Using a MPP to bodge fix a pooling flat roof

[Django18]

I have a pooling flat roof that I can’t afford to have repaired just yet. So last December to prepare for winter and all the rain we get I installed a 4mm siphon tube to let me drain off the water and reduce the weight.

Due to the proximity of the garden fence and the nature of the roof I can’t get a ladder up there so I used my drone - a DJI Mavic Pro Platinum - to install it.

I attached the end of the tube to a 250g weight disc to hold the end of the tube in place and made a hook under the drone from a cut down Boomco dart (Google it!) and some cut down bamboo skewer held in place with a Velcro wrap. I tried using the rock in the pic as a weight at first but it was over 800g! Amazingly it managed to lift it but as I got higher and it lifted more and more tubing the combined weight got too much and it wouldn’t quite clear the roof. So I ‘borrowed’ a 250g disc from a set of dumbbells. That worked perfectly.

I lifted off into a hover before hooking the weight to the drone - Then up and over the roof and use the camera to get in as close as possible to the centre of the puddle. Then I lowered it slightly to give some slack in the string and backed away to unhook it. Amazingly it worked perfectly!!!

A couple of videos - the drone one is the live feed hence not exactly 4K but you can see what’s going on. Anyone else used their drone for anything weird?

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[RadioFlyerMan]

I have a pooling flat roof that I can’t afford to have repaired just yet. So last December to prepare for winter and all the rain we get I installed a 4mm siphon tube to let me drain off the water and reduce the weight.

Due to the proximity of the garden fence and the nature of the roof I can’t get a ladder up there so I used my drone - a DJI Mavic Pro Platinum - to install it.

I attached the end of the tube to a 250g weight disc to hold the end of the tube in place and made a hook under the drone from a cut down Boomco dart (Google it!) and some cut down bamboo skewer held in place with a Velcro wrap. I tried using the rock in the pic as a weight at first but it was over 800g! Amazingly it managed to lift it but as I got higher and it lifted more and more tubing the combined weight got too much and it wouldn’t quite clear the roof. So I ‘borrowed’ a 250g disc from a set of dumbbells. That worked perfectly.

I lifted off into a hover before hooking the weight to the drone - Then up and over the roof and use the camera to get in as close as possible to the centre of the puddle. Then I lowered it slightly to give some slack in the string and backed away to unhook it. Amazingly it worked perfectly!!!

A couple of videos - the drone one is the live feed hence not exactly 4K but you can see what’s going on. Anyone else used their drone for anything weird?

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Brilliant!

 

[Defens]

I like it a lot! Wish I could rig up my MP to rake the moss off my roof, clean the gutters, and sprinkle moss killer! It would sure make that task more fun (and safer!)

If you do more heavy lift construction jobs like that in the future, make sure to wear a hard hat and safety vest - gotta look the part!

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

Used my MPP to dust snow off my solar panels.

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[Django18]

Used my MPP to dust snow off my solar panels.

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That worked a treat! Who’d have thought a drone could be so useful! Maybe I can justify a Mavic 3 Pro to my wife when they come out if I can think of some more chores I can get it to do!

 

[Tentoes]

I have a pooling flat roof that I can’t afford to have repaired just yet. So last December to prepare for winter and all the rain we get I installed a 4mm siphon tube to let me drain off the water and reduce the weight.

Due to the proximity of the garden fence and the nature of the roof I can’t get a ladder up there so I used my drone - a DJI Mavic Pro Platinum - to install it.

I attached the end of the tube to a 250g weight disc to hold the end of the tube in place and made a hook under the drone from a cut down Boomco dart (Google it!) and some cut down bamboo skewer held in place with a Velcro wrap. I tried using the rock in the pic as a weight at first but it was over 800g! Amazingly it managed to lift it but as I got higher and it lifted more and more tubing the combined weight got too much and it wouldn’t quite clear the roof. So I ‘borrowed’ a 250g disc from a set of dumbbells. That worked perfectly.

I lifted off into a hover before hooking the weight to the drone - Then up and over the roof and use the camera to get in as close as possible to the centre of the puddle. Then I lowered it slightly to give some slack in the string and backed away to unhook it. Amazingly it worked perfectly!!!

A couple of videos - the drone one is the live feed hence not exactly 4K but you can see what’s going on. Anyone else used their drone for anything weird?

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How do you plan to start the siphon when there is water? You have to get the tube full of water over the high point and lower than the open end before water will flow.

 

[Django18]

How do you plan to start the siphon when there is water? You have to get the tube full of water over the high point and lower than the open end before water will flow.

I shot this footage last year and was reminded to dig it out when I had to re-do it this week after the seagulls had moved it around during the summer! When it’s been raining for a bit and I think there’s a bit of a puddle I just give the end a suck and then poke it down the drain below the gutter down pipe. Gravity does the rest. Even when it’s cleared 55 litres - the amount that pools when the roof starts overflowing at the edge - it’ll keep going for days in even the lightest or only occasional sprinkles. It’s such a big drop and such a small bore pipe it only takes the combined weight of all the water films between the bubbles to keep it going. It’s run for days at a time in only intermittent showers!

 

[Tentoes]

I shot this footage last year and was reminded to dig it out when I had to re-do it this week after the seagulls had moved it around during the summer! When it’s been raining for a bit and I think there’s a bit of a puddle I just give the end a suck and then poke it down the drain below the gutter down pipe. Gravity does the rest. Even when it’s cleared 55 litres - the amount that pools when the roof starts overflowing at the edge - it’ll keep going for days in even the lightest or only occasional sprinkles. It’s such a big drop and such a small bore pipe it only takes the combined weight of all the water films between the bubbles to keep it going. It’s run for days at a time in only intermittent showers!

That'll do it!

 

[jimlips]

I looked up Boomco darts, but I can't picture how you got the string to release from the drone after placing the weight. Please explain.

 

[Django18]

I looked up Boomco darts, but I can't picture how you got the string to release from the drone after placing the weight. Please explain.

A Boomco dart is made of a thicker version of what plastic straws are made of. I chose this as it seemed to be reasonably smooth and low friction. I cut off the rubber tip end leaving a piece just over an inch long - just enough to fit between the optical and ultrasonic sensors without interfering with either. Then after reinforcing it with bits of bamboo skewer I mounted it facing forwards. Once the string was hooked on in the hover I just had to fly the weight up and drop it into position, then lower the drone a few inches to give some slack - I think I lowered about a foot or so - then flew backwards so the string was being pulled forwards relative to the drone which caused it to slide off the hook. The tail end of a Boomco dart is slightly rounded in which helped the string to slip off and not get caught on a cut end. You can just about make out in the video that it took a couple of tries the get it to release but it worked after a bit to my huge relief!

 

[jimlips]

A Boomco dart is made of a thicker version of what plastic straws are made of. I chose this as it seemed to be reasonably smooth and low friction. I cut off the rubber tip end leaving a piece just over an inch long - just enough to fit between the optical and ultrasonic sensors without interfering with either. Then after reinforcing it with bits of bamboo skewer I mounted it facing forwards. Once the string was hooked on in the hover I just had to fly the weight up and drop it into position, then lower the drone a few inches to give some slack - I think I lowered about a foot or so - then flew backwards so the string was being pulled forwards relative to the drone which caused it to slide off the hook. The tail end of a Boomco dart is slightly rounded in which helped the string to slip off and not get caught on a cut end. You can just about make out in the video that it took a couple of tries the get it to release but it worked after a bit to my huge relief!

I just now saw your photos of the attachment. Now makes perfect sense! Cool! thanks for explaining.

 

[Django18]

I’ve just checked my remaining weights from my dumbbells and it was actually a 500g disc I used on the roof, not 250g as previously stated. Half a kilo plus the tube - not bad for a MPP!!