CG03ET - Worth It?

Airtography · Feb 25, 2017

I'm seriously considering the ET Thermal camera for one of my 3 TYH's and am not finding a great deal of information / reference to the camera on-line -- so I thought I'd check here.

Does anyone have one and what kind of experience are you having with it?

I'm commercial and before sending my spring flyers was thinking of featuring this service. I currently have a Seek thermal camera that i tether with a phone via my Phantom's -- clunky, but works. ET's going for $1,799 - wow pricey -- Thoughts anyone?

Richk · Feb 25, 2017

I've been thinking of getting one as well, but 2 things have held me back first is from what I have read the ET only records thermal images to the ST16 not the SD card in the camera which would make the work flow cumbersome and second the lack of good grid mapping. I may just have to keep slying my Solo for this

abinder · Feb 25, 2017

Airtography said:
I'm seriously considering the ET Thermal camera for one of my 3 TYH's and am not finding a great deal of information / reference to the camera on-line -- so I thought I'd check here.

Does anyone have one and what kind of experience are you having with it?

I'm commercial and before sending my spring flyers was thinking of featuring this service. I currently have a Seek thermal camera that i tether with a phone via my Phantom's -- clunky, but works. ET's going for $1,799 - wow pricey -- Thoughts anyone?

If you think you can make money using it, then it would be worth it. I haven't used one, but appears to be useful if you have the ability to use it.
(Also a good tax write off for a business if it's used.)

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Tuna · Feb 25, 2017

Richk said:
I've been thinking of getting one as well, but 2 things have held me back first is from what I have read the ET only records thermal images to the ST16 not the SD card in the camera which would make the work flow cumbersome and second the lack of good grid mapping. I may just have to keep slying my Solo for this

No, it records images to the SD-Card, but they need post-processing if you want a picture like you see on the ST-16 (I have an experimental online tool that demostrates this here: UAV Toolbox - Yuneec ST-16 )

If anyone has requirements for professional integration, or features they need to take advantage of the CGO-ET, then please contact me.

Richk · Feb 25, 2017

I did not know that. I had read somewhere that it only recorded B&W images to the SD card and thermal images to the ST16. I don't know if it would be possible ,but if you could expand your app to include a grid mapping option it would be great. doing it one waypoint at a time is to time consuming. With the grid app for Solo I lay out a grid over the field input the height with the desired percent of overlap and the app plots the route

Tuna · Feb 25, 2017

So are you wanting to generate thermal orthomosaics?

Richk · Feb 25, 2017

Airtography · Feb 25, 2017

All great information in these replies. Thank you all. Will be checking this out further. The point about only being stored on the ST 16 is interesting -- wondering if they are only 720p. I suppose you really don't need more than that for thermal images..... thanks again. If I get one, I'll be sure to post here.

Tuna · Feb 25, 2017

In common with most thermal cameras, the thermal image is fairly low resolution - but it doesn't need to be higher when it's combined with the visual image as reference.

Both the thermal image and the visible light image are stored on the SD-Card on the camera itself. The ST-16 gets the combined visual and thermal image that you see on the screen at the time of capture.

Airtography · Feb 26, 2017

Tuna said:
In common with most thermal cameras, the thermal image is fairly low resolution - but it doesn't need to be higher when it's combined with the visual image as reference.

Both the thermal image and the visible light image are stored on the SD-Card on the camera itself. The ST-16 gets the combined visual and thermal image that you see on the screen at the time of capture.

That makes sense. Very helpful. Thank you. One more question - does the ST16 software support it or is there and "add-on" or something special that has to be configured ? Again, many thanks.

Tuna · Feb 26, 2017

The standard ST-16 Flight Mode app (the one you normally fly with) supports all of the available Yuneec cameras automatically - you just have to bind them with the controller.