Satellite/LTE control Mavic Pro/Pro Platinum

Encrypted · Jan 28, 2018

Yes I was a little worried about latency and a lot worried about price. My current satellite setup has no noticeable latency over voice but data latency is around 100ms.

beanbubba · Jan 29, 2018

Encrypted said:
Hi Guys,

I know I am new to the forum (I am a satellite, chemistry and saltwater reef guy) but I have been interested in developing an alternative signal method to control your Mavic Pro, pro platinum and even more expensive units like the Inspire 2 and Matrice. Now there are really two feasible options (both of which I would hope to make universal).

1. Satellite control on the iridium network
-the iridium network has global coverage so your drones would work at an unlimited range anywhere in the world and only be limited by the battery (which is the next issue I want to tackle).
2. LTE - I am less familiar with how this would work as I have never worked for a cellular company but I will tell you this option would be the least expensive as cell providers allow you to transfer mass quantities of data for cheap. Again there would be unlimited range for your drone (only limited by batter and cell covereage). This is also the downside as your unit would not work if your were up in the mountains away from major highways.

So I am taking a poll interested in how many of you would buy this if it was reasonably priced, it would have an annual subscription fee but would be open to how this would work like flex plans etc.

I thought the inspire2 already supported this??

https://store.dji.com/product/inspire-2

Encrypted · Jan 30, 2018

Not that I know of I mean your mavic’s, and higher all utilize satellites for GPS. Was this what you were thinking of or does it use something else (I’m new to these). I’m really enjoying the stuff so far. I want to order a matrice 200 series soon. It rains so much here in Seattle half the year the IP rating on it is really attractive.

easyearth · Jan 14, 2019

Take a look this guy video, he's already make it with the Parrot Disco.
Although it got a bit latency, but it's work very well across the island.
Let's just look into the tutorial. I think for the mavic is the same way around.

Footage:

Tutorial:
uavpal/disco4g

Kilrah · Jan 14, 2019

Nope, can't do that with a Mavic.

rccarlsbad · Jan 20, 2019

Pretty sweet,

Mavic Pro Platinum · Jan 20, 2019

Encrypted said:
Hi Guys,

I know I am new to the forum (I am a satellite, chemistry and saltwater reef guy) but I have been interested in developing an alternative signal method to control your Mavic Pro, pro platinum and even more expensive units like the Inspire 2 and Matrice. Now there are really two feasible options (both of which I would hope to make universal).

1. Satellite control on the iridium network
-the iridium network has global coverage so your drones would work at an unlimited range anywhere in the world and only be limited by the battery (which is the next issue I want to tackle).
2. LTE - I am less familiar with how this would work as I have never worked for a cellular company but I will tell you this option would be the least expensive as cell providers allow you to transfer mass quantities of data for cheap. Again there would be unlimited range for your drone (only limited by batter and cell covereage). This is also the downside as your unit would not work if your were up in the mountains away from major highways.

So I am taking a poll interested in how many of you would buy this if it was reasonably priced, it would have an annual subscription fee but would be open to how this would work like flex plans etc.

Welcome to the forum![emoji16]

Mavic Pro Platinum · Jan 20, 2019

dvarapala said:
Well sure. The government also has a drone called Argus with a 1.8 gigapixel surveillance camera that can cover an entire city and download full motion images to the ground in real time as well as archive the entire feed for later forensic analysis, but that doesn't mean you or I could afford to duplicate that capability.

It will be interesting to see what you come up with.

Wow! I’m guessing that a gigapixel is 1000 megapixels?

easyearth · Jan 23, 2019

Are you still working on this project?

Spartac0 · Feb 10, 2019

This (together with having a flying Linux box) is the reason why I switched to parrot. Got both disco and bebop 2 happily flying over 4g. The video feed is as good as your internet provider, but totally doable. I even tested the bebop by flying it over 4g and switching to WiFi and back, at home, did not crash it in such small space so you can figure the doability.
For This to work it takes a modem for the aircraft with a otg usb cable and a WiFi hotspot for the controller (they both have to be on the internet).
I wish such a mod was doable for my mavic pro, it would make it way more desirable and possibly better than the bebop in certain circumstances.
I don’t know wether the mavic runs Linux, I’ll check that next.

Cheers

jsugar72 · Feb 20, 2019

2nckayakers said:
This is completely different from driverless cars. IF all you want is an autonomous drone, then you are in the wrong hobby. The whole fun in these are that you control them. You can pull the sticks and go where ever you want to go and see what you want to see from a whole different perspective. If all you want to do is press a button, fly 1000 feet in the air and go any distance you want looking at the ground, the I can save you a lot of money, frustration and headaches, there is this thing called Google Maps, and you aren't limited to 27 minutes of flight time, and you can go anywhere in the world in a split second. The best thing about it is if you are reading this forum it means you have a computer and you can use Google Maps for free! No fly away risk, no danger to other aircraft, no aggravated neighbors, no invasion of privacy claims and best of all NO FAA rules! And if you say that it isn't the same thing because you don't get that feeling of flying? Go use Google Earth and it has a flight sim mode!

The only thing this technology you speak of would do for me (or the average non commercial user) is if by some miracle you get the FAA and the whole civil aviation community on board with the idea that we can let drones operate outside our un aided VLOS and without our direct control. That is NOT going to happen anytime soon. The only way you ever get that to happen is if every person flying a drone goes through comprehensive flight training (way more than required by 107), and your drone is equipped with a transponder that will broadcast your location to everyone.

Now if I wanted to be an outlaw and ignore the VLOS rule (which I typically don't do), I could already fly autonomously using Litchi and send my Mavic on a 5 mile round trip or 10 to 15 mile one way trip and I wouldn't need any technology more than what I already have.

I don't know about others on here, but my LTE service isn't 100% reliable I don't care what Verizon says, and Viasat has one of the most powerful birds providing high speed data links and I still manage to lose satellite connection when I want to stream my favorite show on TV. So nothing is going to provide absolute positive control unless you are the Military.