May still want to reformat the SD when you put it back into the AC. Just cutting files doesn't necessarily reset the file pointers and the bird may think that there is still material on the card reducing the useable space.My procedure:
Immediately upon entering house after flight session, bring aircraft and RC to desktop computer.
While I'm still standing: put RC on computer chair, remove micro-SD from aircraft, put micro-SD card next to computer keyboard, and put aircraft within arm's reach. If I then have to do something else, I can, but I won't be able to sit down at my computer until I've removed the RC from the chair.
Pick up RC and sit down.
Connect viewing device to USB cable to recharge battery of viewing device, and set down RC/viewing device until next flight.
Put micro-SD into the SD adapter which I always leave in the same spot near the computer. Plug card into slot on computer.
Open micro-SD card, select all files, cut, paste into file folder on computer.
As soon as files have finished loading onto computer, remove now-empty micro-SD card from computer, reach for aircraft, put the card in the aircraft. This is the easiest step to forget. However, the pain that can result from forgetting this step tends to reinforce one's memory after one has forgotten a time or three... or so I've heard.
Check your SD card before flight
- Thread starter DocDiggler
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2016
- Messages
- 58
- Reaction score
- 17
- Age
- 74
Flying an aircraft, unmanned or maned is all about managing risk. If I am planning a quick one hour flight in a Cessna, I do not take off with 1 hour and 30 minutes of fuel. I ant the tanks completely full. Correspondingly, if I am on a manned Aerial Photography flight, I do not go with half my memory card already full.
The simplest thing in the world is to ALWAYS begin a flight with a fully charged battery, a freshly formatted memory card of the largest capacity I own and if possible, the largest my a/c will allow.
A little check list helps make sure I don't forget anything important. In the past, on manned Aerial Photography flights, I have forgotten to bring memory. I once forgot to put the camera lens in the plane. I have even taken off without the camera.
What I learned over the years is to expect and prepare for the unexpected.
It would scare the dog excrement out of me to take off for a mission with a 1/2 full battery. And as soon as I take off with a 1/2 full memory card as I am returning to land there will be a house fire and I will be unable to film it. Did I get the footage I intended? Sure but I missed something huge!
The simplest thing in the world is to ALWAYS begin a flight with a fully charged battery, a freshly formatted memory card of the largest capacity I own and if possible, the largest my a/c will allow.
A little check list helps make sure I don't forget anything important. In the past, on manned Aerial Photography flights, I have forgotten to bring memory. I once forgot to put the camera lens in the plane. I have even taken off without the camera.
What I learned over the years is to expect and prepare for the unexpected.
It would scare the dog excrement out of me to take off for a mission with a 1/2 full battery. And as soon as I take off with a 1/2 full memory card as I am returning to land there will be a house fire and I will be unable to film it. Did I get the footage I intended? Sure but I missed something huge!
I agree with transferring all files from a given flight to my computer immediately and then deleting the files on the memory chip and reinstalling it on the drone before I forget.
One issue I'd like some input on is re-formating. When I do this, the file naming starts at DJI_0001.xxx. This can cause a serious problem when transferred to the computer. Having multiple files with the same name is not a good practice. I have suggested to DJI that they tag the file names with the flight time and date. Does anyone else agree that this requirement should be sent to DJI?
One issue I'd like some input on is re-formating. When I do this, the file naming starts at DJI_0001.xxx. This can cause a serious problem when transferred to the computer. Having multiple files with the same name is not a good practice. I have suggested to DJI that they tag the file names with the flight time and date. Does anyone else agree that this requirement should be sent to DJI?
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2016
- Messages
- 720
- Reaction score
- 183
- Age
- 45
Within the camera settings you have to change the File Naming option from 'Reset' to 'Continuous'. It does just want you want. If your last image or video was DJI_0034 and you remove them from the card, reformat, the next video will bve DJI_0035, not DJI_0001.
R62ewa, this seemed to work (in continuous mode) when I delete the files. It seems to me that the sequence number is maintained on the memory chip. If I reformat the chip, the reference number seems to be lost and I restart with the DJI_0001. I'll check that again, but I believe I have checked outcomes in both "reset" and "continuous" modes.
Although that is completely true, I'll likely continue to skip the reformatting step until the day comes that failing to reformat causes me to not be able to record as much as I wanted to. For some, that would be a more likely scenario than it is for me. For me, it's never happened in 4 years of recording Phantom footage.
When it does happen, though, I'm gonna say to myself that I should have listened to that guy on Phantom Pilots who told me it's a good idea to always reformat the card.
My 64 GB micro-SD, even though I'd cut all video and photo files from it, currently showed that only 40.9 GB of the total 59.4 GB of space was available. After formatting, 59.4 GB out of 59.4 GB was available. It was the first time I'd formatted one of my cards in at least a year and half.
Mine maintained the continuous file naming mode even after reformatting of the micro-SD card. I checked it just now. I use an Android device for DJI Go 4... it's always possible that iOS devices handle things differently.
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2016
- Messages
- 624
- Reaction score
- 251
- Age
- 67
Am I the only one that's flown only to find out that I left the SD card in the reader at home (getting the dreaded "No SD card" message)?
Thankfully, I have the same safeguard for this that works for full card scenarios: always carrying spare cards in the drone backpack. So at worst, I have to land and load a card.
Chris
Thankfully, I have the same safeguard for this that works for full card scenarios: always carrying spare cards in the drone backpack. So at worst, I have to land and load a card.
Chris
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2013
- Messages
- 343
- Reaction score
- 62
"Whenever I get home from a flight or even using my DSLR, first thing I do is upload everything to my hard drive and clear the memory card." That is SO not me! But I wish it was and I am trying and getting better at it.
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2013
- Messages
- 343
- Reaction score
- 62
I see a future where all recording will be uploaded to the cloud instantaneously, even 4k or what ever it will be called then. There will be no cards. Your kids will laugh at you when you try to explain what those little card thingys were for. It's like Vinyl today. Oh wait... Vinyl's making a comeback.
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2013
- Messages
- 343
- Reaction score
- 62
It is nice, but read the 4 comments below it. Would help someone out if they're 'on the fence' with this.
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2016
- Messages
- 624
- Reaction score
- 251
- Age
- 67
And that's not all folks! When you unload your image files from your memory card, then you have to ORGANIZE them! If you don't, after a few years, you have some random folder on a hard drive somewhere that has HUNDREDS of files and you have no idea which is what.
I read the specs. It still requires a PC or MAC to actually move the data from the card to the drive. It's basically saving you a port.
I am not an organized person, but:
I recently got a 3 TB WD "Book" auxiliary hard drive, and I load the files directly to the Book rather than to the hard drive on my desktop. Shoot 22 minutes per day of 4K video with the P4P, and at the end of a month you'll have nearly 500 GB of files. So if you're like me and you like to keep all the large DJI_xxx files, 98% of which you'll never look at again, 3 TB will fill up fast.
I give my edited videos names that begin with YYYYMMDD... (four digit year, two digit month, two digit day of month). That way, even if I don't add a descriptive word or two to the file name, at least they are in sequential order by date.
Last edited:
GadgetGuy
Premium Pilot
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2015
- Messages
- 6,881
- Reaction score
- 2,199
I use folder names that begin with YYYY_MM_DD, followed by a descriptive filename, for all video files from each flight, and append _a, _b, _c for multiple flights on the same day, to the date folder beginning name. Video file names are all incremented sequentially in the aircraft, so all the original file names are also in still in sequential order, and also incremented among successive flights. Multiple microSD cards allow the original microSD cards to remain as temporary backups, until all need to be reformatted to have empty cards again. New cards, after every battery change, ensures no footage from a prior flight is ever lost, should the aircraft be unrecoverable, on any given flight. Better safe than sorry.
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2016
- Messages
- 58
- Reaction score
- 17
- Age
- 74
Some great ideas discussed in this thread.
After almost 20 years of Aerial Photography for just about every kind of client possible from governmental, industrial, business and individual, the file system that works best for me is this:
I file EVERYTHING by the name of the business or the name of the person who hired me. They are all in their own folder. Then each project for them is named with a date and if needed some identifying location data. This is the most likely way for you to find the files again a year later when they call for another project or an update.
As far as where to put all these files, I have 4 multi terabyte external drives and have added some cloud backup. I may lose some of these drives if the cloud storage feels good.
Whatever system you develop, it is crucial to be able to find these files weeks, months and years later.
Here's why:
1. Property changes hands and new owners want to buy copies of old photos.
2. Something happens such as fires or tornadoes and insurance companies want to buy copies.
3. Newspapers and TV may want to buy copies for stories they are covering
4. Invariably you clients will lose the photos and videos and ask for replacements
and the list goes on . . . You MUST be able to reliably find these files!
After almost 20 years of Aerial Photography for just about every kind of client possible from governmental, industrial, business and individual, the file system that works best for me is this:
I file EVERYTHING by the name of the business or the name of the person who hired me. They are all in their own folder. Then each project for them is named with a date and if needed some identifying location data. This is the most likely way for you to find the files again a year later when they call for another project or an update.
As far as where to put all these files, I have 4 multi terabyte external drives and have added some cloud backup. I may lose some of these drives if the cloud storage feels good.
Whatever system you develop, it is crucial to be able to find these files weeks, months and years later.
Here's why:
1. Property changes hands and new owners want to buy copies of old photos.
2. Something happens such as fires or tornadoes and insurance companies want to buy copies.
3. Newspapers and TV may want to buy copies for stories they are covering
4. Invariably you clients will lose the photos and videos and ask for replacements
and the list goes on . . . You MUST be able to reliably find these files!
I always make sure there is an extra card in my case in case I accidentally leave the primary plugged into my computer. I just leave the original 8GB in the case. Just yesterday I went to fly after 1:30 travel time. No card in the drone. Luckily I at least had my 8GB backup.
GadgetGuy
Premium Pilot
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2015
- Messages
- 6,881
- Reaction score
- 2,199
It's when you are on the final return flight back home, when the dreaded "MicroSD Card Full" error pops up that it is most painful! No way to fix it! That planned selfie landing at the end of the flight will just have to wait for another day!
If the selfie landing was all that remained to be recorded, and if HD wasn't crucial, I'd turn on AZ Screen Recorder. It's a very decent free Android app that I've used quite a bit in the months since I downloaded it.No way to fix it! That planned selfie landing at the end of the flight will just have to wait for another day!
I'm in the group here that flies strictly for fun... no clients. The commercial users and the hobbyist users are both huge groups, and each has a tendency to forget that the other exists.
Similar threads
