Solo mod - Parrot Sequoia

[ibrew]

Looking to get into NDVI as a hobby, and I got excited about this for a minute. They are currently available for pre-order (available April 1). But at $3,000, I'm a little less excited.

Pix4D

(edited for accuracy)

 

[erikgraham]

Well that price includes the pix4d software - which is super expensive.

 

[EyeWingsuit]

Looking to get into NDVI as a hobby, and I got excited about this for a minute. They are currently available for pre-order (available April 1). But at $3,000, I'm a little less excited.

Pix4D

(edited for accuracy)

You don't need to own the Pix4D software, there are other means available.
Further, I suspect we'll see more and more NDVI options/tools available soon.
Reminds me of BluRay authoring. I spent 55K in the early days for BluPrint. Now, you can purchase it for less than 800.00

 

[ibrew]

I hope they do go for less.

I was inferring the cost from the other numbers on the page. $3,500 for Pix4D, $6,500 for Pix4D plus Sequoia.
$6,500 - $3,500 = $3,000 ($3,500 if you add in the quoted $500 in savings).

 

[ibrew]

Further, I suspect we'll see more and more NDVI options/tools available soon.
Reminds me of BluRay authoring. I spent 55K in the early days for BluPrint. Now, you can purchase it for less than 800.00

I think we will see a lot more tools for this. The total parts cost on producing a product like this is not very high, I'd be surprised if it cost more than $150 for them to build. But with the cost savings that these tools can provide for a farmer and the fact that this is such a niche market (at least for the moment), I think that a price like this is likely warranted and isn't likely to drop for a while. It's certainly worth the money for those who make their living using it, and admittedly, there're probably not too many NDVI hobbyists out there.

 

[erikgraham]

I hope they do go for less.

I was inferring the cost from the other numbers on the page. $3,500 for Pix4D, $6,500 for Pix4D plus Sequoia.
$6,500 - $3,500 = $3,000 ($3,500 if you add in the quoted $500 in savings).

Wow. That's rough. Isn't Pix4D subscription based? Is it possible the $6,500 includes a multi year license, which could change the math.

But... I'll go away now, and maybe I'll even check the pix4D website before commenting ;-)

 

[erikgraham]

You don't need to own the Pix4D software, there are other means available.

I have an old list of mapping/stitching software capable of creating 3D models and highres textures.

Any suggestions?

 

[Marioski]

Not necessarily. Small farmers would be interested in this as well, if it's used by the farmer or provided as a service but the fertilizer vendor. We run a 100 acre farm in SW Michigan and the purchase of the drone was to be able to quickly spot issues in our field, primarily with water. Sure walking the field still works and nothing beats it, but you can easily and quickly spot issues with a drone especially on multiple locations.

I personally would be interested in this for our operation. The more data I can have, the more efficient and precise I can be with our fertilizer and chemical applications. The better my applications are, the more yield I can return from the fields. When you are spending $5-8K a year on fertilizer and chemicals every little bit adds up. So a small investment in a camera setup would pay for itself.

 

[Burkeam]

We have a few more options this spring.

A commercial package by AGCO using the Solo and dronedeploy
AGCO | SOLO AGCO EDITION UAV | Agriculture from a New Perspective

PeauPro72 NDVI – Peau Productions
also can be used with drone deploy

 

[rcglider]

Owning several sUAS and being about the only person in the area left that flies RC anything these days, farmers (one is family run 7,000 acres) in the area have been asked if I offer these services, but not knowing where to start I cannot say yes. How does one get equipped to do it? What's the cost?

$6500 for software? I find it hard to believe it can't be done for much less. It may not be the rule, but farmers I know shy away because of the learning curve, have no interest in flying and do not want to spend big dollars for another new technology no matter who is promoting it. They would much rather pay someone who knows what they're doing.

 

[ibrew]

I find it hard to believe it can't be done for much less. It may not be the rule, but farmers I know shy away because of the learning curve, have no interest in flying and do not want to spend big dollars for another new technology no matter who is promoting it.

The short answer is that there is, at least from the software perspective, but it won't be simple.

There are free tools out there, but you'll have to piece them together because you're not going to find one free tool that does it all. There may be license limitations, even on the open source software, that prevent use in a commercial situation.

You can start by googling "open source orthographic point cloud imaging". Point cloud imaging, or stitching is where the software compares multiple overlapping pictures and finds common pixels or points to weave together into a larger image. There are many tools for other types of point cloud imaging, but they're typically for generating 3D models of an object, and not for mapping.

Also, in my limited research, it seems as though Peau Productions and its sister company Mapir, are definitely pushing to make mapping and NDVI more affordable, at least from the hardware side of things. I'm not sure who else is.

 

[Captain Salty]

I pre ordered the Sequoia awhile back but am still waiting for delivery.

I don't currently own a Solo but have been looking into one purely to fly the Sequoia. The video shows it hard mounted, but I'd really like it in the gimbal if it is possible. It's the same dimensions as the Hero 4 and the weight is nearly identical. The issues I see are the USB ports. The one to power the camera should be compatible with the Solo gimbal but then you have the one above it that talks to the sunshine sensor. Obviously having a USB cable coming out of a camera that is gimbal mounted isn't ideal but looking at the Solo gimbal, I'm wondering if it is even possible.

 

[Jubalr]

I pre ordered the Sequoia awhile back but am still waiting for delivery.

I don't currently own a Solo but have been looking into one purely to fly the Sequoia. The video shows it hard mounted, but I'd really like it in the gimbal if it is possible. It's the same dimensions as the Hero 4 and the weight is nearly identical. The issues I see are the USB ports. The one to power the camera should be compatible with the Solo gimbal but then you have the one above it that talks to the sunshine sensor. Obviously having a USB cable coming out of a camera that is gimbal mounted isn't ideal but looking at the Solo gimbal, I'm wondering if it is even possible.

Your problem will be the Hero port on the gimbal that will keep your camera from even setting in the gimbal. I use the Mapir camera, and it is the same dimensions as the Hero4 as well. But will not set in the gimbal because of the Hero port sticking out of the gimbal. If that was removable, we could probably make it work.

 

[Captain Salty]

Ahh yeah - that's not ideal!

I've made my own solid mount with vibration dampening for now but found this link which may be helpful for those of you wishing to fly the Sequoia under your Solo: Micasense/Parrot Sequioa Fixed Mapping 3DP Mount & Adapter for 3DR Iris, Iris +, X8 & Solo (Please Select Platform From Options PullDown)

As far as the actual mission planning goes, I've looked into DroneDeploy, Pix4D & DronesMadeEasy. None of the currently support the features "needed" to easily plan a mission with the Sequoia on-board.

For example, you can tell the Sequoia to take photos every xx meters or every xx seconds. To accurately predict the amount of frontal overlap required you need to know or specify the forward speed of the drone - DroneDeploy & Pix4D have both told me they will implement the ability to manually set the speed in the near future. DonesMadeEasy tried to sell me an $11,000 Matrice instead.

Also another requirement is the ability to predict or specify the distance between the parallel flight paths the drone will follow during its grid mission in order to set the correct side overlap.

Currently DD, P4D & DME only allow an overlap percentage when planning the mission, but this is specific to the optics of the camera, ie GoPro, DJI X3 etc.

DD are looking at the distance being displayed when you select what percentage of sidelap you want, so for instance you set it to 80% and it will tell you that will be xx Meters between flight lines. Very helpful.

Is anyone aware of any other grid mapping apps that are compatible with either the Solo or Inspire that allow user specification of Speed and Grid Distance?

Have also started a Facebook Group for Sequoia owners / users to help share info Security Check Required

Cheers

 

[Lars Holst Hansen]

...
Is anyone aware of any other grid mapping apps that are compatible with either the Solo or Inspire that allow user specification of Speed and Grid Distance?

Have also started a Facebook Group for Sequoia owners / users to help share info Security Check Required

Cheers

It seems Tower now supports Sequoia for planning.

Here is another resource for using the Parrot Sequoia with the 3DR Solo: http://www.rslab.se/mounting-parrot-sequoia-on-3dr-solo/

And another in a no longer available blog post called
"Some notes on mapping with the Sequoia camera on 3DR Solo"

Cheers,
Lars