And now for something completely different

[Ed Staffin]

Hi,

**** PREFACE: This will seem like jibberish if you are not a software developer ***

I am a software developer. The GO and Litchi apps seem pretty good. I suspect however, that they are calling published apis to do most of the work and then wrapping the functionality in a pretty UI. I'm sure I am oversimplifying it by saying it that way and I certainly don't mean any disrespect. I was just wondering if there are any other dev guys/gals around that would be interested in starting an open source project to either create a new app or tweek one of the existing apps. My thought is that we would use Xamarin Forms so that we could run it on ios/android/windows phone or a mac or pc and only have to write the code once. This is not a road I want to go down myself, but if anybody is interested, I'd like to kick it around a bit.
Thank ... Ed

 

[alokbhargava]

I have never worked on xamarin forms but am definitely interested in learning.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

The API's are available from DJI, as I understand it. The problem is there are two versions. There's a READ-ONLY API and there's a writable API.

The read-only API is freely available and is downloadable by anyone. The writable API is an entirely different matter. Those are commercially available and are negotiated price-wise on a one on one basis and DJI openly says that the price is directly proportional to how much money you make on using it. In other words, likely an up-front chunk and then a percentage.

They are not going to give you the writable APIs and you can't possibly negotiate a deal with them to do so. Anything of any value REQUIRES the writable APIs. Period. Don't believe me? I sincerely admire your desire and nobleness, but I leave you to further your due diligence. You're not the first to have this brainstorm.

 

[Ed Staffin]

Interesting. Well, since what I am suggesting is open source the proportional price is right in line! I'll ping them and see what they say and report back.
Thanks ... Ed

 

[Sim597]

there is enough apps on the apps store to see that its done everyday, initial upfront may be quite reasonable. im not proficient in code or anything but i can help financially maybe if thats what it takes.

 

[Opticheli]

I would gladly donate for a grassroots project made by people who fly rather than a commercial entity and I don't think I'd be the only one.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Ed Staffin]

Interesting.

there is enough apps on the apps store to see that its done everyday, initial upfront may be quite reasonable. im not proficient in code or anything but i can help financially maybe if thats what it takes.

Hi, thanks, but I think it's a bit early for that. As for there being enough apps, what I am proposing is writing an app that will run on almost any device, from a PC to a mac to any of the various tables and smartphones. I know how it can get done by writing the code once. I just need to investigate what DJI exposes to us dev types to play with. Should be interesting.

 

[Ed Staffin]

I would gladly donate for a grassroots project made by people who fly rather than a commercial entity and I don't think I'd be the only one.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

Stay tuned. I've got a lot of homework to do. I don't even know if any money is required. We'll see. Hopefully, I can come up with something that is an improvement to GO/Litchi and will be something that evolves with the Phantom Community.

I've been writing software for 30+ years. I have no doubt this is doable, the only questions are defining what "IT" is and how much pain it's gonna take to get to where we want "IT" to be.

And old joke in the dev biz goes something like:
Manager: Ok, you boys start coding while I go find out what we have to make.
Let's get "IT" defined first.
Thanks ... Ed

 

[WilsonFlyer]

It will be interesting to see where this all goes. I wish you luck. I wasn't preaching doom and gloom. Just passing on what I knew. Please keep us posted on progress.

 

[Ed Staffin]

Just a quick update. Apparently, DJI used to charge for the SDK. No more. I am waiting to see if they have an x86 driver that I can use. My initial thoughts on where to start is to fill in what I perceive as a gaping hole ... namely the lack of a windows based flight planner/recorder etc. I'm not talking about supporting windows phone (who cares on that one?). I to be able to sit at my PC, and bring up an app where I can see a map and plot way points and set up what litchi calls a mission and be able to upload the info to the p4. Then I would add a feature where I can do a 360 (or whatever you fancy) degree turn and have it take a user defined number of seconds to complete the turn. That way I can take a nice and slow scene and take it the beauty of the surroundings!

I don't know if it's the best place to start, but it's A place to start. AND, if I do it in Xamarin, I get all platforms (pc/mac/android) and all form factors done at once.
What do you guys think?
Thanks ... Ed

 

[WilsonFlyer]

That is GREAT news and news to me! Please keep us up on your progress. Once you get a base done, I'd suggest you start a suggestions/feedback thread here. I'm sure many of us would be happy to test for you and give feed back to the group. Not going back to my code-writing days, but I am intrigued. I must admit.