I used a Matrice 400 to act as an aerial relay to fly my Matrice 4T extremely low and far !! You won't believe what an aerial relay is capable of.

[cgmaxed]

Since we , in the USA, can't use those wireless 4G dongles DJI makes, I decided to try the aerial relay method. In my case, I used the M400 as the aerial relay drone, and the M4T as the main mission drone. The most impressive thing I want to tell you all is the M4T mission drone was able to fly to it's max battery limited distance (which i won't say on this forum, I'll let you all find it online). That's all good and dandy, everyone has done range tests, but they have to keep increasing their altitude the further away they get, unless they are on a 9th floor balcony. THE KICKER HERE? I was able to fly from street level, while the M4T mission drone flew at a constant altitude of 75 ft AGL and returned at the same altitude, from it's battery limited range.

Most range testers from street level hit 400 ft or higher to maintain a connetion, thus you can't collect detailed ground DATA because they are too far away (too high) from their areas of interest. With the Matrice 400 hovering above me at 250 ft, the signal was maintained with no signal loss during the entire 75 ft AGL flight. What's also good about being able to stay low, is that the M4T did not lose excess power due to high winds, which occur at higher altitudes. So i was able to save battery, increase distance and stay low to film more detail. Also staying low, lowers risk if hitting manned aircraft, except some heli pilots who fly lower than 75 ft. In addition, the M400 had the DJI ZENMUSE H30T camera on it w 400x zoom., which alowed me to visualize the M4T through its entire flight. The M400 acts like an observation tower as well as a relay station. NOTE: DURING THE M4Ts FLIGHT, THERE WAS NO LOSS OF IMAGE OR CONTROL TRANSMITTION BETWEEN THE M4T AND ITS REMOTE CONTROL UNIT.

IN CONCLUSION, the M4T got longer flight time, longer range, no signal loss, and collected highly detailed low altititude data, at any distance (battery limited) away from its take off point. Also, (better than no VLOS at all) the M400 was able to maintain DIGITAL VLOS using the DJI ZENMUSE H30T's AI assisted TRACKING of the M4T through its entire flight (visualized by 400x zoom). Yes, the M400 was able to track the M4Ts entire 75ft agl flight, assuring constant situational awareness, albeit through digitally tracked live video from the M400, zoomed in and locked onto the M4T through it's AI tracking function.

The future is in AERIAL DRONE RELAY SYSTEMS. No need for cellular dongles.

Digitally/ Electronic AssistedBVLOS supporter. Given AI assisted tracking and clear video of the BVLOS drone and it's surrounding environment. SAY YES, TO DIGITALLY ASSISTED SITUATIONAL AWARENESS.

 

[jaja6009]

Thank you for the feedback!

This could be a huge improvement for situational awareness for many industries. In Public Safety, the newest COAs that allow for BVLOS could definitely use this to their own advantage and enhance safety.

I am very unfamiliar with using this relay function though.

I know you can do it with the new DRTK 3, and now I know you can with the M400. Can you use a Matrice 4 series as the relay also?
I am very impressed with the H30T, we have the H20T and have been wanting to upgrade, so maybe we should make the leap.

It's pretty amazing that the H30T could track such a small aircraft from flying at 250 ft AGL, especially when looking down with ground clutter.

We do have a Matrice 4E and 4T, so if the relay function works with a Matrice 4 series drone we may test this out in the near future.
With our new BVLOS COA this could help out big time when flying BVLOS and the RPIC not being in an elevated position like on a roof.

On a side note, how was the M400? We have a 300. Anything else that the M400 can do that you tried out and want to share.

 

[GadgetGuy]

11 mile control range via relay! Love the relay concept and the creativity, but the M400 with that lens is a $15,000 "dongle," which is still limited to LOS, equivalent to flying from a 250 foot hilltop over lower ground. It still won't help maintain signal when flying behind any tall structures along the route, that may be necessary for nonlinear missions, which is the primary purpose of the 4G dongles in urban settings, rather than just longer LOS flights.

What's necessary to get a DJI dongle waiver in the U.S.?
LEO appears to have access to functional 4G dongles for their rooftop drones in a box for flying between and around intervening downtown skyscrapers.
Is Skydio the only company able to offer 4G dongle use in the U.S.?

 

[jaja6009]

11 mile control range via relay! Love the relay concept and the creativity, but the M400 with that lens is a $15,000 "dongle," which is still limited to LOS, equivalent to flying from a 250 foot hilltop over lower ground. It still won't help maintain signal when flying behind any tall structures along the route, that may be necessary for nonlinear missions, which is the primary purpose of the 4G dongles in urban settings, rather than just longer LOS flights.

What's necessary to get a DJI dongle waiver in the U.S.?
LEO appears to have access to functional 4G dongles for their rooftop drones in a box for flying between and around intervening downtown skyscrapers.
Is Skydio the only company able to offer 4G dongle use in the U.S.?

For a waiver, there is none. This would be an FCC issue, not FAA. The FCC did not explicitly ban the DJI 4G dongles, DJI just did not introduce them to the US, most likely due to the controversy that DJI has at this time. You used to be able to add the DJI Dongle to the controller for the M30 series and use it to access the internet. You could not fly using 4G, but at least you add instant internet for Flight Hub 2 for live streaming and uploading of video and images for distribution to required parties. This stopped working after a firmware update.

There are a number of 4G solutions available. The ones that I know of are Skydio, Parrot and various other companies that have proprietary 4G dongles for DJI aircraft, with Paladin being one I am very familiar with. Companies like Paladin have expensive annual contracts and the 4G dongles only work with their custom software, so if you don't pay the contract in a couple of years you lose your 4G ability. We were quoted ~$30K a year, but there was also maintenance, training and other perks added along with a dock version of the M30T and related M30T accessories.

You have great points on BVLOS and going behind buildings and on how 4G helps to mitigate this. We don't have a large sUAS budget and if a Matrice 4 series helps to get another Matrice 4 series further out, it could really help out in certain circumstances.

For us, we are going to move onto Skydio in the future, but I always will have a negative bias with them since I perceive them as being part of this whole DJI nightmare.

 

[GadgetGuy]

For a waiver, there is none. This would be an FCC issue, not FAA. The FCC did not explicitly ban the DJI 4G dongles, DJI just did not introduce them to the US, most likely due to the controversy that DJI has at this time. You used to be able to add the DJI Dongle to the controller for the M30 series and use it to access the internet. You could not fly using 4G, but at least you add instant internet for Flight Hub 2 for live streaming and uploading of video and images for distribution to required parties. This stopped working after a firmware update.

There are a number of 4G solutions available. The ones that I know of are Skydio, Parrot and various other companies that have proprietary 4G dongles for DJI aircraft, with Paladin being one I am very familiar with. Companies like Paladin have expensive annual contracts and the 4G dongles only work with their custom software, so if you don't pay the contract in a couple of years you lose your 4G ability. We were quoted ~$30K a year, but there was also maintenance, training and other perks added along with a dock version of the M30T and related M30T accessories.

You have great points on BVLOS and going behind buildings and on how 4G helps to mitigate this. We don't have a large sUAS budget and if a Matrice 4 series helps to get another Matrice 4 series further out, it could really help out in certain circumstances.

For us, we are going to move onto Skydio in the future, but I always will have a negative bias with them since I perceive them as being part of this whole DJI nightmare.

As I have understood the relay marketing videos for the Matrice 4, with multiple aircraft, one could effectively create a 4G dongle effect with proper positioning of the one or more relay aircraft in the air to support relaying signal behind or over intervening obstructions that would otherwise block LOS signal from controller of the primary drone. If you want to fly on the back side of a hill, you would merely need to position a relay drone above the hill to relay the signal from in front of the hill to behind the hill. If you already own the needed extra Matrice 4 unit(s), using them as relay units is a great way to leverage that investment in new unique ways.