Mapping question

[Uav.eye]

Recently found and reading through with interest of the H520 & mapping. Within the thread discussion the S900 with X5 was mentioned and is correct, and the X5 isn't an ideal camera all around in comparison to the X5R. Originally I thought they were similar, but multiple tests by various examiners have clearly show the X5R superior in sensor, ev range and sharpness, not including the RAW video abilities separate from this discussion.

What caught my eye were a few comments on the S900 with the X4S & X5S. The X4S & X5S are not compatible with S900/S1000 A3/LB2 builds and are compatible only with I2 and M200 series platform. When the S900 or S1000 is converted & upgraded to the A3Pro/LB2 electronics, it essentially mimics the M600Pro's electronics and available gimbals & cameras. These would be the X3, Z3, X5, X5R, Z30 and XT Thermo, and RoninMX with the one exception (limited by FW only for market reasons) is the XT2 Thermo accepted on the M600Pro and not S900/S1000 A3/LB2 builds.

Along that subject, the X4S is superior to the X5S for geo mapping images due to the shutter design. The X5S is a higher quality camera more cinema focused and video footage and isn't ideal without the I2 RAW components for cinema. The S900 / S1000 with the X5R provides better images than the X5, and a RoninMX with A7Riii native 42meg Full Frame would be the highest detail and image quality currently available on the platforms.

I do look forward to the progression of 3rd party programs that are now including the H520, in the last 6 months there have been a few adding the H520 to the supported platforms. That is promising news for the H520 and it's cameras. It hasn't moved forward much internally but it is beginning to pickup 3rd party attention which in my opinion is better in the long run gaining 3rd party support.

I agree about the X5, im not a big fan of it, the quality isnt that good, focus is also a big pain in the behind. X5R is the way forward if sticking with this spec, but im currently manufacturing a gimabl unit that will carry my bigger Canon DSLR, the looking to use our works A7Riii with that too, all being controlled by Intelli-G and third party Gimbal controller.
The advantage of the X5 etc is the weight is very low, even with an S900 its a consideration.
I wouldnt use this set up for surveying, the 520 is currently more than good enough for the jobs we have been offered, my original thought was to try the S900 for a few maps, but after getting to grips with the 520 there seems very little point.

But on the up side, im getting to grips with using the N3+, LB2 and finding work arounds for the camera and gimbal issues, control is divine, its floats like a butterfly, its incredible, but can no way match the 520 for ease of mapping. two tools, different jobs i guess.

 

[Dougcjohn]

I agree about the X5, im not a big fan of it, the quality isnt that good, focus is also a big pain in the behind. X5R is the way forward if sticking with this spec, but im currently manufacturing a gimabl unit that will carry my bigger Canon DSLR, the looking to use our works A7Riii with that too, all being controlled by Intelli-G and third party Gimbal controller.
The advantage of the X5 etc is the weight is very low, even with an S900 its a consideration.
I wouldnt use this set up for surveying, the 520 is currently more than good enough for the jobs we have been offered, my original thought was to try the S900 for a few maps, but after getting to grips with the 520 there seems very little point.

But on the up side, im getting to grips with using the N3+, LB2 and finding work arounds for the camera and gimbal issues, control is divine, its floats like a butterfly, its incredible, but can no way match the 520 for ease of mapping. two tools, different jobs i guess.

Very Nice, I'd be interested to hear of your gimbal development work... with Canon & Sony DSLR's. You're using the N3+ for separate RC Camera controls & Monitor? Agree, the full DSLR's exceed the S900's role and payload. I have the Intelli-G unit, haven't incorporated it yet while working out some issues with the RoninMX app controls on M600Pro with RC Expansion hardware. The Intelli-G is a great add-on, fully supports the GH4 and A7Riii. Other DSLR's supported but not the degree the GH4 & A7Riii... I'm coming from a Canon kit considering migrating to the A7R. The A7 wasn't fully supported until the A7Riii, but that was on Sony's side to add wireless, not intelli-G. If all works as expected, I'll have the intelli-G on both S1000 and M600Pro platforms. Mounting a A7Riii Full Frame with a 20-35mm would provide some impressive grid map detail. Chatted with a Geo terrain team that normally uses planes is exploring the detail of the A7Riii on RC platforms.

For the remote control of Sony A7 series, have you looked at the Air Commader v2? Looks & reviews impressive, maybe be faster setup than the intelli-G too. AIR Commander v2 | Full remote controller for SONY A7 cameras

I'm taking a little different path.. building a custom S1000 with A3Pro/LB2. With a bit of carbon fabrication of mounts & plates moving from 2mm to 4mm thickness, I'm near completion of a dual battery tray for LiPo 22,000 or lower capacity, and M600Pro RoninMX Gimbal mount to utilize all M600 gimbal options. Changing motors & props 15 to 18" using improved larger motors (E1200 TPS), giving more payload lift similar to M600Pro. Design places the batteries above gimbal in rigid under belly frame with isolation vibration gimbal frame below for support up to RoninMX payloads allowing isolation mount to not support increased battery weight as in original design. The benefit of moving from N3+ to A3Pro is 1) Tri-GPS & Tri-IMU's with improved accuracy and ability to add RTK, 2) A3/LB2 provides all the programs available to M600Pro for maps, 3D, grid, etc. The 1x 22K battery is near equal to M600P 6-Pak, not sure of 2x??mAh due to weight/energy yet determined until testing but should be a minimum of 50% gain in flight time of 1lg lipo with redundancy. Cost of 1x22K smart LiPo is 1/3 of 6-pak. Incidentally, if the S1000 with E1200 TPS works as expected, being fond of larger platforms for flight duration & SAR development... I'm pondering a M600Pro motor setup on a S1000 Octal, gaining the 21" x 8 dish. It'll require some major changes in carbon & booms, but a fun project to ponder.

With that... I'm still watching the H520's and hopful. I'm seeing more 3rd party support in last 6 months, which makes it more appealing to consider. As many have expressed, the development from Yuneec is probably minimal but if the 3rd party shops pickup the H520 that could be a major hit. Based on 3rd party products available for other platforms, the 3rd party development is superb compared to in-house features from "any" manufacture... they bring out the potential of the platform as long as core FW is solid and have access to logic controls.

No question for SAR development, the S900, S1000 & M600Pro are heavy lifters or long flights if sm cameras (X5Raw, XT or Z3) with all the benefits of Octal / Hex, but also in comparison they are huge AC to haul and setup compared to the small H520. I'd personally like to see the H-Plus gain the FW features of the H520 but since that probably won't happen I'll wait for a H520 and 3rd party development to provide the full package.... maybe, might... finger's crossed.

 

[Uav.eye]

Very Nice, I'd be interested to hear of your gimbal development work... with Canon & Sony DSLR's. You're using the N3+ for separate RC Camera controls & Monitor? Agree, the full DSLR's exceed the S900's role and payload. I have the Intelli-G unit, haven't incorporated it yet while working out some issues with the RoninMX app controls on M600Pro with RC Expansion hardware. The Intelli-G is a great add-on, fully supports the GH4 and A7Riii. Other DSLR's supported but not the degree the GH4 & A7Riii... I'm coming from a Canon kit considering migrating to the A7R. The A7 wasn't fully supported until the A7Riii, but that was on Sony's side to add wireless, not intelli-G. If all works as expected, I'll have the intelli-G on both S1000 and M600Pro platforms. Mounting a A7Riii Full Frame with a 20-35mm would provide some impressive grid map detail. Chatted with a Geo terrain team that normally uses planes is exploring the detail of the A7Riii on RC platforms.

For the remote control of Sony A7 series, have you looked at the Air Commader v2? Looks & reviews impressive, maybe be faster setup than the intelli-G too. AIR Commander v2 | Full remote controller for SONY A7 cameras

I'm taking a little different path.. building a custom S1000 with A3Pro/LB2. With a bit of carbon fabrication of mounts & plates moving from 2mm to 4mm thickness, I'm near completion of a dual battery tray for LiPo 22,000 or lower capacity, and M600Pro RoninMX Gimbal mount to utilize all M600 gimbal options. Changing motors & props 15 to 18" using improved larger motors (E1200 TPS), giving more payload lift similar to M600Pro. Design places the batteries above gimbal in rigid under belly frame with isolation vibration gimbal frame below for support up to RoninMX payloads allowing isolation mount to not support increased battery weight as in original design. The benefit of moving from N3+ to A3Pro is 1) Tri-GPS & Tri-IMU's with improved accuracy and ability to add RTK, 2) A3/LB2 provides all the programs available to M600Pro for maps, 3D, grid, etc. The 1x 22K battery is near equal to M600P 6-Pak, not sure of 2x??mAh due to weight/energy yet determined until testing but should be a minimum of 50% gain in flight time of 1lg lipo with redundancy. Cost of 1x22K smart LiPo is 1/3 of 6-pak. Incidentally, if the S1000 with E1200 TPS works as expected, being fond of larger platforms for flight duration & SAR development... I'm pondering a M600Pro motor setup on a S1000 Octal, gaining the 21" x 8 dish. It'll require some major changes in carbon & booms, but a fun project to ponder.

With that... I'm still watching the H520's and hopful. I'm seeing more 3rd party support in last 6 months, which makes it more appealing to consider. As many have expressed, the development from Yuneec is probably minimal but if the 3rd party shops pickup the H520 that could be a major hit. Based on 3rd party products available for other platforms, the 3rd party development is superb compared to in-house features from "any" manufacture... they bring out the potential of the platform as long as core FW is solid and have access to logic controls.

No question for SAR development, the S900, S1000 & M600Pro are heavy lifters or long flights if sm cameras (X5Raw, XT or Z3) with all the benefits of Octal / Hex, but also in comparison they are huge AC to haul and setup compared to the small H520. I'd personally like to see the H-Plus gain the FW features of the H520 but since that probably won't happen I'll wait for a H520 and 3rd party development to provide the full package.... maybe, might... finger's crossed.

A long reply requires some thought, maybe we stray from the 520 a bit. I am very happy with what the 520 produces for mapping, sometimes for cinematography, but not always. The S900 projects we have on the go are all based on my composite manufacturing experience, of which I could maybe do some work with you?
DM me an email I will contact you direct with more details. It doesn't feel like the place to be discussing DJI electronics. But I have a new smaller composite drone in design purely for mapping ;-)

 

[Uav.eye]

At present our home build, is a self fabricated carbon fibre airframe, running stock 900 motors (1100mm tip to tip), it's built as a heavy lift but the centre board is s900. Now we have proved the test bed we can think about upgrades, M600 motors are a possible, our frame is more than up to it. Everything else is N3+ A3 upgrade kit, lightbridge2 with dual controller, X5 camera with M600 mounting. Our gimbal is a self designed and composite fabricated using basecam pro GCU and heavy duty motors to take most DSLR. A7riii is a new toy I'm boring from work but mainly it will be our canon at the start. Everything will be mounted on the gimbal including battery and GCU so it has full 360, RC is Taranis with long range RC module. To start viewing for camera operator will be via second LB ground controller. Lots to do. Our standard s900 is speced as above also but just using the X5 at the moment until the gimbal is complete.

 

[Dougcjohn]

A long reply requires some thought, maybe we stray from the 520 a bit. I am very happy with what the 520 produces for mapping, sometimes for cinematography, but not always. The S900 projects we have on the go are all based on my composite manufacturing experience, of which I could maybe do some work with you?
DM me an email I will contact you direct with more details. It doesn't feel like the place to be discussing DJI electronics. But I have a new smaller composite drone in design purely for mapping ;-)

I’ll PM you... sounds like you have quite the work going on. I’m a garage tinker with limitations of tools & knowledge but very intersted in finding working solutions a bit out of norm.

 

[Uav.eye]

I’ll PM you... sounds like you have quite the work going on. I’m a garage tinker with limitations of tools & knowledge but very intersted in finding working solutions a bit out of norm.

I have the advantage of composite knowledge, and a fully equipped workshop at work, and as a college lecturer have some budget for our commercial Drone work, but not enough to buy what I'd like so necessity requires self building.
But im frustrated by DJI lock-in with certain elements so it's a given that we need work arounds.
What the 520 brings IMO is a great turn key solution that I chose instead of an Inspire platform, hopefully (I'm sure they will) Yuneec Uk can keep bringing updates to make my choice worth while. I certainly wouldn't sell the 520 at this point as I'm finding good uses to warrant keeping it. What I find with DJI consumer/pro products is a stale flying experience, when we had inspire 1+2 on hire I found it a very bland experience, whereas the Yuneec is much more of a truer flight. Ultimately the inspire two is much better but I knew I was going down the self build route so the 520 won the day so to speak. The S900 and variants I'm building do the work the 520 won't.

 

[Jovan]

Could someone explan me what's the point with Terrain Altitude? This is showing on the ecran when I am putting waypoints and I don't understand it. Here is another photo of the whole mapping done with Desktop data pilot. There is no explanation about this in the Yuneec manual.

 

[Jovan]

I have a few more questions.
1. If I define 0s for hold, should I uncheck the flight speed ? Because if it is 0s the drone practically keeps on moving, it doesn't stop in that point. So this means that if I want to put, for example 10secs hold, I should uncheck the flight speed square, because the drone stands still for 10 secs it doesn't move. Will the drone keep on moving with the flight speed i defined before after those 10 secs? This is a little bit confusing for me I hope you undrestood what I said, please help me if you can.
2. Also what about if I want to record video. Should I put ''Start record video'' on the first waypoint, on the waypoint in between ''No change'' and on the last waypoint ''Stop recording video'' ? What do you do if you want the H520 to start recording video while in mission ? Or you are just starting shooting manually, clicking the red bottom on the screen ?
3. At last, what's the point with this altitude - Planned Home Position 325 meters . What does it mean, I didn't even put that number ? Isn't that a little too much for an altitude ?

I will be really happy and thankful if someone could respond at least on half of these questions that are tormenting me for days. There is not much in the manual. Thank you guys.