c/equipment

Our company just landed a federal contract and we need to transition off DJI for that work. Still keeping DJI for private sector but need something Blue UAS / NDAA compliant. Options I'm looking at:

The L2 payload has been out for a while now. At $8k for the sensor (plus M350 cost), it's the cheapest drone LiDAR option that's actually usable. Anyone doing serious survey work with it? How does po

Running a 3-person survey crew. We've been using an M3E for about 8 months and it handles 90% of our work just fine. But we're losing bids on larger sites because clients want RTK accuracy. The M350

Our DOT is finally approving budget for a fixed wing. We're mapping 50-100 mile highway corridors regularly and the M3E just can't keep up. Too many battery swaps, too many days in the field. Looking

Running an M350 RTK with L1 for utility corridor work. DJI just dropped the L2 and it's tempting but not cheap. Anyone made the upgrade? Is the accuracy improvement real or marketing? We're mostly do

Need to add LiDAR capability but the DJI L2 at $15k is hard to justify for occasional use. Seeing some Hesai-based systems from Chinese manufacturers at half the price. Anyone have experience with th

Been running M3E RTK for 2 years, works great. DJI just released the Matrice 4 Enterprise and I'm trying to figure out if it's worth upgrading. Specs look similar - same 20MP 4/3" sensor, similar fli

Looking at alternatives to DJI given the potential ban concerns. The Evo Max 4T has some interesting specs on paper - RTK capable, 48MP wide camera, thermal, laser rangefinder. But I can't find anyon

We're looking at setting up a DJI Dock 2 at a large construction site for daily progress monitoring. The idea is fully autonomous flights every morning before the crew arrives. Curious if anyone has

Need a standalone GNSS receiver for GCP work. Currently borrowing our total station crew's Trimble R10 but they need it back. Looking for something that can do RTK via NTRIP and static observations.

Got approached by a precision ag company wanting NDVI and crop health maps. I have zero experience with multispectral imaging. Looking at the MicaSense RedEdge-P and the DJI P1 + NDVI filter approach

Getting ready for winter survey season up here in Alaska. Temps will be -20F to +10F for the next few months. Running M350 with L2. Last winter I had battery issues and some crashes due to motor prob

Working a project in northern Montana this week. Temps hovering around 15°F. Lost about 40% of my battery capacity on the first flight before I figured out my warming strategy. Currently keeping batt

Got a lot of questions about this at a conference last week so figured I'd write it up. Yes, you can use non-DJI base stations (Emlid, Trimble, etc.) with DJI drones that support network RTK. Here's h

My phone (iPhone 14 Pro) overheats in direct sunlight after about 20 minutes of running DJI Fly. Lost control display mid-flight twice last summer. Thinking about switching to a dedicated tablet. Wha

Using my personal iPad for drone work and ready to get a dedicated field tablet. Needs to be bright enough for outdoor use and reliable. Budget around $1000. Seeing recommendations for iPad, Samsung

Just started my own survey firm after 8 years working for a larger company. Ready to add drones but trying to decide between the Mavic 3 Enterprise RTK and the Anzu Raptor RTK. Both seem to have simi

Time to replace my beat-up GCP targets. Currently using homemade plywood boards painted with checkerboard pattern but they're heavy and hard to transport. Looking at the Propeller AeroPoints but they

Been doing a lot of topo work in partially wooded residential lots lately and the canopy is killing my RTK fix rate. Figured I'd share some informal testing I did last week comparing three receivers u

Running a D-RTK 2 mobile station with our M3E. About 20% of the time it loses RTK fix mid-flight and drops to float or single. Usually happens around the 15-20 minute mark. Firmware is current. Tripo

Just wrapped up a project on some BLM land in eastern Oregon. Zero cell coverage for miles. We brought a Starlink Mini and it completely changed our workflow. Setup is pretty simple - Starlink Mini s