this might be a weird question but ive been getting asked more and more about inspection and survey work and my Inspire 2 is just sitting there between cinema gigs so im trying to figure out if theres a practical way to mount something like a FLIR or a lidar unit on it without it being a total hack job. i know the Zenmuse X-Port exists and ive read through the SDK docs but honestly im not sure how deep the rabbit hole goes before it stops making sense versus just renting a Matrice for that kind of work.

the weight margins on the Inspire 2 arent exactly generous once youre already flying with a proper gimbal so im guessing thermal is maybe borderline and lidar is basically out unless its a very small unit. but maybe someone has actually done this and can tell me what the real world experience is like rather than what the spec sheet implies

yeah the weight thing is the killer. even with the X-Port you're eating into your margins pretty fast and the Inspire 2 gets twitchy when its nose heavy which certain sensor packages definitely can cause depending on how you balance. ive seen people run small thermal units on it for powerline inspection work but they were pretty strict about conditions, no wind over like 15 knots and short flight times. for anything serious with lidar the Matrice 300 or 350 is just the right tool, trying to make the I2 do it feels like using a sports car as a delivery van, technically possible, not really the point.

actually did some testing with a Zenmuse XT2 on an Inspire 2 a while back for a roof inspection trial, it worked but the integration wasnt as clean as on a Matrice and honestly the flight time hit was noticeable. client ended up just renting a proper inspection platform for the actual job which was probably the right call. I think the I2 is best left doing what its good at, if you keep getting asked for survey/inspection stuff it might just be time to add a second platform to your kit rather than stretch the one you have