Boat Mode

[pyrate]

The effort is real
Progress is unkown

I do know some are already flying solo on master. But they are not typical flyers

 

[hackbard23]

it must be possible, as i´ve seen a karma video where a skier holds the karma drone in his hand while he is riding and throws it away while riding, to begin a selfie smart shot.
But this could also be done with a nearby standing pilot who flies in Manual mode, who knows what tricks they have taken

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

it must be possible, as i´ve seen a karma video where a skier holds the karma drone in his hand while he is riding and throws it away while riding, to begin a selfie smart shot.
But this could also be done with a nearby standing pilot who flies in Manual mode, who knows what tricks they have taken

The skier didn't turn the drone on while moving and try to arm it while moving. It was already powered on and armed when he picked it up and took off down the hill.

 

[User Name]

Never more calm on the canal than last night, but too late to worry about getting underway and try a launch.
View attachment 4094

I'm more of an airplane type than a boat type, but damn, I can see the attraction to that! Love the hammock.

 

[Crisp Rice]

I did take off (and land on) from my boat this summer many times. I didn't attempt it in rough water or any significant wind. I only recall it failing to arm once. 40' express cruiser on Georgian Bay, nice big flat fiberglass front area of the boat was LZ.

When I did have my EKF failure on landing it was the time I actually took off from a very massive dock on a glassy lake with No wind. 3DR denied warrantee for the failure because I violated their best practices. Mea Culpa.

I don't recommend taking off from a boat or dock, even if it works.

 

[DannyG]

In the Karma video, we see a take off from the front of a kayak. Now I personally wouldn't trust landing back on the front of the kayak afterwards since it's such a small surface area, but the point I got from that scene was that it was possible to take off from a floating platform and I must admit I was kicking myself in the back for not having waited for the Karma drone to come out if it meant being able to take off from a boat. The main reason I purchased a drone was to get aerial water footage and to have the drone follow the boat while underway for some good footage.

As I mentioned in this thread before, I took a trip to Bimini and was able to get footage but only from taking off from the beach, I never bothered trying to take off from the boat because it was pretty windy and the boat was rocking. Even while on the beach, I when it was arming and sitting on top of the carrying case lid, the wind i guess was causing movement and the controller warned me about movement being detected. That was some pretty sensitive detecting if you ask me, so I dont know if it'd be possible.

 

[SARDG]

In the Karma video, we see a take off from the front of a kayak... ...The main reason I purchased a drone was to get aerial water footage and to have the drone follow the boat while underway for some good footage...

You may remember several promo videos from 3dr early on, that showed Solo following boats, etc. Those strongly implied that one could arm and take off from a boat, but alas.... no joy.

Perhaps we'll discover the same with Karma. In movies, things aren't always as they appear.

 

[Crisp Rice]

I agree with you both ... I want to take off from water based locations, and I don't yet trust that Karma will actually do it. I assume they were aware that showing Karma take off from a kayak strongly implies something. Solo chasing a boat implies a lot less as long as they didn't show takeoff.

 

[PdxSteve]

It seems it's kind of a big leap though just because they show it following a boat that you could take off from a boat. They showed solo following a lot of things. I didn't get any insinuation that they were taking off from the objects they were following. I don't think 3DR ever stated it would be able to take off from a boat initially. That talk came bout a year after solo launched when ardupilot got boat mode, but 3dr couldn't implement it because they strayed too far from the ardupilot master branch and couldn't easily merge the upstream changes. Philip still says boat mode works on solo - if you install the current ardupilot master branch version on it - but then you'd lose out on a few solo specific things. I know many want boat mode, and it's obviously capable of it, I just don't think they ever mentioned it officially except during the time they were trying to rebase solo ardupilot, but messed up and couldn't.

 

[SARDG]

I did take off (and land on) from my boat this summer many times. I didn't attempt it in rough water or any significant wind. I only recall it failing to arm once. 40' express cruiser on Georgian Bay, nice big flat fiberglass front area of the boat was LZ...

Hey Chris... we don't like your kind around here because...
a) you routinely took off and landed on a boat, and
b) you gave up your drowned Solo and quit on us! (or maybe that was 3dr who quit on you...)

 

[SARDG]

It seems it's kind of a big leap though just because they show it following a boat that you could take off from a boat. They showed solo following a lot of things. I didn't get any insinuation that they were taking off from the objects they were following...

...and yet, users on this forum specifically mentioned those videos and their disappointment with Solo being unable to do so.

 

[PdxSteve]

They saw what they wanted to see and made a complete leap. If 3DR had a video of solo taking off from a boat that would be different. They were just following a boat, just like they followed surfers and other things. I see car commercials with jeeps driving up the side of a mountain, too.

 

[SARDG]

They saw what they wanted to see and made a complete leap. If 3DR had a video of solo taking off from a boat that would be different. They were just following a boat, just like they followed surfers and other things. I see car commercials with jeeps driving up the side of a mountain, too.

Well, for the moment at least my priorities have turned to something more immediately achievable... Solo recovery - either with enough foam to float it near the water line and/or something like a GetterBack. I won't call them landings - more like emergency splashdowns!

 

[Crisp Rice]

Well, for the moment at least my priorities have turned to something more immediately achievable... Solo recovery - either with enough foam to float it near the water line and/or something like a GetterBack. I won't call them landings - more like emergency splashdowns!

I guess that will salvage some useful parts but my solo was in fresh water lake for less than 2 minutes and it was a paperweight. We will know more after p2p dissects her and sees if anything is salvageable for reuse. I suppose the GoPro 4 black was fine so that's a good reason to have a getterback but I routine fly over deep Caribbean ocean water so I don't think would work there either. I think it is best to not to crash in the first place. But I did read there are only 2 kinds of RC aircraft: those that have crashed and those that haven't crashed yet. So my takeaway on this is that I must accept that I will probably end up sinking more drones since I can't remember any flight (after my first flight) not being over water.

 

[PdxSteve]

Well, for the moment at least my priorities have turned to something more immediately achievable... Solo recovery - either with enough foam to float it near the water line and/or something like a GetterBack. I won't call them landings - more like emergency splashdowns!

I was thinking there has to be something compact like an airbag that could be instantly deployed when it detects water, or one could be built if there is a gas inflatable buoy type device and adding a moisture sensor. Did some searching and found this: Waterbuoy - Technology

Unfortunately you'd need 2 to lift the solo as these only do 1kg and solo is about 1.8kg with gimbal/gopro. But...looks like stuff exists for emergency recovery and is compact until triggered which is cool.

 

[RichWest]

Did some searching and found this: Waterbuoy - Technology

I think that product died. IIRC if submersed too deep it would not inflate the balloon fully when activated.

I was thinking about an airbag cartridge, seems weight was an issue when I checked last. Then what type of "balloon" to use that would handle the heat from the cartridge.... Complex problem and at what cost...

 

[SARDG]

I guess that will salvage some useful parts but my solo was in fresh water lake for less than 2 minutes and it was a paperweight. We will know more after p2p dissects her and sees if anything is salvageable for reuse. I suppose the GoPro 4 black was fine so that's a good reason to have a getterback but I routine fly over deep Caribbean ocean water so I don't think would work there either. I think it is best to not to crash in the first place. But I did read there are only 2 kinds of RC aircraft: those that have crashed and those that haven't crashed yet. So my takeaway on this is that I must accept that I will probably end up sinking more drones since I can't remember any flight (after my first flight) not being over water.

Ideally, the quad would auto-rotate down to a soft landing on sizable floats and I could simply go pick it out of the water.

I have had pretty good luck with recovering and drying out drowned electronics - the best situation would be to not find out if that luck extends to Solo.

 

[SARDG]

I think that product died. IIRC if submersed too deep it would not inflate the balloon fully when activated.

Complex problem and at what cost...

Yeah, availability is 'limited' on that WaterBuoy.

 

[DannyG]

So to my understanding, theres a way to download something to enable a boat mode? I'd probably be willing to go for it if it means i can take off from my boat and still have the follow me feature to follow the boat underway... I plan to get the Gopro 5 so that rules out losing the gopro if there was a splash down I'd hope at least.

 

[SARDG]

@MicBergsma takes off (Karma) from a boat at Lake Tahoe.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

In the following clip, he also shows use of ND filters with plane props.

Last time I was up at Tahoe, it started snowing and the flashing lights came on - "Chains Required".