M2E Dual First Flight

[FatherXmas]

Guys, this is not a SAR drone. It is an inspection drone. At 160x120 thermal, you are not going to see anything unless you are really close like less than 50-100ft. This can be used to inspect thermal characteristic of an object when you are say 20-30 feet away. DJI is going a dangerous disservice advertising this otherwise, as 1st responders may think the have something that can help them find a missing person but it actually can only see a person (as a blob) thermally under 100ft away, and maybe ID that blob as a person from say 50 feet away.

You are mistaken. I've seen a couple of YouTubes where they were flying ~120-140AGL and looking at someone in the woods under a thick tree canopy. The subject was a red blob with no detail, however, a red blob is enough to send a ground team to check it out.

 

[Snowstorm]

You are mistaken. I've seen a couple of YouTubes where they were flying ~120-140AGL and looking at someone in the woods under a thick tree canopy. The subject was a red blob with no detail, however, a red blob is enough to send a ground team to check it out.

I have seen the same, some dude in Texas I believe. If you would recall, that scenario was marginal at best and the red blob was only a few pixel in size and only visible under certain situations. He was able to see it because he was explicitly looking and adjusting for it. The 160x120 sensor can see such if you are directly on top of the subject at 120-140 AGL under good conditions, but not at any significant slant angle. That type of limitation is not likely appreciated by someone who buy this for SAL as visual range is so much further. It is dangerous to market this for SAL because many users would assume incorrectly that thermal can see just about as far as visual, and be looking from too far away. In reality, ID range for thermal is maybe 1/10 of visual, causing problems that can be dangerous if the searcher declar an area all clear because he looked from too far even though the subject of interest is there.

 

[beanbubba]

I have seen the same, some dude in Texas I believe. If you would recall, that scenario was marginal at best and the red blob was only a few pixel in size and only visible under certain situations. He was able to see it because he was explicitly looking and adjusting for it. The 160x120 sensor can see such if you are directly on top of the subject at 120-140 AGL under good conditions, but not at any significant slant angle. That type of limitation is not likely appreciated by someone who buy this for SAL as visual range is so much further. It is dangerous to market this for SAL because many users would assume incorrectly that thermal can see just about as far as visual, and be looking from too far away. In reality, ID range for thermal is maybe 1/10 of visual, causing problems that can be dangerous if the searcher declar an area all clear because he looked from too far even though the subject of interest is there.

Let's hope this is DJI's "toe in the water" thermal drone and that upgraded models are on their roadmap.

 

[io390]

Let's hope this is DJI's "toe in the water" thermal drone and that upgraded models are on their roadmap.

M210/XT2 would be that! A great platform, cost aside.

 

[Snowstorm]

M210/XT2 would be that! A great platform, cost aside.

Don’t forget size. It is huge.

 

[Keule]

Don’t forget size. It is huge.

That's when 'Pro' kicks in ...

 

[DutchBob]

Even though it is a ‘lower quality’ FLIR, this is made up for with a custom MSX mode which could counterbalance your 640 quality, with a composite camera/FLIR image. As for the fog, the camera 100% sees through smoke, so I suppose it can see through fog. Just got the M2ED, but as fog is moisture I’m not going to try this out too soon ...

 

[Kilrah]

Thanks for the sample. As expected, resolution is really too low to do much with unfortunately.

 

[beanbubba]

I tested the AirSense interface for the first time. It is quite impressive and updates at least once per second on the screen. Very awesome situational awareness tool!

 

[beanbubba]

Guys, this is not a SAR drone. It is an inspection drone. At 160x120 thermal, you are not going to see anything unless you are really close like less than 50-100ft. This can be used to inspect thermal characteristic of an object when you are say 20-30 feet away. DJI is going a dangerous disservice advertising this otherwise, as 1st responders may think the have something that can help them find a missing person but it actually can only see a person (as a blob) thermally under 100ft away, and maybe ID that blob as a person from say 50 feet away.

Snowstorm, I agree with your comments 100%. But being devils advocate for a moment, think of the countless relatively "poor" rural townships and police/fire across the globe that can't afford any of the mainstream SAR solutions. Isn't this better than nothing and potentially could save a life or two "on the cheap"? Think of lost campers and they built a fire, you could spot that very far away on a cold night.

BTW - I finally tested the beacon last night. It exceeded my expectations. I also noticed that the bottom plate landing lights blink in tandem with the strobe while the bird is in flight.

 

[Snowstorm]

Snowstorm, I agree with your comments 100%. But being devils advocate for a moment, think of the countless relatively "poor" rural townships and police/fire across the globe that can't afford any of the mainstream SAR solutions. Isn't this better than nothing and potentially could save a life or two "on the cheap"? Think of lost campers and they built a fire, you could spot that very far away on a cold night.

BTW - I finally tested the beacon last night. It exceeded my expectations. I also noticed that the bottom plate landing lights blink in tandem with the strobe while the bird is in flight.

No, it is worse than nothing. It can cause the searcher to think there is no person there because they can’t see it with this tool, and not search the area again.

 

[RCdancer]

Guys, this is not a SAR drone. It is an inspection drone. At 160x120 thermal, you are not going to see anything unless you are really close like less than 50-100ft. This can be used to inspect thermal characteristic of an object when you are say 20-30 feet away. DJI is going a dangerous disservice advertising this otherwise, as 1st responders may think the have something that can help them find a missing person but it actually can only see a person (as a blob) thermally under 100ft away, and maybe ID that blob as a person from say 50 feet away.

Actually, I think any drone can potentially be an effective SAR drone in the hands of a trained SAR pilot. The old adage about

• What's the best camera to take a picture with? Answer: The one you have with you
• What's the best gun to protect yourself with? Answer: The one you have with you
• etc.

While professional SAR drones are obviously superior with respect to capability, they are also expensive, relatively far-and-few-between, bigger and more cumbersome to deploy. Drones like the Mavic are everywhere and faster and easier to deploy. Even the lowly Spark can be a lifesaver. i.e., eyewitnesses see someone fall off a cliff taking a selfie., you can't see or hear anything from the top of the cliff and it would take hours to get into a position at the bottom of the cliff to see anything. Launch a Spark and find him (or what's left of him) quickly.

In the hands of a trained SAR pilot, almost any modern drone can be a SAR drone. Field tests in 2018 by the European Emergency Number Association, DJI and Black Channel showed that training and planning is far more important for SAR success than aircraft or payload.

A 380 ACP pocket handgun in the hands of a trained combat marksman is far more deadly than a .44 magnum in the hands of a weekend-shooter. A Mavic in the hands of a trained SAR pilot is more likely to have success than a $20k professional SAR drone in the hands of an untrained pilot.

It's not what you have so much ....... rather how you use what you have.

My 2 cents.

 

[beanbubba]

No, it is worse than nothing. It can cause the searcher to think there is no person there because they can’t see it with this tool, and not search the area again.

I know nothing of the best practices for professional SAR personnel. But from your professional opinion, it sounds like you must design to the lowest common denominator of potential pilots intelligence level. And assume that if the tool is not idiot proof, it will cause more harm than good??

 

[calmar81]

I tested the AirSense interface for the first time. It is quite impressive and updates at least once per second on the screen. Very awesome situational awareness tool!

View attachment 60742

Wow, I‘d love to have this on every „pro“ drone from DJI

 

[Marksnet]

I have one of these. I’m pretty impressed with it so far. As far as depicting people, I think it does a very good job. I’ve been messing with Drone Deploy most of the afternoon between rains here in NWFL but, I’ll post up some photos soon.
I purchased this for roof inspections and estimates so my employees don’t have to climb on every roof. It came in yesterday and of course its raining to keep me from playing!

Anyway, you can see house cats in the woods, individual trees, pine straw holding moisture on the roof, and it depicted me and my son at night very well and fully outlined us waving our arms.

I’m really hoping that this thing will do what it says and will render us able to do roof measuring for metal roofs without having to pull a tape each time once we compare drone vs. actual tape measurements.


Anyway, I’m new here so thought I would chime in. Thanks for the valuable content on this site. I’m already learning a lot here!

 

[beanbubba]

Just got my smart controller in and as expected it fits like a glove in the M2E case:

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Just some food for thought on DJI introduction of the Rescue and Search Drone.

Although some people may attempt to use this drone for Search and Rescue , DJI clearly put it out there as bait to see if they could get away with the Price tag and more importantly if there is enough interest for such a drone.

Clearly if you do need to Search and Rescue make sure that it is not raining that day / as we have found out that after just 4 minutes in the rain storm , water entered right down into the battery compartment.

Even though we make the Wet Suits for the Phantom 4 Pro series drones this was disappointing as DJI took no precautions to seal the battery and made if very difficult to do so.

So we firmly believe that this is nothing more than an introduction to the tools and the cameras but most all DJI accessing the price and the need of such a drone.

With that said , if you are planning on using this in an everyday situation we are making the Wet Suit for it , which will be very similar to the Mavic 2 Wet Suits and were working on making the rescue tools more water resistant also.

Phantomrain.org
Approved Vendor.

 

[beanbubba]

Just some food for thought on DJI introduction of the Rescue and Search Drone.

Although some people may attempt to use this drone for Search and Rescue , DJI clearly put it out there as bait to see if they could get away with the Price tag and more importantly if there is enough interest for such a drone.

Clearly if you do need to Search and Rescue make sure that it is not raining that day / as we have found out that after just 4 minutes in the rain storm , water entered right down into the battery compartment.

Even though we make the Wet Suits for the Phantom 4 Pro series drones this was disappointing as DJI took no precautions to seal the battery and made if very difficult to do so.

So we firmly believe that this is nothing more than an introduction to the tools and the cameras but most all DJI accessing the price and the need of such a drone.

With that said , if you are planning on using this in an everyday situation we are making the Wet Suit for it , which will be very similar to the Mavic 2 Wet Suits and were working on making the rescue tools more water resistant also.

Phantomrain.org
Approved Vendor.

Thanks for the info!

Question for you, I got caught in a heavy rainstorm once with my Mavic1 and it had no appreciable water penetration that I could find. I also had a Mavic1 stuck at the top of a tree for 2 weeks and 4 inches of rain fell during that time. Both instances I opened up the bird and ran a fan on it 24 hours and had no long term effects or issues. I am curious how the Mavic2 stands up and if you have done any tests that you could share the results?

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Thanks for the info!

Question for you, I got caught in a heavy rainstorm once with my Mavic1 and it had no appreciable water penetration that I could find. I also had a Mavic1 stuck at the top of a tree for 2 weeks and 4 inches of rain fell during that time. Both instances I opened up the bird and ran a fan on it 24 hours and had no long term effects or issues. I am curious how the Mavic2 stands up and if you have done any tests that you could share the results?

We purchased the Mavic 2 so we can fly piggy back with the Phantom 4 Pro and video the Phantom 4 Wet Suits in Extreme Weather conditions and vice versa .

The Mavic 2 Already had a better and well engineered design and so I thought it would be a great match up. Poured a couple glasses of water over the battery of the Mavic 2 and barely a drop made it in.

Got past the first test but just barely.

So first downpour of rain we got I took it up in the real world. The down pour only lasted 4 minutes , opened up the battery and realized that the battery had been compromised with water inside the battery and was so disappointed.

All it took was 4 minutes in a downpour to take on water. Compare that to the 26 minutes a Phantom 4 Wet Suit can do in a pouring rain and you see how we were going to have an issue with the Mavic 2

I had no plans on making any wet suits for the Mavics but everything changed from that small downpour.

You mention that you had to open the drone both times to fan it out., thus the idea behind the Mavic Wet Suits is simply to stop the water from getting inside so you dont have to open it or dry it , just place it back on the shelf and fly it again.

So pouring the glasses of water over the drone does not equal to any kind of real life test but the fact that it failed on the 4 minute hover was alarming enough for me rethink the Mavic 2 and Design the Wet Suit for it !

I am glad we did it , as we were able to add some other benefits as well

The Challenge with M2E are the Rescue tools as I need some real world tests to challenge them.
We had 133 days of Rain last year so it coming sooner than latter.



You can check out phantomrain.org for more videos , as I will keep posting them there.

 

[DutchBob]

Mavic 2 Enterprise Dual FLIR Test

Just done a very basic test of the M2ED FLIR capability. 50m out, 50m up, so 70m/210 feet away.
I think this is pretty good for such a small drone, for a relatively low price.
But I won't be surprised if owners of $10.000 drones with $5.000 FLIR or Boson cameras will argue that it's not good enough ...