BLUF: Do your homework before buying any drone. Like a months worth!
What follows is my experience with a small drone I bought for the sole purpose of using in SHTF as a surveillance device.
At the time of purchase there were few choices in the less than 250 gram weight category that does not require registering.
I bought the Mavic Mini in July of 2020 as it was the one of the best rated drones in the < 250gr weight category at the time and certainly the most prolific model on the market.
Later I would find that through a firmware update the drone would be locked down to a height/distance (20M/50M) restriction that made it worthless as a surveillance device.
There does seem to be a workaround that I am currently testing and so far has worked for a few weeks, will see if it continues to work after a few months as in SHTF there likely will not be an internet to login to, allowing me permission to use my own drone.
SIGN-IN LIMITS
https://mavicpilots.com/threads/dji-fly-you-are-not-logged-in.113489/
Guys -- I'm pretty sure I have a work around, but it requires you to be careful: After logging on once, turn on airplane mode your mobile device. Then make sure you NEVER have wifi or cellular on when you're running DJI Fly thereafter. This has seemed to work for me for quite a while, although once I made a mistake and started DJI Fly while still connected. Immediately the login issue started again! Regards to All -- jclarkw
WHY I BOTHER TO KEEP ONE
I’m not sure how useful a drone like this will be in SHTF for surveillance of bad actors, but being able to send one up and survey a few miles around me for general conditions without leaving my homestead, is worth it to me.
You can see by the flight video that seeing a person from 200M would be easy enough in broad daylight, but PID and night OPs on this drone are a no go.
Even at 200M I can hear the drone in normal times if I listen for it, in SHTF it would be loud without the normal ambient noise floor.
In the quick video below you can get an idea of the overview you get at 200M, the limit is 500M but the wind was pretty solid today with 5mph average and some higher gusts. I’ll let the video do the talking.
This is 2.7K, not the standard 4K we have now but does well enough IMO.
BE SURE TO SET TO VIDEO QUALITY TO 1080P
The area highlighted above was the scene of a blackout cause a week ago. A Turkey Vulture went phase to phase on a power line over there and started a grass fire, 1.5 miles LOS from my home.
I was made aware of the fire by an alert sent from WATCH DUTY in normal times, but being able to see a fire and monitor it’s progress from my home in SHTF is a huge reason I like having even a sub-standard drone.
IF I BOUGHT AGAIN
I would require the following:
A zoom lens.
Obstacle avoidance in all directions.
No limiting via software or hardware, no login required or a system that has known hacks to remove such.
No beaconing for .gov to monitor, not sure if that’s possible now without a replacement software package and disabling hardware.
Second hand larger drone that is not registered to me possibly?
1hr battery life minimum.
Does there exist a drone out there that fits the criteria these days? I don’t know, but I would look hard at what is available before I just spent $300+ dollars on one.
If I was going all in, it would have thermal and NV but I’m sure that moves me out of my income bracket, LOL.