M2E Spotlight - What's it good for?
Mavic 2 Enterprise adds some significant features and payloads that few drones have even the best commercial ones. Mavic platform is a great design point with lots more growth capability. This discussion is just about the Spotlight. It's a great idea but NOT for the reason you might think. The usefulness)of that spotlight at night is extremely limited for what I assume it was intended for. . . seeing things on the ground at night. It's not very useful for that. Note the camera settings were on AUTO so opening everything up with MAX ISO and slower shutter speed might work better. Manual setting to wide open at Max ISO (3200 in manual) made the scene quite a lot more useful but VERY grainy in video and then only until actual night ( >30 min after sunset). After that point there was not much light even with the Spotlight ON if you are above 100 ft or so (tree tops) at 200-300ft AGL or higher looking right at a dog or person on the ground was near impossible on an iPhone but possibly doable on the CrystalSky 7.8". I will have my BOSON 320 hooked up next week and we'll see a majour difference in target acquisition no doubt.
I put it to the test by going out to a local park with open areas, pathways and no lights, but mostly full of trees, to see if I could find a person or a location on the pathways. I grew up here so I know this area pretty well but, I found the spot light of very limited value above 30-40ft but at that height, in pitch black, it's a nightmare for navigation around all the 60 ft trees in the area. The 6 sided collision avoidance, is also useless at night and I found myself unable to look at the screen to find an object in the beam while I navigated to avoid all the trees.
Above about 40 ft AGL it's beam is pretty diverse and while it lights up the ground a bit till you reach about 100ft only highly reflective object show up to any other ground observer. Without a pan and tilt mechanism and a payload operator it's too much for a single pilot to contend with while flying. An infrared Pan and Tilt like I have on the P4P+ is a different story
So what use is it? In fact it's an invaluable piece of kit for knowing where the drone is at all times and in all lighting conditions. Check that out here Mavic2E VLOS. Mavic can now remain VLOS up to a mile or more. This video will demonstrate the limited value for spotting ground targets in the woods. For me the VLOS value is far greater operationally.
I put it to the test by going out to a local park with open areas, pathways and no lights, but mostly full of trees, to see if I could find a person or a location on the pathways. I grew up here so I know this area pretty well but, I found the spot light of very limited value above 30-40ft but at that height, in pitch black, it's a nightmare for navigation around all the 60 ft trees in the area. The 6 sided collision avoidance, is also useless at night and I found myself unable to look at the screen to find an object in the beam while I navigated to avoid all the trees.
Above about 40 ft AGL it's beam is pretty diverse and while it lights up the ground a bit till you reach about 100ft only highly reflective object show up to any other ground observer. Without a pan and tilt mechanism and a payload operator it's too much for a single pilot to contend with while flying. An infrared Pan and Tilt like I have on the P4P+ is a different story
So what use is it? In fact it's an invaluable piece of kit for knowing where the drone is at all times and in all lighting conditions. Check that out here Mavic2E VLOS. Mavic can now remain VLOS up to a mile or more. This video will demonstrate the limited value for spotting ground targets in the woods. For me the VLOS value is far greater operationally.
I have a VERY blurry video of a white dog running around in the beam from 260ft and the person walking with it. As soon as he walks out of the beam he's virtually lost and even after a few minutes of maneuvering. I expect the FLIR would have picked them out instantly and be much easier to follow . . . we'll see.
This first photo is Spotlight ON <30min after sunset 80m (260ft) . . Second one is same area full Astronomical night now ~45min after sunset (80m) Spotlight ON (Dog in center of the beam)
This first photo is Spotlight ON <30min after sunset 80m (260ft) . . Second one is same area full Astronomical night now ~45min after sunset (80m) Spotlight ON (Dog in center of the beam)
I saw the light and it was good. . . . More of a near death experience knocking around at 30feet in all the trees
Photo By Ian Sanderson
Photo By Ian Sanderson
Mavic 2E Landing light does about as well at 10ft
Photo By Ian Sanderson
Photo By Ian Sanderson
The Search Area in daylight
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Actual Search Path recorded by M2E
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