First Impressions (not a review) > DJI GROUND STATION PRO app

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First Impressions (not a review) > DJI GROUND STATION PRO app
So DJI released and updated GS Pro app which enables you to create WayPoint Routes (without flying them first), Virtual Fence and 3D Map Area.
I have no practical use for "Virtual Fence" where you can setup an area in which the drone can not fly out off. 3D Map Area can be done better with other 3rd party apps for now, so I tested out the "WayPoint Route" today.
Here's my initial thoughts - Positive and Negative:
NEGATIVE:
1) UI: Very DJI'ish interface, meaning you don’t always know what a button will do, weird navigation system, small buttons in the advanced section, takes some trial and error to figure out. Some icons do nothing although they look like buttons,
2) Manual is presented on screen in a very small window that can not be made full screen?!?! Why, DJI. This is one of those DJI things where it's hard to believe they had anyone testing the app before release.
3) Video “Tutorials” are very simple with no extra explanation, tips or guidelines. Looks like they where made in a rush.
4) If you think you can plan a route away from your current location and find the flight area on map, and then select "New Mission” (both for Waypoint Route and 3D Map Area) - the app will move the map back to your current location, and you have to start over and find the flight area on the map again.
5) You can not sit at home and create a WayPoint Route/3D Map Area on the map - it always starts with current position as first WayPoint, so you’ll HAVE TO BE on the actual flight location to create a WayPoint Route. Once on location you can fly the Aircraft to a specific point and use that as first WayPoint, but it HAS to be there physically - No option to create the flight route at home beforehand. DJI Support claimed to have forwarded my request to be able to pre-plan a flight route, so let’s see if it’s implemented in a future version.
6) In "Virtual Fence" and "3D Map Area” mode - The Delete button for your waypoints only removes a SELECTED point. But in WayPoint Route, you can delete points one by one by repeatedly pressing the Delete button. Of course this is not be a big issue, but it shows the UI of the app is not well tested and lacking a uniform workflow - which is to be expected of any DJI product in general.
7) 3D Map: You can select Course Angle. You won’t know what it is until you find it in the manual, and after reading “The angle of the main path” you still might not be 100% sure what it does? At least I didn’t. Then you select the angle - and for some very odd reason 0% starts at EAST going round 360°. Where’s the logic in that, when the rest of the world uses NORTH for 0°? Maybe there’s a perfectly good reason for this that I'm not smart enough to figure out. But if you do, please let us know in the comments.
8) If Signal it lost, RTH can not be performed. Aircraft will finish mission and then RTH.
9) To adjust camera settings, you need to EXIT the GS PRO app, go into the GO app and adjust your camera settings, then go back into the GS PRO app. Also, it has to be in Manual mode (not Auto). Forcing users to leave the app controlling a drone in the air is just weird - especially when it's your own product - and potentially a risk.
10) GS PRO app had trouble recognizing my X5R with 12mm - I could not get it to accept "12mm" or "12" as input for the lens type.
11) If you have to fly in the cold battery temperature is very important - GS PRO does not provide batt. temp. info. Again, you'll have to exit the app, go into the GO app, and then back.
POSITIVE:
1) You can find settings for Metric/Imperial + Calibrate Compass (Not IMU), choose stick mode.
2) At the End of a mission you can choose between RTH/Hover/Land. Hover is set as default.
3) For Each (Way)Point you can: set the aircraft Heading + Rotation + Gimbal Pitch Angle (set with 1° interval)
- For Each Point you can "Create WayPoint Actions": Gimbal Pitch Rotation/Hover/Photo Capture/Start Recording/End Recording/Aircraft Rotation/Gimbal Pitch Rotation
3) You can save a WayPoint Action and "Copy to All WayPoints", "Copy to Preceding" or "Copy to Succeeding Points".
4) LAT/LONG easily selectable with high precision.
5) Speed/Altitude can be selected with high precision - it's not obvious, but press and hold M/S or Meters and you can select with +/- in 0.1 intervals for both.
6) Rename and Save Missions.
7) 3D Map: you can select Overlap percentage for Front/Side
8) If a mission is too long to be done on one battery, it can be resumed after a battery change - Again, DJI gives you absolutely no instructions on how to do this in the Manual. Come on DJI, you can do better.
9) Option to Pause/Resume a mission.
10) It's easy to select and change a WayPoint Route and change a flight route and you're not limited to flying in a square area.
Impressions:
Bit of a mess UI wise and instructions and ease of use could be much improved. Feels and acts like a v. 1.0 so there's hope it will improve. For setting up a simple WayPoint Route the app is great as you don't need to fly the route first. Just remember to set your camera settings first and hope they don't reset if you change batteries.
/T
 
Thanks for the insight on this app. Just started using the Litchi app and so far Im pleased with it. I think it looks like
DJI has got some more work to do to compete with the Litchi app. Also I noticed the new DJI app is still using HERE maps
which I prefer Google maps as Here maps have been giving me fits. I will wait to see if DJI comes out with an Android
version of this app, and then I will give it a go against the Litchi app. But your appraisal of this app is very informative,
so thanks for posting this.
Cheers,
Mark
 
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Cannot get past the terms of use. I've panned down through all of the text and when I get to the bottom the confirmation is greyed out. Will not allow Me to agree

Thoughts?
 
Tap on the tick box, that should highlight in blue you should then be able to agree
 
I created a route away from my home base easily at a local park by simple panning the google map to its location and created a way point route start and finish at the park. I did this last night sitting on my couch as a test...will probably fly it as my first flight with this app. Try it. Bob
 
Hi Guys, See! I am not just a Lurker.
Might as well tag along and try to keep comments on GO GS together. Again, by no means a full revue, just my first impressions. I have not had a chance to fully test due to poor weather so this is just a quick bench test with a couple of runs through the manual and one or two hunts to find references to strange:fearscream: icons.

It is getting there but still needs a bit of work. I agree with previous posts so no need to repeat things.
I tried setting up a basic Mission to compare with Litchi. There are some good points and some bad or even missing points.

On a basic Mission Path setup:
# 01. The visual rotation indicators on the points are useful.
# 02. Twiddling the Rotation Slider is clear enough with the CW/ACW arrow indicator.
# 03. It seems a lot quicker and is simple to set up. The bits that are working anyway. I had a quick play with the Fence and can see a range of uses, for myself anyway.

Needing developed or clarified:
# 01. I cannot see any POI settings, they might be there but hiding?
# 02. Gimbal Pitch Interpolation! Where is the transition point without interpolation?
# 03. No Curved Points? Surely you don't have to do a chop job and add extra mini-points to fake the curve?
# 04. If you haven't found or noticed, the Path Reversal Button is that strange S/E icon beside the Bin which is the Point Delete. The actual S on the end points highlights and jumps about. Why not keep it simple and use a Blue and Red marker for the end points?? I had a go but failed with the "iPod" point selector, the Up-Down-Left-Right round control. Ahaa! It is the precision adjuster for the Lat/Lon parameters.
# 05 What is going on with the Extra Mid-Path Add Point? It seems to take on the parameters of the previous point and not an average of the previous~following points. (Altitude & Orientation at the '+' conversion point)
# 06 I cannot get the reasoning from the manual regarding Aircraft Heading~ Course Aligned!
"The Aircraft's nose is always aligned to the direction of the next two waypoints." :screamcat:
Is this taking an average of the altitude/direction/position of the next two waypoints? I might be missing something here but it seems a crazy way of doing things.

A plea, (to add to your woes) would it be possible to have direct typing entry to the slider fields? Trying to get a precise value repeated with the slider is at the least very frustrating at times. Latitude & Longitude can be typed precisely so it can't be that hard to do the same for Altitude, Speed, Heading, Gimbal Pitch. etc.. :yum:
How about a 'Lock Out' to prevent adding extra unwanted points once the basic layout is set? The number of accidental added points I've made with my knuckle... :weary:
Have to agree with previous post re- 0~degree orientation being West and compass being C/W from there? Very unique concept.

Over all, a good start but some features need further development. Hope it has cleared up some points and brought up some others to kick around.
Litchi seems safe for the time being.
 
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Reactions: Mark81137
More good insight, thanks AuldGimpy. I thinks its great that DJI is expanding the apps. This will also keep the
developers of Litchi on track to continue to make improvements to their app as well. So far I have enjoyed the
Litchi app and found it very useful for the type of flying and video work I do. A little competition does us all good
and keeps the software development moving forward and improving.It will be interesting to see if DJI is listening.
Cheers
 
Thanks Mark, just stirring the melting pot and kicking the dust around. If it helps the developers get an idea of what we (the users after all) want, (and don't want) then all to the good. It also helps show other folk things that they might have missed themselves. I've found several things that I didn't understand at first just by having a quick go and a read of the scant manual.

# 05(b) Edit. The Extra Mid-Path Add Point assuming the previous point parameters is dependant on the Path Direction. So you could get two different values when creating the extra point depending on the two path values. ie, the first point dictates the value.
BTW, I checked the Litchi method of splitting paths and it does make an average of the path height, path direction is irrelevant.

If anyone wants clarification on any of my warblings with a short Movie, just let me know. Subtitles are extra. ;)
 
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Reactions: QBurris
Thanks for the great insight. I just downloaded it and spent a half hour looking around, comparing it to my Litchi app way points, etc. I assume I'm supposed to fly from this app? It just doesn't seem like there's a lot of options and things are missing like POI it looks rushed, I'll wait a bit… Back to litchi… help doc in a window is absolutely ridiculous
 
I too have become a Litchi fan, so I was excited to download this ground pro and try it; it looks completely unfinished and very basic, and still has a very cryptic way of setting way points and following the way points, nothing like litchi… I'll pass…

It's very apparent to me that the developers at DJI are not guys that Have designed navigation software.(not even even a heading readout!) All they need to do is go look at the marine industry and see what RayMarine, Garmin, Futuna and the other big boys do over there, it's very close to Litchi and made for pleasure boaters, some of the most complete brain dead idiots I've ever dealt with teaching them software.
 
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I sort of like the idea of a Virtual Fence or wall.

If I'm shooting something, say a wedding or aerial crane work, I want the drone to stay put and not wander about (For whatever reason: Wind, controls, bird oddities, bum software, interference, etc.) over people, or drift off to where it shouldn't be like into a forest of trees, telephone wires, or a wall. The VF would be my safety net as I don't have to stare at the screen or bird 100% of the time to make a camera or positioning call.

I also want full control of the camera for still and movie too while staying within its safety box, and I haven't tested that part out yet.
 
Thanks for the insight on this app. Just started using the Litchi app and so far Im pleased with it. I think it looks like
DJI has got some more work to do to compete with the Litchi app. Also I noticed the new DJI app is still using HERE maps
which I prefer Google maps as Here maps have been giving me fits. I will wait to see if DJI comes out with an Android
version of this app, and then I will give it a go against the Litchi app. But your appraisal of this app is very informative,
so thanks for posting this.
Cheers,
Mark
Curious about your experience with Litchi. I've started using it and would actually use it more but the actions don't always seem to fulfill. Specifically the "take photo" action is just not kicking in when I get to the spot from whence it should be "taking the photo". Any thoughts would be appreciated.
mrc
 
Curious about your experience with Litchi. I've started using it and would actually use it more but the actions don't always seem to fulfill. Specifically the "take photo" action is just not kicking in when I get to the spot from whence it should be "taking the photo". Any thoughts would be appreciated.
mrc
most often encountered mistake when "take photo actions" not initiated at waypoint is that 'Curved paths" is set in mission settings. Bird never actually gets to the waypoint so action never initiated. Have to set "Straight paths".
 

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