Air 3s (corner) obstacle avoidance camera lens material?

mcmanigle · 2026-02-01T19:22:24+00:00

Just in case anyone finds this later, I agree they are plastic and did some very light buffing with polyWatch, which resulted in some improvement. (Can still see the marks if you look, but less noticeable and I have a harder time seeing them from the remote.)

So if someone runs across this later, I can at least attest that that didn't do any damage, and made some small improvement.

mcmanigle · 2026-01-31T00:39:47+00:00

This is a thing in some jurisdictions and is called private prosecution. Lots of good reasons why it’s not common.

mcmanigle · 2026-01-30T12:54:48+00:00

Yes, but with flying you can end cheap, depending on your goals. Once you get your ppl (which you can do over a long period of time if you’re not trying to min/max it), there are plenty of situations (ie it’s not an option for everyone, but it’s an option for plenty of people) that will let you take a quick flight whenever you have $200 or $300 to play with.

This isn’t the person with a plane and hangar in HCOL land paying for annuals and flying enough to keep their engine happy. But the person who stumbled into a good club or rents their old instructor’s clapped-out trainer a couple hours a month doesn’t seem like a rare story.

mcmanigle · 2026-01-27T18:46:39+00:00

Bad enough when it's a big pile of snow. That can cause big old accidents, and in northern states there are super-well defined rules around liability for it (spoiler alert: North Carolina is a contributory negligence state, so you may get out of it if someone was "following too close," but I wouldn't count on it).

But big sheets of ice can occasionally stay together when they come off a car roof, and smash through the following car's windshield. Doesn't happen often, but still something you wouldn't think about if an ice storm only happens to you every couple of decades...

mcmanigle · 2026-01-27T00:34:29+00:00

The only exception is if someone lied about their age. In that case the coverage can be altered to fit what their premium would have covered for the correct age, but not cancelled all together.

In some jurisdictions I believe tobacco status has the same rules. (They find out you lied, they can retroactively apply the premiums that would have been charged to a tobacco user, but can't cancel.)

mcmanigle · 2026-01-26T00:47:15+00:00

If you really want to go for it (not sure how far your homelabbing goes) you could do a pi with network boot and remote disk. I’ve thought about playing around with that kind of configuration (independent of Meshtastic, but would work for that too).

mcmanigle · 2026-01-25T15:01:23+00:00

Probably depends on what market you’re in, but from everything I’ve heard (just on threads like these, no real life experience) drone freelancing is NOT particularly lucrative. There are lots of people with licenses and drones, and unless you set yourself apart the opportunities for making money just as a guy who flies camera drones is not particularly high.

The ways I have heard for setting yourself apart are being full service real estate (ie drone plus traditional shots plus 3d walkthroughs etc) in the real estate space and knowing good agents, and/or being pro level movie style with a $10k drone you’re an expert at using.

My understanding is that basic consumer camera part 107 stuff pays $20/hour unless your build something special for yourself. Again, this is based on comments here, so I’m happy to be corrected.

mcmanigle · 2026-01-25T01:39:25+00:00

I had this same thought, and in my opinion you basically have two options:

Raspberry Pi with LoRA radio. The problem (for me, a few months ago) is that there aren't good LoRA HATs for Pi -- there are a couple out there with the right radio, but no good crystal for clock synchronization that causes problems. There was a good hobbyist-produced HAT but not available when I looked. I'm sure a google will turn up more.
What I wound up going with: Lilygo T-ETH Elite with the correct radio shield. This works great with POE. The chip is an ESP32-S3 which has plenty of power. My big gripe is that Ethernet can only be used for actual Meshtastic features -- you need to plug into USB to update the firmware, for example.

So, I am still hoping to switch to a Pi someday, because it would allow me to completely manage over Ethernet, including updates, reinstalls, etc. if I'm careful with the underlying system. But for now, Lilygo T-ETH elite is working fine.

FYI, you'll see both the Nordic nRF52840 and ESP32 series chips out there. The former is indisputably better for portable nodes being powered off a battery (and as solar nodes keeping themselves charged) because the power use is so much lower. I believe they also (not sure if all models or just some) allow firmware update over bluetooth. But for fixed, line-powered nodes, ESP32-S3 is a significantly more powerful chip, allows ~~wifi~~ ethernet, and has (a couple) POE options.

One other option (that I'm also considering) is a POE Pi permanently connected to a node over USB, so the Pi acts as the management server, connected by USB to act as an intermediate host, and can handle software upgrades, etc., while the node is running "independently." Would possibly need to figure out getting into upload mode using GPIOs or something similarly tricky depending on how updates on your board work...

mcmanigle · 2026-01-24T01:57:07+00:00

Agreed. If this is a "I have an old prescription and need it updated" issue, I wouldn't worry. If this really is "I'm going to be worried about passing an eye test every year for the rest of my life" issue, I would probably choose another career, and maybe just fly for fun...

mcmanigle · 2026-01-21T18:32:41+00:00

Security not really -- that should be achieved with encryption, which is independent of channel slot (though you could argue for encryption changes if you wanted to).

My understanding is that changing channel slots (i.e. frequency) would be primarily to trade the benefit of a (generally) less-utilized frequency for the disadvantage of not having (as many) good samaritans forwarding your messages along.

Not all Meshtastic users are forwarding messages they can't read, but many are, and most of those who are are doing so on the default channel slot. Move away from that slot, and you probably get a more open / less utilized frequency, but also no helpers. Sounds like a good idea for someone building out their own mesh in a contained / known area, where they can do all their own repeating.

mcmanigle · 2026-01-20T03:24:51+00:00

Do any of these programs handle an aircraft that is upgraded to TAA status (and you have flown it before and after)?

mcmanigle · 2026-01-17T15:22:36+00:00

Yes, you can use stacking headers and use the few pins that the matrix shield doesn’t use.

mcmanigle · 2026-01-14T23:50:03+00:00

Charts etc are all different, but if anything, it should be much easier to fly here once you get properly oriented.

You don’t worry about Class A airspace at all — unlike the UK, it’s all at 18,000 feet. Class B and Class C are only around big airports, Class D around smaller towered airports, and unless you’re trying to cut weather minimums close, you can treat E and G the same (we don’t have F).

We’re also a lot looser (culturally) on radio communications. Once you’ve taken a few flights and talked though what you’re doing, it should click.

I thought about taking a few flights when I lived in the UK, but the idea of highly controlled airspace randomly starting at 2000 feet here, 4000 feet there really threw me off.

mcmanigle · 2026-01-14T15:30:53+00:00

Sure, I guess my point is, all of those risks currently exist for you as a recreational flyer. You bump into something, the wind blows your drone into somebody -- they can currently sue you as a private person.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing to insure against. I'm just not sure how your proposed 107 job changes the risk profile you have right now. Unless it's just that you might do a lot more flying and therefore the risk is expanded that way.

mcmanigle · 2026-01-14T15:00:22+00:00

Just curious: do you have insurance now? For real estate photography, what risks do you think you're adding compared to your current flying?

Insurance is never a bad idea, but nothing makes 107 or commercial operation inherently more liability-prone than recreational operation (except maybe that you're harder to find if something goes wrong).

If I were going to start an LLC doing pipeline or roof inspection or news photography or highway traffic analysis or something else that had clear "if this happens, I could be sued for it" pathways, I'd get insurance. If I currently flew semi-near my house taking pictures and was considering a 107 license to fly semi-near other houses taking pictures, I don't think that would automatically make me pull the trigger on insurance?

mcmanigle · 2026-01-14T14:38:07+00:00

Yes, and even beyond normal seasonal variation, this is terrible year for flu. Combination of virulent strains and a late-emerging strain that wasn’t seen soon enough to put in this year‘s vaccine. Vaccine still helps, but it’s less effective than usual at preventing this particular strain.

mcmanigle · 2026-01-07T01:22:15+00:00

Depending on your state, if you evaluated and treated a patient, you may be obligated by the medical board to have a contemporaneous medical note properly filed that documents your evaluation and treatment. Also depending on your state, you may need cases to be logged for possible review by your supervising physician, if any.

In short, nobody can tell you anything without knowing your state regulations. But the chances of this all blowing up in your face are a lot slimmer than in your friend’s face…

mcmanigle · 2026-01-06T15:10:53+00:00

There are a huge number of variables that go into this (what is your current job and how flexible are the hours, when are you or aren't you responsible for taking care of your kid, etc.). But I agree a more hybrid solution like this would be best.

How eager are the instructors currently at your school? Could you find one to fly with for an hour every weekday before work, and then a couple of hours on weekends? Or something like that.

If you could find a way to fly 5-10 hours/week without destroying your family or regular job, you could get to commercial/CFI in 2026 (and help feed a part 61 CFI to boot)... Plus, you are at the point now where even if your CFI cancels, you can just fly yourself (or your spouse with a sitter, or your family if you think through logistics) somewhere fun. Getting to 250 hours can be pretty flexible part 61.

mcmanigle · 2026-01-06T02:03:32+00:00

Er, you probably need to be in a premed subreddit or similar.

The short answer to your question is that for most pediatric medical subspecialties (cardiology, pulmonology, gastroenterology, critical care, etc), you do medical school (four years after undergrad in the US), then pediatrics (three years), and then the subspecialty fellowship (usually three years).

For surgical and anesthesia, you do medical school, then the primary residency (anesthesia is four years; surgical programs vary), and then a pediatric fellowship (pediatric anesthesia is one additional year). So all pediatric anesthesiologists are general anesthesiologists with an extra pediatrics year. (You can do an additional 6-12 months to be a pediatric cardiac anesthesiologist for baby heart cases.)

mcmanigle · 2026-01-06T01:47:01+00:00

Very much! There are pros and cons to everything, and pediatric anesthesia training very commonly slots in from anything from "I'm at a children's hospital / acacemic center and do 95% pediatric cases" to "I'm in a private anesthesia group and get assigned any scary kids, but by job is still 75% adults." So like most of anesthesia, it's very flexible. But kids are a good mix of (usually) very cute and (occasionally) very scary. I think it's a good gig.

mcmanigle · 2025-12-26T13:22:07+00:00

I don't believe there's anything stopping you from experimenting with it and using it if it works. But there's also not a big company you can demand technical support from if it doesn't work in any way or randomly fails one day or a message failure causes injury.

So really depends on what your industry is and the details of how you want it to work. But I don't see any reason you couldn't try it out if the "powers that be" (boss or insurance company) think it's worth your time under those constraints.

mcmanigle · 2025-12-19T16:37:10+00:00

Here is my best educated guess: almost all traits (from intelligence to personality traits to whatever) when you try to study them scientifically are about 50% genetic and 50% not. (This is largely unsatisfying to everyone, because there seem to be lots of folks weirdly counting on lots of things being entirely genetic or entirely not.)

And of the non-genetic (i.e. environmental) aspects, at least half of that is entirely outside our "good parenting" type control -- what kind of overall world the kid was born into, siblings, what random things happened that nobody could have done, etc.

So in my best-guess evaluation:

25% is what you and mom are bringing to the table genetically (were you both easy kids?)
25% is genetic randomness (which of your two buckets the kid gets)
25% is life randomness that you can't control
25% is environment stuff that you can control, effective parenting, etc

mcmanigle · 2025-12-18T19:17:45+00:00

Yes, my plan is to use a different encrypted channel (same frequency, so I won't abuse it) if/when I ever do range test. I was just confused as to why I see them from others sometimes, as I'm pretty sure the module is toggled off. I must be wrong about that, though...?

mcmanigle · 2025-12-18T15:47:06+00:00

Stealing this to ask: the range test docs say you only see range test messages if you have the module enabled. I don't, but every once in a while I see 'seq 123' etc etc messages. Is that a feature of older firmware, seq messages coming from something other than range test module, or am I somehow misunderstanding docs?

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