Does anyone know how accessible lidar scans are for hobbyists? eg. I would love stick it to a drone to scan my backyard even if it just shows me the rocks underneath
Buy the oldest second hand version of an iPhone that supports Lidar. Doesn't matter if the screen/battery is busted. Strap it to a drone and have your custom app broadcast that data somewhere while you're flying around.
How big is your backyard anyway? Maybe you could just walk around it with a selfie stick instead.
In which case, code the app first, buy iPhone, try it out the same weekend, return for free. :)
You should probably look into stud finders and metal detectors. I didn't even know this but apparently iPhones have a built in magnetometer so there are apps for that as well!
