I am looking to use my Mini 2 for topological surveying using mapping software. I am thinking of using Dronelink or Drone Deploy.
Is there anyone that can advise on how to use the software, apart from the manual, or how it is used with my drone to capture the surveys?
Is there better or easier software that can be used with my mini 2 for surveying?
Thank you for all your help and assistance with this, I really appreciate it.
It’s not a super complex task, but does require some forethought and planning. I’ve written some pointers below but it’s the sort of thing where you’ll have to find what works best for you.
Do be aware that there are costs involved to enable mapping planning in DroneLink, not sure for drone deploy, especially if you are looking at doing this commercially. Additionally, to hit any kind of commercially viable precision you’ll need ground control points, expect to spend £2000 at the low end to buy the kit to do this, and to spend a couple of weeks learning to use it to a acceptable standard if you don’t have a survey background, alternatively, rental is >£100 per day, normally with a time minimum.
Disclaimer aside, if you just want to make some fun 3d models, then dive right in as we dont really care about the precision at the end of the day!
I always recommend WebODM, it won’t capture the images but it’s free to process them and they have good documentation.
Regarding how to use the flight control software to acquire images youtube is your friend, take your pick all the top results are valid methods.
Drone deploy have some really nice resources and webinars:
There are a million web processors out there that will happily take your money to process the dataset once you’ve collected it, otherwise boot up WebODM (or photoscan/pix4dmapper/meshroom/colmap…) and get stuck in.
Commercial training programmes for photogrammetry are also available