How large an area can an Inspire/P3 map?

Inspire’s can cover a lot of ground. What’s the biggest map anyone has done?

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We’ve been able to do about 200 acres at the highest altitude using two batteries. So It’s possible you could get 100 acres from a single battery at the highest altitude.

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Chase, was that with p3 or inspire? Also curious, if the drone reaches a distance where it loses signal from the remote, I’m assuming it will abort the mission and return home? I would like test on a larger area this upcoming week.

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The map im referring to was with a phantom 3 but an inspire should get similar results.
If you lose connection with the remote the drone will come back after a short amount of time without reconnecting.

I have been able to get 70 acres consistently with my Phantom 3 with one battery. I have gotten up to 90 on one flight but a lot depends on how long the runs are and how much it has to turn.

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We made a 158 acre map with Inspire in a single flight. Checkout the map here.

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This was with some new optimized overlap settings we are testing out.

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Is it possible to stitch together several missions?

It is. For now the volume of those requests is low so just send an email with the map IDs to be stitched together. There needs to be overlap between the maps or it might not work.

Damn! Nice neighborhood!

What altitude are you guys flying at for your large areas?
Our FAA 333 exemption limits us to 200 ft AGL, so I can only get about 25 acres on one battery (15 minute flight) with 80% overlap in the photos flying a 12 mph. So far this is all done manually with the camera set at 5 seconds between shots. I’m preparing to experiment with Drone Deploy (phantom 3 Beta) today for the first time. Upgrading my firmware now.
I’ve added a comment to our FAA 333 folder requesting allowance for higher altitudes.

Related question: how far can I fly from the takeoff point before I start mapping? I map remote sites that might be 5-10 miles or more from the nearest road access. Can I use DD to plan and manage flights like these? Assume for now that aircraft flight time, control range, and flying BLOS are not issues.

If those things aren’t an issue it should be fine. There are some restrictions from DJI regarding max waypoint length, etc. but we have ways to get around those. Let us know if you’re going to be planning flights like these so we can make sure those fixes are in.

Is there any way to simulate this in the simulator? Can I set my own take off point and define a mapping area relative to it somewhere other than San Francisco?

Not in the DroneDeploy simulator. That is for aircrafts with the DroneDeploy CoPilot.

Have you solved the issues of being able to control the DJI drone from that far away and also the battery life issue? I would imagine those are the two largest issues.

At full tilt and low altitude, we can get a P3 out about 6 miles and back on 60-70% battery. That leaves 40% for on-station mapping. BLOS piloting is done with a 5.8GHz FPV system and a DBS long range mod.
This setup gets us into remote drill sites manually, but we’d like to use DD to plan the flight end-to-end. It would be nice if we could also use the simulator to test the plan before sending real equipment into the god-forsaken wilderness.

There is a DJI Simulator here:

http://download.dji-innovations.com/downloads/dev/MobileSDK/DJI_PC_Simulator_Installer_And_User_Manual_V1.0_en.zip

and the windows driver here:
http://download.dji-innovations.com/downloads/dev/OnboardSDK/DJI_WIN_Driver_Installer.zip

Which is normally used for developing against the SDK.

You have to plug a usb from the windows machine to the aircraft’s usb port then start the simulation. Make sure props are off. You should then be able to set the lat lng on the sim and then run dronedeploy with the aircraft in the simulator.

The newest version of the app is the only one I’d try this with. It still sounds like a scary flight either way being so far away. The new version will be in the play store later today.

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hey manu !!

Great work.
i just wanted to know the altitude of that inspire in your mission.

Please reply asap.

I think manus flight was right under 400 feet.

Hi @RickWorsnop,

I’m Vikshut, from Bangalore, India. I was wondering if you did the entire flight using the continue mission feature on DD and if it worked out well for you. It would be great if you can send across the flight details.

I need your advice on something -

I’m going to be mapping an 850 acre coffee plantation site next week. It’s got a terrain variation of 250 meters (820 feet) and I’ve got access to the highest point in the site from where I’m going to be flying the drone.

I’ve planned the flight off line and found the max distance that the drone will fly from the remote to be about 2.5 km (1.6 miles). I’ll be flying it at an altitude of 82 meters (269 feet) AGL and BLOS is not really an issue here. I’m right at the edge of a forest here.

Should I go ahead with this plan or would you have me do it differently, based on your experience?

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

@chasemgray, would be great if you can add to this as well.