We Just Ordered Our DJI Avata
So we just ordered our first FPV drone for the agency. The DJI Avata. Any pointers or upgrade tips for making this drone good for room searches. I anticipate upgrading the antennas on the goggles and the standard slip on antenna booster I already use for our Mini.
I would really be interested in getting the camera upgraded for IR if anyone can advise on that.
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Update/Review:
We got the Avata last week so I have had some time to play with it and figure out how to fly pretty well (I already fly FPV as a hobby so this was pretty easy to pick up). Here are the things so far I like and dont like about it.
Setup and Pre-Flight:
The kit we got was the "Pro-View Combo." We also added the Fly More Kit for the extra batteries. We ordered through Adorama. They are just our preferred vendor for cameras/drones here at PD and they assign us a rep as a point of contact which really is a huge help on some things. We got it on a Black Friday special for 1k. The Fly more kit was around 200.
There are now 4 different types of goggles for DJI FPV use. The goggles that came with the Pro-View Combo are the V2 version of the smaller/newer goggles which is really the 3rd version but I don't want to make this more confusing than it needs to be.
Which leads to the first main issue. The goggles that are NOT the latest version (Integra) require you to plug your goggles into a phone or tablet with DJI Fly 3 open and running on it. This is to bring the drone into compliance with the "Remote ID". I would argue that this should be something we could toggle on and off since the drone will primarily be flying indoors and shouldn't be subject to Remote ID but it is what it is. If you buy the Integra goggles you wont have to worry about this.
The goggles are not able to be worn with your eyeglasses. The original V2 goggles that came with my DJI FPV drone I have at home I can wear glasses with them no problem. These are very tight fitting. They do however have built in individual lens adjustment knobs that allow you to basically dial in your prescription. I was worried about this as I have a severe astigmatism in one of my eyes but I was able to adjust them so I could see with 20/20 clarity while flying. If you are on a team that will have different pilots flying the drone this could be a problem as everyone will be adjusting their lens for themselves but it only takes a minute to readjust them so I don't see it being a big problem.
MAKE SURE you download the DJI Consumer Assistant Software to a PC first and update the drones firmware through that application. The phone app won't do it and you will have some issues if you try to just use your phone.
The Motion Controller comes with the Pro-View combo but if you want the standard RC style controller you will have to buy it seperately. I was very skeptical about the Motion controller but after flying the drone I think for our purposes (room searching) this controller is actually great for that.
The SD card slot is located IN one of the prop guards which is a weird spot in my opinion. I would worry about it coming open and crashing you at the worst possible times but so far I haven't had any issues.
There is a short 15 minute video that DJI has that goes over the basics of Avata operation, I recommend that you have all your pilots who will be flying it watch it before flying just so they can familiarize themselves with it.
Back to the whole remote ID thing, the USB-C cord that comes with the drone is very short so I have to tuck my phone into the headband while flying. I am going to either fabricate a mount for it or we will just run a longer cable to a ipad so it becomes like a viewscreen for other units on scene. The Captain liked being able to walk up and stare at the side of my head so he can see what I was doing lol.
The SJI Fly 3 App must be running on the phone attached to the goggles as I said before, also when I flew the first time the screen timed out and the drone landed and refused to take off again until I unlocked the screen. I have now put like a 30 minute time out on my phone to avoid this issue. The app doesnt seem to drain my phone battery that bad either (its a Samsung Galaxy 11).
Battery Charging and Life:
The Fly more kit comes with the standard "stick" sequential charger that can charge up to four Avata batteries.
The stick takes FOREVER to charge its batteries. I haven't sat there and watched them but my first flight was delayed a day because I was waiting on ONE battery to get to fully charged. Its honestly the main downside. We have a simultaneous charger for our 3T and we keep all our batteries ready to go (I know its bad for them but they are relatively inexpensive to replace compared to other drones). I was wondering if the Samsung cell phone cord and block I was using affected that as DJI doesnt give you a plug in for the battery charger or even a decent length USB-C cable.
The batteries say they give 18 minutes but its more like 12-15, even less if you have to use "turtle mode."
The headset comes with one battery that is swappable which I like. The battery on the headset has lasted me through about 4 flights before I plugged it in (still at around 40%)
The Motion Controller, like almost all low-mid tier DJI controllers has an internal battery. It does not come across as being very effecient as I was constantly concerned about its battery. However, it charges relatively quickly on a USB-C cord. I got it from dead to fully charged in about 20-30 minutes. I never had it go dead on me in the flights so far but it was draining pretty quick in my opinion.
My, average flight time so far has been around 15 minutes so thats honestly pretty decent for a FPV drone.
Flying First Impressions:
My first flight was in our Patrol/Role Call Room. Our PD is built like a mausoleum. There are no windows and its buried in the bottom floor of our City Hall so there are no GPS signals getting in there. Also my Chief and most of the Command Staff were watching so no pressure!
I had never used the Motion Controller prior to flying this drone. At home I use a TBS 2 RC controller for my personal FPV drones so I wasn't really sold on this thing.
First tip on using the motion controller, to start the motors you have to hit the "Lock" Button twice. I was hitting it twice but on the second push I was keeping my thumb pressed and the drone wasnt starting up. Took me a little bit to figure that out.
To Launch you have to then hold down the Lock Button until it takes off. It will rise ot about 3 or 4 feet and hover.
After launching the drone, even with no GPS assistance, hovered in place with barely noticeable drift. Our Patrol Room is well lit so that probably had something to do with that as the Drone has sensors on the bottom like the Mini 2/3 does.
I then took a second to try moving the drone in place with the Motion Controller. The drone responded very well and I was off and going in no time. You can also use a small joystick nub on the controller for moving the drone up and down and side to side.
I flew the drone through the PD while staying in the Role Call room. Its a fairly large space with marble lined halls and the drone never had any signal issues from controller to the unit.
Chief asked how the drone did bumping into things and I said it should be fine depending on how hard it hit and he then told me to hit the wall. After confirming this I hit the wall at half throttle which wasnt very fast but wasnt slow either. The drone flashed a "Impact Detected" but continued flying without issue.
I then took the drone and hit the wall again and then "scraped" it down the wall and it did just fine.
I then demonstrated the Turtle Mode, which I wish was a preset button on the controller but you have to go through a couple menu items on the goggles to access it. I did it twice and it did fine. It does drain the battery a bit.
Final Thoughts:
The SWAT and Command Staff who watched me fly all commented that they were impressed by it.
I found the Motion Controller very intuitive and easy to use.
The drone has a "Head Tracking" mode which I did try for a second but its something I need to practice with before I can make a call on its usefulness. Its just as easy to move the drone with the controller.
The ease of flying this drone compared to my other FPV drones is huge. Its even easier than flying our Mini 3 drone.
We have ordered a external light that fits on top I also have some small LEDs that could fit on the props if I wanted to use those. I will let you all know how it does.
I am going to be training the rest of the team on the drone and hope to have some cross training with our SWAT Team and the FBI Tac Team before our first callout for the drone.
For 1-2k this is a very economical tool that could help keep our tac teams and K9s safe. I think its a def buy if you don't have the money for something like a Lemur (we def do not).
I am going to work on finding mods for the drone like IR camera and "Floor Mode" so I can get under beds and vehicles. The drone doesnt like to fly low right now.
Definitely need a quick charger for the drone batteries. If I use up the 3 batteries we have right now we are effectively done for the rest of the day.