Parachute system for Mavic

Robbyg · May 19, 2017

It's a cool design and it looks like a lot of work went into it. The only problem is the price!

ataskii · May 20, 2017

I see some talks here during the day. I try to answer.
Making the parachute fit on Mavic I finally ended up with horizontal positioning. There is possibility to aim it forward or backward. In my testing backward is effective if you have any forward flight speed. The difference is small but I like to think I see parachute to open bit faster when it is aimed to back. Shooting up would still require stopping the motors - I could not find a way to make a clean vertical install - so I made it the way it is.

These products are made in Finland. Local Trafi knows me and I am part of their industry "fellows" group. There is no intent to allow flying over people in Finland regardless if you have a parachute or not.
I have talked with some contacts in insurance industry to open discussion if there could be lower liability insurance fee for drones equipped with parachute though.

ataskii · May 20, 2017

JustinMavic said:
Do you have a link to the product?

Link to VectorSave systems
www.vectorsave.com
and directly to the product here
vectorhelicom

ataskii · May 20, 2017

Robbyg said:
It's a cool design and it looks like a lot of work went into it. The only problem is the price!

Thanks for nice words about the product development. I can confirm it took some time, beer and talks not to mention of all the ideas I had to abandon. I am now working on a system for bit larger drones with same functionality. Hope to launch that by end of this month.
My aim is to follow signals and demands I may get from users. I also aim to lower the price if I am lucky to sell enough of these to change the way parts are made and produced. Until then it may not be the first product in mind for a price sensitive buyer.

Xcel · May 20, 2017

ataskii said:
These products are made in Finland. Local Trafi knows me and I am part of their industry "fellows" group. There is no intent to allow flying over people in Finland regardless if you have a parachute or not.
I have talked with some contacts in insurance industry to open discussion if there could be lower liability insurance fee for drones equipped with parachute though.

I would definitely be interested once you've ironed out the benefits, lowering the insurance cost would be a great start! 385€ is too steep IMO for the mavic if there aren't any other benefits than only potentially saving the drone, the camera might break anyway. You can get a lot of repairs done for that price.

Some ideas, what about incorporating some kind of locator beacon inside the box as an optional feature. That would help track down a crashed drone. An optional strobe light once deployed could also be nice.

gusri.candra · May 21, 2017

0.5 s is to short..! Can we adjust it..?

ataskii · May 21, 2017

Xcel said:
I would definitely be interested once you've ironed out the benefits, lowering the insurance cost would be a great start! 385€ is too steep IMO for the mavic if there aren't any other benefits than only potentially saving the drone, the camera might break anyway. You can get a lot of repairs done for that price.

Some ideas, what about incorporating some kind of locator beacon inside the box as an optional feature. That would help track down a crashed drone. An optional strobe light once deployed could also be nice.

Good ideas I think. I could make transceiver inside the box for two way comms... like a data link and create a bing of some sort. I have concerns to what that or light beacon would do to battery life inside the tube. It is limited and now can support hours of flying in armed mode. Using it for beacon might drain power in minutes. I have external sensor box for larger drone where light or sound once deployed is easy to add since there are connectors for that built in and power is external.

ataskii · May 23, 2017

gusri.candra said:
0.5 s is to short..! Can we adjust it..?

Yes it can be adjusted. What we have come up with after testing we targeted for was react soonest.
Would would be the value you like to see?

Haloweenhamster · Oct 31, 2017

@ataskii website could do with some work

ataskii · Nov 1, 2017

Any suggestions?

QuadKid · Nov 1, 2017

ataskii said:
I see some talks here during the day. I try to answer.
Making the parachute fit on Mavic I finally ended up with horizontal positioning. There is possibility to aim it forward or backward. In my testing backward is effective if you have any forward flight speed. The difference is small but I like to think I see parachute to open bit faster when it is aimed to back. Shooting up would still require stopping the motors - I could not find a way to make a clean vertical install - so I made it the way it is.

These products are made in Finland. Local Trafi knows me and I am part of their industry "fellows" group. There is no intent to allow flying over people in Finland regardless if you have a parachute or not.
I have talked with some contacts in insurance industry to open discussion if there could be lower liability insurance fee for drones equipped with parachute though.

The price is comparable to other chute deployment systems for Phantom series, maybe raising the rear leg of the mount a little higher will give it the trajectory needed to clear the rear props early enough to avoid entanglement while still keeping the low profile. Just a thought. Does it come with a "MayDay" deployment FOB?

Also it looks like it is applied with double sided tape, this may interfere with packing the Mavic away in its case, would suggest using industrial strength Velcro so the mounts could be detached easily.

Haloweenhamster · Nov 1, 2017

ataskii said:
Link to VectorSave systems
www.vectorsave.com
and directly to the product here
vectorhelicom

ataskii said:
Any suggestions?

went to the top link and you have created the home and mavic shoot info but you have a big shop section that's undeveloped

Might be worth just setting a redirect to the site in the second link

Top link screen shots

DomoDan · Nov 1, 2017

Cool idea, but $350 is too much for something that MIGHT save the drone IF you happen to have an all out failure. That’s **** expensive insurance.

ataskii · Nov 1, 2017

QuadKid said:
The price is comparable to other chute deployment systems for Phantom series, maybe raising the rear leg of the mount a little higher will give it the trajectory needed to clear the rear props early enough to avoid entanglement while still keeping the low profile. Just a thought. Does it come with a "MayDay" deployment FOB?

Also it looks like it is applied with double sided tape, this may interfere with packing the Mavic away in its case, would suggest using industrial strength Velcro so the mounts could be detached easily.

Sure I could make the rear post higher - this is for looking better while we assume props need to be stopped in emergency by pilot. Launch tube accommodates what we call SaveSense™ including tilt and freefall sensing.

This month we will also offer software configurator for sense parameters. You can for example disable tilt sensing while keeping freefall sensing active.

We also offer a model with separate long range radio trigger.
Velcro types are being tested and if we find it reliable and vibration free we may offer that option. Also looking into other type of detachable holders that will be option in aftermarket.

Mavhawk · May 15, 2019

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I've been seriously looking at this Vector parachute system mainly because of something I read about the whole idea of parachutes on drones. Some guy mentioned that it would be a problem if the quad for whatever reason initiated the parachute while you were flying over water, or maybe an unreachable area of some kind. That caused me to look at the possibility of any of the systems available that might allow you to remotely initiate the parachute yourself and therefore have complete control over when that would happen. Well guess what, gang? I emailed the Vector parachute people and they sent me the above email back. I'm not sure if it will open or not for you, but what it basically says is yes, they have a remote control where you can control when the chute opens, or you can set it to deploy when it falls a certain amount or probably angles too much. I'm not exactly sure what the exact specs on when it will deploy, but the email says you can shut that automatic feature off and just deploy it yourself. To me, that's an incredible feature if I were flying over water or inaccessible areas. I'm not sure if the remote is extra or not, but they do have it. The other issue, on all this parachute stuff, that I see is, can you shut the props off. I know some of the systems will shut off the props just as it deploys, automatically, but I'm not sure about the Vector. I didn't do all my homework here, but I imagine you could do it yourself just before you deployed the parachute. I've also seen pictures of the parachute tube perched at an angle so it would shoot out more vertically or away from the drone, which to me, would be a really good idea. I can't remember where I saw it, but I did see an actual demo of the Vector system in action, and it seemed to work ok, except, something fell off that they had to search for right near where the plane landed. I wish I had a link for that video so you guys could see it. My feeling is none of these shute systems seem cheap, but again, it could save your drone or maybe some kind of injury to people below, or both. Marc-Mavhawk
Here's the link for the demo video I was talking about. Apparently the tube fell off while landing, but I imagine it might not have been secured to the plane good enough. I'm now looking for a video or pictures of the remote controller.

https://static.wixstatic.com/media/eb9c32_c27774d27a3e4136b366bc5f9486ccdc~mv2_d_1487_1259_s_2.jpg/v1/fill/w_278,h_184,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01/eb9c32_c27774d27a3e4136b366bc5f9486ccdc~mv2_d_1487_1259_s_2.webp

Oh boy, oh boy, here it is, but boy is it expensive. Apparently it is an add-on. Well I found this on the Vectorheli website. Hope this helps.

Phantomrain.org · May 15, 2019

I do think that the Remote offers a huge advantage as it might help you get in better position to catch your drone ! Before it crash lands.
So that adds another $300 to the price so $600 for the Mavics ,,

The Remote really changes the Parrachute options for the better. Very interesting ,

So if you have a fly away , you can stop it quickly with the the remote , interesting .

So many vids coming from those running to catch there drones, lol

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic in and out of the storm.

davidzimagery · May 16, 2019

tom.cruisin.for.a.bruisin said:
this is very cool. any thoughts on mounting the cylinder vertically so that the parachute shoots straight up instead of rearward? it may help to prevent the strings from tangling in the props or at least lessen the chances. but I don't know how detrimental that would be for balance.

Maybe at an angle. My dad had an ultra light plane with a chute and it was at an angle to miss the rudder.

Mavhawk · May 16, 2019

Phantomrain.org said:
I do think that the Remote offers a huge advantage as it might help you get in better position to catch your drone ! Before it crash lands.
So that adds another $300 to the price so $600 for the Mavics ,,

The Remote really changes the Parrachute options for the better. Very interesting ,

So if you have a fly away , you can stop it quickly with the the remote , interesting .

So many vids coming from those running to catch there drones, lol

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic in and out of the storm.

I just want to say, I'm so glad we have this forum so we can talk about this stuff with each other and people like you, put in some new ideas. I don't know why I didn't think about that idea, that you could use the remote to basically stop a fly away if you could stop it in time. Good thinking there. I was mainly thinking of the thought of being over water or some deep canyon gorge or somewhere where it could really mess up your drone, or land it where you couldn't reach it. This could be a real "save all" possibility for flyaway s too. I just wish they weren't so darn expensive. I just now thought of one possibility for cushioning the landing, but I don't think it would be too feasible. You could put those pontoons they have for the Mavic Pro on it and it might either cushion the landing or keep it floating if it hit the water. Trouble is, it might add too much weight to the load, and or mess up some of the flight characteristics. Maybe you could put smaller pontoons on the legs. Just a thought. I know of at least one guy who was able to take his soaking wet Mavic Pro and put it in rice for a few days and it was ok after that. Marc.

Phantomrain.org · May 16, 2019

Mavhawk said:
I just want to say, I'm so glad we have this forum so we can talk about this stuff with each other and people like you, put in some new ideas. I don't know why I didn't think about that idea, that you could use the remote to basically stop a fly away if you could stop it in time. Good thinking there. I was mainly thinking of the thought of being over water or some deep canyon gorge or somewhere where it could really mess up your drone, or land it where you couldn't reach it. This could be a real "save all" possibility for flyaway s too. I just wish they weren't so darn expensive. I just now thought of one possibility for cushioning the landing, but I don't think it would be too feasible. You could put those pontoons they have for the Mavic Pro on it and it might either cushion the landing or keep it floating if it hit the water. Trouble is, it might add too much weight to the load, and or mess up some of the flight characteristics. Maybe you could put smaller pontoons on the legs. Just a thought. I know of at least one guy who was able to take his soaking wet Mavic Pro and put it in rice for a few days and it was ok after that. Marc.

Thank you for the kind words, I watched quite a few of those video and the drones almost always land side ways , and there is already that drift from the chute, notice if he would have been up say 400 ft he would have drifted well over the road , this is also why its nice to have the remote to trigger to just find the safest spot.

So your right winds are going to be a factor for the success of a deployment.

Mavhawk · May 17, 2019

Phantomrain.org said:
Thank you for the kind words, I watched quite a few of those video and the drones almost always land side ways , and there is already that drift from the chute, notice if he would have been up say 400 ft he would have drifted well over the road , this is also why its nice to have the remote to trigger to just find the safest spot.

So your right winds are going to be a factor for the success of a deployment.

Right on, Phantomrain! You know, once again, I didn't think about the drifting aspect. That could be a major issue, just like you say if the wind is up and of course the higher you are the more it will drift. I always try to be alert when flying, but you'd have to really be quick on this one. I'm thinking, at least if you got into trouble, had a drop or a fly-away situation, or whatever, hopefully you could try and bring the copter down as far as reasonable before you deploy the parachute. I'm still not sure if this unit automatically shuts off the props just before deployment, or not, but I guess you could use the double stick method to shut off the props once your ready to deploy. I'm still using my Marco Polo drone finder unit, so hopefully I'd have a much better chance of finding it after it went down. I'm also wondering why the drone landed sideways. You'd think if the chute was set up with everything balanced it wouldn't do that, but maybe it's not possible to do that, depending on how and where you attach the parachute mechanism. A lot of things to think about here, but I'm still not ready to give up on the idea of getting one yet. I just wish they'd hurry up and come down in price, if they ever will. Marc.