May have to remove drone from vehicle and set on ground before taking off.
My scenario is actually only Phase 1 of a much larger and complicated challenge, with technology that does not yet exist. This future challenge/goal would be for me to be driving my truck past a Starbucks, and I just say "Alexa, get me a coffee." My drone would self deploy, fly to Starbucks (I'm still driving BTW), and it gets the coffee and brings it back and put it into the drink tray inside my vehicle. Is that too much to ask?
Some thoughts/challenges I came up with:
1. It should always be sitting in "ready for takeoff" mode. This means the GPS is always tracking its location, the home point should always be updating to the current position of the drone. I believe the only challenge here would be to have the drone and controller constantly plugged in and topping off the battery as it sits in this mode ready to go.
2. Vehicle is steel, creating lots of interference. May have to remove drone from vehicle and set on ground before taking off.
My scenario is actually only Phase 1 of a much larger and complicated challenge, with technology that does not yet exist. This future challenge/goal would be for me to be driving my truck past a Starbucks, and I just say "Alexa, get me a coffee." My drone would self deploy, fly to Starbucks (I'm still driving BTW), and it gets the coffee and brings it back and put it into the drink tray inside my vehicle. Is that too much to ask?
FunN4Lo
Well-Known Member
FunN4Lo
Well-Known Member
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