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Tales from a noob...

OZPilot

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Dec 2, 2021
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Age
50
This is my first drone. EVO II Pro 6K V2. It was purchased to monitor my cattle and crops.

I bought a bundle that came with a spare battery and hard case.

Day 1)

Unpack, read manuals, charge batteries, view tutorials.
The controller took 6 hours to fully charge. It was at 53% out-of-the-box.

There are a LOT of stickers on the drone. I missed two of them before the first flight.

Day 2)

First flight. Straight up to 100 meters. Hover and pivot. The vision and quality is amazing.

Second flight. Waypoint mission to the 4 corners of my property (Alt. 30 meters at 18km/h, recording on). I lose visual sight of the drone after 2 minutes. The video from the controller calms me. 7 minutes later it comes back into view. It finishes the mission and lands with 42% power remaining (Flight time 19 minutes).

I download the video, encode it, copy to the NAS and share with the family. They are impressed.


Day 3)

The cattle are calving and I create 2 missions to monitor them. I run these missions 3 times each. Both batteries are less than 15% after the 6 runs (about 9 minutes each)

Day 4)

Birds are eating the crop. I create 3 Waypoint missions with random zig-zag patterns, varying altitude (from 10 meters to 60 meters) and varying speed (8kh to 36kh)

The birds hate it. They are not hawks or raptures, so they "flight" not "fight".

I needed to calibrate the Gimbal once after the 3rd mission when it landed off the pad and caught some grass in a prop.

I discover the power of POI in the Explorer app. I was surprised at how little battery power the controller had left. It charged faster this time.

Day 5)

I spot 2 new calves at the back of the property thanks to this drone.

In the middle of a mission, it starts to rain (lightly). The drone is about 150 meters from home. I press "Go Home". The drone returns without issue. I dry it and leave it air dry for 24 hours.

Day 7)

I run the cattle and crop missions without issue. Sometimes the Explorer App "loses" all my waypoints. I have learnt to back them up.

I can power on the drone about 10 meters from the controller without issue. I cast my phone's screen to an outdoor TV and just sit back and watch the footage (quality is poor due to casting bandwidth limits).

I enquire about the Live Deck. No go. Only V1 is supported. I start looking at the Smart Controller with it's HDMI output. It's expensive.

Day 8)

It's raining. My neighbor comes around and I show him the footage. He begs me to do his place.

Day 9)

I produce 20 minutes of footage for the neighbor's property. He is stoked.

Day 10)

Noticeable battery performance degradation. When I repeat Day 3, I can only fly 5 not 6 missions on 2 batteries.

More neighbors are coming.... I better lock the gate. :)
 
Sounds like fun. A few things.

I would suggest planning your missions to land with greater than 20% remaining. Constantly draining your packs to ~15% will shorten their lives. Have your critical battery warning set below that else it will try to land where it is.

Don't send it off with less than a full charge. The internal estimation of time remaining is just a guess. Launching with less than a full pack will probably be fine for flying close to your location where you can land quickly if needed.

Try to always have your batteries above 60 deg. F when launching.
 
Thanks for the suggestions Dave.

I usually follow the App's recommendation at 25% but I wanted to see it perform that low.

> Don't send it off with less than a full charge

Noted.

> Try to always have your batteries above 60 deg. F when launching.

That is not usually a problem in Australia!

I forgot to add that the "Anti-Collision" has saved this drone 6 times already.

I have a 150 foot "Iron Bark" tree in our house paddock. At the end of one of the missions, it was heading straight into at 80 feet.

The drone/app screamed, shuffled side-ways and came home safely. I was very impressed. Unfortunately, it was not recording at the time....
 
Terrific day by day experience, enjoyed your enthusiasm. You’re off to an adventurous experience filled with pure joy, so are we if you continue sharing.

If you can afford getting the SmartController V2, by all means try to purchase one. It’ll definitely help you accomplish important day to day operations, especially for your type of work with cattle and crops.

Congratulation!
Paul
 
If you can afford getting the SmartController V2, by all means try to purchase one.

Thanks Paul. It has been a great experience. As you can tell, I have not done much manual flying. The inversion of the pitch controls from conventional aircraft is something I am working on.

As for the Smart Controller.... Once of those new calves will pay for it (with change!) :)
 
You’re off to a great start, It’ll fall into place. Try Dual Stability mode, it’ll greatly help you control the aircraft with softer stick movements.

First, after lift off. Drone needs to be in the air, before switching from manual to dual stability mode. Give it a try, definitely feel a difference with softer stick movements she’ll fly so smooth.

A friend of mine, owns a cattle range with a mountain. I’ve counted cattle for him numerous times, even report to him when coming across a dead one. I can see the benefits of using an Evo 2 for your type of work, it’s a tool and will pay for itself.

Enjoy!
 
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>> Try Dual Stability mode,

Will do. I'd love to be able to it flight down the creeks at low altitude.

>> I can see the benefits of using an Evo 2 for your type of work, it’s a tool and will pay for itself.

Absolutely. What has impressed the Boss (aka wife) so far, is the visual shot of the crop (Macadamia) from multiple altitudes, angles and sunlight.

You can see tree health and soil quality changes like never before. We have already organized different soil sampling locations based on the drone's footage.

Thank you and Dave for the warm reception. The low level of "gate keeping" on the forum is very encouraging for novices.
 
Nice to read about your experiences. The evo is a great drone. Where are you located. Guessing Qld with the macadamia trees
 
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ahhh nice part of the country. Lots of good territory for flying without many restrictions
 

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