Flying at night with metal flashlight

[Dronesolace]

I am kind of scared to fly at night. I don't have the money to blow on a professional drone light or beacon. I have a metal flashlight. I was wondering if the metal flashlight would interfear since it's metal. Will it interfear.
Thank's for the help.

 

[Just_nick]

Don't fly after 30 minutes past sundown. Problem solved.

 

[Meta4]

I am kind of scared to fly at night. I don't have the money to blow on a professional drone light or beacon. I have a metal flashlight. I was wondering if the metal flashlight would interfear since it's metal. Will it interfear.

Metal isn't a problem - steel is.
Is your flashlight made of steel?
You can see how it affects a compass by putting the flashlight close to a compass (or a phone with a compass app) and observe what effect it has on the compass.
I'd be concerned about how:

you would mount a flashlight on the Phantom
how the weight and balance affected the Phantom​

And Unless it's a very bright light, I doubt it would do anything useful anyway.

 

[captainmilehigh]

Metal flashlight, metal batteries, and mounting it how?........Tie-wraps, Velcro, tape? And mounting it where?

Depends how much you want to risk a $500 drone to get a look at a flying flashlight.

I wouldn’t recommend it.

 

[Deleted member 62848]

I am kind of scared to fly at night. I don't have the money to blow on a professional drone light or beacon. I have a metal flashlight. I was wondering if the metal flashlight would interfear since it's metal. Will it interfear.
Thank's for the help.

Funny old picture this one,,early flying days ,I never had no issues except for weight,mounted a personal locator strobe on back and some alloy torchs,,I was gone to the sky,ha still makes me laugh when looking at this..I don't know what I was thinking but did have good line of sight

 

[PhantomHero]

Lol. That like putting a bumper sticker on a Bentley. [emoji23][emoji23]

 

[Deleted member 62848]

I am kind of scared to fly at night. I don't have the money to blow on a professional drone light or beacon. I have a metal flashlight. I was wondering if the metal flashlight would interfear since it's metal. Will it interfear.
Thank's for the help.

Just go to cheap mall shop get some bright led torchs and cable tie on legs like me old p4 pic,,never had a balance problem and was good cheap very effective lighting,because they lite weight you won't have any issues

 

[Deleted member 62848]

Found picture I was looking for,its old like me,,as you can see I was a fan of torchs,,had no issues

 

[loonie01]

Found picture I was looking for,its old like me,,as you can see I was a fan of torchs,,had no issuesView attachment 97188

Nice collection.

 

[Deleted member 62848]

Nice collection.

Ha cheers,they all still go too,here man cave now,lost track of what I got in here,all fixing and inventing happens hereevery home should have one

 

[RunningWithScissors]

And Unless it's a very bright light, I doubt it would do anything useful anyway.

Assuming that you're planning to use the flashlight as a way to locate your drone's position after dark, as Meta pointed out, you're probably gonna need a light with a fairly high lumen output to make it practical for that purpose at VLOS distances. You might be better off investing in some affordable high visibility flashers like they sell for bicycles. Again, you'll be limited to VLOS distances with something like that.

 

[Chopstix Kid]

When I first got my P4 I had a friend 3D print me a pair of mounts so I could attached two 900 lumen tactical lights. One on each side. The motors screamed to keep the bird in the air. After maybe a 5 min flight I checked their temp and decided it wasn’t worth the risk of frying them. There are some old threads regarding max lift weight.

 

[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

Found picture I was looking for,its old like me,,as you can see I was a fan of torchs,,had no issuesView attachment 97188

You got it!! Bad as me..

 

[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

When I first got my P4 I had a friend 3D print me a pair of mounts so I could attached two 900 lumen tactical lights. One on each side. The motors screamed to keep the bird in the air. After maybe a 5 min flight I checked their temp and decided it wasn’t worth the risk of frying them. There are some old threads regarding max lift weight.

I've flown 1 pound 15 minutes with weight to spare. Motors not even hot. Read that the max is 3 pounds , although that would reduce the "Up time",

 

[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

One of my projects. Already had one "Hand built" go at it, now I want to try these. I'm not into distance, but content close up. I am awake at night 7 days a week and there's a lot of stuff out there at night while people drool on their pillows. Laugh if you must, but it can be done well and well it will be done.

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[120CCPM]

Check this out: STROBON Standalone - Flytron
I use something similar on my glider (but powered by the receiver) and it works very well, the strobe is visible from far away even at dusk. The standalone unit has the obvious advantage of not requiring any external power source, making it the perfect choice for a Phantom. Not the cheapest option, but definitely the best.

 

[Chopstix Kid]

I've flown 1 pound 15 minutes with weight to spare. Motors not even hot. Read that the max is 3 pounds , although that would reduce the "Up time",

It could be higher on the P3. I thought I read somewhere that DJI states 200g for the P4. That’s just under 1/2 lb.

 

[Chopstix Kid]

Quick Google search turns of information all over the spectrum. One person states they got up to 600 g but the motors got super hot. That’s likely pretty close to where I was with the 2 lights.

 

[PhantomHero]

Saw a you tube vid that said the P3S could max lift 4lb and the P4 did 3lb. He was lifting gallon jugs of what he called unicorn blood. Lol. Just watch the YouTube censors don’t flag you for using copy write music.

 

[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

(If you upload copywrite music, read what they say about it....) I use a lot of it. Enjoy.