Hair brain idea, or cheap proof of concept for bridge inspection?

Global_Saffer · Oct 2, 2016

So maybe this is completely hair brained, but....

A student wants to do a proof of concept for IR bridge inspection, but has a pretty limited budget. Would a IR cell phone attachment, attached to a phone with a HDMI output, connected via an adapter to the Solo HDMI cable, and mounted on top of the battery, work?

He's just going for a very low tech proof of concept.

Solo for about $400, FLIR attachment about $220, Phone around $200.

RichWest · Oct 2, 2016

Maybe you should look at this... @cynfab is working on intergrating a Flir One to solo. He may have further insight to your questions and application.

New 3rd party gimbal for Solo + Flir

Global_Saffer · Oct 3, 2016

Thanks Rich! Fantastic!

Pedals2Paddles · Oct 3, 2016

You want to mount it to the battery... So are you trying to shoot imagery pointing up off the top of the solo while flying around under a bridge? If so, the gimbal probably won't help since they only point forward and down. I don't see why what you're doing won't work. Just make sure not to cover the dome over the GPS with your gadgets.

Also, flying under a bridge requires special precautions and awareness. First, you will probably need to be standing down there with it, remaining in line of sight. The structure of the bridge will easily block the signal from your controller. Being under a bridge is usually bad for all the possible failsafes. The GPS will be either offline or poor. You'll need to use manual mode. And the RTH failsafes will want to climb into the bridge deck. Or land on whatever is below.

Global_Saffer · Oct 3, 2016

Hi Pedals,

Thanks for the input! We fully expect to fly 100% manually, due to the GPS signal being poor when close to large infrastructure. We're also attaching prop guards, and removing the gimbal. Yup, we want to be able to see directly under the bridge. I'm fairly experience with manual flying, but this will definitely be a new challenge that requires practice and planning!

Jonathan Miranda · Oct 8, 2016

Just out of curiously. ...if you guys want to do infrared bridged inspection, wouldn't be better to have the device (phone with or camera combo) mounted in a 45 degree angle? My reasoning behind this is that there are places that would be difficult to get underneath them to inspect (bridge abutments, between beams, etc.). It would be nice if you guys can use/ integrate the adapter for the 360 Kodak camera. It might have a hdmi cable on top that you could use for the ir camera.