Hey all, I have two question for you guys. These are both for my work so I would only like a definite answer on the first question and your best assumptions on the 2nd. 1. I was talking to a guy at Best Buy about attaching something to a drone. He said I could not do that because it is a federal offence. Is that true or is it only attaching weapons is against the law? Again please only answers with 100% certainty on this one because breaking the law is a pretty big deal! 2. What would be the best drone to use if I wanted to lift approximately 3 pounds 50ft in the air and have it be very stable? - Price is not a issue if it works my boss will pay for anything. - I know they are not made to do this. - Making a drone would not really be an option since we will need about 6 and possibly more in the future. - It would need to hold that 3 pounds steady for up to 15 minutes. Again this question can just be your best assumption or what you have seen elsewhere. This is a project I have for work but I know very little about drones so I would like only answers that you can justify. Thank you all for your help in advance!
Well, obviously it's not a federal offense to attach things to drones. I mean, what else would you do with them if not attach things to them? What is it you're trying to attach? Is it a banner or something? Does it need a camera on it as well, assuming the object is not a camera?
I figure as much since pretty much every one has a camera attached. No camera needed. To try and not go into an exceptional amount of detail its just a wireless antenna. I work for an internet provider and right now we put the antenna on a pole and raise that up to test the signal. Which takes two people and I'm trying to simplify it with a drone.
Ok, I think you could do that with a DJI Inspire. You won't need to build anything, it just works out of the box. You will need a smartphone or ipad mini or similar to see the telemetry, and a few spare batteries. It will probably fly for about 8 or 10 minutes on each battery lifting that weight, is that long enough? You will have to modify it a bit to attach your equipment, but I don't think it will be very difficult - maybe just a few strong zip ties will do it?
It would be better if It was longer than 10 minutes. Maybe around 15 would be optimal but obviously I'll take the best I can get. I also assumed I'll have to modify any one that I get to fit what I need properly. Will the DJI Inspire be able to hold that weight fairly steady at the height I need it? Lifting the weight and being steady at around 50ft are the big factors in this project.
The height and the stability won't be an issue. The X5 camera that you can attach weighs about 1lb, so 3lb will be more than it normally lifts but I don't think it will have too much trouble doing it, it's just a case of how long it will do it for. If you have the budget and you want to be super sure, you might be better off using this: http://store.dji.com/product/matrice-600-pro?from=search#/?_k=7ygfk7 Just the Inspire 1 might be a good start because it just works out of the box, and will be getting cheaper as the Inspire 2 just came out. There are other platforms that will work, but then you're getting into $40,000 and up!