For conservation research purposes I want to use my Inspire 1 pro (with 25mm f1.8 Olympus lens) for photogrammetry. For that I need to know altitude precisely. I could log the data from a 30 grm microlidar, but this needs power. Is there a safe way to get power out of the Inspire 1, or would I have to use a small separate lipo?

Cheers, Steve D

Not without serious modification, but I'll hesitate to mess with smart battery ... How accurate must be the altitude measurement? Inspire should be able to keep the altitude pretty solid, assuming cooperating weather conditions. How are you going to maintain this altitude steady during terrain scan? Most of professional applications for mapping will take care of it anyway...

Use a small lipo to power it. What is the voltage needed? That will determine the size lipo needed and mAh required for it. I am also not sure where you will mount this because you could be adjusting the center of balance and that might cause jello to appear in your shots as one set of motors will start working harder to maintain level flight.

I would use a separate power supply, If the aircraft used a standard lipo I would say go for it , but the lipo ( smart  battery )  is in tune with the aircraft.  It  would be for the best just top have  separate power pack in my opinion .

donnie

Donnie Posted at 2016-6-22 21:39
I would use a separate power supply, If the aircraft used a standard lipo I would say go for it , bu ...

Thanks guys for the advice. For photogrammetry we need accuracy of a few cm. A friend who also has an I-1 has checked that the USB port in the back of the Inspire does not provide power out, otherwise that would have been a great solution. I've decided to go with a small separate lipo. We have put together a lidar/gps/arduino system for logging gps time-stamped altitudes, and can position componsents near the centre of balance. With a suitable lipo, total weight is under 100g, so still within the max takeoff weight allowable for the I-1P.