We might not be able to afford Droney and his pals, but info on who/what/where/when/why/how of drones in the < $2000 range will be greatly appreciated.
You are thinking about extending your surveillance capacity, right?
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Met a guy. When I see him again I’ll get some specifics. He had a pretty neat rig. 10 mile range, auto negotiate obstacles, auto return to sender’s pad if/when contingency/programmable/single button home now. Camera quality was excellent. Not in the toy category. He did register it with fedgov (or smartly lies about that). He was training himself and was flying almost exclusively within his visual site of the craft. He’s probably flying by camera several miles out of sight by now. Weather and wind considerations matter.
Search for DIY Drone to get a good idea of what’s available and some sites to bookmark. Learning a little programming to manage a RaspPi or Arduino would be good.
Be aware—It is child’s play to DF the drone’s controller, so the “loitering” of the operator is more problematic than that of the drone.
I know of no way to defeat the DF Achilles heel, so fast-in/fast-out may be the only option.
DJI though Chinese made are pretty good and fast in sport mode. Most all the drones have the “fly home” capability by just pushing a button on the controller. IF you can find them on the used market they just might be a bargain. Piloting a modern drone is not difficult and is easily accomplished in a few hours flight time…. except for the toy drones without GPS.
There IS a website or two on the web that “hacks” the firmware of various drones to allow the operator to bypass limitations imposed by the firmware. Superior firmware loading skillset is a must.
Some of the older drone models have the capability to attach different cameras to the gimble. IIRC DJI does NOT allow this as their gimble is for their cameras.
Their is software available for drones that allows for preplanned routes via a series of “fly to points” making it a semi-autonomous system while also taking pictures or movies along the planned route.
The antennas on the controllers are “verticals” and some controllers have third party options of “curved reflectors” allowing for greater range and cutting out over 180deg of transmission area and less chance of DF.
The above capabilities are as of two years ago. With some imagination and math you can easily rig a drone with a different sensor if so desired.
From my research anything under about $300 is a toy type product and the higher above that price point you go the greater the capabilities of the drone.
https://www.dronethusiast.com/best-drones-with-cameras/
/r
Grey Ghost
Slightly off-topic-
If you want to collect intel on your surroundings, one thing you can do is to go to your local tax assessor’s website and see if they have a searchable map of properties. My last two counties have had this info online and it is a treasure trove of data. You can pick any address in the county, see who owns it, the address, and other info (depending on locality). I’ve used this info to create maps of my AO to see who is where. Helps me with your memory, too, if you can’t remember the dude down the street. Take a screenshot of the map, add a name to the property, and now you never need to forget a neighbor’s name.
Another thing- some online maps let you measure distance between points. I used that to figure out distances to landmarks from my location. Then, I used the panorama function on my camera to get a 180* pic of the view from my balcony, plugged the range info in on powerpoint, and created a range card I can keep by the balcony for those unexpected events. (Note- Waterproof it, but keep it taped or tacked inside where the rain can’t get it and the wind can’t blow it away where someone else can find it.) I doubt I’ll ever need it, but it’s another nice-to-have item, especially with the current environment.