Property surrveilance Drone

[A.O.]

Ok, absolute beginner here looking for ideas. Looking for a drone that takes videos, not professional or anything, just kind of surveillance, but at a distance. I own 100 acres that's long and narrow, just about 3/4 of a mile long. So I'm looking for one that will go from one end to the other.
I was in best buy the other day and saw the Phantoms and the Mavic that said they had a range of 22,000 feet which is a bit over 4 miles, so plenty. Also saw they had obstacle avoidance and return to home feature. I'm thinking this would be good, maybe it would keep me from running into branches if I'm flying low. Yes??
I don't really know anything about these drones , do you think the Mavic pro fits the bill?

Also read somewhere on here to get a Eachine E010 Mini 2.4G 4CH 6 Axis Headless Mode RC Quadcopter RTF first to practice with... good advice I'm thinking, yes? Is there a different low cost trainer, or just start with a Mavic?

 

[msinger]

just kind of surveillance

What are you planning on watching?

saw they had obstacle avoidance and return to home feature. I'm thinking this would be good, maybe it would keep me from running into branches if I'm flying low.

It's good for flying toward solid obstacles (like buildings), but not so good for small objects (like branches). It would be safest to fly above all obstacles in the flying area.

Is there a different low cost trainer, or just start with a Mavic?

Other drones do not fly like DJI drones, so you're not going to learn much about the Mavic by flying a low cost trainer. You'd be better off by flying a Mavic in a wide open area until you're comfortable flying it.

 

[jack92]

Hello

I think the Mavic would be a great buy for what you want to do!

It’s small, covert and has a good distance. I was on top a a hill with a 30 miles clear sight. It managed to go about 3 miles, then the RC signal started to drop.

The mavic has Front and underneath obstacles seniors. If you are using return to home, you can set a automatic RTH altitude, which is advised if you are using the function. It will rise to the altitude you set and prevent you smashing in to anything. That being said, it’s down to how careful you are with your drone.

Some people do say, for your first drone to get a small cheap one from practice. IMO they are 10x harder to fly. The Mavic is easy, is great fun and has a brilliant camera.

 

[A.O.]

What are you planning on watching?


It's good for flying toward solid obstacles (like buildings), but not so good for small objects (like branches). It would be safest to fly above all obstacles in the flying area.


Other drones do not fly like DJI drones, so you're not going to learn much about the Mavic by flying a low cost trainer. You'd be better off by flying a Mavic in a wide open area until you're comfortable flying it.

Good questions, Just watching my property, wildlife mostly. Wild pigs down by the river.. see if they are there, they are very transient , deer/turkey movement, things like that.

My property is a mix of open and woods, some large trails also I'd like to traverse once I get good at it.

I do have a wide open 10 acre hay field I could practice in, I would have to maybe mow a landing pad in there though.

Do you think the Mavic would be a good platform for what I am doing?

ALSO... I'm way out from any big towns and phone cell service is not that great here, will that effect operating this?

 

[A.O.]

What about flying completely out of my line of sight? If I were to do this most of the time it would be out of my line of sight.

 

[msinger]

Just watching my property, wildlife mostly. Wild pigs down by the river.. see if they are there, they are very transient , deer/turkey movemen

You're going to need to be pretty low to the ground to be able to see small wildlife. If there are any trees between your remote controller and Mavic, the remote controller signal will become weak and/or completely disconnect. If the remote controller disconnects, the Mavic will try to return back to the home point.

Do you think the Mavic would be a good platform for what I am doing?

Either a Mavic or a Phantom would be an okay choice. If you go with a Phantom, I'd recommend not going with anything less than a Phantom 3 Advanced (P3A).

I'm way out from any big towns and phone cell service is not that great here, will that effect operating this?

No. You don't need cell service and/or Internet access in order to fly.

 

[msinger]

What about flying completely out of my line of sight?

It's doable, but you don't want any obstacles in between the remote controller and Mavic.

 

[A.O.]

It's doable, but you don't want any obstacles in between the remote controller and Mavic.

Seeing that this is mostly woods, I'm sure there would be obstacles that would get between the controller and the Mavic.

What's the main difference between the Mavic and the Phantoms? which is more user friendly... I've never even touched one of these things before.

 

[msinger]

What's the main difference between the Mavic and the Phantoms?

The Mavic is pretty close to a Phantom 4 -- but much more compact. Both are easy to use/fly.

 

[Turnerm]

I think what I would tell you is to think about the Mavic as a device that really needs to fly above tree level in order to travel any sort of distance and still maintain a connection with the controller.

If you have thoughts of flying it out to the edge of your property (some 4,000 feet out) at a height lower than the tree canopy and with obstructions between you and the drone... then it won't work. Or at least not without trying an antenna mod on your controller.

If you have thoughts of keeping the drone up around 300 feet in the air and about 4,000 feet out then it should work just fine. Just keep in mind that distance is impacted by lots of things and no one's scenario is the same.

For instance, from my house (in a suburb filled with75 foot tall trees, rolling hills, and lots of houses) I can fly about 2,500 feet with the stock controller before I start losing signal. I've recently gotten a second controller with a strong third party antenna upgrade/mod on it and I can now reach 7,500 feet pretty easily but I still need to be up near 350-400 feet to do this. The lower I descend the more limited I am on range.

 

[A.O.]

The Mavic is pretty close to a Phantom 4 -- but much more compact. Both are easy to use/fly.

What about something like this?
https://www.walmart.com/ip/DJI-Phan...1433&wl11=online&wl12=194274271&wl13=&veh=sem

or the little Spark?

 

[djhoodrich]

Mavic has the best range 2 mi out 2mi back

 

[rydfree]

What about flying completely out of my line of sight? If I were to do this most of the time it would be out of my line of sight.

If you use the Litchi flight app for the Mavic you can pre-program a course for the Mavic to fly from your computer then just hit play at your takeoff point and it will complete the mission then RTH even if radio signal is lost .

 

[A.O.]

Mavic has the best range 2 mi out 2mi back

According to the specs I see, its closer to 4.3 miles out...don't really need that much, I'm within about 3/4 mile of my furthest boarder from my house and if the Spark will do 1.2 miles it just might be good enough at half the price! ;-)

 

[A.O.]

If you use the Litchi flight app for the Mavic you can pre-program a course for the Mavic to fly from your computer then just hit play at your takeoff point and it will complete the mission then RTH even if radio signal is lost .

Well what fun is that?

 

[HSK]

Some people do say, for your first drone to get a small cheap one from practice. IMO they are 10x harder to fly. The Mavic is easy, is great fun and has a brilliant camera.

That's the point though isn't it. You learn how to fly something without all the helpful GPS locks and guidance. So then if your Mavic ever goes in to ATTi mode with some strong gusts, you might panic less.

Ha.

 

[tibook]

Spark is wifi only I thought, you'll get much better range from the Mavic which seems to have the best transmission protocol of all of them. The step up from spark to mavic I think is much greater than what you get from a mavic to a phantom.

 

[Turnerm]

According to the specs I see, its closer to 4.3 miles out...don't really need that much, I'm within about 3/4 mile of my furthest boarder from my house and if the Spark will do 1.2 miles it just might be good enough at half the price! ;-)

The spec range is based on absolutely perfect conditions so don't count on that range.

 

[tibook]

The spec range is based on absolutely perfect conditions so don't count on that range.

Yeah I've seen a video where a spark made it out to 3100 ft or something but that was over water. No way it would do that over trees.

The Mavic is the clear choice here.

 

[jack92]

That's the point though isn't it. You learn how to fly something without all the helpful GPS locks and guidance. So then if your Mavic ever goes in to ATTi mode with some strong gusts, you might panic less.

Ha.

Yeah I suppose but I still think it’s easier to fly the Mavic in ATTI mode than the cheap old drones. Saying that, I had a really cheap pocket drone and it was good fun and fairly easy to control and didn’t matter if I crashed it ha