Using A Drone On The Water

The friendliest place on the web for anyone who enjoys boating.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
menzies

menzies

Guru
Joined
May 11, 2014
Messages
7,233
Location
USA
Vessel Name
SONAS
Vessel Make
Grand Alaskan 53
Well, I won a Phantom 3 Advanced drone at a charity event this past weekend. This evening I finally had it all charged up and my (new from Best Buy because my existing weren't good enough) Android device hooked up to the controller.

By the time I had everything ready the missus was in her dressing gown after a shower but said there was no way that she was going to miss my maiden flight - in the dark and without ever having even started the durn thang! She cranked up her cell phone video. I think she thought I was going to crash and burn!

Well the drone was so very easy to start, take off, rotate, get to height, move around, and that was on my driveway in the dark. The missus was heavily disappointed! :)

Now I plan on getting really comfortable with it over land first, but I see a huge opportunity here. I am a bit of a amateur photo buff. This thing will go out to 2000 meters outdoors when unobstructed and the height is up there with the jets (though limited by FAA rules). It has a Gimbal camera that shoots high def stills and video.

Can't wait until tomorrow and daylight for some aerial shots of the house and lagoon. Then the anchorage this holiday weekend.

Anyone ever use a drone off the boat? I must say I am a bit concerned about using it over water. It will use GPS to return to home in the event it loses signal or starts to run low on battery - but what if the durn thing loses a prop!

large_p2.jpg
 
Last edited:
menzies said:
Anyone ever use a drone off the boat? I must say I am a bit concerned about using it over water. It will use GPS to return to home in the event it loses signal or starts to run low on battery - but what if the durn thing loses a prop!
Click to expand...

And how much did you say you paid for it again?
Forget about it, let 'er rip.
 
I started selling Splash Drones in my store. I haven't flown one yet but one of my employees bought one for himself. He loves it. The Splash Drone is waterproof so I feel more comfortable with the idea of flying over water.

The advanced version will follow you without having to be controlled manually.

I look forward to seeing your video.

Have you seen this music video? The whole thing was shot with a drone in one long take. No editing.
 
Menzies,
You got the bug, can't wait to see some video!

Hopcar,
Who would have thought a marine store would be selling RC Drones just a few years ago.
"I'd like to order a 2" brass ball valve, 20 feet of fuel line and oh by the way, is my Splashdrone in yet?"
 
HopCar said:
Have you seen this music video? The whole thing was shot with a drone in one long take. No editing.
Click to expand...

The "how they did it" video is actually more interesting than the music video itself. I liked how they put the drone on a camera dolly to get it out of the building and into the open where it could fly.

We have been using drones more and more in our video work here. For the really high-quality requirements we hire Copter Kids out of California, but we are using some consumer drones now for some of our lower budget projects.
 
Not a problem Crusty, we can ship it all tomorrow.
I brought them in because we sell GoPro cameras to offshore fishermen. These guys will mount several GoPros on their boat to film themselves catching fish. One selfie stick isn't enough for these guys. I figured they'd buy a drone they could tell to follow the boat from fifty feet back and fifty feet up. They might even be able to land on the water and film underwater.

Ok the real reason I brought them in is that I want one.
 
Yup, we're going to need to see some vids pretty quick. Now get to it!
 
Hawgwash said:
And how much did you say you paid for it again?
Forget about it, let 'er rip.
Click to expand...

Well now, regardless of what I paid, it is a $1K unit, so I don't want to be blase about it.

Nor let anyone else be blase about it on my behalf! :D
 
Last edited:
menzies said:
Well now, regardless of what I paid, it is a $1K unit, so I don't want to be blase about it.

Nor let anyone else be blase about it on my behalf! :D
Click to expand...

But, you know, if you read the other drone threads, you will have little control of it's fate from those who use potato guns, fishing line, kites and RPGs.

Drone hunting will become a bigger sport than drone flying.:blush:
 
Here is what DYC did with a drone on July 25th when they brought a band out to a remote dock! My boat is the one with the yellow lights next to the portta potty!!! I think they did a nice job:thumb:

 
Last edited:
Hawgwash said:
But, you know, if you read the other drone threads, you will have little control of it's fate from those who use potato guns, fishing line, kites and RPGs.
Click to expand...
and eagles. :)
 
menzies said:
Anyone ever use a drone off the boat? I must say I am a bit concerned about using it over water. It will use GPS to return to home in the event it loses signal or starts to run low on battery - but what if the durn thing loses a prop!
Click to expand...

Two things. First, if it dunks then kiss it goodbye. Lots of stuff on the internet about Phantom 3's that have dunked.

Second, if you are using prop guards, then if the prop even momentarily touches the guard then the drone will flip. Once it flips it will go down. I quit using prop guards after that happened with mine.
 
OK, first real flight after I got everything charged up and compass set, and GPS working and App loaded, and, and, and. I am not confident enough to keep it flying and use the camera head on. I tend to want to hover it and then use the gimbaled camera. So not in anyway smooth.

But I WENT OVER WATER - well for a bit anyway!

More coming.

Bored yet?

http://youtu.be/dlWO7439oQU
 
I heard if you want to use of overwater buy two
 
Looked pretty good to me. Nice choice on the music also.
 
Looked good to me as well and I to liked the music. These drones do have a lot of potential for cruisers if used sensibly. Ive seen people cruising in inland waterways or in places with multiple close spaced island use them to check out whats around the next island or bend and survey areas for good anchorage. I think they are neat but must be flown with due regards to other peoples privacy.
 
It is also very useful for checking tile roofs for loose tiles. We also noted that we are going to have to have our roof cleaned very soon before we get the dreaded POA letter!

We are going out this weekend to a very pretty area and I will be trying it out again. Again over water though, which makes me awfully nervous.

Coming home from dinner last night there was a very active electrical storm to the north of us, with no rain where we were. I am thinking of sending the aircraft up to a couple of hundred feet and taking video next time that is happening - should be interesting! Hey Franklin got away with it! :)

One thing that does concern me is the irritating buzzing noise these things make. Though I hear the latest models are much quieter that before. I would like to send it up just before sunrise pointing at the sun and create my own sunrise as it goes up. But don't want to annoy the heck out of the neighbors early in the morning. Maybe in December when sunrise will be much later. The missus suggests doing it when we are anchored out alone on a Sunday morning, but that means sending it up over water in the dark - gulp!
 
Last edited:
Here's a very well done drone movie of our lake and marina on the Missouri River. He's got one of those high end Phantom drones too. He does a nice editing job.

https://youtu.be/w63xdIx9C50
 
kthoennes said:
Here's a very well done drone movie of our lake and marina on the Missouri River. He's got one of those high end Phantom drones too. He does a nice editing job.

https://youtu.be/w63xdIx9C50
Click to expand...


Superb job right there. Wonder if he needed permission to overfly Gavins Point Dam or did he just do it anyway? Nice mix of video and jpg stills from the camera.

I probably need to go buy myself some better quality editing software rather than using freeware. Especially now since I upgraded to Windows 10 and Movie Maker is no longer supported.
 
menzies said:
Superb job right there. Wonder if he needed permission to overfly Gavins Point Dam or did he just do it anyway?
Click to expand...

I wondered the same thing - I should ask the next time I see him. They get very paranoid around the dam, they act like it's a nuclear missile silo.
 
A sales rep showed me a strange camera today. It films 360 degree images. It is small enough to mount under a drone. You view the image on a smart phone or pad. There are several ways to view the images, I'll try to describe the one that blew me away. You mount your smart phone in a goggles like device. The phone displays two images but looking through the goggles you see a single 3D image.
So I'm standing in the middle of my office watching the front wheel of a mountain bike screaming down a very steep hill. I can look right and left to see the suroundings. I turn around and I'm looking at the guy who is riding the bike. Very strange experience.
 
There are many FPV (First Person View) goggles available for RC Flying, but not cheap. Starting around ~$400 and going as high as you want. Most of them are 2D 360 degrees though. I can't imagine what 3D would cost. Not even sure how a single camera RC wold be able to send back two separate images - it would probably need multiple.

The Phantom sends wireless video back to the controller into which you plug a mobile IOS or Android device and you can watch your video in real time. The FAA do not recommend goggles as they want pilots to maintain visual on the aircraft at all times so that they can see what else is in the vicinity - like other aircraft, people, etc.

Still early on in understanding this game/hobby!
 
I got a Parrot Bebop drone last month. This is I believe the best selling drone made so far. At $500 with a fixed camera it's a pretty good price. To save money the controller is your cell phone or tablet which shows the image from the camera on the mobile device (FPV or first person view). The mobile device connects to the drone via WiFi and you tilt your connected mobile device to move the drone fwd or backward with separate controls on the mobile screen for up/down and to rotate the drone.

This all sounds good but in reality there is no way I would try to film my boat over water. It takes way to much practice and experience to get to that level with this drone. The camera is fixed so you must move the drone to point the camera. This really isn't a problem as the camera lens is pretty much wide angle. The problem I have is controlling the drone with the tablet is awkward and the image is just not bright enough. However the drone records the image from the camera and stores it for download later. Once downloaded the image is pretty good when viewed on the computer.

A drone like the OP has with a Go Pro camera will set you back about 2G's. But that's probably what it takes to get good pics.
 
Tim, I believe the set up I won retails for ~$1300. Of course I had to buy a tablet to attach to the controller. And yesterday I had to buy better video editing software as well. Not an inexpensive hobby.

What I like about the Phantom are the gimbals, GPS, and safety features. You can control the takeoff or landing yourself or do it automatically by pushing a button on the tablet screen. If you feel you are in trouble at any time just let go of the control sticks and the craft will hover right where it is, given you time to sort yourself out.
It also records it's home location so if it gets to a certain battery level or loses wi-fi connection with the controller it returns automatically. There is also a Home button on the controller where you can bring it home at any time. I need to play some with that last feature as I don't believe it currently has structure avoidance - so if home is a straight line I would be worried about trees etc.
 
At the price you mentioned that is a much better deal. Controlling my drone by my tablet is just very difficult. Your first flight was much better than mine:thumb:.
The Bebop drone also has auto level and hover just like yours and will return to the tablet location automatically. Also has auto takeoff to a 4' hover and auto land.
But being controlled by WiFi it has a I believe 2000' range probably less, and will warn you when the WiFi signal is weak. Will also warn you when the battery is low.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

klee wyck
Commissioning new accessory
Replies
10
Views
987
IRENE
IRENE
B
Californian 34 1981
Replies
1
Views
325
Blissboat
Blissboat
O C Diver
Slow Hand – End of the line
2 3
Replies
69
Views
7K
Miz Trom
Miz Trom
C
Helmsmen 38E rough water handling
Replies
12
Views
2K
arthurn
arthurn
steve marcus
mast removal on classic 42
Replies
4
Views
552
Pete Meisinger
Pete Meisinger

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom