Hey everybody! I thought I’d drop into this thread as I’ve recently bought the Matrice 4T and must be one of the first commercial operators using it in the UK. I also operate an M30T and I almost didnt both upgrading to the Matrice 4 when I read the thermal wasnt better resolution (at least on paper) and the usual reviewers did what they ALWAYS do (and DJI) and totally ignore the thermal capabilities in their reviews… But I had an aging Mavic Enterprise 2 Advanced which was getting long in the tooth so I wanted a smaller bird for survey work (we do thermal deer surveys mostly all across the UK and abroad.)
So… whats it like? Its not perfect, there are some stupid design choices but these are fairly minor in the big picture. Its really light, made of the same plastic as the Mini series, but the flight time is vastly improved, in light wind conditions I’m reguarly getting 35 mins in the air. The thermal is the same resolution, but its FAR more sensitive, I’m detecting squirrels and birds and mice from over 100 meters away in the air. Its actually a bit TOO sensitive :-). The night scene mode is pretty decent! I can now survey into the twilight far longer than before. But having the NIR spot light. built in is the real game changer! I can now light up deer in pitch black night see what species they are from 100m above and zoom in on the tele lens. That was worth the upgrade.
Bad points? Lack of any IP rating at all! Anoying for an enterprise drone! The RTK module lump on the top totally blocks the Nav LED light so when recording at night and the front LEDs go off for filming, you cant see the bloody thing! M30 has a NAV LED on top and bottom! Getting the SD card out is tricky as you need a childs fingers to get to it!
Aside from that though its a fab bit of kit! Pricey but for me and what I do its a game changer!
The one of the things I most value about the 30t is the ip rating. It is a tad disappointing it wasnt included on the 4 but i did wonder if they intend to release a 40t at some point.
Yeah, the M30 is epic in many ways. however its such a big lump it blocks its own control signal at times! it def drops out more than any mavic I’ve flown, but flying in high winds and rain. its the best! There is a new IR spot coming out for the M30 soon which will give it the edge the Matrice 4 has with its built in NIR spot. CZI Make it I think. The matrice 4 doesnt have fast charging either (not as fast as the M30s battery station!).
Thanks! the Hat is essential part of the uniform on cold nights
This might help, where the props are stored are battery storage etc etc, looks like minimum of 4-5 batteries plus you can obviously keep/put one in the drone …
yup, thanks, that is the discount that I was on about which is very much well worth it, especially on big purchases, but it would be nice if they gave us a bit of a bigger discount as that is available just for signing up to the mailing list
It’s an excellent drone, with some very minor flaws.
Battery life / flight time is insanely good esp in low wind hovering type flights, you really could get 30+ mins in the air.
New ocusync protocol is superbly stable, rarely drops out and never for long.
AI? Meh the jury’s out! I’m going to play with api and see if it’s any use to me.
Zoom is almost as good as M30. Maybe the same almost.
Starlight/low light mode is incredible - however, details drops off as the light goes so depends why you want it. For me I can count wildlife into the twilight without needing to switch to thermal or IR.
NIR spot light is the game changer for night flying.
Lack of IP rating is annoying.
Top nav beacon blocked by stupid rtk module and there’s not one on bottom!
I’ve gone with a M4E with 4 batteries (3+1), spotlight, harness and prop guards (wish to fly indoors / within confined spaces)
arrived couple of days ago, done a couple of getting to know how to use it flights.
got 1 issue with the RTK not resolving/ converging… I am about to set up my RTK base station as I suspect the nearest RTK base is maybe a bit borderline.
not sure about the smart 3D facade mission… need to be done in a wide open space.
was not able to do a facade mission due to RTK not converging…!
what swung me to the M4E…
it’s new, IE not second hand
the cost difference between a second hand M3E and a new M3E and a new M4E is not that much when you consider you get 14 months care refresh free and included, along with 12m of DJI terra (M3E and M4T get 3 months only)
I bought a new m3t but was not that impressed with the thermal image and the picture quality for photogrammetry was not that great plus it seems that the images don’t use the actual gps corrected locations
I bought my Matrice 4 E from dronesafe with the GADC membership discount ( thanks! )
I may set up a thread on RTK, base stations (diy) and survey stations (diy) using UM980 modules and some other hardware. To be fair the D-RTK 3 is a reasonable cost (compared to the extortionate D RTK 2!) but similar can be had for a lot less with the same / similar accuracy. The D-RTK 3 does offer the option of acting as an O4 signal relay, but I don’t intend to fly bvlos + rtk corrections will be via ntrip caster (RTK2GO) via mobile phone hotspot (signal permitting) or local caster if no phone coverage.
We’ve just picked up 2 of these to replace old P4RTK’s and been super impressed with their performance so far. The smart oblique in particular is a massive time saver, on one flight someone managed to rack up 14KM of track distance, which is huge.
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