stay sharp,
This is really interesting. Our local Fire Dept. has just gotten the DJI thermal camera drone.
The EVO2 looks to be an even better solution.
Keep updating us as you go along.
What sort of real world flight times are you getting with the lights installed?
All the Best,
Jeff
The plan is to swap out flashlight batteries each time I swap out the drone battery. The drone battery with this payload should last about 25 to 30 minutes. The flashlight batteries will last longer but if Im landing to swap out one battery I will do both and place them in the charger while I fly the fresh batteries. I have 5 drone batteries and will have a matching number of flashlight batteries. The drone battery is $220. The flashlight battery is $10 -$15 and also rechargeable.
Great informative video.
The shots form the ground look like something from a UFO movie.
Agree the Fenix worked the best.
Thanks for sharing and look forward to next video with grass ground cover.
Later,
Keith
Very very interesting
Did the lights stay cool?
yes but they were in the down wash of the rotors at 17 degrees F so it was expected they would stay cool being fan cooled in sub freezing temps. It wont be the same on a warm summer night.
I was wondering how much the blade wash helps. Even in 17 F, my high output lights get hot so the blades must be helping a lot.
They are powerful, high speed fans only a few inches away from the lights,
A light that always impresses me for it’s size and thermal control is the Sofirn SD05 diving light. 21700 battery though. Good throw and wide beam. It will stay on high in low temps in my hand.
Can you use just the flashlight heads and run them off of the drone’s battery pack? It would require some custom wiring etc. but you’d save some weight.
17 F of moving air is basically below freeze temperature air conditioning. Easily cold enough for hypothermia / death with extended exposure.
Yes forced air movement can make all the difference in the world. Even just a little air. Thermal energy (IE heat) traverses from hot to cold… always, never the other way around. If you can continually flow cold air over the hotter surface… it will take the heat away with it.
There is no way to tap into the battery and that would void all warranties on a drone that cost about $11,000. Thats why strapping a couple $50 lights is the sought after option.
I would try mixing floody and thrower
That is a good idea. I have tried that with handhelds and it works great.
yes this was discussed in post #16, The two diff lights weight about the same.
Nice project 
I revised the design and spread the light beams apart to cover more ground. Here are the results in the video link below.
[video: Evo 2 drone lighting rev3 - YouTube]
I like the dual beam spread, thanks for the great video
personally I favor the slightly larger hotspot of the Fenix over the smaller hotspot of the Sofirn
but people often differ on their beam preferences
you may also decide to use one small tight hotspot for higher altitude, and a wider hotspot at lower altitude…
by mounting one of each you increase your options
and it still seems like you have more than enough light, which gives you the option to lower the brightness and extend runtime, while reducing heat, that may be relevant later…
all good options to have
I think you have some nice versatile beam options to use, by simply changing which lights get installed
Yes if it were not so darned cold here I would have stayed out longer and did some flying with a mixed set of 1 Fenix and 1 Sofirn in the saddle at the same time.
Yes, I personally like the Sofirn SP35 better. As mentioned above, try some D-C-Fix. Then again, you want stock lights.