Below is a checklist of what you need to keep in mind when it comes to data acquisition.

Note: Volateq can only start the process described below if there is a purchasing confirmation, such as a Signed Sales Order or a Purchase Order.

Upon reception of the purchasing confirmation we will schedule a short pilot briefing call to go through the points listed below. This will clarify any questions and make sure everything is ready for takeoff.

Before flight day

• Make sure that all info requested in Checklist solar plant data PV has been sent to Volateq two weeks prior to flight day
• Volateq team informed you that the flight routes are ready for your site
• RTK is mandatory for precise flight routes and high quality data. make sure your RTK service is active and connecting on your drone. For more info see: RTK and NTRIP setup
• We recommend using the VolaFly Drone App. Instructions on how to install it on your drone controller can be found here: VolaFly App: Download and installation for Mavic 3T
• Check if you have a fast enough SD card. Recommended SD cards: SanDisk Extreme 128GB V30 microSDXC or SanDisk Extreme Pro 128GB V30 microSDXC

 Conditions and preparations before drone flight

• weather:
• Wind speed below 5 m/s
• Less than 10% of sky are covered by clouds. If a cloud casts shadow on parts of the solar field during the drone flight, the flight has to be repeated some 10-15 minutes after the cloud has left
• The weather is clear and sunny, no clouds, with irradiance (plane of array POA) > 650 W/m2
• solar field:
• The solar field has to be in full operation, make sure there is no clipping in any part of the solar field at the time of flight.
  Defects can only be detected by thermography for operational modules. All other modules will be shown as “open circuit”
• Solar field is clean. Solar field cleanliness > 0.97 (less than 3% soiling losses)  
• Only for tracking PV field:
• make sure to complete your flights within no more than 2 hours before or after solar noon.
• during data acquisition, all modules must be moved to a horizontal position
• No shadowing of adjacent rows during flights - especially in winter!

Drone:

• Make sure to start the drone at the designated starting point of your flight routes (first waypoint)
• Make sure the drone settings are put correctly depending on which app you use for flight execution:
• Description on how to launch your drone in the VolaFly Drone App: Volafly App: Flight mission execution
• In case you fly with litchi, please configure these settings in DJI Pilot 2 DJI Mavic 3T, DJI Mavic 3E and M30T : Drone configuration and flight execution with DJI Pilot 2 or PV: DJI M2E Advanced: Drone configuration with DJI pilot app for
  and then launch the drone like this: Litchi App: Settings and flight mission execution
• Avoid touching any controller wheel or button during the flight, you might change the video settings. As a result, this flight cannot be evaluated
• Only start the flight with a full drone battery
• if solar plant conditions change during flight execution by more than 10% (cloud passage, tracking motor malfunction, …): pause image acquisition (go to home) and resume after 10-15 mins in constant conditions

After flight

• Upload data to the analysis for your plant in Volateq’s WebApp; go to analysis, select current analysis and upload data: https://app.volateq.de/analyses

Further Reads:

VolaFly App: Download and installation

Volafly App: Flight mission execution