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Night testing the Lume Cubes...and more.

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Mar 18, 2017
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It's raining here still, but something inspired me to press on. Actually I couldn't stand not to try them out. I decided to try them out indoors, hey, i'll test the indoor flight capabilities as well....win-win, two birds with one stone. The arena....my shop.cubetest003.JPG
 
The floor has many battle scars, and the shop is a bit messy but i'll press on. These pics were taken with my Canon EOS Rebel xsi. This side of the shop is 24'x30' and is 18 feet tall in the center with various air hoses and winches hanging from the ceiling.cubetest004.JPG
 
Keep in mind i'm totally by myself at this point, (probably a good thing), it's nearly 1:00am here now at the time these pics were taken.
 
It was a handful trying to fly the I2 and turning the lights on and off (both the shop lights and the Lume Cubes) in that tight of a space. These pics were taken with the X4S camera on the I2 while trying to fly it indoors........Shop lights on.....cubetest006.JPG
 
Keep in mind it was pitch black in the shop without any lights on....can't see your hand in front of your face dark.
 
I just noticed I posted this in the wrong place...not sure how it made it here...was shooting for the I2 discussion. Whoops. May as well finish it.
 
Everything was happening so fast I didn't get a chance to take some pics with my canon while it was in the air...I had my hands full.
 
One last pic with the shop lights out and the gimbal pointed in the same direction as the Cubes.cubetest011.JPG
 
My poor excuse for a test withstanding...I thought the Cubes did well. I can see all kinds of cool shots you can make with them. What stood-out the most for me was trying to fly the I2 indoors. My shop is a metal building, I have a 200 amp service flowing to it literally inches away from where I was filming, eight foot florescent lights in the ceiling, Bluetooth going from a tablet to control the Cubes, a radio was playing, batteries charging from various cordless tools, I have a 110 outlet every two feet all the way around the shop and six doubles in the ceiling on the woodworking side of the shop, I ran over 2000 feet of 110 wire and 200 feet of 220 wire..all live...all the time....I cant imagine me introducing more interference to any RC period. My remote garage door opener flips me off if I even think about opening it over a few feet away. This beast, my I2 beast, started up and hovered right in place. The landing gear went up and she sat there in place awaiting her next instructions...unreal...awesome...I can't describe it. When I turned the shop lights off to test the Cubes, I was less impressed. The I2 started to drift around a bit, like it was having trouble seeing where it was at,... like me. It seemed to me like it didn't see or feel what was underneath it or around it...scary feeling, I landed it like now. Tried the same process two more times, same results, everytime the lights went off (even with the Cubes on) it started to drift sideways or forward like it didn't know what to do. I decided to fight another day and quit while I was ahead. I was very impressed with the Cubes, can't wait to try them outdoors. I was more impressed with the I2's ability to fly indoors under lighted conditions. Can't wait to get it outdoors and try a night test in a wide open space.
 
it would start to drift when the lights went out because it uses binocular vision positioning sensors (VPS) to survey the 'ground'. It then uses the images it obtains to determine it's position and drift and uses that to correct and hold position without gps. Once it loses lighting, it can't get enough detail from the downward VPS to hold. Works best with ground that has a pattern to it, although, apparently, complex patterns can confuse it and reduce the hold ability. Grass can also give it a headache :D

The I2 also has downward sonar and upward IR to help it determine height and proximity to a ceiling, but they don't need ambient lighting to work - the vps does. Same with the forward vps, it needs light to work. You probably got a warning about ambient light being too low on DJIGo - that's what it was refering to.
 
I own a pair of the Lume's but found them to be purplish and not all that bright. I have to fly within 12 feet and high ISO to get anything worthwhile in post else it is too dark and too high noise in the images too. Lots of vignetting with the wide angle lens too. Even the guy who flies the Alta 8 with that quarter-million lumens LED light bar that weigh 40 pounds has vignetting, but he can get decent exposure within the circle of light from above the tree tops - cool effect though with them.

However, if their sole mission is to see where the bird is at night, they excel there. Just the photography is sort of eh, imho.
 
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What are these supposed to do? They won't give you any light beyond 20ft, so kind of pointless for a drone. The other problem with night flying is that your bird will be easily spotted from the ground (especially with more lighting) and attract all sorts of attention, so unless you have a waiver to fly more than 30 minutes after dusk it may be a problem.
 

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