Hey DJI,

Was excited to see the release of the M300 and it is definetly a leap forward in terms of safety and flight endurance.  

We would love to bring these units into our business, however, why hasn't a dedicated mapping payload been developed for launch.

The P4RTK is still the best out of the box surveying solution you offer and while it is a great system, we would love to take advantage of the extra endurance and carrying capacity of the M300.

Also, this platform should be able to handle a much larger sensor, which would allow you to capture large areas with less photos.

Just in my industry alone, in my country, you are missing out on a hell of a lot of sales by not having this capability.

Even re-release the X4S and make it compatible!!!  So frustrating, will have to look at moving away from DJI for survey which is a shame.

Thanks for listening to my rant.

Cheers,

Totally agree with you here. DJI has done it again. Released a half completed drone even though the tech they needed to complete it is already in production so the hard work has been done. The M210 V2 does surveying with the X7 (and should work with the X4S). I cannot see why all the previous cameras apparently don't work with the new M300 except the XT2 and Z30. Seems pretty suspicious that two cameras work on the M200 V1 V2 and M300 but somehow all the other cameras that have the same mount and comms etc don't work! How is this even possible unless it is deliberate? The M300 looks like a really good machine but won't be a great machine till DJI sort the details. Hopefully they don't do this just before they release the M400.  

I have heard there might be something released for mapping applications in Q3 of this year.  However, this is not from DJI directly, so take it with a grain of salt.

It would be nice to get an road map from DJI about what industrial applications they aim to support with this system, but I for one won't be holding my breath.

M300 RTK is a new generation DJI flight platform with a modular design concept and is no longer compatible with X4S, X5S, X7.
However, you can implement functions such as accurate mapping by carrying a third-party payload.

Hey DJI,

Thanks for the response.

Can you point me in the direction of any third party supplier that may have been given early access to the platform to develop a mapping payload?  

Communication is not DJI's strong point, so not holding my breath.  But just saying 'third-party payloads are supported' does not mean one is available.

DJI4Survey Posted at 5-31 14:35
Hey DJI,

Thanks for the response.

almost 2 months since you asked the question about the third party payloads.. did you ever get a response? Having a payload that captures decent images for mapping would be awesome!

Hey mate,

Unfortunately no, no word yet.  Although I have a rumour that DJI might be releasing a camera towards the end of the year that would be tailored more to mapping (X9 maybe??).

Not a super reliable source, but promising.

DJI4Survey Posted at 7-23 17:29
Hey mate,

Unfortunately no, no word yet.  Although I have a rumour that DJI might be releasing a camera towards the end of the year that would be tailored more to mapping (X9 maybe??).

That's more than what I've heard! Thanks for the update.

DJI4Survey Posted at 7-23 17:29
Hey mate,

Unfortunately no, no word yet.  Although I have a rumour that DJI might be releasing a camera towards the end of the year that would be tailored more to mapping (X9 maybe??).

Good day,

So wanted to follow up with a possible solution for your mapping with drone. I went to a demo and was introduced to a software called Skyebrowse. Skyebrowse allows for almost instant 3d mapping using videogrammetry. you may want to look into the following link to see if it could be of use for you.

https://www.skyebrowse.com/

Cheers.

Ooops - Double post. Ignore.

[Native Mapping/surveying payload amiss] ... The P4RTK is still the best out of the box surveying solution you offer and while it is a great system, we would love to take advantage of the extra endurance and carrying capacity of the M300.

What he said.

Hey Coa,

Thanks for the response.  That looks like some interesting software.  I think the issue for us is, we do so many mapping missions everyday that the data sizes associated with using video capture would be too large.

I would imagine the software just takes 'x' amount of still frames out of the video and uses traditional photogrammetry to do the processing.  Where as we want to keep the number of photos to a minimum.

Like it says though, it would be perfect for small scale mapping (police incidents etc.).

Cheers,

Hey guys,

Just an update on this one.  Hold off on purchasing anything, I have it on good authority that information on a survey payload may be gettin released next week.

Fingers crossed.