DJI XT Thermal Mapping programs

m00se · Jun 6, 2017

So from reading this, is there any chance of me managing to make a thermal map with teh xt 640? I have a tau 2 640 at the moment on a 3d printed zenital mount, but its not stabalised and im just transmitting live video down to a dvr, I would like to take stillshots and make a 3d model,

Could I do that with the XT if I also take the shots with the standard camera of the same area?

Also, I cannot find a price for the xt for love nor money, can anyone give a pointer? and does anyone know if the lense would be interchangabel with my tau 640? I have a 26mm lense on the tau, and if interchangeable would choose a different value on the xt

thanks,

Bob Stekeur · Jun 6, 2017

I have a 336 XT and can't stitch the jpg's together. The lens are not interchangeable. I never found where anyone posted the prices you have to ask for a quote. I got mine from dslrpro's

m00se · Jun 7, 2017

Bob Stekeur said:
I have a 336 XT and can't stitch the jpg's together. The lens are not interchangeable. I never found where anyone posted the prices you have to ask for a quote. I got mine from dslrpro's

How much did you pay for it ?
the lense looks the same as the FLIR TAU lenses, which can be interchanged if you are willing to unscrew them

Bob Stekeur · Jun 7, 2017

The XT 336 Performance was $5500

philztoy · Jun 7, 2017

m00se said:
How much did you pay for it ?
the lense looks the same as the FLIR TAU lenses, which can be interchanged if you are willing to unscrew them

I think the XT camera IS a Tau 2. I didn't know you could interchange any of the lenses on the FLIR models? They don't seem to talk about it anywhere for sure.

You can kind of see the prices they want for the cameras by the prices of the the drone packages suppliers sell which includ the ZENMUSE XT camera in the package. Just subtract the cost of the Inspire 1 and that is the XT price. There are a few places that have the packages priced on the internet.

I've been watching for a ZENMUSE XT's on Ebay and the last Zenmuse XT I saw was listed at $9500 I made an offer for $8500 (US) and "won" it lol

That seemed like a good price when considering the new Inspire 1 packages which people were offering which included he Zenmuse XT.

There is an ebay listing right now where a canadian hobby store owner has attached a tarot gimble sith a FLIR 336 Vue to an Inspire 2 with a FPV type vidio link (I think). He has that vue camera and setup listed for around 4K ($US).

FLIR has discounted their "UAS" line of cameras (FLIR DUO, Vue and VUE PRO R right now until June 18). It doesn;t look like the discount applies to the Tua cameras and not to the XT for sure.

I'm still trying to get that Tarot gimble set up working on some type of drone for my FLIR VUE Pro camera. I'm a little light on the wiring knowlege for that set up but I think I have all the pieces I need... just need some further study time.

I tested the ZENMUSE XT on my Inspire 1 and that sure is a nice "plug and play" setup! The definition on the 640 camera seemed really good also, although the price still stings!

djkelly57 · Jun 7, 2017

Has anyone used their xt to do any inspection work with? I would like to do roof and solar panel inspections. I was wondering if the 336 had resolution enough for those jobs.

m00se · Jun 8, 2017

well i have a video link, but the motors of the inspire seem to cause interference when they are armed.
i may try to adapt a gopro mount for the tau 2 in that case, I thought the xt was using a vue and would be cheaper.
I do really want to be able to take snapshots though and with a tau2 that isnt going to happen. boooooooo

philztoy · Jun 8, 2017

m00se said:
well i have a video link, but the motors of the inspire seem to cause interference when they are armed.
i may try to adapt a gopro mount for the tau 2 in that case, I thought the xt was using a vue and would be cheaper.
I do really want to be able to take snapshots though and with a tau2 that isnt going to happen. boooooooo

Yes DJI is really proud of the XT... and it works really well with the Inspire 1 in my opinion.

This is how Mike from Canada mounted a vue on a tarot gimble (which you can buy on ebay) and attached it to an inspire 2. I inquired about his setup and he sent me the following information:
"

Gimbal and all Parts sold separately on our website.
Tarot FLIR VUE 3 Axis Camera Gimbal Stabilizer : Mike's Place Inc.

TX600 Mini 5.8G 600mw Long Range FPV Video Transmitter : Mike's Place…

DSM2 AR6200 6 Channel Receiver Ultralite : Mike's Place Inc.

Only 1 complete ready to go setup is listed on eBay that we put together, and tested.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/142393117319?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649
"

elwoodblues · Jun 28, 2017

Lars - DDI said:
Hello,
We had actually made some okey orthomosaic with the xt 640x512 13mm 30hz (not the advanced version). But now i had run into some problems, pix4d prefers .tiff grayscale datasets, the previous orthomosaic we made was from .jpg, but suddenly with the latest job, the finished ortho seems to both be twisted, misplaced and in odd dimensions.
So there fore i would like to try with .tiff files in grayscale, but none of the apps i have tried can capture data in .tiff.
I can set it up in the dji go, but when i launch the mapping app (and closing the dji go) i changes back to .jpg... Anyone know a app that can capture thermal dataset from highres xt in .tiff file format?
Side note: i fly iOS and inspire 1...

Hope anyone sits on the solution
Have a nice evening .....

We've had this issue also. We plan our flights in mapspilot and it always changes us back to jpeg after we launch the inspire. Our workaround is to use the second controller in the djigo and change the image type back to .tiff after it launches. Alternatively you could minimize mapspilot and go back into djigo to change the image type

elwoodblues · Jun 28, 2017

DylanWest said:
Have not tried those yet. I talked to a drone rental company that rents the FLIR XT and they said that the problem is with FLIR, they encode their TIFFs...

I am wondering if anyone actually does this--thermal map a large area with a DJI FLIR XT--if someone has done this we have yet to talk to them.

Anyone?

We map larger areas with our XT (10-20 hectares) using pix4d. It works alright, but we always seem to lose the temperature data which ruins our hopes of processing the data afterwards

nikhil · Jul 7, 2017

We have a lot of experience generating radiometric orthomosaics (where each pixel maintains the temperature value) from radiometric files. Here are the best practices that we've seen result in the best thermal maps.

Camera. Must output radiometric data. 9 mm or 13 mm lens. Higher resolution (640×512) yields better results.
Flight Plan. Higher altitudes will blend better. Fly at least 200 ft. above your area of interest with 80% overlap and sidelap.
Verify Data. Ensure your files are radiometric JPEG (R-JPEG) before you leave the field. Thermal TIFF is acceptable but less preferred. If your photos aren't geotagged, make sure you save your flight logs so you can geotag afterwards (less ideal).

We have also seen drone professionals overlay pins with radiometric data on top of RGB orthomosaics. This provides good spatial awareness of where the thermal image was taken, and the thermal image can be compared to the RGB ortho to determine if there's actually a thermal anomaly (or was it just glare...). Thermal maps can be very useful, but make sure you understand what your clients are looking to get out of them.

elwoodblues · Jul 11, 2017

nikhil said:
We have a lot of experience generating radiometric orthomosaics (where each pixel maintains the temperature value) from radiometric files. Here are the best practices that we've seen result in the best thermal maps.

Camera. Must output radiometric data. 9 mm or 13 mm lens. Higher resolution (640×512) yields better results.

Flight Plan. Higher altitudes will blend better. Fly at least 200 ft. above your area of interest with 80% overlap and sidelap.

Verify Data. Ensure your files are radiometric JPEG (R-JPEG) before you leave the field. Thermal TIFF is acceptable but less preferred. If your photos aren't geotagged, make sure you save your flight logs so you can geotag afterwards (less ideal).

We have also seen drone professionals overlay pins with radiometric data on top of RGB orthomosaics. This provides good spatial awareness of where the thermal image was taken, and the thermal image can be compared to the RGB ortho to determine if there's actually a thermal anomaly (or was it just glare...). Thermal maps can be very useful, but make sure you understand what your clients are looking to get out of them.

Hey nikhil. Thanks for those tips. I'm wondering what equipment are you flying and what software are you using to process the imagery?

nikhil · Jul 11, 2017

Hi elwoodblues -- We test different setups depending on the job requirements, but our first pass is generally using a DJI Inspire 1 with a Zenmuse XT advanced radiometry camera (640x512) with a 9 mm lens. We developed our own software to process the imagery. I highlight a couple methods for processing radiometric imagery in this thread: XT for mapping organic waste disposal site

giumick · Jul 11, 2017

Im following this thread closely and seeing if anyone has made progress.

Has anyone discovered a solid workflow for mapping with the Dji xt 640 resolution units yet then?

And has anyone achieved it with radiometric data linked in?

Thanks
Mick

nikhil · Jul 11, 2017

giumick said:
Im following this thread closely and seeing if anyone has made progress.

Has anyone discovered a solid workflow for mapping with the Dji xt 640 resolution units yet then?

And has anyone achieved it with radiometric data linked in?

Thanks
Mick

Hi Mick -- Yes to both of your questions! The drone professionals that we work with have a few preferred methods of capturing the imagery. If your flight contains fewer than 99 waypoints, the GS Pro app is decent. I've seen mixed success with other free capture apps.

It's very important to ensure your camera is still taking radiometric data shortly after takeoff (you can double-check this in the DJI Go app). Don't forget to note the weather conditions (clear and cold vs. hot and humid), and make a note of the surfaces that you're measuring so you can properly set the emissivity.

As for creating maps with radiometric data, we've made it a one-click process for drone professionals. Feel free to direct message me if you want to learn more about it.

Bob Stekeur · Jul 19, 2017

Does anyone know if the DJI XT 336 Performance takes R-Jpegs? I know in the go app you can select either Tiff's, jpgs or r-jpgs.

nikhil · Jul 19, 2017

Hi Bob -- We've recently seen clients use their XT 336 Performance to take R-JPEGs. I've seen mentions of a recent software update in another InspirePilots thread. But the major caveat is that the accuracy is ±20°C (see Zenmuse manual here). So while, for example, we could use those R-JPEGs to make thermal maps, I would be extremely cautious about drawing any quantitative conclusions.

Bob Stekeur · Jul 19, 2017

I'm working for a client that has 3 50 acre green waste disposal sites. I'm currently flying them now with map pilot and because I can't stich the images together I create a Google earth map with the images as icons. At least I can locate where they are. I'm flying the 3 sites looking for hot spots, it would be great to be able to create a orthomosaic map

nikhil · Jul 21, 2017

Hey Bob -- We're running a contest right now! Top submissions get featured on our site and a free radiometric map. Feel free to send a sample dataset from a disposal site. If you win you can post the results in this thread!!