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Don't let this happen to your drone! This link has some amazing photos

In the past couple of days, I have seen drone videos of the Bruneau river running across Idaho highway 51, just south of Jordan Valley, Idaho, a main route south through McDermitt, Nevada, then on to Winnemucca. I am not sure if the water there has receded yet, as much north-south commerce use that highway. I probably have already posted this somewhere here recently, but hey, I'm getting old! As an aside, the last time I saw the Rye Patch reservoir full, I crossed the Humboldt River, which fills the Rye Patch Reservoir on what is called the Callahan Bridge, just west out of Imlay Nevada. The high water at that time was pushing against the concrete bridge, and some water had already began to run across the road, it appeared. The good news was, there was evidence that a road grader had created a small dirt berm to help keep the water from further damaging the approach to the bridge... I was not to be denied, and gave my truck the gas, and me and my little rv trailer took the chance and successfully crossed the mighty Humboldt!

Hey Jason.... The new drones are pretty easy to carry, that DJI Mavic looks awesome, and can be carried in a backpack, and has a line of sight range of 4-5 miles. The drone Im using is a Yuneek q500 , and has a 4k camera that moves, and has a range of 1-2 miles line of sight. If I spot something interesting on a hard to get to location, top of hill, ect.. they will be handy. I am also going to use it this summer while out fishing off the coast of San Diego looking for floating kelp patties, where the tuna love to hang out. I ran into a guy out in BFE out near Alamo, NV. while hunting for meteorites, and he was using a drone with a Thermal camera, hunting for caves on the side of some limestone cliffs.

I gave up on my drone because it was too much work to pack around and all the mods I had to make to get good distance kept breaking. But that new Mavic Pro looks pretty sweet. It packs down to nothing and gets great range out of the box, I'm waiting for a price drop and thinking about getting one for work in the mountains the summer where hiking would take too long. The thing I wonder is if you can point the camera straight down so you can make custom aerial maps, that was the thing I really liked doing with the P2 but the stitching software won't work if the camera isn't straight down and some gimbals stop at like -170 degrees or something.

Idaho Gold, I have just started getting into using a drone for prospecting... Here is a small example of finding some good bedrock using my drone... Dave

Prior threads on the subject: Drone Survey Is there anyone on here that use a Drone to survey the area you plan on nugget hunting are coin hunting? I was thinking about getting one to look over land that has a lot of trees that could have... Drones For Aerial Reconnaissance You guys have great Google Earth coverage down here. It is nearly useless in Alaska and I would have been thrilled to have this alternative. As it was I was lucky enough to have a father with an... Video - Drones For Gold Prospecting I wish they had been a bit more adventurous with distance from base camp with this but it gives at least an idea of the possibilities.... Drones Who's going to be the first to use a drone scout up that wash that you'd love to hike up but crap it's warm your old it's nearly vertical geewhiz I still like to have a look!

how're you gonna mount that on your drone? Might need jet thrusters...are you still dredging or has Oregon outlawed dredging now? Ps, whats your recommendation on a drone under $700 ballpark with camera and monitor included and a good range ? Is it better to get a under $100 drone for starters before a more expensive one? -Tom V., Ps, I own a Canon SX50 myself..

For those curious, I flew my drone over the Gold Hill Pocket gold mine in Oregon and filmed it. The same we are discussing in this thread:

Telescope to file a claim on the moon. Oh a Drone too so I can fly over my new claim. I haven't said the type of claim but I will let you know later. I had ask Santa for a GPZ but I can't repeat what he she said. Chuck

A useful idea for professional gold/relic metal detectorists from indiegogo https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/goblin-the-world-s-first-metal-detector-drone-smartphone-gift#/ Wish number 2 i listed would work well on something like this...after all this stuff is almost sixty years old.. https://www.google.com/patents/US3105934 And look at these kick starter anti landmine ideas....that could be adapted for professional gold/relic hunting.. I am just waiting for someone to figure out on indigeogo or kickstarter something like wish 2 on these systems with some of the modern GaN devices used for wireless power tech in the airfuel standards. With this technology you can totally shape and control the energy delivered and how that effects the ground and its response. Someday folks i think will also figure out how to split up the emitters after that and direct energy similar to what is done in beam stearing devices for 802.11ad through 802.11ay wifi router technologies. Then you will be able to sum energy to a point in the ground without effecting the ground between it that you pass the individual beams through. I would imagine those folks working on those mining asteroids projects will have this running first. http://www.planetaryresources.com/

American Made drone with gimbal mounted camera included ,25 minute flight time, GPS, Fly Home functions, controller shows you remaining battery life, and altitude,price is a measly $699 for the premium version with hard case to carry it in, 1.2 mile range, company located in Virginia,USA, their Customer Support is supposed to be top notch, Best Buy sells these drones but their price is 899 vs straight from the mfgr of 699 AND, the company has optional CRASH Damage insurance policies available

Chuck, Dont know how much money you want to spend, but for $1,000 there is a real nice drone with some distance, its the new DJI Mavic Pro, there are some pretty good youtube videos on it... Dave.

Hello Rege-PA; and the “detectorprospector” community; allow me to expand a little on my previous response to you and put it into context. I apologize in advance for too many words, however. Several years ago, I was involved and enthusiastic about Gold Detector design suitable for highly mineralized Gold fields in Australia’s “Golden Triangle” our primary objective was a project called “Titan Pulse Induction Detector”. I worked with “Finders” in Dunolly Vic/Australia. I wrote the patent ( https://www.google.com/patents/WO2006037176A1?cl=en ) for this machine which involved Constant-Current-Coil-Drive and separate core and anus peripheral field illuminations; this was a technique to achieve real time Ground Balancing.( ie a view along the bore-sight view where the target “is” and an annulus view around the periphery where the target “is not”). The audio used subtle white noise (slaved to the annulus view) to describe the general ground mineralization, which gave way to a monotonic tone that pierced through the soft quiescent white/pink/brown background “hiss noise” to announce a target was on central bore-sight axis. This was meant to invoke a mental picture of a conductive target being revealed. The use of white noise was that it proposed to be less annoying to listen to while searching; with its variable spectral colour (bandwidth) it was conveying some idea of the changing soil mineralization. As a separate product that might have helped finance the Titan Project, I designed a “retrofit audio enhancer” for the popular Minelab SD-Detectors. This was the “SuperFix” and while it had some innovative processes, which dissembled, processed then reassembled the classic Minelab’s “cook/coo” audio, it was my mistake to do it at that time. As events unfolded, it’s premature release plus my attempt to be too clever and also some manufacturing difficulties coupled with the variability of the machines it was to parasite on, then it failed as a product. In hindsight, as a business solution it was a risk for R&D finance that could not afford failure. It failed. Still, from my viewpoint it taught me a valuable lesson in “Signal processing Latency” i.e. how long it takes for a signal to propagate through a filtering process. It also enabled me to test some of the minor audio concepts of the Titan. For those few who mastered the use of the Superfix, they would notice the high or low monotone (as determined by metal type), now occurred when the target was under top-dead centre of a mono coil; To achieve this we had to simulate travelling “back in time” as the incoming Minelab being a frequency modulated tone which is simultaneously amplitude modulated by the silhouette of the detected video waveform. (An issue that causes the straight through Minelab and raw Superfix audio to appear long after the sweeping coil has moved on. Positional confusion) The fact that Minelab use differentiation of the Detection envelope, followed by Low-pass filtering (which delays its output by many milliseconds) then invoking the combination of Voltage controlled oscillator (to which the ear is sensitive), then amplitude modulating (to quiet the drone of the base tone while searching) the desired consequence is that no detection DC drift is apparent. Unfortunately for the operator he cannot easily pinpoint the target as the “cook/coo” appears after the target has been wiped over. This Minelab mechanism is now too well accepted, to say the target is “somewhere here – dig a big hole to retrieve it” ... it works, but we tried to mine the MineLab audio to better announce a target and endure acoustic fatigue for long time searching and then rarely find the target. The Titan coil was unusual in several matters, it used inverted conical winding to focus the emitted transmitted field (and by reciprocity the returning induced target signal). The second feature was to be a stainless steel focusing shield (much like a torch reflector) ... the aim being to drive the available illuminating power burst into the soil and also mitigate against outside Radio-Wave type interference. The final coil structure was bulky, like a biscuit tin on a stick ... however, we saw it as the next stage of evolution for detector coils, one-day it may yet come. Finders closed and I left to work in “Low Frequency Electronic Animal Eartag Readers”. The issues that this offered had much similarity to Pulse Induction Detectors. Both are Half Duplex systems, ie Transmit then quickly receive, noise mitigation and controlling directivity (Reflectors) and much more. So when I chanced on your request for any help/advise on detection interference “from” a pain/pacemaker. I should have been more forceful to you that the problem is what the detector might do to you, do you agree the problem is better voiced in reverse ... be careful, I have no good answer for you. This is an interesting forum. As for gold, I got to see and handle several >300 oz nuggets, quite a thrill, but I had to hand them back. Kind Regards Ray

This is a helicopter doing an electromagnetic survey for mineral deposits. They also do ground conductivity measurements - conceptually quite similar to what we do with our metal detectors. Imagine a miniature version mounted on a drone, done up as a metal detector. That would be ground breaking!

I guess that over the years I have heard so many rumors of amazing metal detectors that never actually materialized (Pulse Devil, etc.) that I normally roll my eyes and smile skeptically until I see the product is in hand and actually works. It takes nothing to announce and a rumor a product - but a whole lot of effort to deliver a truly good one, especially a ground breaking one. Did you know I am working on a detector carried on a drone which will see deeper, discriminate perfectly and allow the user to sit in the shade drinking a cold one while the detector does the work? (Well, not really, but that's my dream detector) I have nothing but the highest respect for the guys at Whites and the other companies too, but I will believe when I see and not when I hear a rumor specifically stated as "Unencumbered by the thought process" (as so many dream rumors are).

i was cruising through google window shopping tutorials on my new detector and ran across this review and article, if you have not seen it and are using the Deus there is a lot of great information about understanding the Deus tones and features as well as an explanation of the different factors affecting VDI and the benefits and disadvantages of using the normalizing function. the writer also explains the Deus secret screens and how to access them, the x,y graph is a useful little tool. in combination with the user manual this article is packed with good info and tips. http://www.metaldetectingworld.com/xp_deus_review.shtml personally, I'm finding the Deus easier and easier to use...its complex, but the menu system is really intuitive and easy to learn. it runs very stable and seems predictable. the tones are very clean and while it will take time to become one with the tones, it is a great hunt by sound detector and I'm comfortable with that after using the GPZ, plus having the other features will make this a great combination in gold country. cherry picking coins is fairly easy and I'm pulling coins from areas missed by the whites, but i can't really say that is any fault of my whites...mostly poor technique on previous hunts and I'm being more careful with the new machine now. i also love walking into my hunting sites with the deus all folded up...hardly gets a look except from the occasional kid thinking its a drone of some sort. Then in seconds everything unfolds and I'm up and running automatically in my last used program...changes are easy and take seconds the Deus has really fantastic pin pointing without using the pin point function. i have the 11 inch coil it is the same for the all coil size i would think, by using the wiggle technique 99% of the time I'm finding the target located dead center at the front edge of the coil. one more thing, i bought a dust cover and protector from the dealer, but i found it a little hard to see through in the sunlight, so i bought another i like better on Ebay. they were both around 20 bucks, i don't plan on using the clear silicon cover if anyone wants it let me know and i will send it to you free... thats no cost, nothing to you just say you want to give it a try (old cover on the right, new cover on the left).

If a person would run a ad telling everyone you want one you may be rewarded. I don't think it was a large amount made but you only want one. I ran a ad for a drone 2 cycle engine some years back and one guy called with three.So you never know what may pop up. Chuck

Ok guys, I've been working really hard on this new video. I think it truly shows what treasure hunting is all about! We used the new dji Phantom 4 drone to scout out an old 1800's underground house that was across the creek from us. The footage is my best yet and I even took the time to play guitar for all the backing tracks. Hope you enjoy this edition on "Off the Grid Treasure Hunting"... Now... Let's get lost!

Interesting. Thanks for posting. What drone do you have? Thanks! Jim

I think I just found a new market for my dookie launcher. Now not only is it good to settle road rage but also drone rage. Can you just see the argument in court. " Your honor, my neighbor just sh*! on me. LOL...

Who's going to be the first to use a drone scout up that wash that you'd love to hike up but crap it's warm your old it's nearly vertical geewhiz I still like to have a look! Seriously Dash anybody thinking of using drones to scout out likely New terrain?

Commercial use is banned and they now require all owners to register with the FAA or face criminal/civil penalties as of a few days ago. https://www.faa.gov/uas/registration/ Just a heads up, they do consider use of the drone with anything at all involving business to be illegal without their permit (including just flying around your yard and posting your vids to Youtube if there are ads on the page), I spent some time looking in to it a while back and gave up. Idiots already ruined it a few years ago, it's inevitable. You get people flying in NY and crashing from 500 ft up over a crowded city, interfering with EMS and firefighting operations, etc.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_333BEBOPRB/Parrot-Bebop-Drone-Bundle-Red.html $750 dollar built in camera drone with 1 mile + range and you can dock it with a tablet or smartphone for flying as if you were in the drones pilot seat. My dream drone. Now ,if the price would just drop to the under $500 range.....since I need/have a use for a tablet pc now too Too bad the reviews are so poor tho, almost sounds like vaporware...big promises but poor delivery..and I hear the FAA now requires all drone pilots to get a license and max altitude of 400 feet...

Man, Steve, you are sure a worker-bee; not a drone! (and for the litteral minded I know the worker bees are female) fred

tvanwho: In FPV you fly using a HUD (heads up display) in a similar fashion as pilots use them to fly aircraft (or military drones) with limited or no sight. It gives you roll, pitch, bearing, elevation, distances, etc and you can navigate by that without seeing anything else. They are pretty useful even within sight range, and actually kinda fun to learn and fly with them, it's like a flight simulator except more real. You usually have to add the HUD yourself, DJI makes one.The video monitor is more to just give you a sense of what you are around, you can point it in any direction you want though, and its not high enough resolution to make out fine detail with. Though you can fly by it but its easy to get disoriented. Some quadcopters come with this setup, but it's was much cheaper to build it myself when I bought mine, dunno about now though. To fly 20 miles out you'd need to go to custom radios, antennas, and high power FPV tx/rx's that operate on lower frequencies like below 1ghz. Again, not legal anymore in the US. But on the frequency subject, usually what legitimate setups use today (and what my personal setup contains) are 2.4GHZ for your radio and 5.8ghz for your FPV system. Two things: those are also frequencies that many consumer devices use (routers, phones, etc) so you get a lot of reduced range and noise near cities. Second, these high frequencies are basically line of sight, especially 5.8ghz, so in forests or areas with lots of trees your range could be greatly reduced and you'll lose your drone. I'm lucky in that all the areas I prospect and live are either praries or deserts without trees. But if you are standing in the forest and flying up and out then you won't be going very far. Different powers of transmitters and different styles of antennas all greatly increase the ranges as well. A good antenna is the cheapest way to boost range, but most of the high gain ones are also highly directional, so keep that in mind. Some have quite narrow like 5-10 degree fields, fly out of that and your HUD is gone, bam. This is one reason why the FAA enacted line of sight flight only, it makes sense, we don't want drones falling out of the sky onto our heads.