Tips for a Beginner

I looking for resources for a beginner. Any direction would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Have you visited the blog.dronedeploy or support.dronedepoy.com?

@jmorse62
Don’t give up and post questions here or talk to the DroneDeploy (DD) staff. Everybody is helpful, and once you have the hang of it, you will be happy :slight_smile:

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I qualify as a beginner also with only 2 missions flown. What aircraft are you using and what mobile device (android or iOS) ? I struggled for awhile trying to get my device to operate using DD. I was relieved to find out that once airborne the drone did return to home when commanded during the flight as a failsafe. Phantom 3 Standard and Samsung 5 phone.

I have had range issues with my RC and DJI GO app but DroneDeploy does not , as yet, cut out and return to home for loss of signal when flying a mission which I am happy about; both missions have been about 2 acres in area. Flying manually to get horizontal pictures will be a challenge when you are gathering data for a structure if there are trees, power lines or other buildings in the flight path. Hope this helps.

I have a Mavic Pro and a Samsung S7 Android phone. I am thinking of trying to make some money with the Mavic and find Drone Deploy pretty interesting. Flying the Mavic seems pretty simple, wondering about possibly making money using Drone Deploy.

As you may have seen, when the DroneDeploy 3D data is processed and the 3D model is constructed it can be uploaded to Sketchfab. Sketchfab enables the 3D model to be shared in various ways. The model of my home has been embedded into a web site on a real estate listing page, it has been uploaded to FaceBook as an interactive image and has been shared via e-mail with an enclosed link to the Sketchfab hosting site.

I have had responses from several realtors who find this 3D modelling concept interesting and think it may have application to their marketing. Since it can only be done with a drone; I mean as a series of aerial photos stitched together, this precludes most realtors from image capture; as opposed to interior house photos taken with a their smart phones. There should be a business here for the drone operator.

The problem which I have run into the last 4 months of video work , including 360 degree vids, is the difficulty of getting realtors, once they have the footage, to share it on the internet. Never has a realtor embedded one of my videos from YouTube into their listing page for that home property for sale. I think if I can show them that a Sketchfab 3D DroneDeploy model embeds just as a photo, which all realtors have on their listing pages, then they may begin to display my work which I then can show off to other realtors as an example of what can be done.

That’s my perspective on making a business out of this modelling. You’ll find some of my experimental work here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_j7-1V7n5IF6-YZ3R8-fsg

Hi everyone,

I just flew my first five missions in the past few days. I flew three today. So far I have been amazed. I am flying recreationally and have flown RC and general aviation since the early 90’s. I love technology so drones seemed a natural fit. I decided to wait for the evolution of the industry and ended up choosing a P4P. I love it. I also am very impressed with DroneDeploy. I am a Real Estate Developer so eventually I will get my Part 107 certificate in order to fly repeat missions to monitor construction progress, perform cut and fill calcs etc.

I’m wondering Frank if the Real Estate agents are just using old MLS technology. I can’t stand how slow the brokerage industry moves in terms of tech. Yes Zillow and similar sites are great but they mostly pull from the MLS and unless a broker has a big operation they will be limited by the technology of the local MLS.

I have been reading the forums for a while and it’s great to see so much willingness to help each other out.

Have a nice day,
Adam

Good to hear from you Adam. Yes, this and other drone discussion groups are great places to learn and show your work and progress. In the coming 4 days I hope to use ‘terrain’ view for the first time on some acreage which I have for sale and which I have already filmed with my Phantom for YouTube.

Lots to be said about how aerial operators can motivate listing agents to use our images and videos; my emphasis has been to do work for free and urge agents to display my work so that I can refer others to their listings showing my work on each one. The idea is that advanced marketing products display best when used for real sales not just examples of my home; actual listings are more convincing.

A further idea is to promote mobile device viewing (as opposed to desk top) because that is the coming method of internet access and especially interactive marketing. Thus, FaceBook panoramas of interior of homes. DroneDeploy panable 3D models of homes and neighborhoods like this: http://glitterbaytablerocklake.embarqspace.com/#/3d-model/4593618929

It could be that MLS is a barrier for listing agents to use interactive products like Sketchfab models. I know there are differences in MLS rules for each state in the Union regarding listing practices. Some agents do simply use the service for creating and updating their web pages and I have a lot to learn about this as I’m not a registered agent. (just a home property developer).

Showing these interactive models to people in the real estate business is the first step to acceptance and it’s important not to get discouraged if the response is a blank stare; the more positive responses from buyers the more 3D models will be accepted. I think it just takes time and innovation on the part of flyers as well as programmers. Conversations among us will further the whole system for all concerned. Best to you on your projects; I’d like to see anything you do with DroneDeploy.
Frank

Frank, I couldn’t agree more. Those are some nice sites you have there. Best of luck to you. We don’t have much topography in South Florida. What settings have you found best in your flights?

I’ll share some models once I get a better handle on things. I have a 78 acre flight planned. How have battery swaps worked for you? I’m sure I will need at least one. I have three batteries for my P4P.

Just flew this yesterday, Adam. It required 3.5 min of battery time ! It was windy so I was not able to get enough data (pix) of the 2 blocks of shaded buildings. Must try harder on that. This is the largest (4.5acre) property I have flown. Sent the link out to 6 realtors to show them what’s possible. I want to know how to add color in this state of the image; ie, blue color over swimming pool to mask dirty water.

I’ll look at my settings and report back to you. I did use a polarizing filter on my P3S camera. It does not take 4k only 2.7k. Set on .jpg, auto focus, ‘classic’ coloring-if that applies to photos, I don’t know, I always use ‘classic’ for videos.

Watch out for auto shooting timer. I set mine at 5 sec. when I did the manual shooting after DroneDeploy mission shooting. I used ‘course lock’ mode in the GO app. at altitude 50 feet (the DD mission was at 200 ft) and camera angle down 45 degrees. I then pushed the right stick slowly to move the drone down along the motel blocks lengthwise and about as far away from the building as I could get, shooting across the pool on both left and right passes. The wind was gusty coming right at me so I had trouble with the left (south) blocks of buildings. On my second pass the GO app. switched from 5 to 10 second intervals snapping pix !!! I had to go back into camera settings and switch back to 5 sec. 179 pix in all…took all night to upload and process…my slow internet connection. Best of Luck !

https://skfb.ly/66A8C

thanks you, i think it may be helpfull for me