=== Let's Drone Out — Episode 230 ===
Title: LDO 230 - Gimbal Gimp
Recorded: 2020-01-23
Hosts: Neil "NJ Tech" Jones, Andy, Andrew "Frank" Hyams, Wayne "CurryKitten" Andrews, Tony "TheTonstar1" Marchant, Jack "Brightontillifly" Nash
Guest(s): Sheldon "Drone Doctor" Holy
Total audience: 2,229
Platforms: YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bit27f78dP4); SoundCloud (http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/749933023-letsdroneout-ldo-230-gimbal-gimp.mp3)
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Sheldon is from http://dronedoctor.co.uk/

[0.0] Jack: Hello and welcome to Let's Drone Out, the best, well the only UK FPV podcast,
[6.8] Jack: sponsored by the lovely people from our Patreon, patreon.com forward slash Let's Drone Out.
[12.88] Jack: In particular we'd like to thank these guys, Art Faulkner, Mikey Dredd, Wacky Wes, David Powell.
[24.24] Jack: Thank you guys, you're the best, we can edit our podcast, thank you.
[59.12] Frank: Good evening and welcome to Let's Drone Out. This week we are again short a Jack,
[66.0] Frank: but he has replaced himself with a special guest, so we will get around to introducing everyone.
[74.0] Frank: This week we have Andy R.C.,
[76.72] Frank: how are you?
[78.08] Frank: Kyari Kitten.
[79.6] Frank: Hello.
[80.64] Frank: N.J.
[81.84] Frank: Hello.
[83.12] Frank: Tony.
[85.2] Frank: And so-called the gimbal gimp, is what he's putting himself down as on here.
[90.88] Frank: So Sheldon, how are you doing today?
[94.48] Sheldon: I'm okay, thanks for having me. How's the Let's Drone Out team?
[99.92] Frank: We're all good I think, to kind of give everyone a bit of a stupid question.
[106.88] Frank: To ask everyone.
[111.2] Frank: Just give everyone a bit of background on how you've come to be on the show this evening.
[119.6] Frank: Where are you speaking from right now?
[123.28] Sheldon: I am speaking from Drone Doctor Towers here in Brighton.
[129.68] Sheldon: And what do you do at Drone Doctor?
[131.6] Sheldon: We mostly repair a few other bits. We also fly tiny whips.
[143.92] Curry: It's an interesting thing already because most people who fly FPV, the race style drones, would
[151.28] Curry: sort of put the proposition forward that DGR drones don't crash, you just push them around the sky.
[156.96] Curry: Exactly what are people managing to do with them? Is there any interesting
[162.0] Curry: crash stories there about exactly what they were doing and what happened to their quads?
[169.2] Sheldon: Yeah, I've always wondered the same thing. Since the obstacle avoidance has been in all of the
[174.64] Sheldon: DGR drones, well apart from the Mavic Mini, we thought at one point, oh, you know, when
[180.72] Sheldon: the Phantom 4 came out with obstacle avoidance, we thought, okay, we don't have the business anymore.
[184.8] Sheldon: It turns out to not be the case because certainly DGR's obstacle avoidance is not to be trusted.
[191.84] Sheldon: Unfortunately, it's marketed, DGR have a habit of doing this. They basically market it as being,
[198.8] Sheldon: you know, it will stop you crashing, but it won't. In many cases, for example, if it's
[204.24] Sheldon: poor lighting conditions, then the vision sensors won't detect an obstacle. If it's something like
[209.6] Sheldon: a tree with branches moving around in the wind, it won't actually detect that as an obstacle.
[214.88] Frank: So what happens is DGR gets defeated by Scraggle.
[219.81] Sheldon: They get defeated by many things, actually, but...
[223.01] Tony: Scraggle in the English weather, the grime and drizzle.
[227.17] AndyRC: Have we explained to the viewers what Sheldon's role is? What his job is?
[236.13] Tony: Fixing Mavics and stuff, by the sound of it.
[241.17] AndyRC: I just want to ask just a quick question because I had a Phantom 4 and when I received it,
[248.37] AndyRC: it had a dead pixel on the camera. So I contacted DGR and they sent me a label to print off.
[257.73] AndyRC: I sent it to my... I dropped it off at my local UPS thing and it went to Europe somewhere. So
[264.77] AndyRC: why didn't it go to you? Are you something separate from DJI is my question.
[271.41] Sheldon: Yes, thank God. Yeah, we're not part of DJI. We're the recommended and authorized preparer
[276.69] Sheldon: for the UK. So we're listed on the website. We're the only company with that. But we are in a
[281.57] Sheldon: dependent company. I own Drone Doctor. There's six of us here that repair drones. And yeah,
[290.29] Sheldon: so we are entirely separate from DJI. Are these drones... Europe is in Holland.
[296.69] AndyRC: Yes, that's where. So are these DJI models that are out of warranty then
[302.77] Sheldon: that customers have to pay for to get fixed? Well, very occasionally people will do something
[311.65] Sheldon: through us. It should be done. It will go through the hassle of DJI. But any sort of crash damage,
[318.69] Sheldon: someone makes a mistake that's not covered under warranty. If they don't have DJI care,
[323.89] Sheldon: then it comes through to us. We deal with a number of insurance companies as well.
[329.41] Sheldon: So we do their repairs. So yeah, it's mainly... We do get more of a given model once they go out of
[338.37] Sheldon: warranty. Once they will start becoming year old, we get more of them because yeah, warranty covers
[343.81] Sheldon: expire. But we don't do any warranty work. Perfect. That's what I wanted to know. Okay,
[349.57] Frank: carry on. So, N.J., what was your DJI tail that you were teasing us with?
[356.93] NJ: Well, no, all it is is that... That's the fact that, you know, 10 years off and on buying
[362.77] NJ: DJI products, the first time I've had something actually go wrong, which was my... Of the two air
[368.93] NJ: units, I was sent. Well, I say that I was sent. I actually purchased. They weren't sent to me for
[373.97] NJ: review. One of them, it was actually, they both came in via Banggood because I had some points
[381.81] NJ: in my account anyway. So I got those over. And the MSP on one of them doesn't work, which was
[388.93] NJ: hilarious trying to chat with their technical team. Because obviously, I have two air units here. So
[396.69] NJ: it's very, very easy to cross-reference what works and doesn't work on when you've got one
[401.41] NJ: working air unit and one that doesn't because you just take the harness out, plug the other one in,
[405.09] NJ: and when everything works, you're like, well, there's your answer. There's nothing wrong with
[408.53] NJ: my wiring. But of course, a ton of stupid questions ensue from technical support.
[413.41] NJ: Can you send me pictures of your ports tab? Can you take a picture of your flight controller
[417.01] NJ: wiring? I'm like, yes, I'll jump to all those hoops, but I have to. It works on one. It doesn't
[422.05] NJ: on the other. Therefore, the one that doesn't work has a problem with the MSP. Eventually,
[426.13] NJ: they agreed to this. And then after going through all of that, the person, Maggie, which I'm sure
[433.41] NJ: is a real name in technical support, then sent me an email to say, I've looked at your serial
[439.01] NJ: number. And I noticed that this is a USA unit. And therefore, we will not be covering your
[445.65] NJ: warranty. You'll have to send it to the Netherlands, which I think is possibly the closest regional
[451.33] NJ: repair spot that does the warranty work, as Sheldon would say. And at which point, I wrote
[460.21] NJ: back a little bit disgruntled having jumped through all of those hoops and said, well,
[464.21] NJ: is it not somewhat your responsibility to make sure that you're selling this, wholesaling this
[470.21] NJ: to retailers that are honest with their customers? I said, no, we're on the page. Does it say,
[474.29] NJ: it says one year warranty, but it doesn't say that we'll ship globally, but we'll only
[478.93] NJ: provide a warranty regionally. So I use lots of words like misguided and various other things
[486.13] NJ: that they probably look up and then go, oh, I think he means business. And they have actually
[490.93] NJ: honored it. And they said, OK, we're really sorry. I think maybe many people would have
[498.21] NJ: turned around and gone, well, I guess I'll have to get it repaired. But they have actually agreed
[501.89] NJ: to honor it. So I think that's where it's going to end up going. But yeah, that's my thing.
[510.61] AndyRC: And Jay, at any point, did you say I was Nicole Scherzing as the guitarist?
[518.21] NJ: I might have mentioned that I have a fairly solid subscriber base on YouTube. And I'd be
[522.93] NJ: happy to talk about my experience with DJI support should this not carry my favor.
[529.49] Sheldon: You wouldn't be the first one. DJI support or lack of is one of the reasons we exist.
[535.49] Sheldon: If their repulsors were really good and they were very responsive and useful, then
[541.25] Sheldon: why would people use us? But yeah, they're not.
[546.85] AndyRC: I've always found them to be great. But I've always, it's always been like a brand new
[555.73] AndyRC: product that's under warranty. So perhaps. I have gotten better on things. But as soon as you
[565.73] AndyRC: disagree, that's when it becomes an issue. What confused me about MJ's situation is that I don't
[573.81] AndyRC: know whether they've tightened their policies. But I bought a Phantom 4 direct from China because it
[580.05] AndyRC: was so much cheaper, as is the reason why many people buy DJI stuff from China. And I think they
[591.01] AndyRC: will just fill out an RMA form and that was it. So I was confused when MJ was like, oh, yeah, I had
[597.97] AndyRC: trouble. But maybe they've gotten that big and there's that many products. We're talking a few
[605.01] AndyRC: years. We're talking when the Phantom 4 was released. So perhaps they've changed their policy
[610.37] AndyRC: a little bit. And it's more of a regional thing now. But I was confused by that. So I feel bad
[617.73] AndyRC: for MJ as well, because I was like, oh, yeah, you can save so much money buying it from here.
[622.61] NJ: That's where I got it from. Well, the thing that irritated me was they then went on in the email
[628.29] NJ: to say how they're not liable then, as it would have to go to the US for repair, that they would
[633.25] NJ: not be liable for the customs and import duties and blah, blah, blah. And then went on to say,
[638.13] NJ: however, if you would like to pay for our repair service. And I thought, this is fresh out of the
[642.61] NJ: box. That's particularly uncool to take that line with me. So yeah, power of the strongly worded
[650.05] AndyRC: email, I think is that. And, Jay, you could talk anybody into anything. I jump off a script
[656.53] AndyRC: tomorrow and he told me to do so. If this will really benefit your life, MJ told me to do it.
[665.01] NJ: It's got to be right. I was geared up for a fight. But thankfully, they backed straight down.
[671.89] NJ: But I'm sure there are probably instances where they haven't. And they leave people with a bit
[677.49] NJ: of taste in their mouth. But there has to be something to do with, I think there was a point
[682.53] NJ: where DJI were very robust in their customer service. And that was when they were at a point
[687.01] NJ: where they were booming as a company. And now they're into that real growing pain stage,
[692.45] NJ: where they're getting so big that now you're talking about dealing with support on a much
[697.81] NJ: larger scale. They've gone too big for them. It's been away for a long time. Sorry? They've
[704.29] Sheldon: never put up, I may have never actually put up with the support. I mean, we're a DJI dealer and
[713.41] Sheldon: we get terrible support. Every day we have people calling up complaining about something rather than
[717.57] Sheldon: DJI. They can be good sometimes. I was going to say, I've got nothing but good experience with them.
[733.49] AndyRC: That's the thing, isn't it? It only takes one bad experience for someone to go,
[738.69] AndyRC: it's a pile of crap, don't ever trust this company. And it's like, I sent my P4 to them,
[747.33] AndyRC: I sent my Air to them, and I sent my Mavic to them. And each time, and they're all bought from
[755.41] AndyRC: China, and each time they, so Enjay, once you sorted this out, did they send you the UPS label
[763.89] NJ: and all of that? No, what they've done is they've, in this latest email where she said, look, we're
[770.21] NJ: on it, we're really sorry. They didn't really discuss any of the things that I highlighted
[775.57] NJ: with them. It was very simple email back to say, yeah, fine, you can repair it, we'll cover it.
[782.29] NJ: But the email did say, if you now go ahead and use this link to do an online booking form,
[788.53] NJ: give me the case number, and then we'll make sure that the cost is covered by them.
[797.57] Curry: Sorry, I expect it must be quite interesting. If you think about the warranty claims DJI must get,
[803.25] Curry: think about the amount of people that are pretty stupid and fly into trees. And then like,
[808.61] Curry: my drone's broken, because it hit a tree, and you guys said it wouldn't, therefore it's a failure.
[814.13] Curry: It's all your fault, you need to repair it. And this sort of thing must go on all the time.
[817.65] Sheldon: So, perhaps people don't even know how to use it at all. People don't read them. They always
[823.33] Sheldon: calibrate the compass before flight. There's some people on forums. Whenever a customer calls up
[828.21] Sheldon: and they say we've been on the forums, I always think, oh, God. Because for every good bit of
[833.97] Sheldon: information, there's three retards who are spouting out. Because people read it on the internet.
[844.77] Curry: We have a naughty word. Any viewers expressed by any guest on this show,
[848.85] Curry: brackets Sheldon, are personal and may not reflect if he's a host or any participant on the show.
[854.13] Curry: We treat people of all mental illnesses the same.
[856.29] AndyRC: Is that a new addition to the disclaimer?
[864.37] NJ: Sheldon, don't worry. As it goes, this has been the longest we've had in a while without
[869.17] NJ: needing to bring the disclaimer up. Already you're winning, so honestly, don't worry about it.
[875.81] NJ: But yeah, it's interesting, the DJI thing. Because, well, as you said, the thing with
[883.33] NJ: people going in the forums, having seen this from, like I said, it was probably about 10 years ago,
[890.05] NJ: the very early products started rolling out. You only have to keep in mind and keep an eye on
[897.81] NJ: what's going on. You get used to terms like the DJI dance and all the other bits and pieces that
[903.57] NJ: go along with it. But I can imagine there are a lot of people that do come to you that just
[909.97] NJ: haven't a clue what they're doing.
[912.93] Curry: I remember the turn to China being used back in the NASA days when the RTH went wrong.
[919.89] AndyRC: I'm just loving every so often you're hearing the DJI tone. When you hear that tone, it's like
[925.57] AndyRC: an advert almost. This episode is sponsored by DJI.
[932.05] AndyRC: We all say DJI though, don't we? No, we say DJI, but if you say it fast, it sounds like a G.
[941.73] AndyRC: I figured it out. Sorry, Sheldon, what were you saying?
[945.01] Sheldon: Just before we... Sorry. Oh, I can't remember. I've got a lot of things to complain about.
[951.57] Frank: How many bits do you receive that have been flown in the rain? Because I don't know if anyone's
[957.89] Frank: seen the... I mean, it was in the news recently, but there was also a safety or a pair of safety
[963.57] Frank: notices released by the CAA. This is nothing new. It was incredible. It's like having a
[971.97] Curry: safety note saying don't run with scissors. It was that basic on a CAA level.
[977.81] Frank: There was one safety notice saying don't fly in the rain and the other safety notice saying
[983.25] Frank: don't fly over people. That was basically the sum total, but there was many pages for these
[989.33] Frank: safety notices. N.J., did you receive a copy of these safety notices having been someone that's
[998.61] Frank: signed up and abandons the hobby and signed up directly through the DMAR or through the CAA?
[1005.97] Frank: Andy.
[1006.45] Frank: Did they take the opportunity to use your email address and send you this information?
[1011.41] NJ: There's no accusing you of being someone who sits on the fence there, Frank, is there?
[1019.73] NJ: What's happened? What have I missed?
[1023.73] NJ: I signed up to it because I wanted to know if I was going to get all the questions right,
[1028.45] NJ: which I did, and then by doing so, I accidentally registered.
[1033.57] AndyRC: I was going to say, because Lurkey is asking to Andy, sorry, Frank, are we getting a recap on
[1041.09] AndyRC: the £9 thing, Frank?
[1045.33] Frank: Go through either BMFA or FPVUK. If you've signed up to them already, you can do it through them
[1052.93] Frank: and either the RCC through BMFA or there's the A-test on FPVUK that will get you sorted with the
[1064.45] Frank: flyer ID signed up for that. But then the operator ID, which is the £9 thing,
[1069.41] Frank: you can either pay the £9 through one of the associations, so through the BMFA or the FPVUK,
[1075.41] Frank: and you can do that by just going and logging in and finding out the tick box and then saying,
[1080.21] Frank: yes, please take £9 more. Or you can do it directly through the CAA and do it that way
[1086.53] Frank: and abandon the hobby and give them better numbers.
[1091.57] NJ: For experimental purposes, it's important that we all are diverse about this.
[1097.01] NJ: I've done it that way, so now you guys can do it the other way and then we can see all
[1104.29] NJ: our different experiences. I'm just looking at my emails now and I have three. Your registration
[1111.89] NJ: code, gov.uk paid to say that they've got my £9 and your drone and model operating ID details,
[1123.09] NJ: flyer ID details, and then a bunch of pretty faff. So the answer to your question is no.
[1133.33] Frank: Which is interesting. I would have thought if they're collecting people's email addresses of
[1137.33] Frank: people that are operators or flyers of small unmanned aircraft, maybe sending the notices
[1142.53] Frank: that are addressed to all operators and flyers of unmanned aircraft, maybe they should send that.
[1147.73] NJ: But there we go. So now I'm the mole, that's why I understand that.
[1154.13] Frank: But, N.J., aren't you a journalist? For journalistic purposes.
[1160.21] AndyRC: Yeah, journalistic research. N.J., are you not a member of one of the organizations,
[1164.61] NJ: though, FPV UK or BMFA? During a resubscription error, I'm actually a member of both.
[1173.01] AndyRC: So you're going to have three operator IDs.
[1182.45] NJ: That's a good tactic. Yeah, that means I could be naughty with two of them. Brilliant.
[1191.65] AndyRC: But actually, I want to bring this back to Sheldon because, you know, with this legislation
[1198.53] AndyRC: and stuff like this, it's something I'm worried about as my career relies on it as does yours.
[1207.73] AndyRC: Do you see a reduction in work coming your way with this legislation or do you expect to see
[1218.37] AndyRC: a bunch of DJI drones without any operated IDs on the side of them and business as usual?
[1226.13] Sheldon: The second one is what we're seeing. I haven't registered, personally. I've
[1235.49] Sheldon: registered a drone doctor and the guys who test fly registered, but I haven't,
[1239.57] Sheldon: and everyone else I'm not going to. I see the reasons for it, but I don't think it's
[1253.09] Sheldon: very smart. It's just basically a waste of time. It's just attacks that won't actually achieve
[1260.37] Sheldon: anything at all. There is no way it can fulfill its intended purpose. We are seeing people sending
[1269.49] Sheldon: in drones. The drone I've got in my hand has got the guys fly our ID and his operator ID,
[1275.65] AndyRC: so I probably shouldn't show it. No shit. Tony wants to put it on his, so if you could show that.
[1286.13] Tony: Yeah, because I've got a kick down Gatwick like, oh!
[1289.57] Sheldon: Yeah, the side task of flying kinks into prisons. What's the incident, actually,
[1296.85] NJ: where you need to put both? I thought you only needed your operator ID on the side.
[1300.69] Sheldon: Do you need to fly your ID as well? No, I think this guy's just being enthusiastic.
[1303.97] NJ: All right. He's put details about the things he likes as well, because he likes gardening on this.
[1312.45] Sheldon: He's put his name on it, and his mobile number.
[1319.25] NJ: Do you know what, though? Oh, it's got his address. That person really wants their drone back.
[1323.97] AndyRC: Yeah, exactly. That's actually, aside from all of this stupid regulation, that's actually a really
[1332.61] AndyRC: good thing to do, because if you follow all of the rules, you register, you put your code on
[1341.73] AndyRC: the side, really, you're out of control if your drone just flies away. That's not your fault,
[1349.97] AndyRC: and it can happen, right? The first thing I did when I got my Phantom 4 was put my name and
[1357.97] AndyRC: address, and also reward, because I wanted it back. That's the sensible thing to do, I think.
[1368.21] Curry: I've been encouraging people for ages to put details on their quads, because so many people
[1373.33] Curry: I know have lost a quad, and where they're flying so in the middle of nowhere, if someone finds it.
[1379.57] AndyRC: Even with your buzzer recommendations? Not everybody follows that.
[1386.05] Curry: If you're really keen to get it back, I put an email address and a mobile number on. I was like,
[1392.21] Curry: if found, please call, just in case, because if someone just comes across it a walker,
[1397.25] Curry: they won't know what to do with it. Also, if you want to be really paranoid,
[1401.81] Curry: when you've got your GoPro, whatever, on the SD card, put a little read me file
[1406.45] Curry: or a video saying, watch me, and say, this is my drone, please contact me here,
[1411.89] NJ: just in case your camera flies off. But if you do that, you have to have the camera face,
[1415.57] NJ: you have to put a white lab coat on, you have to present it like Q presenting it to James Bond.
[1420.85] NJ: Or you could be friendly, you could give this back.
[1423.97] NJ: Yes, this SD card will now corrupt your entire computer in 30 seconds.
[1429.49] NJ: I always think that at some point, a drone's just, I assume a lot of them just end up in fields and
[1436.37] NJ: end up going into a combine harvester. One day, I expect to be eating my cornflakes and find a
[1441.73] AndyRC: back in the middle of one of them. Well, you haven't had that yet.
[1448.37] Curry: We did have a wing go down on the meat in like a barley field where it was like, you know,
[1453.49] Curry: this high. And we had like 20, 30 people walking up and down this field trying to find it. Nobody
[1458.61] Curry: could find it until it was ploughed. And it did look so hot, though, and it was sort of a bit
[1464.13] Curry: folded up and stuff. But some of the components were salvageable. But yeah, it hasn't quite made
[1468.93] Curry: it into the breakfast sale yet. It goes back out again. I think the farmer notices this kajunka
[1473.41] Curry: jung noise. There's some white foam stuff flying up and everything.
[1477.97] NJ: Yeah, not so great. So where are you guys based, Sheldon?
[1482.37] Sheldon: Right, we're in Brighton.
[1483.65] NJ: Oh, you're in Brighton.
[1484.61] AndyRC: Yeah, I asked him that before the show because I was like, are there any jobs going? But Brighton's
[1492.37] AndyRC: a bit too, it's a bit too much of a commute every day. But it sounds like a good job.
[1498.93] AndyRC: A question I have, and you probably can't answer it, but I take it you were close with DJI, or do
[1510.29] AndyRC: you not? Are you completely separate to them?
[1513.41] Sheldon: Well, we're not part of them. I mean, we, Drane Doctor, originally sprouted off from
[1518.53] Sheldon: First Person View, which I think was actually the first DJI dealer in the UK. And they were
[1523.49] Sheldon: very, very big. I think they were the biggest for sure at one point. So we have, I suppose,
[1530.29] Sheldon: as a business, been dealing with DJI pretty much since they first started as early as you could
[1536.85] Sheldon: get, really. But that doesn't really mean anything because they've got a very high start and overrate.
[1543.89] Sheldon: So once you build up any sort of relationship with anyone, they're usually gone. So it's very
[1549.41] Sheldon: hard to actually work, you know, closely with them. What they do care about is how much you're
[1554.29] Sheldon: ordering. So you know, if you're putting a healthy amount of money through them, then they'll pay
[1558.37] AndyRC: your account a bit more attention. What I was trying to get at is do you get the juicy information
[1566.29] AndyRC: new products? No, because I've got a DJI contact and he is like, it's like he's got a zip on his
[1572.29] AndyRC: mouth. There's some news about the Air 2 potentially coming out. There's three new drones
[1579.65] Sheldon: coming out, I heard. Have you got this from dronedj.com? Because it's a good resource,
[1587.09] Sheldon: like there needs to be a website like that to spread news. And it's obviously very popular.
[1591.01] Sheldon: And they've done good advertising for me for free, which I appreciate. However, take what's on there
[1596.85] Sheldon: with a pinch of salt because they keep confirmed rumours unless they include a picture or an
[1601.97] Sheldon: actual spec sheet, then just forget about it because there are actually a lot of retailers
[1607.17] Sheldon: that have been affected because people are waiting for the Mavic 3 that's coming out in January. No,
[1610.85] Sheldon: there's no Mavic 3 in January because the Mavic 3 is not coming out until later this year. Anyone
[1615.49] Sheldon: who actually works with DJI knows this because that's not how they're releasing stuff. And the
[1621.17] Sheldon: Mavic 2 is nowhere near the end of its lifecycle. The latest Mavic 2 that was brought out, the Mavic
[1627.65] Sheldon: 2 Enterprise dual, that was released a year ago. So it's not going to be replaced yet. And I don't
[1633.25] Sheldon: think it will be replaced realistically till the end of the year. So when people are holding off
[1639.17] Sheldon: buying, say, Mavic 2 or repairing their Mavic 2 because they think a Mavic 3 is coming out,
[1644.45] Sheldon: that's actually quite upsetting for us. The only thing that is true out of those three drones
[1649.41] Sheldon: that's definitely true that's coming out soon is the DJI M300. I think that's probably been brought
[1654.05] Sheldon: forward because of these recent issues with the M200. At the moment, a lot of police and
[1660.37] Sheldon: many public service agencies, they've got all the DJI ones. Yeah, the M300.
[1665.65] AndyRC: Sorry to interrupt, but yeah, I just wanted to. The Matrice is an interesting one. That's an
[1670.85] AndyRC: open source one, isn't it? It's not an open source, no, but there's the SDK so you can run
[1677.89] AndyRC: various things on there. Because isn't that somebody told me, I don't know if this is true,
[1683.17] AndyRC: but wasn't it the Matrice that basically somebody figured out object avoidance? And
[1691.97] AndyRC: it was the Matrice platform that they applied it to. And then DJI just went, thanks for that. And
[1697.89] AndyRC: then took it and put it on all of their drones. Is that a rumor? I don't think so. The Matrice 100,
[1707.57] Sheldon: which was nowhere near as popular as the Matrice 200. That you could actually have an ultrasonic
[1724.13] Sheldon: sensor module. So you'd have all round obstacle avoidance. But on all of DJI's prebuilt products,
[1730.45] Sheldon: they have stereoscopic visual sensing and time of flying for red. So I don't think that's true.
[1742.61] Frank: Fraser was asking, I think, quite a pointed question of do you know whether the M300 will
[1748.61] Sheldon: be better than IP43 rated? Well, yes, they have to be because with the recent problems of them
[1757.25] Sheldon: being flown in the wrong type of rain. The spec sheet that was released shows IP44. They have to
[1770.29] Sheldon: because IP43 should be sufficient for a drone. But it's been proof that it's...
[1776.21] Frank: Well, for people that don't know, the IP rating is ingress protection. So that's dust and water,
[1791.01] Frank: essentially. And yes, the recent safety notices and the recent news articles about police and other
[1799.65] Frank: drones, inspires, and Matrice is kind of falling out the sky when they've been flown in the rain
[1806.45] Frank: above people. That's down to this really. Is it IP43? It's supposed to be you can plunge it in water
[1815.33] Sheldon: for like a minute or something. So the first part of the number is to do with ingress protection.
[1824.93] Sheldon: And that actually has no bearing on the water protection. So it may be something which
[1829.25] Sheldon: has got open moving parts. So it may only have a one at the beginning. But I can't remember the
[1835.89] Sheldon: highest one. I think it's 77. It could be IP17. And that would be something where you can't
[1842.53] Sheldon: actually stick, where you could stick your finger in it and you get your finger hurt. But you could
[1849.57] Sheldon: also dunk it in the bucket of water. That would be very weird. So the first of the two numbers is
[1857.57] Sheldon: to do with physical objects. So dust or what they actually do is poke it with a piece of wire of a
[1862.21] Sheldon: certain diameter. And if it goes in, then it will obviously fail that particular category.
[1868.53] Sheldon: That's the second one is for water. So the three is basically based with water at an angle of up
[1877.97] Sheldon: to 60 degrees from vertical. I think that's what it is. So kind of like rain, basically.
[1883.49] Frank: But apparently not quite right.
[1889.01] NJ: There's a chart I'm just sort of staring at here. It's the second digit. One protected
[1894.05] NJ: against vertically dripping water. So there's, as you say, there's angles involved.
[1899.81] NJ: Two is protected against dripping water when tilted up to 15 degrees. Three protected against
[1906.21] NJ: spraying water. Four protected against splashing water. All these types of waters.
[1911.25] NJ: Five protected against jetting water.
[1917.57] NJ: So you can you can piss against that one as hard as you can. Six protected against powerful
[1924.85] NJ: jetting water. Seven is protected against temporary immersion in water. And eight is
[1933.49] NJ: protection against continuous immersion in water. So there we go. That's the second digit explanation.
[1940.13] Curry: I like the idea of testing that with like a fire hose. It's like it survived the water,
[1944.61] Curry: but we smashed it against the wall with the fire hose. Sorry about that.
[1948.93] Sheldon: Actually, a gentleman in the comments has just said something about powering the water in with
[1952.45] Sheldon: high powered fans probably matters. That was DJI's official response. They said,
[1956.53] Sheldon: oh, it turns out that the testing house, which did the IP testing, didn't have the propellers on.
[1963.33] Sheldon: They weren't running the propellers. But where the water was getting in was like through the base of
[1969.25] Sheldon: the motor into the RC housing. So yeah, I think that actually was just an excuse.
[1979.09] NJ: These guys don't work at Boeing as well, do they?
[1986.29] Frank: This actually ties in quite nicely with something else I want to sort of bring up with Sheldon.
[1991.25] Frank: So if anyone's been following LDO for many years and remembers way back when we did the
[2000.53] Frank: LDO drone games down in Hidden Valley. So this was between the video show.
[2006.45] Frank: So I think that must have been 2016.
[2018.77] Frank: I mean, we had a great day, but we had two things. One thing we had was it rained quite heavily at
[2025.57] Frank: the end. And but we had Bradley brought along his Tupperware box quads, which
[2037.25] Frank: so all the kit was in the Tupperware box and it was flying around in the rain perfectly happily.
[2043.81] Frank: And it also had a nice little windscreen wiper.
[2049.73] NJ: When that was put up, it was quite early in the morning and I was still in my tent.
[2054.13] NJ: And all I heard was someone shouting, fat sharks, everyone fat sharks. And obviously everyone lying
[2059.97] NJ: in their tent just sort of like fumbled for their goggles and put it on. And all you can see is this
[2064.21] NJ: wiper going across like this in the FPV flying out in the rain. It was just it was brilliant.
[2071.97] Frank: I think that might may well have been IP 47 rated at that point. But the other thing we had
[2081.01] Frank: the LDO drone games was we had a very interesting live broadcast, which both Sheldon and Clinton
[2089.57] Frank: helped out with. And so for this, Sheldon brought along his very large Piper Cub. Yeah,
[2099.09] Frank: that thing was cool. And and Clinton very generously donated to his brand new smartphone
[2107.09] Frank: at the time. I can't remember what that was, but it was it was brand new. Yeah, I remember that.
[2112.45] Frank: And we just duct taped it to the LDO factory. Duct taped it to the Piper Quads,
[2120.93] Frank: got it on Facebook Live, and it just went flying. That's brilliant. Yeah, that was that was the
[2128.13] Sheldon: work all the way through. I can't remember. I don't think it was a bit. I think it was a bit
[2132.69] Frank: bitty, but yeah, there was frames that got through. It was very true for concepts.
[2141.49] Frank: This episode was recorded in front of a live online audience, downloaded and edited to make
[2146.05] Frank: sense when it played audio only sensors to please the iTunes people hosted on the internet,
[2151.09] Frank: forwarded through to your podcast provider, downloaded playing on your device and is now
[2155.41] Frank: playing in your ears. All thanks to our patrons. Consider joining them and you'll also get other
[2160.93] Frank: online benefits. Find out more at patreon.com forward slash let's drone out. But yeah,
[2167.25] Frank: Sheldon, you you've obviously got some flying experience outside of DJI as well.
[2176.05] Sheldon: Well, yeah, I don't enjoy flying DJI stuff, but multirotors aren't my hobby. Back in the
[2183.33] Sheldon: emacs 250 days. That's really it. Airplanes and helicopters. That's what got me into it in the
[2191.65] NJ: first place. But yeah, that's mainly what I do. I can say watching firsthand, ladies and gentlemen,
[2198.29] NJ: that Sheldon is a very, very competent pilot. He's downplaying it here, but no, he's very good,
[2206.29] Sheldon: very good indeed. Well, it's good. It's good fun. It's a fun, you know, it's good to have
[2213.33] Sheldon: some hobby where you can practice skills and actually get something out of it, i.e. the plane
[2218.69] Frank: not crashing. I think your biggest problem with the with the your emacs 250 is that you refuse
[2228.21] Frank: to have anything to do with the Tyrannus. I think that would have would have solved all the problems.
[2232.13] Sheldon: No, you can't can't hate on Futaba. I use I use Freescale radio gear, but in a Futaba handset
[2238.77] Sheldon: because I don't like the Tyrannus. It just feels too, too plastic. I heard some fairly reliable
[2245.25] NJ: gossip because I've, Sheldon, you probably don't know this yet, but I've recently bought a goblin
[2250.93] NJ: and I'm getting back in the helis again. God knows why. And commiserations. I was at the
[2263.01] NJ: the the shop I went to get it from in in Slough, Alain T. Rex, and they I was chatting to them and
[2269.81] NJ: the owner Raj was saying that Futaba are winding down their servo production. So that was just some
[2278.61] NJ: interesting gossip because I had no idea. There's obviously from the helicopter point of view,
[2282.53] NJ: they made some that kind of that had some like the 256 and 257s and some good good tail servos,
[2290.45] NJ: but apparently they're that's all being wound down now. The S925. I remember the S9254 with the
[2298.05] NJ: GY401 at one point. Yeah, that's right. I had that exact combination.
[2309.57] Curry: Tony, what's your favorite servo?
[2311.89] Tony: Tony 1657.
[2319.73] Curry: How is the head of the gate? Have you moved it forward at all?
[2323.57] Curry: Sorry? Have you got the goblin anywhere near flying yet? Is it further on?
[2328.69] NJ: Do you know what? I mean, it's kind of there. I did the sensible thing when I first got it,
[2333.65] NJ: which was to buy, which was to obviously not get completely lost in their ecosystem of Mercado.
[2340.61] NJ: I bought the Mercado V bar, which is their flight control, and that's the golden flight
[2344.37] NJ: control that a lot of people use. It's not the only one out there, but it's very good.
[2347.73] NJ: And I thought I'll use my Taran S and I use an XM plus. And of course, the nonsensical thing to
[2355.89] NJ: do at that point, which is exactly what I did was to go. Yeah, but if I had a V bar, I'd be able to
[2360.37] NJ: program everything from the transmitter because you can program and change settings via its own
[2366.45] NJ: telemetry, and not have to land and take the canopy off and plug it into a computer every
[2371.73] NJ: time you want a tweak setting. So yeah, I went and bought a V bar controller. Handset that is.
[2377.89] NJ: And everything is it's all good. It's all ready. And I'm just kind of waiting for a nice break in
[2382.93] NJ: the weather to actually go and start remembering how to fly again. But yeah, I did fly up a Mill
[2388.21] NJ: and Kings had a little hover with it, give it its maiden. Andy was there with me. And yeah,
[2393.33] NJ: it's they do have some magic, the old hillies, something about size goblin. So it's the little
[2401.09] NJ: one. It's there. It's called the fireball. It's the habit, which is like the top upgraded one,
[2405.33] NJ: but they're essentially it's a 300 success 300, which is and the thing that I found quite
[2412.93] NJ: incredible about it. It's direct drive. So the motor is on main shaft. Yeah, it's like a big
[2419.65] Sheldon: pancake motor. Yeah, the multiplex funcopter had that there was a weird fixed pitch thing
[2424.93] NJ: that no one bought. Yeah, I mean, that just shows you that, you know, the the kind of talk
[2433.57] NJ: it's generating because there's people like Tarik, who have absolutely thrown it around. And it
[2442.93] NJ: it deals with it. I think I think up at the high head speed about 85%. It's something like
[2447.57] NJ: 4200 RPM for those and 500. Right. So yeah, it's it's a little monster, but it's quite well behaved
[2455.01] NJ: at low head speed as well. So that's where I'll be. No more stripped gears. No, exactly. Well,
[2462.29] NJ: that's why they called it the fireballs because it crashes really well. And I thought
[2468.85] NJ: they're very little to kind of bust up on it and all the parts like the side frames of plastic and
[2474.69] NJ: you know, all the kind of standard breakable bits are all cheap for a goblin. Let's put that into
[2479.73] Curry: perspective, you know, give the impression that it crashes well that it bursts into flames. That was
[2487.01] NJ: my name. Yeah, I mean, a lot, a lot of helicopter crashes, it's the there's a lot less parts on a
[2496.69] NJ: model helicopter than they used to be mainly because they've lost things like flybar and
[2501.57] NJ: flybar. Most linkages just direct to the swash plate. Now there's no kind of crazy geometry
[2507.97] NJ: and lots of things that can combust on them. So it's not as bad, but they are still,
[2514.05] NJ: you know, big spinning carbon blades doing high RPMs and should be respected.
[2520.77] Sheldon: Yeah, scare the heck out of me. The really scary helicopters now, they are very, very scary.
[2527.25] Sheldon: At least with a nitro helicopter, you have the engine to scare you as well as the blades,
[2532.45] Sheldon: so it kind of wears it out. Yeah, they're good fun. There's very few people who fly helicopters
[2540.21] Sheldon: now, but actually your question about Futaba. Yeah, that wouldn't surprise me because Futaba
[2545.49] Sheldon: servos have always been quite expensive. And when there's new kids on the block like Savox and
[2550.45] Sheldon: things who have been chipping away at their business, Futaba is a big electronics company.
[2556.77] Sheldon: Their main business is making things like vacuum fluorescent displays and LCDs and stuff like that.
[2561.89] Sheldon: So that's the only reason they still exist. For example, JR, Japan Radio, 20 years ago,
[2567.97] Sheldon: they were huge. You know, the main competitors of Futaba, the main people on the market were Futaba
[2573.01] Sheldon: and JR. And really the only one left from those days is Futaba. Sanwar and everyone's gone.
[2582.85] Sheldon: And that will happen very, very quickly. Once 2.4 came out and then
[2587.65] Sheldon: fewer people started getting into modeling, it will happen very quickly. So,
[2591.73] Sheldon: yeah, that wouldn't surprise me Futaba thinking, yeah, we're kind of done with this now.
[2596.45] NJ: I still have my JR-X378 with the old pull-out telescope in the loft.
[2604.13] NJ: But that, I still think the JR-X378 was kind of the basis for the Taranis.
[2610.53] NJ: But I'm not sure who's doing it. Yeah, it's got that very, very similar kind of feel to it.
[2616.61] NJ: But I mean, the Taranis looks like the bastard child of several radios from the old and pegboard.
[2622.53] Sheldon: Yeah, it is still a copy of that old, yeah, JR, the other names for it, PCM9X303.
[2632.77] Sheldon: You know, the original Spectrum DX7, that would look the same because JR used to manufacture
[2639.73] Sheldon: the radio gear for Spectrum, which is why the JR 2.4 gear was compatible with Spectrum up until
[2645.89] Sheldon: the days of DSM-X. And then that's when, I think at the end of DSM-2 days, Spectrum started getting
[2653.73] Sheldon: manufactured by a Korean firm, pretty sure in Korea, they also make the grammar radios. And
[2659.65] AndyRC: that was when JR just kind of disappeared. The Taranis case being a clone
[2667.57] AndyRC: isn't true, but that would be an entire hour's worth of...
[2673.65] NJ: Well, it looks very similar. Yeah, it's a heavily borrowed design. I don't get what anyone says.
[2680.21] AndyRC: It wasn't borrowed, it was an off-the-shelf case that was sold to them so that they could save
[2688.29] AndyRC: money on not having to develop a case themselves. What happened to ACOMS? Does anyone remember them?
[2696.05] Sheldon: ACOMS? Oh, for the old radio cars. I'm just googling it because I'm interested in myself.
[2708.53] Sheldon: It looks like they still sell some bits. I don't really remember them from my time at SMC.
[2717.49] Tony: I think they're basically gone now. I used to have them with my RC cars years and years ago when I was
[2723.81] Sheldon: gone. So how long have you been in RC, Sheldon? 15 years at the latest scale, I think.
[2737.89] Sheldon: My first model was... My dad and I built this model that was incredibly heavy,
[2744.69] Sheldon: it was fiberglassed. Oh no, before that, my very, very, very first model was this
[2751.25] Sheldon: ready-to-fly thing, 27 megahertz 2 channel, so rudder and throttle. My dad insisted on taking
[2758.29] Sheldon: it on the first flight because at the time he had just completed his pilot's license, so he thought
[2762.21] Sheldon: I know how to do this. Crashed it into a tree. He then decided to shoot it down out of the tree
[2768.13] Sheldon: with an air rifle and shot straight through the receiver. There is so much wrong with that.
[2776.21] Sheldon: For example, 27 megahertz in the UK. Carry on.
[2782.69] Sheldon: So that was right. Yeah, nothing really happened after that until I got a Pro-Tec Zoom 400 helicopter
[2788.61] Sheldon: and I was probably seven years old. I couldn't fly it. I went through so many sets of spare blades.
[2794.53] Sheldon: I then took that apart and we used the electronics in this model that we built and it was way too
[2799.57] Sheldon: heavy to fly. Eventually, you know what, because Chris Foss lives just down the road here in Shore
[2806.45] Sheldon: and he's quite a funny chap. Yeah, he's worth meeting. I'm having to contain myself here because
[2818.61] AndyRC: a lot of Chris Foss models have been in my life, so carry on. I've got a friend also,
[2824.85] AndyRC: would be interested to hear in this, who's probably watching this, carry on. Chris Foss.
[2829.41] Sheldon: Well, Chris Foss very quickly. He made some interesting models. He's one of the only people
[2833.73] Sheldon: in the aero modeling scene, especially in the UK, to have ever made any money and he copyrighted
[2841.49] Sheldon: all of his designs. He sold loads of them back in the 80s and that sort of era. I think he
[2848.93] AndyRC: shed loads for the end. How many Chris Foss airframes have you owned then?
[2863.49] AndyRC: Not that many. I think about five, maybe six. Oh, you beat me. So I had the...
[2873.01] AndyRC: I just like the fact that Andy issues a challenge as well.
[2878.61] AndyRC: I totally thought I was going to win this because I've been around a minute.
[2883.81] Frank: I told you there was going to be some willy measuring.
[2888.77] AndyRC: Well, I always know I've got the smallest, whatever the topic is.
[2894.85] Frank: Before the show, I was asking both Andy and Sheldon who'd find the biggest model
[2900.45] Frank: and how big was your biggest model, Andy? Oh, I don't know.
[2906.05] AndyRC: You know, some would say six inches, some would say five and a half.
[2915.09] AndyRC: Oh, model, model. I don't know, 12 foot wingspan, something like that. Maybe bigger.
[2926.45] AndyRC: The way that I like to describe it is bog standard.
[2930.69] AndyRC: Bigger is not always best, Andy. Fog standardise. And when it comes to planes, 12 foot.
[2943.89] Sheldon: Sheldon, how big was that glider? I've got a four metre glider. Well, I had. The wings need
[2949.97] Sheldon: to be rebuilt because I've only got one wing for it now because the elevator servo failed.
[2954.93] AndyRC: Oh, so two metres then.
[2961.17] Sheldon: That sort of thing. Anyway, I'm sure it'd be fine.
[2965.09] AndyRC: No, it was a high tech HS82. It was. Have you guys seen those videos where, and they're real
[2972.61] AndyRC: as well, where a model aircraft will lose like half of its wing and the guy manages to land it
[2983.89] AndyRC: still? Those videos are me. I mean, there's a fake one out there that's a full size thing where it's
[2989.25] AndyRC: wing. That was done for an advert, I believe. But if you search the internet, you will find
[2995.81] AndyRC: RC models that lose a good proportion of their wing and they like land it.
[3003.57] NJ: There's some true stories of it being done by fighter pilots. I think it was the F-15.
[3010.77] NJ: I mean, you can get everyone thinks it's all about how aerodynamic a wing is.
[3019.25] AndyRC: Brick can fly if it's got enough velocity. The thing is as well, what a lot of people,
[3023.81] AndyRC: the side of an aeroplane can act as a wing. Obviously, knife edge, that's how knife edge works.
[3031.01] AndyRC: So I suppose, but I don't know the F-15 story though.
[3036.93] Sheldon: Yeah, in formation, they broke a wing off and one of them was able to land with the wing missing.
[3044.53] Sheldon: They had to fly faster than normal. But I don't know why they chose to do that. There will
[3051.01] Sheldon: obviously be more to the story. But because well, ejecting can be fairly risky. Ejecting isn't a
[3057.41] AndyRC: free pass. Yeah, it's usually dislocated shoulders and broken bones and ribs most of the time, isn't it?
[3065.25] NJ: Yeah, it's a bad problem. You end up being about a foot shorter after the ejection as well.
[3074.93] NJ: I mean, basically, you're strapped into a rocket chair and it's the aim is to get you out of that
[3080.05] Sheldon: and away from that plane as fast as possible. I mean, it's really Air Force F-15. If you Google
[3086.53] Sheldon: F-15 one wing landing, like the whole wing is missing. But the F-15 has got a very large
[3092.69] Sheldon: lifting body. I'd imagine with something like an F-16, it would probably be much harder.
[3097.33] NJ: That would be a lot trickier. That's also one of those planes where it would be easier.
[3101.89] NJ: I'd be more concerned about the flight computer going down on an F-16 because without that,
[3107.65] Curry: it's not flying at all. I don't know if you guys saw the RC test flights. Daniel did a couple of
[3115.33] Curry: ideas using what he referred to as the RC lifting model, which I think they tested in NASA, which
[3121.89] Curry: is basically like a wedge-shaped plane with practically no wing. And the idea is the body
[3126.93] Curry: of the plane acts as the lift itself. So if you drop it down, it will just go into a glide ratio.
[3133.89] Curry: I enjoy stuff. It's always interesting. I enjoy the fact that guy does some pretty clever stuff,
[3139.17] Curry: but ends up just duct taping stuff around at the end of it.
[3142.45] Sheldon: You can see it's also some effort and then ends up with hot glue.
[3147.09] Curry: And then it's like, yeah, at the end of it, let's just wind around some tape.
[3151.81] AndyRC: That'll do it.
[3153.17] AndyRC: He's like the American Tom Stanton, isn't he? Except he was doing it way before Tom.
[3159.09] Curry: Yeah, he's been going a long time.
[3160.69] AndyRC: Yeah. A pre-date flight test, I think, with Daniel.
[3165.01] AndyRC: Yeah. Is that the last flight test anymore?
[3172.21] Tony: It just turned out, and today he's recording coffee.
[3177.81] AndyRC: I didn't even know that. I haven't watched them.
[3180.29] AndyRC: It's like 10 minutes of coffee or whatever adverse.
[3183.57] AndyRC: You can't deny, though, that probably most of us wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them.
[3189.41] Sheldon: They've got a lot of people into the hobby. It's kind of a shame what's happened,
[3194.05] Sheldon: but it was very, very good at one point. Yeah, I got a lot of people into the hobby.
[3199.33] AndyRC: Now they're just trying to sell stuff.
[3200.45] AndyRC: I mean, if you look at their views and that's all I look at. I don't watch the videos, but I go
[3206.85] AndyRC: post it an hour ago, 50,000 views. There it goes, Andy. Willy measuring again.
[3213.09] AndyRC: Andy looks at you and says, oh, damn you. We have 200,000 views.
[3217.73] AndyRC: I don't watch the videos because I don't have the time, but whatever they do,
[3220.61] AndyRC: and they're doing something right, aren't they? They're getting the views,
[3224.61] AndyRC: but I haven't watched the videos. Sorry. Sorry, flight test.
[3227.73] Tony: You've got a bag and stuff.
[3230.61] Frank: Sheldon, you've been doing some interesting modifications, though,
[3233.57] Frank: with some of the DJI stuff, haven't you? You've got the...
[3236.85] Sheldon: Can you talk about them?
[3239.81] Sheldon: Yeah. Well, the main one we've been doing, this is a Mavic 2. It's got a little hat on top of it,
[3244.61] Sheldon: but it's got a... It's being shy. It's got a thermal camera.
[3250.85] Sheldon: So on the bottom is a normal one. Above is a thermal camera. If you're wondering why we've
[3255.09] Sheldon: done this, because DJI already makes their own, they do, but it's got a very poor quality sensor.
[3259.49] Sheldon: So this is double the resolution. So this can actually be useful for search and rescue.
[3265.01] Sheldon: So this arrived from... Sorry.
[3268.53] Curry: Sorry to interrupt, Sheldon. Is there some legal thing in the UK about the centre of the thermal
[3273.09] Curry: camera for the UK is only allowed to be a certain amount, or in other countries you're allowed
[3277.73] Sheldon: to hire resolutions or something? No, it's not for the UK. So that's to do with
[3282.61] Sheldon: the United States thinking they own all technology ever made. But it's not as bad as it was.
[3290.13] Sheldon: Earlier thermal cameras were under ITAR, which is when they sort of cavity searched you,
[3294.69] Sheldon: if you put in an order. But I think with this, it comes under dual use. So we can buy these,
[3301.89] Sheldon: and there's no real restrictions. If you want to then sell it to a police force, it comes under a
[3307.41] Sheldon: military thing, and then you have to get an export license. So it's actually not as bad as you think,
[3314.29] Sheldon: but they are still a bit jumpy, and you don't want to get it wrong. Because if you do,
[3320.13] Sheldon: it can be very, very bad. So there's no real restrictions if you just want to own one yourself.
[3326.69] NJ: Are the thermal cameras so that they can fly them up to a burning building and confirm it is
[3332.21] NJ: actually on fire? Search and rescue, what's the primary purpose for testing that kind of tech?
[3341.17] Sheldon: Well, mainly for this is just for finding stuff which you can't necessarily see with a visual
[3347.81] Sheldon: light camera, like someone hiding in a wheelie bin, or hiding on a roof at night, or someone who is
[3356.13] Sheldon: in a bush, unconscious. So search and rescue mainly, but police are having a lot of luck
[3361.41] Sheldon: at the moment with using them in place of helicopters. Because there's so few police
[3367.41] Sheldon: forces that actually have a helicopter to hand now, it will take half an hour to show up.
[3371.89] NJ: Yeah, that's very true.
[3373.17] Sheldon: They got a drone in the back of the car.
[3374.85] NJ: Is it possible to add a speaker mod and to play the noise of the predator from it when it's
[3379.01] NJ: out hunting for people with thermal imaging? Well, we've had, I won't go into details,
[3384.05] Sheldon: but there's the Mavic 2 Enterprise that has quite a loud speaker on it. And you can record
[3389.41] Sheldon: audio onto it. And a couple of the police ones that we've had in have had quite interesting
[3395.25] Sheldon: things recording.
[3401.89] Frank: Moving on, there's another modification that you've been doing,
[3406.53] Frank: so that Tony will be more interested in, I think.
[3408.93] Frank: I'm not sure we should move on.
[3413.73] Sheldon: Which one are you alluding to?
[3415.09] Sheldon: The one that makes the chemtrails.
[3418.21] Sheldon: Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay, well, this isn't strictly speaking on a drone, but it's drone related.
[3423.89] Sheldon: So it's for a company who make crop spraying chemicals, chemtrails,
[3431.25] Sheldon: killer vaccines, and mind control drugs. So yeah, it's not too exciting, but they basically want,
[3438.69] Sheldon: it's for the DJI Agress, which is a drone for crop spraying, because what you can spray from
[3445.49] Sheldon: a given piece of equipment is incredibly tightly controlled. They're having to certify their
[3450.53] Sheldon: chemicals for use in the DJI Agress. So they just want to run the pumps and nozzles,
[3455.89] Sheldon: basically the DJI spray equipment without the drone, because they don't want the drone in the
[3459.41] Sheldon: lab. So we just built a thing which runs the pumps at a given flow rate for a given amount of time.
[3464.77] Sheldon: So it'll simulate a spray pattern. So it'll stay on for 10 seconds, then turn off as the drone
[3469.57] Sheldon: moves to a new line in the field.
[3471.81] Tony: And then, Chris, you don't have to be there if you're doing it. You could set it all up on
[3476.05] Tony: Google Maps and just let it do itself and then land when it's empty.
[3480.53] NJ: Exactly.
[3481.01] NJ: You're not thinking of a possible thing, though, to be there when it's spraying chemicals?
[3484.29] NJ: I'm not sure I'd just put it on and then go do my shopping.
[3487.65] NJ: Well, you wouldn't want to read the chemicals, would you?
[3493.09] AndyRC: And, Jay, when you're 3D printing, do you ever leave the room and just...
[3497.81] AndyRC: Well, he's got a camera on, he goes out, he has a look back.
[3500.53] Curry: I do have a camera on it.
[3502.93] NJ: Yeah, so that I can always, and I can remotely stop it, and I've got a little program on there,
[3507.81] NJ: the Spaghetti Detective.
[3510.21] NJ: Nice.
[3514.05] NJ: Any one of you 3D prints know exactly what the Spaghetti reference is.
[3517.65] NJ: If you knock the top of your print off and it just starts spooling all the filament out,
[3522.61] NJ: so this little program will alert you that your print has failed and stopped it.
[3530.37] NJ: In terms of that, it's ABS. I would absolutely not print and be in the same place because that
[3535.81] NJ: stuff is very toxic.
[3537.09] AndyRC: Well, you've just ruined about 20 minutes of jokes that I came up with.
[3542.69] Frank: It's okay because we only have two minutes left.
[3545.57] Curry: I was just wondering, given that thermal cameras, with the restrictions, I'm like,
[3551.81] Curry: why are they there? Because I can't think of anything bad you can do apart, you know,
[3556.21] Curry: you can play really high-tech hide-and-seek where people are upset.
[3560.53] Curry: I thought my wheelie bin hiding place was amazing, but you found me with your thermal camera.
[3566.37] Curry: Untold stuff. Are they dreaming that people might do with it?
[3569.49] AndyRC: Well, can you not see how hot people's wheelies are with them?
[3574.13] Sheldon: Well, I think the main restriction was on the frame rate, so it's 9 hertz.
[3579.81] Sheldon: So you get 9 hertz cameras, 9 FPS, and then ones which are above 9 hertz.
[3584.05] Sheldon: The idea is what the United States is particularly obsessed about is something with a frame rate over
[3590.69] Sheldon: 9 FPS. They've decided, if it's below 9 FPS, it's useless for that.
[3597.49] AndyRC: Tracking what? Sorry, I did everything.
[3601.33] AndyRC: We lost you. Tracking what? Above 9 FPS?
[3605.01] Sheldon: Tracking missiles. If it's above 9 frames per second, you can use it.
[3611.81] Sheldon: That's what they've decided. It's completely arbitrary, and you can still get 60 hertz ones.
[3620.61] Frank: Speaking of the U.S. being arbitrary, it's probably worth mentioning the FAA consultation
[3629.33] Frank: that's going on at the moment. We don't know so much about that because we're not in the U.S.,
[3635.81] Frank: and there's a lot of breathing. We can't be bothered with that.
[3639.41] Frank: But there is a consultation at the moment, so if you are in the U.S.,
[3643.73] Frank: find out more about that and get your voice heard. When we had consultations here in the U.K.,
[3648.61] Frank: we managed to get quite a few consultation responses sent in. In the chat, we have
[3655.57] Frank: Wynn and Fraser, whose responses actually got publicly inserted into the official
[3660.45] Frank: records. They actually get read and included in consideration.
[3669.17] Frank: If we didn't have our responses from the community, I'm sure we would be in a much worse position
[3675.33] Frank: if you look back at what the proposals were three years ago here than we do right now.
[3681.09] Frank: Well done, Chaps.
[3681.97] Frank: I'll link to that and get them to have some more sensible rules because otherwise they'll
[3686.77] Frank: be over here as well.
[3688.29] AndyRC: I think it's important as well as what we do as a global community. We want to support everybody
[3696.93] AndyRC: because usually as well, if something's happening in the U.S., everybody goes, the U.S. is doing this,
[3704.69] AndyRC: perhaps we should. They were the first people to try out registration, weren't they?
[3713.81] AndyRC: Exactly. Now look at us. If they're proposing that, then a couple of years down the line,
[3722.69] AndyRC: something really needs to be acted upon.
[3725.65] NJ: Sorry to go back. I just love the idea that the marketing team for that camera
[3729.97] NJ: could be like, find people in wheelie bins now also missile tracking compatible.
[3737.49] NJ: That's how wide the spectrum of things this camera can do.
[3741.73] Curry: Versatility is what it's all about. Not just for missile tracking or wheelie bin hide and seek.
[3749.41] Curry: Now you can measure the hotness of people's wheelies. Suggestion by everybody.
[3753.17] AndyRC: It's a thing, man. I can remember vividly.
[3764.05] AndyRC: Should I say this?
[3766.61] Frank: You've committed now, if you don't say something, our imaginations will only come up with something
[3771.01] AndyRC: worse.
[3775.17] AndyRC: My father's line of work once involved him bringing a thermal imaging camera home.
[3784.13] AndyRC: You could see people's privacy with it.
[3791.57] Sheldon: In the right conditions, you can make out certain features, yes, but not always.
[3799.41] NJ: In this instance, always.
[3808.69] NJ: Not only have I found you in this wheelie bin, I should also let you know,
[3812.05] AndyRC: you have very hot eyeballs as well. Remember that woman that was putting cats in wheelie bins,
[3818.45] AndyRC: she'd be done for, wouldn't she?
[3821.25] Frank: I think it's time to wrap up the show. Thank you, everyone, for watching and for listening on the
[3829.09] Frank: podcast. Thank you all our patrons for supporting us and meaning that we can continue doing all
[3834.13] Frank: these things and talking all this rubbish. Thank you very much to Sheldon for coming on. I'm sure
[3840.53] Frank: if anyone in the chat needs any missiles tracking or some privates measuring or
[3850.85] Frank: some drones fixing because you've flown them into a tree and expected the obstacle
[3856.13] Frank: collision to solve that problem, dronedoctor.co.uk. This week, I have been joined by Andy RC,
[3864.93] AndyRC: who has muted himself. Sorry about that. Tata, guys. Sorry, I was distracted. I'm working on a
[3874.29] Tony: lot of stuff. N.J. See you guys. See you next week. Next week, we've got many RC and a special
[3883.33] Tony: guest from the chat and a giveaway as well the next week. So look forward to that. Bye.
[3890.93] Frank: Bye, Sheldon. Yeah, thanks for having me. It's been fun. I have been Andrew slash Frank.
[3899.97] Frank: Next week, yeah, we will have Menace RC. So see us then. Thanks for watching and goodbye.
[3906.45] Frank: Telemetry lost.