Payloads

Payloads for enterprise drones

Nine sensor types across LiDAR, thermal, gas, radar, magnetic and spectral. Matched to the aircraft you already fly, priced in Australian dollars, warranted here.

Fits Matrice 350 and 400AUD pricing, GST invoiceOne supplier for aircraft and sensor12-month ACL warranty

Talk to the people who set these up and support them.

Get a quote

Tell us what you need and we will get back to you within one business day.

Collection Drone payloads

Book a time

Pick a time that suits you.

Detect

What are you trying to detect?

Sensor names are how manufacturers organise catalogues. Decide by the physical thing you need to see.

Terrain and structure through vegetation: LiDAR payloads (from $21,890).

Heat, resistance faults, leaks: Thermal payloads (from $17,335).

Measurable colour imagery for mapping: Photogrammetry payloads (from $11,400).

Plant health and crop stress: Multispectral payloads (enquire).

Mineral and material signature: Hyperspectral SWIR payloads (from $103,300).

Methane, CO2 and VOCs: Gas detection payloads (enquire).

What is under the ground: Ground penetrating radar (from $30,580).

Buried metal and magnetic anomaly: Magnetometer payloads (from $34,650).

Electrical discharge on energised assets: UV corona payloads (from $51,428).

Not sure which sensor answers your question? Tell us what you are trying to find and what you fly. We will name the payload, including when the cheaper one does the job. Open the category tiles below for the full list on each path.

Compatibility

Start with what you fly

Matrice 400. Seven payload positions, six kilos, 59 minutes. Carries everything in this range including the heaviest radar and gas units.

Matrice 350. The installed base across Australian survey and utility fleets. Carries most of this range. We confirm M350 versus M400-only fitment on the quote against your specific SKU.

Matrice 4D. Dock-native, compact. Suits the lighter gas and thermal units for scheduled monitoring rather than heavy survey payloads.

Matrice 4 Series. Fixed payload. The camera is the payload, so nothing here mounts to it. See Enterprise drones if you need Matrice 4E or Matrice 4T.

Categories

Nine payload paths

Each card is a full collection with AUD pricing and aircraft fitment.

Selection

Choosing a payload

Fitment, weight, multi-sensor programmes and the data path.

Fitment is not just a mount

A payload has to physically attach, draw power the aircraft can supply, communicate over a protocol the flight controller understands, and stay inside the payload weight budget with enough margin for a useful flight time. Manufacturer compatibility lists cover the first two. The last two are where field problems appear, and they are what commissioning is for.

Weight buys endurance, not capability

A heavier payload is not automatically a better one. It buys resolution, range or sensitivity, and it costs flight time. Work backwards from the area you need to cover per sortie, not forwards from the spec sheet.

One sensor rarely answers a whole question

Radar finds interfaces regardless of material. Magnetometry finds ferrous objects specifically. Thermal finds resistance. UV finds discharge. Sites with more than one question need more than one payload, and the aircraft is the shared asset that makes that affordable.

The processing path is part of the purchase

A payload that produces data your existing software cannot open is a payload you will not use. Confirm the export formats and the processing chain before you buy, not after.

Everything that fits your aircraft

Every product page lists the platforms it mounts on. Start with Matrice 400 payloads, or open Enterprise drones if you still need to pick the airframe. We confirm fitment against your configuration before quoting.

Matrice 4 Series owners: nothing on this hub mounts to a fixed-camera Matrice 4E or 4T.

Warranty

One supplier, one warranty path

Specialist payloads are widely available direct from the manufacturer or through overseas resellers. Once you add currency conversion, freight and import GST, the landed cost usually lands close to the local price. What it arrives without is Australian Consumer Law protection, a local warranty, and anyone who can tell you whether the problem is the sensor, the aircraft or the integration between them.

That last point is the one that matters. When a payload will not initialise on the pad, the answer is usually somewhere between the two systems. Buying both from the same supplier means one phone call instead of two vendors pointing at each other.

Every payload here is sold on a GST tax invoice with a 12-month ACL-backed warranty, commissioned against your aircraft, and includes a handover covering mounting, power, comms, first capture and the data path into your software.

Demo

See it on your aircraft

We hold SHARE handheld scanners and a mapping Matrice as demo units. For specialist payloads we arrange a workflow walkthrough with real data, a supplier demo, or a trial on a live site.

Book a time

Pick a time that suits you.

Book a demo

Tell us the aircraft and the job. We will say what we can put in front of you.

Collection Drone payloads

Questions, answered

Compatibility

Will this payload fit the aircraft I already fly?
Depends on the aircraft. The Matrice 400 carries everything in this range, including the heaviest radar and gas units, across seven payload positions. The Matrice 350 carries most of it. The Matrice 4D is dock-native and suits the lighter thermal and gas units. The Matrice 4 Series has a fixed camera, so nothing here mounts to it. Every product page lists the aircraft it fits, and we confirm fitment against your specific configuration before quoting.
What actually determines whether a payload works on an aircraft?
Four things. It has to physically mount, draw power the aircraft can supply, communicate over a protocol the flight controller understands, and sit inside the payload weight budget with enough margin left for a useful flight. Manufacturer compatibility lists usually cover the first two. The last two are where field problems show up, which is why commissioning against your actual aircraft matters more than a tick in a compatibility table.
Can I run two payloads at once?
On a Matrice 400, sometimes. Seven payload positions and a six kilo capacity make dual configurations possible, and pairing a mapping sensor with a thermal or gas unit is a common request. Whether a specific pair works depends on combined weight, power draw and whether both need the same mounting position. Tell us the two sensors and the aircraft and we will confirm before you commit.

Choosing a payload

How do I choose between radar, magnetometry and LiDAR for subsurface work?
They answer different questions. LiDAR measures the surface and nothing below it. Ground penetrating radar returns interfaces between materials, so it finds pipes, voids and layer changes regardless of what they are made of. Magnetometry finds ferrous objects specifically, which makes it the tool for ordnance, steel drums and iron pipework. Sites with a contamination or unexploded ordnance question need magnetometry. Sites with a service locating question need radar.
Do I need a corona camera if I already fly thermal?
They find different faults. Thermal shows resistance, which appears at joints, clamps and terminations carrying current. UV corona shows electrical discharge from insulation breakdown, which often produces no measurable heat at all. A failing insulator can be invisible to a thermal camera and obvious to a corona camera. Networks that inspect for both carry both, because neither substitutes for the other.
Is a heavier payload always better?
No. Extra weight buys resolution, range or sensitivity, and it costs flight time. Work backwards from the area you need to cover in one sortie rather than forwards from the spec sheet. A lighter sensor that lets you finish the site in two flights is often more useful than a heavier one that does it in four with better numbers you did not need.
Multispectral or hyperspectral: what is the difference in practice?
Band count and what you can ask of the data. Multispectral captures a handful of discrete bands and suits plant health, stress and vigour indices. Hyperspectral SWIR captures a continuous spectrum and lets you identify material and mineral signatures rather than just relative health. The price difference reflects that, and the processing effort does too. If your question is crop stress, multispectral. If it is what mineral is in that outcrop, hyperspectral.

Buying & price

Why buy the payload from the aircraft dealer rather than direct?
Once you add currency conversion, freight and import GST, the landed cost usually lands close to the local price. What direct import does not include is Australian Consumer Law protection, a local warranty path, and anyone who can tell you whether an initialisation failure is the sensor, the aircraft or the integration between them. That last one matters more than people expect, because it is usually the answer, and two separate vendors will point at each other.
Why are prices missing on some payloads?
Where we can publish a price we do, because most of this category hides behind enquiry forms and we would rather you could compare. Some payloads are configured per order, with antenna frequency, sensor variant or software licensing changing the number materially. On those we quote rather than guess. Tell us the aircraft and the job and you will get a real figure, usually the same business day.
Is finance or leasing available?
Ask us. At $30,000 to $100,000 the capital approval is often the longest part of the process, and spreading it changes what a business can justify in a single budget cycle. Tell us your situation when you request the quote and we will set out what is possible alongside the outright purchase price.

Setup & support

What does commissioning include?
Mounting and physical fitment on your actual aircraft, power and communications verification, firmware and calibration checks, a first capture with you present, and the data path into whatever software you process in. The point is that you leave able to use it, rather than holding a box and a manual. Specialist payloads are where this matters most, because the integration is rarely as simple as the compatibility list suggests.
Can I see one before buying?
Start with a call. We hold SHARE handheld scanners and a mapping Matrice as demo units, so specialist payloads are not something we can put on a bench at short notice. What we can do is walk through real captured data from that sensor, talk through the workflow end to end, and where it makes sense arrange a supplier demonstration or a trial on a live site.

Workflow & data

Will the data open in the software I already use?
Usually, but confirm before you buy rather than after. LiDAR and photogrammetry payloads export standard point cloud and imagery formats that load into CAD, GIS and mine planning packages. Gas, radar and magnetometer payloads produce sensor-specific data that generally needs its own processing step before it becomes something you can hand over. We cover the full chain during handover.
Do specialist payloads need their own processing software?
Most do. Radar sections, magnetic anomaly data and gas concentration maps are not point clouds, and they need software built for that data type before they become a deliverable. Factor the licence and the learning curve into the purchase, not just the sensor price. Where a subscription applies we will tell you up front rather than at the invoice.

Compliance

Are there restrictions on flying these payloads?
The payload is rarely the restriction. Aircraft weight, operating location and the type of operation are what drive CASA requirements, and adding a heavy sensor can push a configuration into a category with different obligations. We give CASA-aware deployment guidance as part of handover. The approvals themselves sit with you or your ReOC holder, and most organisations flying at this level already have that established.
What warranty applies to a payload bought here?
A 12-month warranty backed by Australian Consumer Law, with support from the same team that commissioned it. Because we supply both the aircraft and the sensor, there is one number to call when something does not work, rather than an aircraft vendor and a sensor vendor each suggesting the problem is the other one.