I am relatively new to drone world. I work in the seismic surveying industry and I am in the very early stages of researching the use of drones to make our life easier in the field.
My main question at this point is what is the average workable payload on say a ready to fly APM 3DR Y6 ? Or something in that equivalent ? I have no real idea. Some manufactures websites imply 1 kg. But it is very veg information. It is not included in the specs of any one drone.
So I was just wondering what the average is.
And also,has anyone actually done an experiment by loading one up and testing the performance ?
Replies
To give you an idea with more concrete numbers, our RTF Hexa based on the 3DR Hexa (Aphex) carries the following with 880kV motors and 11x47 props:
Camera Mount: 125g
Camera: 400g
Battery (4S 5000mAh): 500g
Total: 1025g
Flight time ~9 minutes in this configuration.
I am running a couple of JDrones Hexacopters, upgraded with the 880 motors.
Stated max payload was about a kilo, but I have upgraded the arms/engine mounts/centre plate/stack which has added about 500gm. BAtteries are a couple of 6500 LiPo at 1.1kg
One has a brushless gimbal with a Ricoh GX on it and it comes in right on 500gm. This Hexa flies well, is stable, and has sufficient power. Motors are running at between 51 and 55 deg C and we get a good 18 minutes from 13Ah of battery.
The other was just fitted with a bigger brushless gimbal at 730gm and the difference is surprising. We have exceeded the max weight, the motors are running at >60deg C, and flight time is less than 13 minutes. Different props, 12*6 against 12*3.8, made no difference as we are running APC's which has proved to be very efficient.
So if they say 1kg payload then take that as your MAX.
I have built another Hex which theoretically can lift 9kg, but getting it to fly has met with many hurdles so I can't report an that yet.