This afternoon, I took the university's Inspire out for another mapping flight over a soybean test strip plot.  This time, though, instead of bringing along the X5, I brought the other camera we have: a Zenmuse XT FLIR thermal camera.





After three mapping flights, it became increasingly apparent that the XT is poorly suited to mapping flights.  Even at 300 feet, the images came out blurry and were sparse enough that there would be gaps in the map generated from the images.  I'm going to have to see if I can adjust the settings in the Precision Mapper app to accomodate the XT.  In spite of the issues with mapping, this thing can take some pretty interesting pictures.



If you look carefully, you can see the Mavic on the ground near my foot.

One area we've found the XT to be incredibly useful is finding and counting cattle in our expansive livestock lots, especially when they bed down in a woodlot or within thick brush or johnsongrass.  While I don't have a picture or video of the incident, another student and I once used the Inspire and XT to find a cow suffering from bloat.

Thanks for sharing. Have a nice flight and explore more fun with XT.

Thanks for sharing!

Very nice!

TN Lone Wolf, thanks for sharing! Safety First! Ken.

Nowhere near enough resolution and differentiation in the image for mapping/orthos.
Just not an application that it's suited for.

Farnk666 Posted at 2017-9-18 00:25
Nowhere near enough resolution and differentiation in the image for mapping/orthos.
Just not an application that it's suited for.

I'm pretty much in agreement at this point, but I've got to try to get at least one map for my thesis research, even if only to say that this method is largely infeasible.

TN Lone Wolf Posted at 2017-9-18 04:55
I'm pretty much in agreement at this point, but I've got to try to get at least one map for my thesis research, even if only to say that this method is largely infeasible.

Maybe try again - much lower and with a higher image count (to maximise effective resolution) with a heap of GCPs across the site to give the software something to work with. Or if that doesn't work out - go old school and stitch it like a pano.

What resolution do you have on the XT (320 or 640), and what lens?

Can anyone give me an idea on the approx. price of the XT ?  Are there different models based on resolution?

Loved it...

Do you think it is a good candidate to use in search and rescue?

amazing piece of kit

VigilanteDrones Posted at 2017-10-28 20:48
Do you think it is a good candidate to use in search and rescue?

I think so.  It would work especially well if you could use it alongside a standard camera with zoom capability.  The Matrice 210 dual gimbal model mounted with both a FLIR and either an  X4S or Z30 would be an ideal search and rescue drone.

TN Lone Wolf Posted at 2017-10-31 17:00
I think so.  It would work especially well if you could use it alongside a standard camera with zoom capability.  The Matrice 210 dual gimbal model mounted with both a FLIR and either an  X4S or Z30 would be an ideal search and rescue drone.

Thanks, I appreciate the reply!