FLIR night surveillance with Phantom 4

[JasonP4]

Matrice 600 - Simply Professional Performance
You could go the professional grade route of DJI products and get longer flight time plus mounting capability of any camera you'd like

 

[Carl A]

Sounds good! Dronenerds.com seems like a good place to go for this. Any other suggestions?


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[Ibmftw]

It's pretty easy to extend the inspires flight times to 30+ minutes for less than $500 which is the same amount the Inspire just dropped in price, better still buy a used one from the classifieds on this site or even look for a used one with a dual battery mod. Matrice for this purpose would be massively wasting it's capabilities imo, for what it's worth you can change the camera on a p3, which has the same or better range than a P4 and has cheap battery mods available that will keep you in the air for perhaps 25 minutes with your equipment, and will work out 4 or 5 x cheaper. If your in the small % of people of which "money ain't a thang" Go for the matrice you will be able to mount your equipment, a very big bright light, a megaphone attached to a phone that you can speak through, an AR15 rifle, your dog and still be under max take off weight, which happens to be 15kg.

 

[Carl A]

Thanks Ibmftw. Money is always a thang when you've worked hard for it. Plus I believe in learning to crawl before you walk. The P3 with a camera change may be the right way to start. I expect this unit to crash a few times as the person who will be using it learns to handle it. Can you just simply swap the standard P3 camera with a FLIR Vue camera? For the P2 there seems to be entire conversion kits starting at $2,173 minimum. While the least expensive FLIR Vue camera by itself is $1,499.


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[Carl A]

Does anyone have experience with FLIR cameras on drones? I'm being told by a potential supplier that the night camera live feed can only travel 1,000 feet. That would sort of render it useless to cover large areas. Anyone have experience in this?


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[Erised]

Carl, there is a application called Litchi, $30.00, you can pre programme flight paths that would enable the quad copter to fly it on it's own. Using the app would make sure the defined perimeter is covered. The operator can take over at any time and resume the flight plan when he see's fit to do so.

 

[eyecon82]

If you will be flying at night, you don't need obstacle avoidance since it doesn't work in low light conditions.

So get a Phantom 3 Advanced or professional. It's also much easier to take gimbal off

 

[Ibmftw]

Does anyone have experience with FLIR cameras on drones? I'm being told by a potential supplier that the night camera live feed can only travel 1,000 feet. That would sort of render it useless to cover large areas. Anyone have experience in this?


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He's probably saying that because the cam you are interested in outputs analog video. If you use an Inspire with the xt, you will have the regular lightbridge distance.

 

[Carl A]

Thank you Erised, eyecon82, and Ibmftw.

As for programmed flights to see the recording afterwards, it would be somewhat useless since the operator (pilot?) would not be able to inform security the instant an intruder is seen by the drone.

Ibmftw, do you know if the Inspire with the XT provide the lightbridge distance while using a FLIR Pro Vue camera?

(On my way to the shrimp farm since 3 am so I can check on things at 6 am. That's part of what I wish The drone will help me out with.)


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[Ibmftw]

Thank you Erised, eyecon82, and Ibmftw.

As for programmed flights to see the recording afterwards, it would be somewhat useless since the operator (pilot?) would not be able to inform security the instant an intruder is seen by the drone.

Ibmftw, do you know if the Inspire with the XT provide the lightbridge distance while using a FLIR Pro Vue camera?

(On my way to the shrimp farm since 3 am so I can check on things at 6 am. That's part of what I wish The drone will help me out with.)


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I couldn't tell you, I imagine the the xt flir has a digital video output made to take full advantage of the lightbridge system, and I imagine the standard flir vue cameras output analog, why are you so intent on using the vue? The xt on inspire is a professional system that will give you 20 or 25 minutes flight time out the box. Lightbridge does of coarse have av input, but I imagine and im not 100% sure that, this would MASSIVELY reduce transmission range. There are also mini 5v analog to digital/hdmi converters, probably under 50grams that you could probably fix aboard a phantom with a vue and send a digital stream to the lightbridge tx, however this all seems a lot of hassle when the option already exist OTB.

 

[Flywest]

Carl - have a look at lume cubes that can be attached to the Phantom 4 see the You tubes videos.

 

[Carl A]

I had not understood that the Inspire XT has night vision capabilities out of the box. I will look into it...

Returning to civilization from the farm...

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[Carl A]

Flywest, will also look at Lume Cubes, thanks.


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[jcommisso]

I would take a look at this article. It looks like DJI and FLIR are going to release an Inspire camera very soon!

 

[Carl A]

Inspire XT a definite solution. Thanks! Getting a quote now for the Inspire XT.

Lume cubes would not work for me since intruders would likely be able hide upon seeing the drone approaching. But they would have a hard time hiding from a thermal camera.


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[Carl A]

Yeap jcommisso. That's the right solution I believe, as suggested by Ibmftw.


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[Ibmftw]

@Carl A, I hope you haven't made a purchase yet, the Inspire has dropped $, and at the rate it's going I would do 1 of 2 things, hold out for a month or send an email to [email protected] and ask them what your options are, I'd doubt a 3rd party seller will give you the discounted inspire price in the flir bundle. Or get a price for the standard XT gimble and camera and add that to the current price of an Inspire to make sure you aren't getting overcharged. There's a good possibility that this inspire price drop maybe because something new is coming, if this is the case the market will flood with inspires and you will be able to get a ridiculous deal on one, or the Inspire 3.0? will come with an flir version at a much better price point, either way RIGHT now is not a sensible time to be buying an Inspire IMHO.

 

[Broadlandboy]

The xt looks expensive Over £3000 pounds unless I've made a mistake which I probably have

 

[Carl A]

Thank you for your advice Ibmftw. Haven't received the quote I requested yet. I can definitely wait a month.

The one that drew my attention because of the price was aerialmediapros.com because of the listed price. They advertise a DJI Inspire 1 Zenmuse XT with a price reduction from $3,297 down to $2,397. The reason I asked for a quote was because I need five extra batteries with chargers,. I also asked for a standard video camera with Gimbal (everyone has a right to play sometimes!) so that I could swap it with the FLIR camera once in a while.

But given your heads up Ibmftw, I will wait a month and see what happens with the new Inspire announcement.


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[Ibmftw]

@Carl A Since the xt has come down to $2,397 I infact POSSIBLY wouldn't waste any time, if you look around good you will find a used inspire with 4 or 5 batteries and a docking station, for maybe $1800, add the xt gives you everything you want and puts you in the air for $4200, tempting uh?
Do remember though there are 2 different batts for the Inspire, one being better and a higher capacity, also there are battery mods available.

Do not take this for GOSPEL and I could be wrong, but I imagine the new inspire (if one is indeed coming, and I'm not privy to such information) will more than likely have a better vps system, collision avoidance and maybe dual IMUs basically just bringing the on board tech up to spec with the P4, however for what you want to mostly be doing sounds like these updates may not be of much use to you, just something to think about if your impatient like me.