Phantom in extended "standby"?

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I'd like to get some pictures of the beavers who live in the ponds in front of our cabin. In order to do that, however, I'll have to have the Phantom powered up and ready to fly -- the beaver typically cruise the surface for a minute or two, then disappear. It takes just a moment to turn on the camera but by the time I power up the Phantom the beaver is long gone.

Do you know how much power the Phantom uses while powered on but without turning the props? Would there be any risk of overheating any components if I leave it powered on for an hour or two without flying?
 
I think you may be exploring uncharted territory here.
Of course your radio will also have to be on, so you will have to make sure fresh batteries are installed.
I am not sure how many hours of operation a stock Phantom radio will go, and it may depend on the brand of battery,
but I think the Futaba with rechargeable batteries are good for 10 hours.

Good Luck, and be careful. I've read two stories recently of people being killed by beavers. Probably not a good way
to go.

Do you think they will hear the Phantom start up, and submerge, or are they fairly used to human presence ?
 
Sounds pretty tricky to me. I' can't imagine DJI ever intended the components to be powered for 1hr but that said while I have been testing 'inside' the shell I've not felt much heat from any of them while just idle. The risk though is then taking off with a Phantom with a semi/nearly drained Lipo over water!... auto landing does not discriminate over what surface it comes down on!

The only 'off the wall' way that I can think of is to have a constant source powering the Phantom in a parallel setup with an installed Lipo (making the Phantom think it has 2 batts attached). You would then have to make the connections to this constant supply via a DIY quick release system (maybe 2 copper pads held together with a very light weight maybe?). The idea being when you take off, the phantom pulls the pads apart. This disconnects the constant source but without losing power as the Lipo is in parallel.... would need a lot of thinking, testing and someone who actually knows what effect a constant source of power in parallel with the Lipo would do (you don't want to be charging it for 2hrs!).

With all my crazy thinking above I still cannot see a beaver hanging around when the 'weed wacker' noise of the Phantom kicks off from nowhere. My two domestic cats shot off straight away when it came into land in the garden and they were nowhere near it! Plus when they do get in the water the noise under the surface will be even louder.

As Audacitor wisely suggests... you don't want to mess with an angry beaver! :lol:

Good luck with it either way!
 

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