Bring my drone to exactly the same GPS location once a month.

Raf

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Hi all, I want to follow up the construction of a high tower. I want to shoot maybe once a month, every time the drone should be in exactly the same position, the results would look like a timelapse over 2 years. Does anybody have experience with this? Can I do it with waypoints? Can I save a waypoint for later? Or do I need Litchi? Or Hangar Autopilot?
Thanks,
Raf
 
Either autopilot or litchi will do it. You will be limited to civilian GPS accuracy. Think about the variances you might see I’m non optical precision RTH for an idea of how far out things typically get. Probably won’t be an issue. Your probably going to want more than 24 frames for a time lapse though.
 
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Either autopilot or litchi will do it. You will be limited to civilian GPS accuracy. Think about the variances you might see I’m non optical precision RTH for an idea of how far out things typically get. Probably won’t be an issue. Your probably going to want more than 24 frames for a time lapse though.
Thanks for your help. Is there no way to do it with DJI Go Waypoints? I understood that Litchi and Crystalsky don't go well together. I could of course use my good old iPhone. We will do 1 image per month and use a cross dissolve in post production. Or do a timelapse, but in that case I would need a lot more shots indeed. Thanks, Raf
 
You will be limited to civilian GPS accuracy.
It is all the same GPS accuracy. There is no military vs civilian GPS. There are different devices that can make better use of GPS in order to be more accurate. But this is available to everyone.

10 Common Myths Surrounding GPS

3. Military GPS is more accurate than civilian GPS
The accuracy of GPS signals in space is the same for both military and civilian GPS, according to the GPS.gov website. The main difference, for the time being, is that military GPS operates on two signals, while civilian GPS operates on one. However, civilian users will soon have two new signals to operate on. In June 2014, a group of specialists from the 2nd and 19th SOPS, Space and Missile Systems Center, Air Force Space Command, the Department of Defense and Department of Transportation completed an upgrade to current GPS satellites allowing them to broadcast the L2C and L5 civilian signals. The signals are not yet fully operational, but once they are, civilian users will have access to the two signals as well.
 
It is all the same GPS accuracy. There is no military vs civilian GPS. There are different devices that can make better use of GPS in order to be more accurate. But this is available to everyone.

10 Common Myths Surrounding GPS

3. Military GPS is more accurate than civilian GPS
The accuracy of GPS signals in space is the same for both military and civilian GPS, according to the GPS.gov website. The main difference, for the time being, is that military GPS operates on two signals, while civilian GPS operates on one. However, civilian users will soon have two new signals to operate on. In June 2014, a group of specialists from the 2nd and 19th SOPS, Space and Missile Systems Center, Air Force Space Command, the Department of Defense and Department of Transportation completed an upgrade to current GPS satellites allowing them to broadcast the L2C and L5 civilian signals. The signals are not yet fully operational, but once they are, civilian users will have access to the two signals as well.
My meaning by mentioning civilian GPS was simply to distinguish the grade of receiver hardware implemented in our phantoms. I think most people would have caught that. It is common knowledge that military and other pro grade receivers offer significantly higher accuracy than commonly realised by typical civilian grade chipsets.
 
You might have better luck just launching straight up from the exact same spot, to the exact same altitude, and angle the camera to lock onto a specific landmark. My Hyperlapse software (from Microsoft, free now) will "align" the frames somewhat as it renders. You will also have to contend with lighting/exposure differences. I'm working on one now for a new Public Safety station where I will be working. I've been doing a full orbit at 4k, about twice a week. I have no idea how well it will all come together, but I'll have tons of frames to work with.
I set my orbit point directly above the center of the site, then back out 200 feet and record the full orbit.
 
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I've been doing a full orbit at 4k, about twice a week. I have no idea how well it will all come together, but I'll have tons of frames to work with.

A couple of years ago I made this test video using 1080 with Litchi to capture multiple time phased shots, using the same flight program route. Litchi is great for this type of thing, with photos or video. My time phasing was using a day and night clips for this test, using 20-30 sec video clips edited together. I've been looking for a better subject to do a similar video with shorter clips, but I've been busy. If I lived in the East with color in the fall and snow in the winter, I would like to do this by season.

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A couple of years ago I made this test video using 1080 with Litchi to capture multiple time phased shots, using the same flight program route. Litchi is great for this type of thing, with photos or video. My time phasing was using a day and night clips for this test, using 20-30 sec video clips edited together. I've been looking for a better subject to do a similar video with shorter clips, but I've been busy. If I lived in the East with color in the fall and snow in the winter, I would like to do this by season.

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I started to video in front of my business where a car dealership used to be. Ended up getting 30+ videos of the site
as it went from dealership to grocery store. Didn't plan it as I never intended to do a time lapse but I ended up making a 5 minute time lapse added music etc. and made a DVD that I gave to the store manager. Wasn't great but I just parked the drone (P4P and Mavic Pro) over a street light at about 30 feet up. Learned a lot from the attempt.
S. Lewis
P4P/ Mavic Pro / Mavic 2 Zoom / Spark / Mavic Air / Goggles
 
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Hi all, I want to follow up the construction of a high tower. I want to shoot maybe once a month, every time the drone should be in exactly the same position, the results would look like a timelapse over 2 years. Does anybody have experience with this? Can I do it with waypoints? Can I save a waypoint for later? Or do I need Litchi? Or Hangar Autopilot?
Thanks,
Raf

Autopilot.

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Autopilot.

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Very enjoyable and interesting to watch but almost did my head in- I’m sure I saw two pickups drive through each other and tiles put on and taken off... I’m not familiar with your construction methods- do they put plywood over the rafters before a sarking membrane? If so why?
 
Very enjoyable and interesting to watch but almost did my head in- I’m sure I saw two pickups drive through each other..."

That's funny. Good eye. I guess I'm so focused on lining up the video that I forgot to avoid collisions in post...LOL...



"...and tiles put on and taken off... I’m not familiar with your construction methods- do they put plywood over the rafters before a sarking membrane? If so why?

I haven't a clue. The closest I've gotten to construction site was Intel for 5.5 years as a licensed Journeyman Electrician. And that was almost 2 decades ago. Now I just shoot it.

D
 
Either autopilot or litchi will do it. You will be limited to civilian GPS accuracy. Think about the variances you might see I’m non optical precision RTH for an idea of how far out things typically get. Probably won’t be an issue. Your probably going to want more than 24 frames for a time lapse though.

Civilian accuracy shouldn’t be a problem. You can make small corrections in post. Just results in a small amount of cropping.
 
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There are multiple ways of achieving this. Suggest you test all first. You could always set up a good angle ANYWHERE and take a picture. If you like that pic, read the EXIF data for the GPS data. Create an autonomous route/flight and keyin tha coordinate. Once there, you can move small amounts if you’re not directly on it. A saved waypoint mission should be ok, too.
 
I once had a VHS video camera with a feature that copied one second of video every minute. That produced very interesting video. It allowed just enough movement to be interesting and also had the time spaced well for my project. One hour of events was condensed to one minute. If that setting can be found give it a try.
Good luck
Jim
WA5TEF
 

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