DJI S900 with A2 on a Cruise Ship

S

sguarch

Member
Hi Everyone,

We have an upcoming job and wanted to see if anyone had experience or knowledge with flying next to a cruise ship out on sea.

We were hired to film a cruise ship at several ports and also out on sea, its one the major cruise ships.

Do you think we will have any issues with interference due to all the on board electronics on the ship?

We currently use a futaba for the pilots remote and a graupner for the camera op's remote.

Look forward to hearing everyones thoughts
 

ary

ary

Member
Landing on moving platform will be a big challenge.
be pepared for unexpected crosswind during final decending(2 meter).
Shooting before 10 am/after 5pm will be good, less wind
Dont ever switch RTH

good luck
 

dazzab

dazzab

Member
If there is any marine radar around you can kiss your rig goodbye so be very careful. Hobby grade components are not shielded and radar is very powerful. MRF member Bluerex was told about a team who lost their copter doing exactly what you are doing but in Alaska. I confirmed with a 3DR developer that radar was an issue and he just laughed, saying that the autopilot would have no chance of working around radar.
 

dazzab

dazzab

Member
Dont ever switch RTH
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The Inspire has a feature of doing RTH to the current location of the Tx. I'm assuming it's for situations like this where you are moving around. I've never tested it as I'm not keen to have the copter land on me while holding the Tx.
 

eskil23

eskil23

Wikipedia Photographer
Everyday marine radars usually operate on much higher frequences than 2,4 GHz. Usually 8-20 GHz (I- and J-band). But, yes they are very powerful, so a low-pass filter can be a good precaution if operating in a marine environment.
 

dazzab

dazzab

Member
eskil23 said:
Everyday marine radars usually operate on much higher frequences than 2,4 GHz. Usually 8-20 GHz (I- and J-band). But, yes they are very powerful, so a low-pass filter can be a good precaution if operating in a marine environment.
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It's not the frequency that's the problem. It's the radiation. At close range it will swamp everything. That's why the military goes to such lengths to shield things.
 

eskil23

eskil23

Wikipedia Photographer
dazzab said:
It's not the frequency that's the problem. It's the radiation. At close range it will swamp everything. That's why the military goes to such lengths to shield things.
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The military shield things because they want them to work (or at least don't get fried) in an electronic warfare environment. That's when someone (the enemy) directs radio energy at your stuff with frequency and power tuned to actually do as much damage as possible. For the military, EMP from a nuclear blast is also something to take into account.
If the output radiation of ordinary radars was so harmful to everyday electronics you could not use cell-phones on a cruise-ship either (not to mention what it would do to the ships own GPS).
 

dazzab

dazzab

Member
eskil23 said:
The military shield things because they want them to work (or at least don't get fried) in an electronic warfare environment. That's when someone (the enemy) directs radio energy at your stuff with frequency and power tuned to actually do as much damage as possible. For the military, EMP from a nuclear blast is also something to take into account.
If the output radiation of ordinary radars was so harmful to everyday electronics you could not use cell-phones on a cruise-ship either (not to mention what it would do to the ships own GPS).
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I'd be willing to bet that if you climbed up the mast and put your cell phone in direct line of the radar that it indeed would not work. Remember, a copter is flying in areas that people wouldn't be near. But if you believe your copter is safe flying around marine radar then go right ahead. I think I'll listen to the experts instead and not take risks with such expensive equipment.
 

eskil23

eskil23

Wikipedia Photographer
dazzab said:
I'd be willing to bet that if you climbed up the mast and put your cell phone in direct line of the radar that it indeed would not work. Remember, a copter is flying in areas that people wouldn't be near. But if you believe your copter is safe flying around marine radar then go right ahead. I think I'll listen to the experts instead and not take risks with such expensive equipment.
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Well, I would not go so near a radar that I could touch it without making sure it was turned off first. An I would not fly anything remote-controled that near either. However, cruise-ships are usually quite large and has the radar up front and the helo deck in the back.
 


Carapau

Carapau

Tek care, lambs ont road, MRF Moderator
@sguarch I think the biggest problem you will have is not radar related but in keeping up. Cruise liners do not look like they are going fast but they are often going over 25mph and some can be going nearer 35mph. I know there are many MRs that will go over this but to retain any good movement in relation to the ship, you will find it hard work.

If the ship is static, then the ship's RF really needs considering. There isn't just radar but a whole plethora of RF emitting devices so you really need to speak to the ships crew to see if they can shut things down whilst you are flying. These beasts are a lot more dangerous to MRs than they look!
 

jackwrangham

jackwrangham

Member
We were in the Med a few weeks ago to film P&Os new ship... Had no issues with our wkm based system. Flying whilst moving isn't too bad... Only fly in Atti mode (when taking off/landing anyway) as the moving platform will confuse gps hold. Be very careful with relative wind speed, and depending where you take off on the ship you might think the wind to be low, but then when you get into clean air it's much higher. If the wind speed plus ship speed is faster than your system can fly you might be saying good bye! Best to have a direct line to the bridge that can tell you the wind speed and ship speed at any given moment.

As long as you are aware of that and be sensible you'll get some awesome shots!
 

jackwrangham

jackwrangham

Member
+ what carapau said! Rf was ok for us, we took off from the bow. We were got to fly from the rear but RF was too high from the big dishes up there, again be careful and if in doubt check with the bridge! Or don't fly!
 


H

hexhome

Television Broadcast Engineer, SUSA operator
Sorry for repeating but, it is vital that distance limits are removed from the A2 before doing this.
 


Benjamin Kenobi

Benjamin Kenobi

Easy? You call that easy?
hexhome said:
Sorry for repeating but, it is vital that distance limits are removed from the A2 before doing this.
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Yes!!!! The limit is set from the home point, which on a moving ship is constantly moving away from you. Once you have reached the set limit, say 500m, the aircraft will not go any further (on a cruise ship you would have moved 500m in less than a minute) and the aircraft will just sit there as you wave it goodbye till it slowly descends into the ocean when the lipo runs out.
 


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