Obstacle Avoidance At Night

[jojonono]

So am trying to find the best ways to minimize our drones from hitting obstacles during Night Flying

I admit paying attention how you fly and having a second hand monitoring your drone while in the air is the best approach,

But I want to add even additional protection to my drones, so if i add something like the Lume Cube, or This or that will it be bright enough in extreme dark situations (or poor street lights) to light up and make obstacle avoidance work at night ? any idea how bright it should be ? any idea on a product which can light up in all 4 directions (back,front and sides) for a drone ?

thanks,

 

[Phantomrain.org]

This really depends on which drone ,but most of use the Firehouse lights and I prefer the remote control ones.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain. Land on the Water.

 

[jojonono]

This really depends on which drone ,but most of use the firhouse lights and I prefer the remote control ones.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain. Land on the Water.

any one done a proper review on those ?

 

[Felix le Chat]

So am trying to find the best ways to minimize our drones from hitting obstacles during Night Flying

I admit paying attention how you fly and having a second hand monitoring your drone while in the air is the best approach,

But I want to add even additional protection to my drones, so if i add something like the Lume Cube, or This or that will it be bright enough in extreme dark situations (or poor street lights) to light up and make obstacle avoidance work at night ? any idea how bright it should be ? any idea on a product which can light up in all 4 directions (back,front and sides) for a drone ?

thanks,

Do you mean 'night flying' concerning still photography or videography? If the latter and you're intending to fly in the same manner you might in daylight: then no, strobes won't function as adequate fill lights, the beams are too weak and localized.
APAS or O/A rely on quite a lot of ambient light to function efficiently, so the same answer for flight safety.
Safe night flying needs greatly reduced speed and greatly increased spatial awareness, and that's before you need to factor in the obstacles like telephone wires, power lines etc. Scouting the location carefully during the day and setting a WAYPOINTS flight during daylight, then repeating it after dark might be a reasonable option to trying it "seat-of-the-pants" but you would need to mark your take-off location to the foot and then place the drone precisely on that mark after dark to make sure the drone flew exactly* (for any given value of the word) the same waypoints.
As a measure of how useful strobes are for night work: bear in mind that the ones built into the belly of the drone are limited to between 6 and 10 feet effective range for night/twilight landing.
If you intend to shoot video at night, learn from the hundreds of YouTube videos already posted.
Fly far away from your subject.
Fly slowly.
Avoid anything that might cause localized turbulence
Keep well away from vehicles and people.

 

[IronSky1]

I use the RoxyVon lights. I always have one on so I know my orientation. They are really bright and very light 25g.
We mount them on almost any drone.

DJI Mavic Mini 3 or 4 Series Dual Mount for GoPro-Lighting-without Lights NEW

 

[Droning on and on...]

No, lights won't work. the OA cameras are wide angle (180° on the latest models), and the small area of illumination near won't cover enough to enable the detection system to work. At the distance limit of OA, something like 45ft, the illumination will be too weak.

 

[Shuttersky597]

Remember to have your anti collision lights on top. The member who said to set waypoints during the day and run at night is a well recommended way also. Good luck. Remember any lights added where the camera will see will definitely degrade the reason for night photo/ videography.

 

[IronSky1]

DJI Mini 4 Camera Crash Guard - I hit a tree with my mni and totalled the camera and gimbal. I came up with a 3D printed crash guard that is out of obstical avoidance (and camera) FOV
They weigh 4g per pair. Have been testing for over a week with no issues. It is important to remember that the trim pieces that these snap over are not structural. The camera and gimbal are screwed to airframe. In the event of a hard crash these will most likely break away (or stop the impact from going deeper) with the snap on trim leaving the camera and gimbal in place.

 

[Droning on and on...]

nice job! Was OA disabled when you crashed? It shouldn't have been blind to a tree...

 

[IronSky1]

Yes was in sport mode going fast

 

[Droning on and on...]

DOH! Older thread. Went back and reread it. Ignore my post #9, brain fart