I had a job yesterday where I just happened to throw the Iris + in the car last minute. I've been using the Phantom Pro 3 and have a few mapping apps that puts it in almost autonomous flights, I just nudge the landings.
Nothing was working, I was deleting apps & re-loading them to see if that was the problem. Finally one of the apps said I needed new firmware on the Phantom. I thought, "screw it" & that I'd fly it manually in 4K and get the pictures that way. Last time I did that, the drone lost connection & stopped filming for some reason. I was desperate though. Go to the DJI app to fly it & it said I needed new firmware. I had calibrated it through this app the hour before (that's how long it took me to troubleshoot). It wouldn't even take off in manual.
I just did it with the Iris+ & the GoPro & it flew just fine. So frustrating!! Really, this should be a press of a button. I spent the night before calibrating, charging, checking for updates & getting everything ready. I'm glad I brought my duct taped Iris+ w/ me or I would have had nothing.
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On my very first job I took a DJI Inspire 1 and my Iris+. I get onsite and check-in with the site foreman and I'm ready to rock & roll, but what I didn't know that less than a block away there was a military reserve center and as you know the Inspire 1 wouldn't leave the ground. I failed over to the Iris+ and Drone Deploy to do the mapping run with no issues and 3 batteries later all was well. That was my first and last straw with DJI no fly zones. While I still keep a Phantom on deck for convenience, my fixed wing and Tarot T810 have non-DJI flight controllers.
Not knocking DJI because my Inspire was awesome by the way!
DREi
SkyAerialSolutions.com
I didn't know DJI locked up near no fly zones, good to know...
When it does work, it's great! I've had a few times where I've just pressed the button and I spend a half hour to an hour at a site.
I should bring up that the State Board of Surveyors is really cracking down on people promoting "Survey Grade" or "mapping." To the point where the guy sitting next to me @ the Silicon Vally Drone Show last week got a phone call to take down his website & is getting hate mail. We own a small engineering company, and I use Surveyors to get GCP's.
Probably should have started another thread on this, just that using a mapping app & promoting this is going to be tough. The Surveyors are not happy.
Hi Heller, I agree on both point :
- My Iris+ is my most reliable flying machine so far. Never failed to satisfy my needs on the field where other machines seem so happy to work against me... Only thing is small battery capacity, leading to many flights for big areas.
- Land surveyors are completely hostile to drone mapping. Being a land surveyor myself, I am so disappointed to see so much reluctance from this profession. Disappointed, but humanly understandable, they feel they are in danger.
That reminds me when autocad was released some years bad, almost all the draft persons were opposing it. Now, where are the draft persons in any companies/industry.
I totally understand that, especially w/ everyone now rushing to do this because this will be the part of drones that will be the most valuable.
You'll for sure be ahead of the game, it's naive to think that when the accuracy is actually "survey quality" (which is sooooo close) that the industry isn't going to change. Even for me, when the Part 107 goes through and you don't need a Pilot's license I'm sure this will be flooded.
Just another example of how sometimes, older is better.
I'm confused by your following statement.
"I just did it with the Iris+ & the GoPro & it flew just fine. So frustrating!!"
If it flew fine what caused you the headache?
As for "pess a button" operation, I don't think the technology has reached that level yet. At current state, "pess a button" is only possible after someone correctly completed the charging, calibrating and pre-flight check on top of careful planning and programming of the flight path assuming the weather co-operates with the flight plan.
The Phantom caused me the headache, not the Iris+. There was a firmware upgrade that totally locked it up after I did have everything charged, calibrated & ready to go. It should have been me just pressing the button, there was no firmware upgrade notification the night before (for the Phantom) or when I calibrated it for that particular site before I went into the mapping apps.
A "heads up" from DJI would have been nice...
I wrote this because @ least I had a fall back & could fly the Iris+. It's still my go-to drone.
my rule of thumb. I don't do any software nor firmware update before a job. All updates only done to my test quad first. Until they pass my Q/C test, then I implement them on my work quads.
The point was, I'm glad I had the Iris w/ me!