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Mavic water recovery system

Matt

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Made something similar for my P3. These are for recovery only. Made these for the mavic. I fly quite a bit over open water. Mostly launch from the Aft hardtop on the boat out on the Great Lakes. Similar to the getrback concept but you don't have to worry about the depth of the water, will it deploy and waiting 15 minutes plus. Also trying to find a bobber that floats up out on open water.

Tested the mavic today for the first time. First without the flots then with them on. They do not interfere with the bottom sensors in that I can see a change in height on the app. I have not tested the bottom camera for the landing pic it takes. Not sure how you can access that picture if at all. Hand caught no problem. Just reach up from underneath.

It was 15 degrees today so just a short first flight to check the camera. Looks good thus far. No soft edges. Flew next to a brick school building to check. Didn't see any jello effects while flying as well.

I brought the osmo plus to film as I flew. I was going to use Autoframe by autopilot on the osmo to track the drone. (Airspace app links the two) Neat app but after a few minutes in 15 degrees setting that up I handed the osmo to my nine year old to film. Got some great shots of clouds and evething else but the mavic. Lol

Second flight was with the floats. I did not see any changes in flight characteristics. Second flight was a bit more agreesive to see if the floats got in the camera shot which they did not. Total weight is about 1.75 ounces. Tested them by adding 2# of weight on them in water. they are a bit past half way up as they floated in water. They should displace around 3#. The mavic weights a pound and a half but given it has vents on it and a hard crash water will get in increasing the amount of weight you need to displace. The floats are a bit aft of center mass so I would think more often than not it will actually find itself upside down in the event of a hard landing. I did not put them on and try and float it. It would get wet and these are not landing floats. Just recovery.

It's my mavic Life jacket. It will get wet but will not sink down to Davy Jones's locker.

I painted the rear tip black and the rest neon orange plastic dip spray. This I think will help with orientation from a distance. Two orange dots it is facing me. Orange ringes with black centers camera facing away.

I will do some more tests to see if this decrease performance but in a short flight on heathy drones I lost a couple of minutes of battery but then again my second flight with these on was much more aggressive.

These are just piece of mind and a way to quickly recover the drone in case it drops like a brick from the sky. I keep a bottle of denatured alcohol over 95% to quickly displace the water (after removal of battery) since I fly mostly over fresh water it is possible to negate water damage. Saltwater no way. Instant loss but with DJI refresh no drone no chance.



IMG_5234.JPG IMG_5235.JPG IMG_5241.JPG
 
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Good thinking. I would think you could get by with smaller floats, or did you do the math for displacement for the weight of the Mavic and come up with this size?
 
Never mind I just read your center paragraph and you explained this. Nice job that I will probably copy.... I fly over the gulf often.
 
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Good thinking. I would think you could get by with smaller floats, or did you do the math for displacement for the weight of the Mavic and come up with this size?

Yes. These are 3" polyethylene clynders or most call them pool noodles. I made a set (not complete just the noodled) out of 2-1/2 and 2" diameter. It's on the edge (2-1/2") so I increased to 3". I might still build the 2-1/2". Also made a set of 2". I liked the 3" in that they fit snug up under front arms.

Might complete all 3 sizes and see how they work. Also replace the ABS plastic struts with carbon fiber. Should reduce weight.
 
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that's a great idea and one I might adopt myself. I live on the banks of the ohio river so I want to do some aerial photography. these would be ideal because I have a motor powered kayak I could use for retrieval. great share dude, appreciate it.
 
Made something similar for my P3. These are for recovery only. Made these for the mavic. I fly quite a bit over open water. Mostly launch from the Aft hardtop on the boat out on the Great Lakes. Similar to the getrback concept but you don't have to worry about the depth of the water, will it deploy and waiting 15 minutes plus. Also trying to find a bobber that floats up out on open water.

Tested the mavic today for the first time. First without the flots then with them on. They do not interfere with the bottom sensors in that I can see a change in height on the app. I have not tested the bottom camera for the landing pic it takes. Not sure how you can access that picture if at all. Hand caught no problem. Just reach up from underneath.

It was 15 degrees today so just a short first flight to check the camera. Looks good thus far. No soft edges. Flew next to a brick school building to check. Didn't see any jello effects while flying as well.

I brought the osmo plus to film as I flew. I was going to use Autoframe by autopilot on the osmo to track the drone. (Airspace app links the two) Neat app but after a few minutes in 15 degrees setting that up I handed the osmo to my nine year old to film. Got some great shots of clouds and evething else but the mavic. Lol

Second flight was with the floats. I did not see any changes in flight characteristics. Second flight was a bit more agreesive to see if the floats got in the camera shot which they did not. Total weight is about 1.75 ounces. Tested them by adding 2# of weight on them in water. they are a bit past half way up as they floated in water. They should displace around 3#. The mavic weights a pound and a half but given it has vents on it and a hard crash water will get in increasing the amount of weight you need to displace. The floats are a bit aft of center mass so I would think more often than not it will actually find itself upside down in the event of a hard landing. I did not put them on and try and float it. It would get wet and these are not landing floats. Just recovery.

It's my mavic Life jacket. It will get wet but will not sink down to Davy Jones's locker.

I painted the rear tip black and the rest neon orange plastic dip spray. This I think will help with orientation from a distance. Two orange dots it is facing me. Orange ringes with black centers camera facing away.

I will do some more tests to see if this decrease performance but in a short flight on heathy drones I lost a couple of minutes of battery but then again my second flight with these on was much more aggressive.

These are just piece of mind and a way to quickly recover the drone in case it drops like a brick from the sky. I keep a bottle of denatured alcohol over 95% to quickly displace the water (after removal of battery) since I fly mostly over fresh water it is possible to negate water damage. Saltwater no way. Instant loss but with DJI refresh no drone no chance.



View attachment 3813 View attachment 3815 View attachment 3814
Really cool, Matt. I've been thinking about this as well as I fly a lot over the ocean in Hawaii. I was thinking about a water activated inflation float to keep it more streamlined. But probably would weigh more. We should keep this thread and innovations going.
 
Maybe a pair of 16 or 20 oz empty water or soft drink bottles would work. They would be virtually invisible from the ground but then again, maybe the bright colors of the pool noodles would be a good visual safety benefit.
 
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I am interested in understanding the impact on flight and sensors. I had tried something similar on another quad and couldn't get it to fly with any stability. Granted, it had less power. I am interested in your testing results.
 
I am interested in understanding the impact on flight and sensors. I had tried something similar on another quad and couldn't get it to fly with any stability. Granted, it had less power. I am interested in your testing results.

i could not find it but there was information on the bottom sensor indicating around a 22 degree cone angle. float are about a 40 degree angle. As indicated above app correctly displays distance to the ground. as far as the precision landing feature i did not test and would not think it would be a issue. with the P3 the floats were much larger and i had many flights. those did get into some shots when orbiting a moving object. on the last page (3rd) is a video and you can see.

see Link:
P3A Floats

Below is battery data from Healthy Drones. They do not seem to burn up that much battery. Also do not seem to effect flight characteristics. They are much more streamlined then the ones i used on my P3



MAVIC NO Floats.jpg MAVIC WITH Floats.jpg
 
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Another option is to use this very light weight system: GetterBack Rod Recovery System with Black Velcro Strap, Yellow https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GIYIU8Q/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_jE8CybP4703NG

Although it could be challenging to see the small float that deploys from the submerged object. Because the DJI Care insurance now covers water damage the main issue is actually finding the drown if it goes down in water.


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Here is a video of it in action. It's 17 bucks on Amazon so I might go ahead and buy one. Saw another video of a guy who attached two to his Mavic. Maybe he was thinking redundancy or balancing the extremely low weight.

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How long is the line on that getterback, and what happens if the water is deeper than the line is long? I like the floats, good job. I assume you looked at water bottles? they are extremely light & would provide more lift than the pool noodles, and facing the cap to the front would give it less air drag than the blunt end of the noodle.
 
How long is the line on that getterback, and what happens if the water is deeper than the line is long? I like the floats, good job. I assume you looked at water bottles? they are extremely light & would provide more lift than the pool noodles, and facing the cat to the front would give it less air drag than the blunt end of the noodle.

I think they are 100 feet long. Pretty sure if it's deeper than the system won't be effective. Looks like it was originally designed for fishermen to get their fishing rods back.


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I have several of the getterback's.
You will need to cut the two small plastic brackets to make it fit perfectly on the mavic's arm.
 
Very interesting, makes me want to design some 3D floats that would be a little wider stance and lift it off the water a little higher. :)
 
Subscribed! Can you give us more detail on the strapping system you used for the noodles? Also how did you shave down the noodle to 2.5 from 3"? I'd like to see a water bottle float in action as well seems like a good idea.
 

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