r/interestingasfuck • u/Red_Lotus_Alchemist • 2d ago

/r/all A Chinese earthquake rescue team deployed drones to light up the night and aid search and rescue operations after the devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar.

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u/certifiedintelligent 2d ago

They’re tethered, so they can fly and light as long as the generator on the ground runs.

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u/DeathByPetrichor 2d ago

That’s… freaking brilliant. Why has this not been done before? Tethered drone seems like a fantastic idea for increased flight duration for security or time lapses

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u/_stonedspiritv2 2d ago

It's being used in wars right now since the signal can't be jammed. Fiber optics tethered drones.

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u/MajesticBread9147 2d ago

I mean we've had wire guided missiles since the 20th century.

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u/seanular 2d ago

Honestly, wilder to me than heat seeking.

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u/Kenny741 2d ago

With the Milan launch system you can guide the rocket while it's flying due to it being tethered as well. We had a group of 30 people shoot it for the first time and nobody missed a 2m by 3m metal plate 2000m away.

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u/JohnnyFartmacher 2d ago

There is some alternate universe out there where the pigeon-controlled guided bomb worked out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon

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u/FLABANGED 2d ago

Should check out beam riding missiles.

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u/Callisater 2d ago

During the Song Dynasty in China, the Fire Crow was invented, which was a kite with a gunpowder bomb attached. You could say this was the earliest version of the idea, and it was almost as old as gunpowder in warfare itself.

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u/xenelef290 2d ago

BGM-71 TOW

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u/Wakkit1988 2d ago

since the 20th century.

That is a terrible way to word this because it makes me feel old.

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u/shmodder 2d ago

The fiber cable doesn’t power the drone, though. It’s merely for data transmission.

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u/LevelBrilliant9311 2d ago

Fiber optics don't transfer power, so they don't increase flight duration.

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u/Fearless_Parking_436 2d ago

These are tethered for signal, not power. Having power up there is a bit more difficult.

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u/Kazath 2d ago

That's different though, fiber optics aren't used for power, so those drones still rely on batteries and can only be up a limited time. But yes, drones commanded by fiber optic lines can't be jammed by electronic warfare.

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u/darkroy131 2d ago

Fibre optic cables are not used to transfer electricity, as they are not conductive. They are used to control the drone, because radio jamming in Ukraine is pervasive. You need copper cables to transfer power, and they are prohibitively heavy for the drone to carry, not without sacrificing payload weight.

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u/leixiaotie 1d ago

that's crazy, fiber optics are essentially glass, that it can bend and follow a drone is amazing

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u/nertynot 2d ago

I just saw a picture on here of a tesla plugged into a generator that it was towing down the highway

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u/Wakkit1988 2d ago

Some company actually sold a gas generator that uses a tow hitch receiver, so you can charge your EV with a generator.

Also, EVs with built-in range extenders should start hitting the market in the next few years out of China. They anticipate vehicle ranges around 1000km.

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u/NotThreeFoxes 2d ago

Didn't the BMW i3 have one as an option or something? Its def not common but im almost certain there's been at least a few on the market already

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u/PCBen 2d ago

It did and I was really excited to get one one day - then they discontinued the i3 :(

I don’t think any of the replacement models have the extender anymore

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u/NotThreeFoxes 2d ago

I cant get over the bicycle tires thought, I cant imagine theres a wife selection of tires that narrow on rims that big. Its also the only vehicle I've ever seen in my career that had non preformace non M+S rated tires. Normaly we can put a customers summers on before the highway requirements lift because literaly everything is rated M+S, so the customer booking for their summers a month early didn't raise any alarms, but we had to turn them away because the tires weren't legal on the highway for another few weeks.

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u/Upset_Ant2834 2d ago

Brother that's called a hybrid and they already exist

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u/Wakkit1988 1d ago

No, it's not.

Hybrids allow the engine to directly power the vehicle.

EVs with range extenders only allow the engine to charge the battery.

There's no mechanical connection between the engine and the wheels.

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u/Upset_Ant2834 1d ago

There are different kinds of hybrids. Series hybrids are exactly what you're talking about with no connection between the engine and the wheels

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u/Wakkit1988 1d ago

The only production "series hybrid" car was the Volt. Which, again, you are missing the distinction. The engine varies the load relative to the needed output to drive the vehicle exclusively with electricity produced by the engine. This is done to eliminate the transmission and other drivetrain components so that it can be powered exclusively through a small battery and the electricity being produced. These cars can operate without a battery installed at all.

EVs with range extenders can operate exclusively with their batteries, and the engine only operates at a fixed speed to produce a constant amount of power to charge the battery. The extender produces enough power to offset the motor's consumption at cruising speed. Otherwise, it's insufficient to provide any more power to operate the vehicle.

You can try to come up with whatever you'd like, but there are distinctions to be made between the different types, whether you like it or not. A range extended EV is not a hybrid, and hybrids are not range extended EVs. It's not a hybrid unless it can operate without necessitating the need for the battery to function.

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u/photosendtrain 2d ago

Don't believe you can actually drive while charging.

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u/IBetThisIsTakenToo 2d ago

Seems like we could make this more efficient, somehow... Imagine if the generator could directly move the engine?? That could be huge!

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u/Astra_Mainn 1d ago

You just made it less efficient lol, by a solid 60% comparing the avg combustion engine efficiency vs the avg EV motor

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u/IBetThisIsTakenToo 1d ago

And the portable generator is what, 100% efficient? Come on man haha

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/nertynot 2d ago

It's rare that someone responds with something that's actually interesting, thank you

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u/LazyGandalf 2d ago

That's how many hybrids work, i.e. the engine under the hood (under most circumstances) doesn't directly drive the wheels but instead acts as a generator for the otherwise electric powertrain.

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u/turtlelore2 2d ago

What would you need it for except for emergencies like this?

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u/TheTerrasque 2d ago

Already been used for things like cleaning buildings for a while now.

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u/xenelef290 2d ago

Drones with fiber optic lines miles long are being used in Ukraine to defeat ferocious radio jamming. They are completely immune to jamming.

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u/bobbertmiller 2d ago

It's already in use. I've seen it as a flying camera, exactly as you suggested. It's brilliant for security and such. You can check on big crowds like festivals, ensure medics know what, where, how many. 

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u/sylfy 2d ago

Tethered drones have existed since forever, this is nothing new. I was part of a project where we deployed tethered drones due to regulatory requirements of the area that we were operating in, and this was at least 5 years ago.

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u/AnnualAct7213 2d ago

Why has this not been done before

It has. For decades.

Just as remote controlled quadcopters have existed for decades.

The difference is that it's only recently gotten popular and accessible enough that regular people can afford a hobby drone without breaking the bank, and thus have become aware of their existence.

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u/whaasup- 2d ago

Tethered drones are also being used to provide microwave internet connections in emergencies

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u/Battery4471 2d ago

Cable heavy. It makes no sense if you want to fly distances

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u/das_kleine_krokodil 2d ago

its is brilliant. But I feel its good for the short term until they bring in a long pole and stick it in the ground for more permanent solution.

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u/Ryhsuo 2d ago

In rescue situations like this where the first 72 hours are crucial, I think the portability is the most important part.

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u/Slothstralia 2d ago

It's sort of a mental backwards step with that sort of tech, i can see why it would be not a common thought.

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u/General_Helicopter1 2d ago

Because we have pretty decent, simpler and well proven tech in floodlights on masts with built in gensets.

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u/TazBaz 1d ago

Because the tether limits range and risks tangling in all kinds of things

It’s got its uses cases, for sure, but also significant downsides. Ukrainians are using one-shot ones with fiber optic tethers to deal with RF jamming; these SAR guys are using a (power) tether because they don’t really need this drone to go far away and they do need the power for uptime/keeping the hella bright light powered.

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u/TheDMsTome 1d ago

It is done and has been done for many years. I remember seeing police departments use this 7 years ago at least

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u/DarwinsTrousers 1d ago

Because quadcopter technology was practically nonexistent 15 years ago. What did exist was hobbyists. This is just the natural progress of innovation now that the parts are so cheap and widespread.

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u/LevelBrilliant9311 2d ago

The point of drones is to fly freely.
While this drone has some uses, pretty much the same could be achieved by a metal pole with a light.

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u/Ryhsuo 2d ago

You can carry a drone case, a 50m coil power line and a small generator on your back. I don’t see someone doing the same for a 50m retractable pole.

Remember that a lot of this tech was probably conceived on the back of the 2010 Yushan earthquake, where the sites of rescue were incredibly remote and difficult to get to.

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u/LevelBrilliant9311 1d ago

I'm not saying it doesn't have its uses. It clearly does, but the previous poster stated that "balancing poles is hard" and other reason why a pole is not working. Like they were just born and never seen a light pole in an emergency situation.

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u/ruat_caelum 2d ago

This is in use everywhere. We have huge blimps in the US that are tethered to about 1k feet up with millimeter wave radar to watch for smaller drug traffic drones, and people on foot that cross the border as well as low flying aircraft, ultra lights, and paramotors.

One broke loose and got away just last month.

https://www.cbp.gov/frontline/frontline-november-aerostats

https://apnews.com/article/border-patrol-balloon-breaks-loose-texas-449bbea9884109bdb777d6eb2ee150aa

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u/IntelligentMoney2 2d ago edited 2d ago

Why this and not a balloon? Less power consumption. What would be the limitations on a balloon? A drone is more stable to wind, what else?

Edit: I’m actually curious, not trying to start a war over this. What are the benefits of a drone over a balloon?

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u/terlin 2d ago

You can easily reposition the light on a drone if you need more in a certain spot, which can happen if you're digging into rubble and looking for survivors.

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u/FallschirmPanda 2d ago

No need for a helium supply chain in a disaster zone. Plus better control and responsiveness.

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u/ninetynyne 2d ago

Balloons are harder to deal with and clumsy. Repositioning could be a pain.

Actually, I think a small balloon attached to a drone (kind of like a tiny zeppelin) might be the best of both worlds.

But helium is actually quite a valuable resource, and the next best thing, hydrogen, is far too flammable.

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u/apathy-sofa 2d ago

Helium is quite valuable? The grocery store up the street from my home fills helium balloons for 99 cents each.

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u/ninetynyne 2d ago edited 2d ago

Yes, actually, it is. In fact, there is preparation for a global shortage. Balloons are a giant waste of helium, and in fact, a large amount is required for usage in research and medical applications, such as MRIs.

It is produced as a byproduct of natural gas production, however, but that also means that needs to ramp up as well.

It's more like helium is being used frivolously for things like balloons because it's currently very cheap but that may stop due to needing it for more important applications first.

There's also the fun fact that, as far as I understand, once helium is released into the atmosphere, it is incredibly difficult and economically unviable to recapture, hence why once it's used, it's essentially gone permanently, as far as we're concerned.

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u/apathy-sofa 1d ago

TIL, thanks

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u/Ryhsuo 2d ago edited 2d ago

It’s actually quite a complicated subject. The answer is yes, sort of.

Helium’s most important use is supercooling. Think, MRIs, quantum computers, semiconductor fabricators. It doesn’t really have a substitute as a refrigerant so it’s a critical material for securing a technological future. With the accelerated advance of AI requiring more chips and fabs, this is quickly becoming a reality. Since 2021, helium prices have doubled.

Currently, the only good supply of Helium is a byproduct of natural gas. Only 3 countries supply most of the world’s demands, US, Qatar and Algeria. Because sources are so few, any war or trade disruptions can be highly damaging to tech industries that rely on it. In the long term, we will also run out of helium as it is a finite resource in the earth’s crust, with the only feasible option to generate more being a byproduct of fusion. This makes it unlike other gases such as Hydrogen and Nitrogen, which we can simply pull from the air or water and chemically seperate.

As for why Helium balloons are 99c, Helium currently costs around $15 a cubic meter, and it takes ~30-40 standard party size balloons to fill a cubic meter. It feels cheap because you’re buying Helium in its gas form, whereas industrial applications use Helium in its liquid form which is magnitudes of quantity greater.

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u/FlimsyMo 2d ago

Y’all think they gonna send up 50 pounds of helium? wtf is this comment chain?

Light balloons are 100 years old, drones just make it complicated

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u/Profezzor-Darke 2d ago

Natural Helium is absolutely limited, and we need that stuff to defrost plane wings in between flights and other things

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u/NiceAxeCollection 1d ago

It was free when I was a kid.

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u/heart-aroni 2d ago edited 2d ago

Mini zeppelin sounds like a great idea!

I found these examples on YouTube

https://youtu.be/r8pXYhPDzBI?si=Fi7lCmpHcf-BxcNE

https://youtu.be/DHvhF4traPY?si=dyyoB6OUVuARoag7

And I remembered these things exist, inflatable rc dolphins

https://youtu.be/X0bdVWEmN64?si=yAlnbBScGHIyrMSg

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u/brzrk 2d ago

I would assume that the size needed for a balloon to carry those powerful lights might be the issue.

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u/CitizenCue 2d ago

Size + wind.

A balloon big enough to hoist lights that big, plus the weight of the cable, would be fairly substantial. And it would of course move with the wind. Which could be annoying at best and dangerous at worst.

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u/Fortune_Cat 2d ago

Helium is a scarce resource

What if it's a windy, can the balloon self stablise

U need to lug a helium tank

U need to tether either way to power the lights

Lights produce heat Can the balloon resist and disperse that heat

What if the balloon pops. Carry spare helium and balloons?

Can you manouvre the balloon over rough landscape and rubble?

A drone boxes up quickly and easily in a portable case

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u/lovethebacon 2d ago

Helium is not a scarce resource.

But the rest of your points are mostly correct.

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u/phire 2d ago

A balloon just isn't a very stable platform. The wind is constantly moving it, so will need a gimbal to keep the light pointing in the correct direction. Even with the gimbal, the light will shift around in ways which might be distracting to workers.
With the right sensors, a drone can lock it self into a fixed position in 3D space. You can even make it fly to a fixed position over the site for better light positioning. You don't need a gimbal, because the drone can just rotate.

A balloon is lighter than air, so you still need a heavy base to anchor it in place and counter any wind. The drone doesn't need any anchoring it's neutral.

I suspect by the time you include the extra anchoring, the gimbal and equipment to fill the balloon with helium, the drone is far lighter and more portable. This is before we even talk about helium logistics.

With the wind, you can't operate the balloon anywhere near power lines, and you probably need a dedicated person to supervise each balloon full time. I suspect you can probably get away with leaving these tethered drones more or less unattended, once they are proven.

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u/LevelBrilliant9311 2d ago

Maneuverability

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u/Jealous_Priority_228 2d ago

They need to be able to move it consistently about the area to help focus efforts. They can't have a balloon constantly moving around, slipping, and being unreliable as the wind shifts.

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u/Bell_FPV 2d ago

You still need a generator and a tether. You don't have to carry heavy pressurised helium containers

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u/lipstickandchicken 2d ago

The enormous size of a balloon needed to lift the lights? And the fact you would have to transport helium around, and it leaks, and you're in a disaster zone so you can't get more?

And it would blow around and have to be taken down to refill etc.

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u/Melicor 2d ago

Por que los dos? Why not drones with a air bladder that makes them almost neutrally buoyant.

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u/li_shi 2d ago

To save electricity? It's not like they lack generators.

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u/ark_keeper 2d ago

Tell drone where to go and it stays there. Can move it over the wreckage anywhere. Balloon could only be directly above the generator. Plus keeping the lights balanced under it would probably be more difficult.

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u/madsci 1d ago

Have you ever handled a large balloon? I've launched weather balloons carrying up to about 12 pounds. That much lift requires almost a full K cylinder of helium, which weighs maybe 100 pounds and last time I got a price on a refill it was $350 to $400. The balloon is around 6-8' across and even in a light wind will blow all over the place. It doesn't take a lot of wind to blow it all the way back down to the ground. You can counteract some of that with more lift but that's more helium and a bigger balloon. The balloons themselves are extremely fragile and can tear themselves apart when tethered. You can get tougher balloon material but it's expensive and heavier.

A drone has active control and even my little consumer drone can hold its position to within a couple of feet in 20 MPH winds.

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u/noodleexchange 1d ago

Steering. Pointing. Multiple capabilities on one platform

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u/makeaccidents 2d ago edited 2d ago

Because drones get more likes on social media. There are plenty of solutions that are more efficient.

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u/rolim91 2d ago

Why not just get a really long pole?

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u/666666thats6sixes 2d ago edited 2d ago

A drone with 100 meters of cable fits into a pelican case and can be operated by one person, while a 100m pole, no matter how cleverly telescopic, will need a crew and at least a pickup truck to move around.

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u/iBoMbY 2d ago

Because this solution beats an equally high pole on pretty much every conceivable metric. Overall price, logistics, etc. You can easily fit this drone, and a generator, in a car, and the setup time is maybe a minute, or two.

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u/Ryhsuo 2d ago

You can conceivably carry this on your back in a 1-2 man team, which is really important for Asia since a lot of their disasters happen in remote mountainous areas with no road access.

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u/StolenPancakesPH 2d ago

I imagine balancing the long pole would be hard, or probably additional structural cost for the base, not to mention the pole itself.

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u/Wobbelblob 2d ago

The drone is also easier to set up, even if you assume that the base cost nothing. You need to find stable ground, get it up, that all cost manpower and time. The drone is up and running in 30 seconds.

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u/dobiks 2d ago

And if you need to move them, you'd have to disassemble the pole, transfer and put it up again.

While this drone seems to have some extra wire, so you can just move it

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u/LevelBrilliant9311 2d ago

Sorry, but that is total bullshit. Poles for lighting in disaster areas have been and are used for decades.

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u/lipstickandchicken 2d ago

If the disaster area already has all that stuff, which is more likely in a country like the US rather than a country like Myanmar.

These are Chinese responders using an innovative and quick solution to have these types of lights anywhere immediately. You are a sad sack on Reddit who think he's smarter than them.

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u/FlimsyMo 2d ago

“Sir, it appears the drones malfunctioning. In the mean time they are simply using balloon lights….”

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u/lipstickandchicken 2d ago

Do you really think lights like this can be lifted by balloons of a reasonable size? Even to lift the cable to power the lights would require so much helium, nevermind the lights themselves.

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u/li_shi 2d ago

Drones are not alien technology.

They are reliable like any modern tools.

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u/li_shi 2d ago

Yes.

Don't mean you cannot improve on the concept.

Horses have been used forever to transport people and stuff.

You won't deny a helicopter, and now likely a drone can do it much better for a large variety of cases.

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u/LevelBrilliant9311 1d ago

The point is that the previous poster stated that "balancing poles is hard" and other reason why a pole is not working. Like they were just born and never seen a light pole in an emergency situation.

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u/StolenPancakesPH 2h ago

I dont think you get what I meant my guy...

I wasn't saying it was impossible but the cost of running a pole that would probably exceed more than 15 meters would take longer and would cost more than having a drone fly that high or even higher since you'd have to consider the diameter and wall thickness of the pole, its base, the light fixture and the wires running through it. And imagine having to relocate it to another site.

Wasn't any point in explaining but jesus fuck you're being such a condescending cunt about this.

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u/Starmark_115 2d ago

Limits it's range tho. At best this is just an adjustable Flood Light that u can change the altitude for.

Wonder what's the specs for the Lumens off of the Light and the length of the Pole.

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u/li_shi 2d ago

It still remote-controlled and likely have the battery like any drones.so they can release the cable, and it works like a drone you can move kilometers away.