DronePan

Thank you for the example. It has features I didn't know existed on YouTube. However, the YouTube hosted versions do appear to suffer from two limitations. On an iPad, you lose the ability to scroll around with your finger, and can only scroll around using the acelerometer to see, by moving and pointing the iPad in the direction you want to see.

For me, though, the bigger loss of functionality is the inability to zoom in on any part of the image to see fine detail. It is essentially a static, fixed size spherical panorama. Both the desktop YouTube version and the iPad YouTube version of the spherical panorama cannot be zoomed into, unlike the PTGui, PanoramaStudio Pro, and the ICE versions, which all allow full zoom into any part of the image. The 30-60 MB final stitched spherical panorama jpg has incredible detail that is lost in the YouTube version, without any zoom capability.:cool:


yes, the youtube (and facebook) version are limited to 4k (4096x2048) - that's a HUGE difference to the full resolution version 14000x7000!

i definitely keep and host the full resolution version elsewhere... but it's nice to be able to post to facebook....
 
yes, the youtube (and facebook) version are limited to 4k (4096x2048) - that's a HUGE difference to the full resolution version 14000x7000!

i definitely keep and host the full resolution version elsewhere... but it's nice to be able to post to facebook....
Good to know. That explains it. Thank you! Sell the sizzle on youtube and facebook and offer the steak elsewhere! I also found these guys who have an incredible compilation of what is possible, including full spherical panorama videos! :cool: Don't mind the Russian characters in the text on lots of their website, even when the English version is selected, as they are all Russian.
" www.airpano.ru/files/Istanbul-Turkey/m-1 "
 
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Man this is excellent feedback, thank you! We're investigating all of the above. We actually had a map in there initially and many testers said it wasn't needed, but now we're rethinking that approach and will add it back in. Thank you again

First off, thanks for creating such an awesome app.

I've also been beta testing and would love to offer some feedback.

1. I agree with the poster above, I rarely need 360 degree panoramas, most of the time I just need 5-6 images so about 180-270 degrees. Having a couple options for field of view would be awesome. Right now it's easier for me to just manually shoot the few images I need rather than switch apps and waste all the time to let it shoot 20 images just to trash 14-15 of them.

2. For long exposure panoramas the app does not allow enough time to let the phantom and gimbal stabilize in between shots. It would be nice to have the ability to adjust the delay (post yaw but pre photo) so that it could also be used for longer exposure shots. Further testing may be needed to determine the exact amount of time required but I've heard 25-30 seconds in moderate wind is enough. This probably would depend on conditions/settings so making it adjustable would be ideal.

3. Visually, Integrating the progress bar in a circle around the "play/stop" button would be a nice touch.

I'll post any more ideas as they come to mind. Thanks again!
 
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First off, thanks for creating such an awesome app.

I've also been beta testing and would love to offer some feedback.

1. I agree with the poster above, I rarely need 360 degree panoramas, most of the time I just need 5-6 images so about 180-270 degrees. Having a couple options for field of view would be awesome. Right now it's easier for me to just manually shoot the few images I need rather than switch apps and waste all the time to let it shoot 20 images just to trash 14-15 of them.

2. For long exposure panoramas the app does not allow enough time to let the phantom and gimbal stabilize in between shots. It would be nice to have the ability to adjust the delay (post yaw but pre photo) so that it could also be used for longer exposure shots. Further testing may be needed to determine the exact amount of time required but I've heard 25-30 seconds in moderate wind is enough. This probably would depend on conditions/settings so making it adjustable would be ideal.

3. Visually, Integrating the progress bar in a circle around the "play/stop" button would be a nice touch.

I'll post any more ideas as they come to mind. Thanks again!
1. yea eventually we'll be introducing this, but we've had so many requests for bracketing that it will probably be our next feature.
2. I like what you're thinking here -- unfortunately we start running into constraints from the DJI sdk, but ultimately we must figure out how to get better stabilization and definitely like you said adjustable is ideal because testers have requests in all sorts of directions :)
3. agreed, that would be more appealing and is an excellent suggestion. We'll discuss that tomorrow.
Thank you for the great feedback!
 
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Yea we've found it simple to automate this on Inspire but still researching how to automate it on Phantom, really appreciate the feedback!
Just require that the user change the DJI GO gimbal elevation max to 30° above horizontal, before activating your DronePan app, and then shoot an extra layer at the top, with the gimbal elevation set at 120° from straight down.:cool:
 
Any suggestions on how to upload a PTGui *.mov file?
Are you asking about the PTGui "output to web" feature? If so, you just generate the output files, and then ftp them to your website, and share the url of the directory you put them in. I like to rename the *.html page to index.html so you can shorten the url for sharing to the directory name itself.:cool:
 
1. yea eventually we'll be introducing this, but we've had so many requests for bracketing that it will probably be our next feature.
2. I like what you're thinking here -- unfortunately we start running into constraints from the DJI sdk, but ultimately we must figure out how to get better stabilization and definitely like you said adjustable is ideal because testers have requests in all sorts of directions :)
3. agreed, that would be more appealing and is an excellent suggestion. We'll discuss that tomorrow.
Thank you for the great feedback!
Lots of questions for you, some of which were precipitated by a near crash this evening!

1. Are your two shots at the bottom in the 20 shot sequence shot at 90° to each other, or at 180°, as shown in the Inspire demo video? If shot at 180°, the second image is just an upside down version of the first. What would that gain?
2. Are you currently shooting the 20 shots in JPG only?
3. Can you copy the current camera mode settings from DJI GO?
4. If so, then the user could specify JPG+DNG in DJI GO, and get raw and jpg images from each shot.
5. If so, the user could also specify a 5 frame AE bracketed JPG+DNG mode and your 20 shot sequence could automatically create a total of 200 shots (5 bracketed shots of each of the 20 views, in both JPG and DNG)
This would take a full 10 minutes, but your app could rotate the P3P and gimbal to the next shot position immediately, and during the 30 second processing time of each shot, this would always give the gimbal plenty of time to stabilize before the next shot..
6. Can DJI GO and Dronepan both run at the same time in a taskswitching mode?
7. If so, when you complete a 20 shot pano, can you seamlessly reconnect to the P3P with DJI GO, or what needs to take place to accomplish this in a less than seamless method?
8. Does DJI GO have to be terminated before starting up Dronepan?
9. Does your app require first installing the developer SDK onto the P3P, the RC, and the batteries to work correctly?
10. If the signal connection is lost at high altitude directly overhead, while under Dronepan control, how do you cancel the return to home decension?
11. Some have reported that the only way to get DJI GO to reconnect to the P3P, after completing a Dronepan pano, is to unplug the control cable and replug it. Is this true?
12. How far out is your public release of the P3P version?
 
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1. yea eventually we'll be introducing this, but we've had so many requests for bracketing that it will probably be our next feature.
2. I like what you're thinking here -- unfortunately we start running into constraints from the DJI sdk, but ultimately we must figure out how to get better stabilization and definitely like you said adjustable is ideal because testers have requests in all sorts of directions :)
3. agreed, that would be more appealing and is an excellent suggestion. We'll discuss that tomorrow.
Thank you for the great feedback!

I've done a few shots now with a P3A, worked perfectly every time.
My only question is when the automated shooting has finished.
I've been taking off with go, getting into position with go. Then switching to dronepan to get my shots. Then switching back to go to land. However I have to close and reopen go for the video link to be re-established. Unnerving when the drone is at the far end of LOS.
Unlikely to be anything you can do but just thought I'd highlight it.

Is the app going to be free once the final version is out?

Thanks again for letting us beta test and the work that went into it.
 
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I've done a few shots now with a P3A, worked perfectly every time.
My only question is when the automated shooting has finished.
I've been taking off with go, getting into position with go. Then switching to dronepan to get my shots. Then switching back to go to land. However I have to close and reopen go for the video link to be re-established. Unnerving when the drone is at the far end of LOS.
Unlikely to be anything you can do but just thought I'd highlight it.

Is the app going to be free once the final version is out?

Thanks again for letting us beta test and the work that went into it.
Even more unnerving when, after completing the panorama, the aircraft is descending in place in a RTH mode (loss of signal for more than 3 seconds and no ability to cancel RTH in the Dronepan app) directly over trees less than 60 feet away from the Home Point, right in front of you, and in switching to DJI GO, it says No Signal! Happened to me tonight! No time to try closing and reopening DJI GO, and Dronepan still said it was connected. No time to close both apps and restart DJI GO. Had to manually override the descent with full throttle (which does not increase elevation, it only retards the descent!) and carefully maneuver the aircraft back to me, to handcatch on the deck overlooking the trees! Luckily, I was up to the task, but this process of returning control back to DJI GO needs clarification! :eek:
 
Even more unnerving when, after completing the panorama, the aircraft is descending in place in a RTH mode (loss of signal for more than 3 seconds and no ability to cancel RTH in the Dronepan app) directly over trees less than 60 feet away from the Home Point, right in front of you, and in switching to DJI GO, it says No Signal! Happened to me tonight! No time to try closing and reopening DJI GO, and Dronepan still said it was connected. No time to close both apps and restart DJI GO. Had to manually override the descent with full throttle (which does not increase elevation, it only retards the descent!) and carefully maneuver the aircraft back to me, to handcatch on the deck overlooking the trees! Luckily, I was up to the task, but this process of returning control back to DJI GO needs clarification! :eek:

1. if you had regained signal enough to give throttle, why didnt you just cancel RTH by pushing button?
2. RTH, when too close to home point will trigger land instead of RTH..
 
1. if you had regained signal enough to give throttle, why didnt you just cancel RTH by pushing button?
2. RTH, when too close to home point will trigger land instead of RTH..
1. In hindsight, that also ocurred to me, and would, indeed, have been the best option. Having never used the transmitter RTH or cancel RTH function, since I am usually dealing with cancelling RTH on the screen, after the signal is restored to the DJI GO app, I forgot about that override method in my panic. Next time! :cool: (By the way, the No Signal in the DJI Go meant no app connecttion, not no transmitter connection at that moment, as during the descent, it had recovered transmitter control.)
2. That's exactly why I couldn't just let it passively RTH. I knew it would land straight down into the tree tops just in front of me, instead of the launch point from the deck itself, about 20 feet away!

A couple of questions for you:

1.Is the 20 meters for autoland instead of RTH calculated horizontally on the ground from the HP or radially from the HP to the aircraft?
2. Is it calculated from the moment that RTH engages, or only when it gets within 20 meters of the HP?
3. If DJI GO is in control, and starts a RTH, can you override it and cancel it completely with the RTH button on the transmitter, and ignore all the annoying, confusing onscreen DJI GO dialog boxes?
4. Do the DJI GO dialog boxes regarding RTH automatically go away, if you use the RTH button on the transmitter to cancel the DJI GO triggered RTH?

It certainly didn't help that my DJI GO app was crippled by the Dronepan connection! :eek:
Dronepan can clearly hijack the DJI Go control, but no method exists to properly return that control back to DJI GO after a panorama sequence, even when the Dronepan app is terminated.
 
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Or set to hover mode now. So awesome question being asked so far. I actually land with drone pan open but I'm close LOS
So far, it looks like the only way to restart DJI GO in flight after letting Dronepan take over, is to kill off Dronepan and unplug the Lightning cable and plug it back in, to reinitialize DJI GO. The autoland function within 20 meters of the Home Point where landing in trees is a possibility can throw a monkey wrench into landing with Drone Pan open, with no access to the RTH function or cancelling it in Dronepan. Note to self: Remember to use the transmitter RTH button to cancel RTH/Autoland!:cool:
 
I'm not having any issues with having both apps open and switching between them. I don't use RTH as it caused me an issue in the past. iPad mini 3 switch I lost signal for a second. GG keep reporting as if gets fixed will make the app better. My only issues are after stitching with PTgui and sky [emoji20]
 
I'm not having any issues with having both apps open and switching between them. I don't use RTH as it caused me an issue in the past. iPad mini 3 switch I lost signal for a second. GG keep reporting as if gets fixed will make the app better. My only issues are after stitching with PTgui and sky [emoji20]
I have never voluntarily used RTH. It has always been triggered by the software (loss of transmitter signal set to RTH), where I am invariably trying to cancel it, as soon as the video feed is recovered, to take over manual control again. With DJI GO, I know how to do so. Not so in Dronepan. The workaround of the transmitter cancel RTH function is a necessary backup that I need to remember and use!:cool:
 
1. yea eventually we'll be introducing this, but we've had so many requests for bracketing that it will probably be our next feature.
2. I like what you're thinking here -- unfortunately we start running into constraints from the DJI sdk, but ultimately we must figure out how to get better stabilization and definitely like you said adjustable is ideal because testers have requests in all sorts of directions :)
3. agreed, that would be more appealing and is an excellent suggestion. We'll discuss that tomorrow.
Thank you for the great feedback!
Dronepan is currently available in the App Store (Inspire 1 version). I installed it a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, I forgot that it was only for the Inspire 1 and assumed it was the newest Dronepan for the P3P, and launched the app while the P3P was in the air. There is no error trapping in the App Store Dronepan app to check for the connected hardware aircraft type, so it connected to the P3P and initially generated a "could not connect to the camera message." Determined, I tried to fix that by killing DJI GO. That seemed to work. The progress bar advanced across the screen. However, the only images taken were at the same fixed location, without rotation, and a downfacing image. Interestingly, it respected my DJI GO setting of JPG+DNG for all captured images. I then went back relaunched DJI GO, after killing off
Dronepan and set DJI GO to take a 5 frame AE bracketed capture, and switched to Dronepan and started another sequence. It seemed to start, but by then the P3P was autolanding, so I killed off Dronepan and tried to reconnect through DJI GO, but received the No Signal message, even though the P3P was only 30 feet away over trees. So, two issues:

1. Current public Dronepan for Inspire 1 needs an update to prevent P3P owners from accidentally doing what I did by mistake.

2. Can the soon to be released P3P version of Dronepan use the current Camera mode selection set in DJI GO for the 20 shot capture, such that one could shoot JPG+DNG or DNG only, and also shoot an automatic 5 bracket AE of each shot? Based upon my inadvertent testing, it would appear that this is possible.
 
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Dronepan is currently available in the App Store (Inspire 1 version). I installed it a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, I forgot that it was only for the Inspire 1 and assumed it was the newest Dronepan for the P3P, and launched the app while the P3P was in the air. There is no error trapping in the App Store Dronepan app to check for the connected hardware aircraft type, so it connected to the P3P and initially generated a "could not connect to the camera message." Determined, I tried to fix that by killing DJI GO. That seemed to work. The progress bar advanced across the screen. However, the only images taken were at the same fixed location, without rotation, and a downfacing image. Interestingly, it respected my DJI GO setting of JPG+DNG for all captured images. I then went back relaunched DJI GO, after killing off
Dronepan and set DJI GO to take a 5 frame AE bracketed capture, and switched to Dronepan and started another sequence. It seemed to start, but by then the P3P was autolanding, so I killed off Dronepan and tried to reconnect through DJI GO, but received the No Signal message, even though the P3P was only 30 feet away over trees. So, two issues:

1. Current public Dronepan for Inspire 1 needs an update to prevent P3P owners from accidentally doing what I did by mistake.

2. Can the soon to be released P3P version of Dronepan use the current Camera mode selection set in DJI GO for the 20 shot capture, such that one could shoot JPG+DNG or DNG only, and also shoot an automatic 5 bracket AE of each shot? Based upon my inadvertent testing, it would appear that this is possible.
Thanks for the feedback!
1) The newer DJI SDK actually detects the type of bird, so this type of issue will be resolved soon.
2) first part yes, you can use current camera settings in GO. Bracketing is another story, we're still investigating how to include bracketing, but right now we're spending most of our time making sure that the proper sequence of images is captured without any duplicates or holes. We continue to run into challenges related to timing capabilities of the SDK, but we're thinking we've finally hacked out a workaround to ensure accurate shots.

Thanks again for the thorough feedback!
 
I've done a few shots now with a P3A, worked perfectly every time.
My only question is when the automated shooting has finished.
I've been taking off with go, getting into position with go. Then switching to dronepan to get my shots. Then switching back to go to land. However I have to close and reopen go for the video link to be re-established. Unnerving when the drone is at the far end of LOS.
Unlikely to be anything you can do but just thought I'd highlight it.

Is the app going to be free once the final version is out?

Thanks again for letting us beta test and the work that went into it.
Yes, DronePan will remain free.
The video feed disconnection bug your describing drives us NUTS also, and unfortunately it is something that DJI must address on their end. The good news is our most recent tests indicate DJI has fixed the issue and it should no longer occur in the next build that we release in the next week or so.
 
Lots of questions for you, some of which were precipitated by a near crash this evening!

1. Are your two shots at the bottom in the 20 shot sequence shot at 90° to each other, or at 180°, as shown in the Inspire demo video? If shot at 180°, the second image is just an upside down version of the first. What would that gain?
2. Are you currently shooting the 20 shots in JPG only?
3. Can you copy the current camera mode settings from DJI GO?
4. If so, then the user could specify JPG+DNG in DJI GO, and get raw and jpg images from each shot.
5. If so, the user could also specify a 5 frame AE bracketed JPG+DNG mode and your 20 shot sequence could automatically create a total of 200 shots (5 bracketed shots of each of the 20 views, in both JPG and DNG)
This would take a full 10 minutes, but your app could rotate the P3P and gimbal to the next shot position immediately, and during the 30 second processing time of each shot, this would always give the gimbal plenty of time to stabilize before the next shot..
6. Can DJI GO and Dronepan both run at the same time in a taskswitching mode?
7. If so, when you complete a 20 shot pano, can you seamlessly reconnect to the P3P with DJI GO, or what needs to take place to accomplish this in a less than seamless method?
8. Does DJI GO have to be terminated before starting up Dronepan?
9. Does your app require first installing the developer SDK onto the P3P, the RC, and the batteries to work correctly?
10. If the signal connection is lost at high altitude directly overhead, while under Dronepan control, how do you cancel the return to home decension?
11. Some have reported that the only way to get DJI GO to reconnect to the P3P, after completing a Dronepan pano, is to unplug the control cable and replug it. Is this true?
12. How far out is your public release of the P3P version?
All very good questions -- please email me: pw [at] unmannedairlines [dot] com and we'll get it all answered!
 
Thanks for the feedback!
1) The newer DJI SDK actually detects the type of bird, so this type of issue will be resolved soon.
2) first part yes, you can use current camera settings in GO. Bracketing is another story, we're still investigating how to include bracketing, but right now we're spending most of our time making sure that the proper sequence of images is captured without any duplicates or holes. We continue to run into challenges related to timing capabilities of the SDK, but we're thinking we've finally hacked out a workaround to ensure accurate shots.

Thanks again for the thorough feedback!
Can you please clarify the first part where you state can use the current Camera Settings from DJI GO?
1. Did you mean only the JPG or JPG+DNG or DNG setting?
2. Are you not able to retain the Camera Shutter Mode setting, among the 5 mode options available, if any one of them is selected, other than single shot?
3. If not, why not? Wouldn't that enable inclusion of AE bracketing, if selected in DJI GO?
4. Did you mean that you can also select manual exposure settings in DJI GO and they will be used, rather than auto?

My view of DronePan is simply to automate the capturing of the images (the type of and settings for that you have already pre-configured and customized in DJI GO) by simply rotating the craft 60° after each capture, and then adjusting the gimbal elevation by 30° to complete the 20 image sequence. Donepan itself should not be altering or controlling the camera settings.

5. How are you ending up with any holes or duplicates?
Six shots at 60° intervals gives full coverage of 360° when the camera has a 90° FOV, leaving 15% overlap on each side. If that isn't enough overlap, then do 8 shots at 45° intervals, which provides 22.5° of overlap on each side, which is what I do manually, because it is easy to do, using the red compass arrow as an hour hand on a clock, starting at 12, then 1/2 way to 3, then 3, then 1/2 way to 6, then 6, etc.

Still confused about the problems you are encountering, as this is quite easy to do manually, and all you should be doing is automating the rotation and gimbal elevation changes.

6. I also still haven't understood why the two bottom images are 180° to each other instead of 90°. If they are 180° from each other, it's the same image, just upside down, and therefore a duplicate. I actually shoot a full 8 shot sequence straight down, rotating every 45°. Can you please explain your thinking and methodology here?
 

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