Fleet
A live stream that runs all afternoon, a search that goes on into the evening, a site to watch for a whole shift: there must always be a drone in the air. Dronetrake simulates the operation minute by minute, swap after swap and charge after charge, and tells you how far you get, where the first gap opens and what it takes to close it.
Enter your drones, batteries and chargers: the calculation is the same as in the app, and nothing is saved.
For each drone model: how many drones and batteries, the rated flight time and the landing reserve, the cooling minutes before charging, how long a full charge takes and how many charging slots you have. Several models add up to the same coverage, one drone in the air at a time; batteries stay with their model.
For the operation: how long it lasts, how many minutes early the incoming drone takes over from the one in the air, and how much cold and wind cut the flight time.
A slot is one charge in parallel. A DJI hub with four bays charges one battery at a time, so it counts as one slot. Battery and slot costs are optional; if you enter them, the recommendation picks the lowest spend.
The minutes of continuous coverage until the first gap, the minutes in the air over the whole operation, and the percentage covered.
The flight plan, with drone, battery, take-off and landing, and every gap with the minute it opens and the minute it closes.
The bottleneck, charging or batteries, and the outcome: sustains indefinitely, covers the operation but cannot sustain beyond, or does not cover it. The middle case is found by simulating twice the duration.
The recommendation: how many slots or batteries to add to cover the whole operation, trying up to ten more of each, with the "slots only" and "batteries only" alternatives.
Two drones, 25 usable minutes per battery, 10 minutes of cooling, 90 minutes for a full charge, an 8-hour operation. The simulator's results:
| Batteries | Charging slots | Continuous coverage | Airborne over horizon | Coverage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 2 | 200 min | 350 min | 73% |
Does not cover the horizon
The first gap opens at minute 200. The bottleneck is charging: 2 more slots cover the 8 hours. |
| 6 | 3 | 300 min | 450 min | 94% |
Does not cover the horizon
The first gap opens at minute 300. 1 more slot is enough, or 2 more batteries. |
| 8 | 3 | 480 min | 480 min | 100% | Covers the horizon but does NOT hold beyond |
| 6 | 4 | 480 min | 480 min | 100% | Sustainable indefinitely |
When the batteries have flights in the logbook, the rated value no longer applies: Dronetrake works out each battery's real usable minutes from the recorded discharge, as the median of its latest valid flights (at least 2, up to 12), and the simulation uses those.
From a mission, the simulator opens with the mission's duration and its drones. The plan is saved on the mission with who calculated it and when, and the mission shows the percentage covered.
In the app, under Fleet → Continuous coverage. You also reach it from the battery list and from every mission.