Hi there,

I am new to DJI products and am using my inspire to do some surveying close to telecommunications and the Inspire sometimes goes haywire. I was looking into the problem and found that it would be EMI from the tower. Is there anyway to sheild the inspire from this interference? Is it only the transmitter that causes this to happen or is it the GPS as well?

Thanks,

Hamish

Highly unlikely - how close are you to the tower when things happen and what behaviour does the Inspire show when it does?
What sort of comms infrastructure is it? Cellular/HF/Microwave?

More detail please.

Farnk666 Posted at 2017-1-18 16:30
Highly unlikely - how close are you to the tower when things happen and what behaviour does the Inspire show when it does?
What sort of comms infrastructure is it? Cellular/HF/Microwave?

Hi Frank666,

Thank you so much for your reply. I have to get relatively close to the tower for surveying prospects roughly 1-5 meters. When the inspire comes close to some of the antennas the drone loses control from the ground station. It flies sporadically around until communication is achieved it wobbles and flys in any random position. The comms infrastructure is mainly cellular but some of it does include both hf and microwave.

Thanks

Hamish

Kripps Posted at 2017-1-19 16:42
Hi Frank666,

Thank you so much for your reply. I have to get relatively close to the tower for surveying prospects roughly 1-5 meters. When the inspire comes close to some of the antennas the drone loses control from the ground station. It flies sporadically around until communication is achieved it wobbles and flys in any random position. The comms infrastructure is mainly cellular but some of it does include both hf and microwave.

If your going to do Visual Inspections of high risk telecommunication towers you need the right equipment.


I would suggest you get the Z3 telephoto camera for the Inspire 1.

This will allow you a minim safe distance and still be able to get in close.

http://www.dji.com/zenmuse-z3

Kripps Posted at 2017-1-19 16:42
Hi Frank666,

Thank you so much for your reply. I have to get relatively close to the tower for surveying prospects roughly 1-5 meters. When the inspire comes close to some of the antennas the drone loses control from the ground station. It flies sporadically around until communication is achieved it wobbles and flys in any random position. The comms infrastructure is mainly cellular but some of it does include both hf and microwave.

Hi Kripps,

1-5 meters isn't 'relatively close', to any structure - that is just not safe in any way, shape or form.
You are just asking for a monumental crash.

So first of all, you need to identify what errors are in the flight log - upload one of these flights to HealthyDrones and see what it comes up with.

At that distance you can be having either EM (I still doubt) or Compass issues due to proximity of the metallic structure.

You said you were doing survey work - are you surveying the surrounding ground or are you inspecting the tower itself? If it s the tower and you are getting in that close to catch detail, then you have the wrong camera / lens combination.

If you are doing ground surveys and the flight plan has you coming into proximity with the tower, then fly higher over the tower to avoid the issue.  

Farnk666 Posted at 2017-1-22 00:55
Hi Kripps,

1-5 meters isn't 'relatively close', to any structure - that is just not safe in any way, shape or form.

Thanks for the reply Frank666, yes i am using it for survey purposes. Ill try your suggestion with a better camera to capture the detail. I'll get the flight log data and post it up and see if they can help me. Yes the purporse for the surveying is to inspect the tower and 3D model it for post surveying results, so i need to get as much detail as possible

Hi,  KlauGeomatics has announced a new PPK GPS technology for accurate aerial surveying using DJI drones without placing ground targets. See https://www.veritypositioning.com/ for more details.