MERIT Training Drones & Mapping with QGIS

The DJI Phantom 3 stores flight logs in the drone itself with a .DAT extension and in your phone or table with a .txt extension (using DJI Go). These are log files of your flight history and can be converted into ASCII .csv files with DJI's 3rd party SDK apps if you are a programmer. Some useful reference sites include: http://www.nvdrones.com/ https://blog.nvdrones.com/how-to-view-dji-flight-logs-in-4-easy-steps-2e5c6521c6a7#.iyqmuewf7 http://www.phantompilots.com/threads/new-version-of-dat-converter.60155/ Java based application to process .DAT files: https://datfile.net/index.html In addition there are 3rd party developers who provide cloud based solutions for you to convert the data into a more readable text format. Links to convert flight logs: https://www.mapsmadeeasy.com/log_viewer http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/ http://www.djilogs.com/#/  (cost $1.00) Example of DJI Log Conveter:

Two missions were flown using the Winterburn school as a mission site for flight planning.  Both flights used autonomous flight planning with Map Pilot and Drone Deploy respectively.  Map Pilot is an iOS application that only runs on iPhone or iPad and costs around US$15.  Drone Deploy is an open source flight planning application that runs on Android and iOS. Our initial test flight with Map Pilot proved to be a little more difficult than expected.  It was not very intuitive to upload the flight planning data to the drone, and initialise and fly it.  However, the pre-flight planning was relatively easy to get to the location, define the altitude and fence the project area.  The pre-flight mission planning worked well on both applications. Drone Pilot was easier to initialise and upload flight data to the drone.  However, it did not seem to cache the Google map that was used to set up the mission.  Nevertheless, Drone Pilot seems to be easier to use and it has an advantage that it

The MAPIR camera is designed for photogrammetry, primarily for aerial mapping of agricultural plots.  It works with any drone, and has mounts specifically for the DJI Phantom and 3DR IRIS+ and Solo drones. Below are some reference links: http://blog.analistgroup.com/en/precision-farming-with-the-phantom-3-drone/ https://www.facebook.com/mapircamera/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87AR05K8QOE http://www.analistgroup.com/en/new-solutions-with-drones/phantom-mapir http://www.mapir.camera/blogs/guide/113243910-extracting-dji-flight-logs-for-geo-tagging-survey-images

Source:  (http://www.rchelicopterfun.com/rc-lipo-batteries.html) LiPo (Lithium Polymer) are a type of rechargeable battery. They are light weight, large capacity, high discharge rates and unlike NiCad or NiMh have no 'memory-effect'. Disadvantages are expensive, short life 300-500 charge cycles (less if not maintained properly). Safety issue - fire potential. Requires more care, charging, discharging, storage and temperature affects its life cycle. LiPo batteries have a nominal voltage of 3.7 volts per cell. Phantom 3 battery is 15.2 volts so it has 4 cells.  Some batteries use a code like 3S for 3 cells and P for the number of packs, e.g. 2S2P means two cells hooked up in parallel to double capacity.   1000 mAh rating is the load in milliamps that can be put on a battery for 1 hour after which it will be discharged.  The DJI P3 battery has a capacity of 4480 mAh.  If a load of 15 amps is applied to the battery it will discharge in about 17 minutes. Charging at maximu

After a long review process three mini drones stand out as potential candidates for indoor and outdoor quad copter drone hands on training these are: Hubsan x4 Blade Nano QX Syma XC5 http://uavcoach.com/cheap-drones-for-beginners/?utm_source=hs_automation&utm_medium=email&utm_content=18570335&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8NmOu6OsUPZwbE3Znh7ltgg8Ej03lmBP1QPjGDOuGmWn44z8oX2Nq2nGjO9oF86ixCRECKaigOVU9XORxFtHKOJJicBg&_hsmi=18570335 I finally purchased a Blade Nano QX3D.  This was a small quadcopter for indoor training use.  It proved to be quite difficult to control even though it had S.A.F.E. technology, that theoretically allows it to hover.  The throttle control was very twitchy and it overshot or undershot continuously hitting the ceiling and crashing down on the floor. Went back to the hobby shop and found that the trim was off and one of the engines came off its mount, which caused the drone to go off kilter.  After it was adjusted the sale person showed me how to trim, t

There are numerous on-line drone aerial mapping sites.  Most are by subscription, however there are a few that provide some image processing for free: 1. AutoDesk 123D - http://www.123dapp.com/catch/Capture_2016_08_04_06_58_29/5974943 The image was processed from aerial mapping session in Leduc east using a DJI Phantom 3 Professional and flight mission application Altizure/DroneDeploy.  123D does allow for image exports. 2. DroneDeploy provides a cloud based service for aerial mapping and an Android application for mission planning.  The free service provides up to 5 mapping projects with up to 500 photos, and a maximum pixel resolution of 15 cm.  You can view the output on-line but the free option does not allow any image export. Website: https://www.dronedeploy.com/ 3: OpenDroneMap? https://github.com/OpenDroneMap/OpenDroneMap/wiki