I would like to lift a small 120 gram flashlight (about 4 oz or 1/4 lb.) with my Phantom 3 Standard.  Basically to do an experiment to see how visible this is going from 0 to 200 feet (or more).

The spec weight for a P3S is 1216 grams.  Mine currently weighs 179 grams more or 1,395 grams.  

This is due to adding the following:

• Landing gear extension: 68 grams
• Propeller guards:  75 grams (perhaps less but spec says 18.7 gm/PCS which I assume to be per piece)
• Camera-gimbal Carbon Fiber Protector:  15 grams (maybe a bit more)
• 7 small LED lights placed around the drone:  21 grams to 35 grams (difficult to weigh)
  

I didn't weight these when I installed them 2 weeks ago but can remove all these and weigh them at some future time but right now everything is nicely in place so haven't done that.

But if I took off all these options I'd drop the weight more than the 120 gram weight of the flashlight.  But I am wondering if I can add this flashlight, bringing the weight to about 1515 grams -- without overstressing the motors??

I don't plan to fly fast nor initially high.  The flashlight would be on a cord, tethered to the camera/gimbal carbon fiber support.  This way for take-off and landing the flashlight does not interfere with the landing gear.

And if this works, would be interesting to see what other payloads could be carried.  

Thanks for any comments.

Steve  Thursday 21 April 2016 23:18

I tried to research how much weight a Phantom 3 Professional would lift and I found a handful of youtube videos where people were doing tests. Here's one that shows a P3A lifting 800 grams. Not sure if the motors get overstressed or not.

WOW - 800 grams is like over half the weight, almost 2/3rds of the weight of the drone.  I'd be really concerned that the motors would overheat!  (I don't think he'd get that bucket to 400 feet!!)

But this gives me confidence that my approx 300 grams addition over base weight would probably be just fine!  I'll keep studying this a bit-- and thank you VERY much!  

Also be interesting to try different payloads!  

Steve  Friday 22 April 2016 18:38

I've seen several videos of drones rescuing/retrieving other drones that were lost on top of houses-roofs.

In the test it is the Phantom 3 pro. Can the Phantom 3 Standard carry the same weight?