Well, I kept my Mavic Zoom, after ending the eBay listing with a few hours to go. I couldn’t bring myself to part with it, even though I needed the money. Bought my new hearing aids on a credit card, along with a programmer. Now I’m a DIY audiologist!
Anyway, regardless of that, it occurred to me that we often want to do water samples from around our disgusting fish farms so why not use it for some heavy lifting. Question 1. How much weight has anyone lifted with a Mavic 2? Question 2, any ideas about making a water sampling rig that will dip in then shut and capture maybe 100ml water?
I did try flying with a long stick dangling a thin rope to get a larger rope over the house roof once, but it all went tits up when it started a rythmic oscillation and I nearly lost the lot. I figure a thin dyneema string with a small container should be fine.
Obviously, I’ll do it in baby steps over the field before I venture over water.
I’m going to try that first but often, when you drop something like that it doesn’t sink. I suppose I could weight it on one side so it tips. I’ll go for a pint. 500ml, 0.5kg plus container.
Why not build a drone specific for the job rather than risk your Mavic?
Or alternatively source an older drone with greater lifting capacity. I very recently picked up a 3DR Iris Plus off eBay for £35. This included the 9Channel FrSky transmitter, batteries, battery charger, spare unused props.
Other options could include a Phantom 1, Blade 350Qx, and other similar drones from that time period, that can be had for very little money. They all have GPS and RTL, use readily available and cheap batteries, have greater lifting capacity than a Mavic, and can be easily modified to actually land on the water while you take your sample so there’s no need to have any weight swinging around below the drone.
