We are looking to add an inverter to our hazmat recon drone set up. We are curious about the pros and cons of what others have used or are using. Good points and bad points. Appreciate any advice members can offer.
good morning my name is Jim Adams. I am a member of the South Carolina State Guard as part of the Provost Marshal Company. as part of our mission set in the state I have been tasked with standing up a Drone team to act as a force multiplier for whatever mission we get tasked with, whether it be ISR, overwatch, Search and rescue, or Critical infrastructure protection. I found out about LEDA and myself and my team joined, we look forward to learning from the professionals in this public safety area so we can make our drone team a great asset for the State Guard and the state of South Carolina.
Hey y'all,
I am wondering what ratio teams use for number of drones to number of members. Does your team try and issue a drone to every member? Is there a number of drones split between several pilots that is available for callouts that gets checked out each time?
Chris,
There are several considerations when it comes to issuing drones.
What the drones will be used for matters. If the drone will be used for something you know about in advance, like an event in your city, or a crime scene or fatal crash that you've been requested for, it could potentially be kept in a cabinet and checked out. If the drone will be used for patrol work, such as a drone in a trunk setup, it won't do any good in a cabinet when someone is actively fleeing from a traffic stop into the woods.
Another consideration is what I refer to as the "pool" or "extra car" phenomenon. Whatever you call them at your agency, think about how well the cars are taken care of that are not assigned to an individual. Now translate that to a drone that needs to have batteries charged and be airworthy. You're likely to open the case and find unexplained damage to the drone, dead batteries, or a missing micro SD card.
Budget is your final consideration. If your agency doesn't want to invest in new technology or simply can't afford multiple drones you're going to have to adopt either a rotational system where the person with the drone is on callout or the drone is left in a cabinet to be retrieved when needed.
Our agency started with fewer drones than pilots and doing mostly crime scene documentation, so checking the drone out worked initially. As the department realized the value of this tool, we were able to purchase additional drones and assign them to individuals who were responsible for their condition. For the most part now, all crime scene and SWAT pilots have drones assigned to them. Due to the cost, our larger drones used for events are moved from person to person based on need, rather than being assigned to an individual.
I'm using a Samlex 3000 watt inverter (Model PST-3000-12). The inverter is run to two XS Power XP3000 12V AGM batteries. We've found we can charge two TB60 cases if the vehicle is running and one TB60 if the vehicle is not running for about an hour (obviously this can handle smaller batteries like those from a 30T or Avata with no issue). The vehicle running the inverter is a Ford Transit 250. We're looking into Ford Trucks with built in inverters from Ford for all future vehicles if possible.
I've been very happy with this setup, no issues out of it over multiple years of use. Weather wise, we see very hot summers and snow during the winter and it hasn't given us any trouble. If you're charging drone batteries I would absolutely recommend that the inverter be a Pure Sine Wave inverter to protect the batteries. We've also run the inverter to two outlets that are installed at the rear of the vehicle that keep you from having to plug directly into the inverter. Those outlets give a total of four standard outlets and four USB-A outlets.
If you're going to the LEDA Conference in St. Louis, Jon Yeast, one of the LEDA Board Members, has a great setup if he brings his work vehicle to the event.