Before Buying... I have ?'s

[Atmosfear86]

I work in the Forestry Field in B.C, Canada and I have been thinking about buying an Inspire 1 for months now to make extra money and make my job a little easier and funner. Before I do invest in a quad though I have a LOT of questions about the capabilities and drawbacks that come along with it. I'll try and make this simple. Ill list the questions I can think of from #1-?? and just try and go from there. I know someone who uses quadcopters to make 3D maps basically by flying a grid pattern and taking pictures. I want to do something similar to this concept.

1. Is anyone using this drone for Forestry?? If so is it worth using it for certain things or can tell me about the specific stuff they do with it?
2. How good is the GPS of the Inspire 1? Can you take points as you fly and get accurate co-ordinates at the current position? How accurate?
3. I heard there are two kinds of batteries. One that lasts for 17 min and then another type that lasts for 22 min? Is there a longer-lasting battery?
4. I plan on using the drone to fly over a forest basically. Will there be some kind of program I have to download that is after-market that I can put in my laptop and use it to upload information to fly a grid?? Question 4 is really important actually... I need to know what kind of programs are out there that work with the Inspire. Or do you just take the pictures the drone produces and then use those images or videos to create something into 3d that is a separate entity from the Inspire company???? I know these questions might be vague but I know nothing about what comes with the Inspire or what they are capable of, please keep this in mind.
5. If I crash the Inspire somehow in the forest, how will I be able to find it? Is there some kind of a locator on the aircraft that I can use to find it in the middle of the bush??
6. If Im flying over rough terrain and its flying a grid on autopilot. Does the Inspire automatically stay above the tree tops a certain distance? Or do I have to set a 'hard deck' or a minimum altitude it can fly based off the highest contour?

Ill leave it at this for now...

If anyone has anything to add please feel free. And thanks ahead of time for the people that give me some answers!!!

 

[Mike Ellgood]

Most people seem to be avoiding this bunch of questions for you...

I have read through your questions and requirements .. I cant help but think, that what your require and need to use in your Forestry profession .Far outweighs what the Inspire is capable of at this time, the Inspire is primary a camera platform and is not capable of pre programing of specific tasks up loaded to it and fly as the program commands

A full sized helicopter with a mapper/spotter is the option I think that will full fill your needs.. or a very expensive drone designed to your requirements and loaded with computers

 

[Kilrah]

2) No.
3) No.
4) No, there is no app to control Inspire features at this point. You can throw photos into generic third-party image processing software but there's nothing made specifically for the Inspire, and the Inspire doesn't provide the "additional" metadata that would be useful for it to do a good job.
5) No, some mount 3rd-party locators.
6) Obviously not as there isn't even an autopilot flying feature at this point.

So you'll have likely noticed by now this isn't at all a platform made for the kind of uses you're after.

Might rather want to look at things specifically made for that purpose, like this.

 

[Luis Morales]

I work in the Forestry Field in B.C, Canada and I have been thinking about buying an Inspire 1 for months now to make extra money and make my job a little easier and funner. Before I do invest in a quad though I have a LOT of questions about the capabilities and drawbacks that come along with it. I'll try and make this simple. Ill list the questions I can think of from #1-?? and just try and go from there. I know someone who uses quadcopters to make 3D maps basically by flying a grid pattern and taking pictures. I want to do something similar to this concept.

1. Is anyone using this drone for Forestry?? If so is it worth using it for certain things or can tell me about the specific stuff they do with it?
2. How good is the GPS of the Inspire 1? Can you take points as you fly and get accurate co-ordinates at the current position? How accurate?
3. I heard there are two kinds of batteries. One that lasts for 17 min and then another type that lasts for 22 min? Is there a longer-lasting battery?
4. I plan on using the drone to fly over a forest basically. Will there be some kind of program I have to download that is after-market that I can put in my laptop and use it to upload information to fly a grid?? Question 4 is really important actually... I need to know what kind of programs are out there that work with the Inspire. Or do you just take the pictures the drone produces and then use those images or videos to create something into 3d that is a separate entity from the Inspire company???? I know these questions might be vague but I know nothing about what comes with the Inspire or what they are capable of, please keep this in mind.
5. If I crash the Inspire somehow in the forest, how will I be able to find it? Is there some kind of a locator on the aircraft that I can use to find it in the middle of the bush??
6. If Im flying over rough terrain and its flying a grid on autopilot. Does the Inspire automatically stay above the tree tops a certain distance? Or do I have to set a 'hard deck' or a minimum altitude it can fly based off the highest contour?

Ill leave it at this for now...

If anyone has anything to add please feel free. And thanks ahead of time for the people that give me some answers!!!

1. hard to know i seem a lot of photogrammetry and S&R done with the inspire so its possible, thought the kind of people using it for that its probably not here.
2. as accurate as you can get with consumer GPS (the one on the inspire is one of the best) but it wont get even close as good as a base station. so you will probably get 1m error or so.
3. no, you have the 4500Mah battery the TB47 and a 5700 Mah Battery, it will probably be hard to get more due to size limitations. thought 22minutes fly is a hard stretch it will depend a lot on weather conditions
4.there are none right now (i hardly doubt there will be any for laptops) but there are 2 third parties working on that functionality right now 1 is for amateur use http://autoflightlogic.com they roam this forum and they said the waypoint features is coming soon. the other one is a more professional app coming soon too made by the developer of pix4d (photogrammetry, point clouds and orthomosaics,specially designed for your needs) https://pix4d.com/pix4dmapper-app/ they have the p3 and the i3 as coming soon listed there. (the sdk is new so their probably working on it.)
5.here is a list of gps tracker you could use with the inspire http://www.inspirepilots.com/threads/inspire-1-accesories.2528/page-2#post-29023 in case there is no 2g/3g coverage there are also radio beacons that could be used too.
6. most probably you will need to set a height (once the feature to have missions is available) that said, seeing how the hardware on the matrice 100 is the same as the inspire it is possible that there will be a future add-on for the inspire to use the guidance system. with something like that it could be full auto pilot (but this is a feature that is NOT available in any of the more professional platforms.)


so as it stands right now you better wait and see how it goes, or go to another specific more professional platform for your needs,

you have options tailored to your needs like https://www.sensefly.com/home.html there are options out there that will even allow you to fly a lidar. most pro platforms will allow the usual sensor like color cameras, NIR, IR, Thermal, Multispectral and them some will allow lidar.

i hope this helps clarify your questions.