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Even though I don't fly over people, I retrofitted a parachute onto my DJI drone just in case. It automatically deploys if the drone loses power or control. I
by rkagerer 6y ago
Even though I don't fly over people, I retrofitted a parachute onto my DJI drone just in case. It automatically deploys if the drone loses power or control. It doesn't impact flight characteristics or battery life by much.
I feel like a basic safety like this would be a prudent and more effective measure for overhead flights than self-transmitting "license plates" (which I agree are at least better than the silly internet requirement).
- GordonS 6y agoI've never flown a drone, but this sounds like a pretty cool idea! Are you aware of anything like this being a requirement anywhere, or having being proposed by regulators anywhere?
- snuxoll 6y agoThey kind of fall in with the rules published by the FAA here, and previously were more or less a requirement to get a waiver before said rules. The whole worry about flight over people is two-fold: 1. Props still spinning waiting to cut people up in event of flyaways or loss of power from one or more props 2. In the event of total loss of power, what is the total kinetic energy that would be imparted on an individual should the falling drone strike them Parachute systems effectively deal with both. A proper setup will power off the drone, making sure the props aren't spinning, and lower the rate of descent so minimal kinetic energy will be transferred in the event of a collision with a human being. The new rules firmly codify what requirements must be met to operate over people safely, and parachutes along with prop guards should easily meet them.
- taf2 6y agooh if you can that would be really cool to see how you did that... I'd love to retrofit something like this to my drone... I did buy my kids a drone and the issue there was they flew it into a very tall tree... needless say it's still in the very tall tree
- spydum 6y agoWhat you need is a second drone..
- C19is20 6y agoA saw?
- mattnewton 6y agodrone with a saw.
- TeMPOraL 6y ago...with a claw on an extendable rope attached. Because a rescue operation is obviously more interesting than just giving the kids a second drone.
- gibolt 6y agoWhat you need is a third drone...
- kreeben 6y agoNow you have three or more problems.
- olyjohn 6y agoReminds me of when Boyd Coddington went to Bonneville Salt Flats one year. Got his RV stuck, then got a tow truck stuck, then a 2nd and 3rd tow truck got stuck trying to recover them. Might have even taken a 4th tow truck to get them all out... http://www.saltflats.com/stuck.htm http://www.saltflats.com/stuck.htm
- throwaway0a5e 6y agoYou can tell it's a road racing crowd and not an off road crowd based on the fact that the entire ground around the stuck vehicles isn't carpeted in tire tracks from other vehicles trying to get it unstuck and empty beer cans.
- balls187 6y agoHave you tested deploying the parachute?
- lemonspat 6y agoDo you have write up of this retrofit? How is it triggered?
- scld 6y agoNot OP but you could probably hook the parachute to constantly NOT be deployed, like a deadman's switch, so that if you lose power it just deploys automatically.
- 1024core 6y agoSo... when you unplug the battery to replace it, you're greeted by a popping parachute?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- renewiltord 6y agoYes, it's just part of the process for you to disarm the parachute in that situation. Sort of like it's sensible to disarm the airbag before steering column changes in some cars at least.
- on_and_off 6y agoI am always stunned that many (most/all) of these high tech gadgets lack a LOT of safety features. I would pay extra for a drone with such safeguards. just the prospect of less chances of ruining it would be enough. Similarly, eskates often have a regenerative battery charging while braking which is a great idea. but it also cannot handle charging while already full. So if you go down a slope while the board is full, it can decide to shut down and let you bomb down that hill. Which sounds like an insane pitfall. Or what happens if the board loses its connection to the remote ? I would hope that it brakes progressively but similarly it just does nothing .. so up to you to find a way to stop. It is such a weird blind spot to have. I don't think a car manufacturer would ship a product with this kind of blind spot, is that a culture thing ? regulation ? Anyway, fingers crossed that somebody seizes these opportunities.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- fiddlerwoaroof 6y agoTeslas turn off regenerative breaking if you charge too far, but the car tells you that pretty prominently: however, the car handles very differently without Regen brakes.
- sethdj 6y agoCan’t you also set the car to never charge to actual max, giving regen breaking some leeway? (If this is somehow a problem you run into often)
- diebeforei485 6y agoYes, and that is the default. But people do charge to 100% occasionally for road trips (or for escaping a hurricane path, etc).
- xvector 6y agoThis was the dumbest thing I experienced with my Model 3. I was expecting my regen brakes to work after I pulled out and I had to brake super hard after. Why can’t Tesla just give us an option to keep it consistent? I guess adding video games is more important.
- 8note 6y agoHow do you keep the propellers from cutting people up? Does the parachute also tangle up the prop?
- grumple 6y agoThey aren’t sharp. Doesn’t seem like a realistic concern tbh.
- macintux 6y agoBeing hit in the eye with a flying object spinning at high speeds...how much would it matter how sharp the blades are?
- mynameisvlad 6y agoThis comment thread is about someone adding a parachute to their drone if they lose power, so it doesn’t fall on someone. The propellers would not be spinning, and the object would be gently gliding down.
- macintux 6y agoThe start of the thread was about either losing power or losing control. The GP dismissal of the danger of the propellors sounded suspiciously like the guy on YT who just got fined $182k by the FAA, who argued that the first offense for hitting someone in the head should be a $20 fine.
- pinky1417 6y agoThe drone’s blades would likely still be spinning during a parachute descent... albeit at lower revolutions per minute. I’d imagine drones operate like a helicopter: in the event of an engine failure, the helicopter goes into “autorotation” in which the now unpowered rotor blades move due to the air going through the blades as the helicopter descends, thus braking the fall. However, if drones have locking rotors, then in that case the blades would not be rotating during a parachute descent. Regardless of whether the blades are locked or spinning at lower RPMs, still better than powered drones falling from the sky!
- fblp 6y agoi think parachutes for drones is a great idea and i hope advocates for that to the FAA.
- amelius 6y agoHow about airbags that are always deployed? You could even fill them with helium.
- dannyw 6y agoSelf transmitting license plates are a totally reasonable requirement. In the future where drones are popular, if you get a drone with a high def camera flying over your backyard, you want to be able to identify who is flying it.
- tomc1985 6y ago> I feel like a basic safety like this would be a prudent and more effective measure for overhead flights than self-transmitting "license plates" (which I agree are at least better than the silly internet requirement). How is this any different than an aircraft transponder or IFF device?
- anticensor 6y agoDo you have a tutorial for fitting the parachute? Incorrect method of deployment would do more harm than good.
- cookiengineer 6y agoThe interesting part behind the current "noflyzones" database concept is that it requires a lot of synchronization overhead. My DJI dropped out of 100m in the middle of the flight because GPS took so long to synchronize. And yes, the firmware does not "safely autoland" like any reasonable person would expect. Instead it just shuts off the power and drops down.
- swiley 6y agoThat's an extremely good idea, I'm surprised that isn't a standard feature. Do you have any STL files/firmware you'd like to share to help other people do it?