Payloads

12 ideas · one bay · nothing decided yet

The payload bay is in the belly, behind the battery, and the payload is its cover: nine M3 screws hold a cover to the bay, and whatever is on it is the underside of the aircraft. The first payload is the MAPIR Survey3W mapping camera. Below are the other ideas so far, each with what it would earn and what it would cost.

Propose a payloadThe bay's limits

• Thermal coreFLIR Lepton 3.5 or Boson 320, on a carrierCattle at night, a stuck pivot, a leaking canal, failing septic drain fields (a warm wet patch at dawn), roof heat loss.10 to 40 g with a carrier, estimate
• Scheduled dailies on the Survey3WThe first payload, flown every morning from the hangarThe same NDVI line every morning, stock tank levels, fence lines, snow depth by photogrammetry in winter.0 g (no new hardware)
• LoRa soil pucks, droppedSoil moisture and temperature sensors left in a fieldSoil moisture and temperature across a field with no cell coverage.10 to 20 g each, estimateNeeds the cargo door
• Seed balls, beneficial insects, pheromone dispensersDropped over a field or orchardReseeding, biological control, orchard mating disruption.up to the drop limit, estimateNeeds the cargo door
• Atmospheric soundingTemperature, humidity, pressure and PM2.5The inversion height for an orchard's frost-fan decision; wildfire smoke layers.10 to 30 g, estimate
• RTL-SDRA software-defined radio receiverA 3D heat map of the LoRa and ELRS links and of interference.about 25 g, estimate
• Loitering repeaterLoRa, Meshtastic or ELRSCoverage over a canyon for a ground crew or a search.20 to 40 g, estimate
• ADS-B receiverTraffic awarenessTraffic awareness for the ground station.10 to 20 g, estimate
• On-board detectionA small single-board computer and cameraCounts and finds things and reports text over LoRa: "41 head, one down by the north fence".60 to 120 g, estimate
• Tethered dip samplerA micro winch and sample bottleA water sample from a stock pond or canal; conductivity and pH.about 50 g, estimate
• Acoustic recorderAudioMoth classBird and bat surveys.about 80 g, estimate
• Fluxgate magnetometer on a boomA magnetic survey sensorBuried tanks and pipes, archaeology.30 to 60 g, estimate

These are a brainstorm from 2026-10-05, not a plan: the masses are estimates from vendor pages, and which payload comes second is the builder's call. The payload ideas page has the bay's limits and the cartridge interface that would make every payload a printed sled and a profile file.